Professional audio production is a fine art that requires sophisticated tools.
If you're a casual listener using your Beats headphones with your smart phone, you're probably going to be satisfied.
However, full time mixers, producers, and sound technicians can discern the smallest imperfections in sound. That is of course if they have the right headphones.
Professional studio headphones are not like your average ear buds found at Target. Even if you have a high end version, chances are they pale in comparison to even the most basic professional studio headphones which are designed to have flat frequency response for critical listening tasks.
In other words we know that the pros are looking for the best of the best so we did the leg work to come up with the information required to make an informed decision.
For all the hard-core sound technicians and even the budding music mixing talent, our goal with this post is to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly of the best music production headphones.
Our #1 Pick
Pros:
- Some of the most comfortable headphones we've ever tried on!
- The price to performance ratio is very good.
- Multiple detachable cables are great for when you want to switch among multiple applications.
Cons:
- Some components seem sort of cheap like the plastic buttons.
- The design is also sort of awkward.
4 More We Like!
The Headphones
All of headphones in this post are of professional quality. We aren't Googling 'best head phones' and then slapping them in order in this post. This data is based on research we've done personally as well as experiences of others online who have actually worked with these headsets.
How We Selected These Headphones
Like you probably are, we are sound and music enthusiasts first. So we can relate to the pain points many professional sound techs have with a lot of the headphones on the market.
The ones that are hyped up paint a color on sounds by artificially boosting base or treble which makes it almost impossible to figure out if what you're listening too is actually real. Some brands blow up their price so you think the product is good when in actuality the components are cheap, they are hard to use, and/or they crap out when you need them most.
How We Can Help
This post is meant to cut through a lot of that noise to give you the information you really care about like which studio headphones are actually going to work well for you.
Okay, okay, we're done. On with the buying guide.
Music Production Headphones: The Buying Guide
Full disclosure: If you're a pro sound tech or music producer, you're going to want to skip this part. Unless you haven't read up on what makes a good pair of studio headphones in a while or you are just getting into music production, you will be bored out of your mind with this section.
With that out of the way, here are some tips for evaluating professional music production or studio headphones.
The Build Quality
This is probably one of the first aspects of high end studio headphones that can easily tell you if you're holding the real deal or if you got bamboozled.
You're looking for:
Have you ever held something familiar for the first time and you were surprised at how heavy it was?
Maybe a watch or a telescope?
Which then led you to believe it was high quality and probably very expensive. Well that's the way a decent pair of studio headphones should make you feel.
A Neutral Sound Signature
Even bad recording quality can be made to sound good on today's consumer headphones. That is no accident. Leading brands like Beats, Bose, and JVC work really hard to make sure your listening experience is the best on their products.
That's awesome for the average person but for a sound tech, it's the kiss of death. People working in music and sound production need to hear what something actually sounds like so they can then give feedback on whether or not sound quality needs to be improved. They can't do that if they are tricked into thinking stuff sounds great.
This is especially important to point out for first time buyers of professional headphones because they may mistake the sound quality as the headphones not being any good. In fact the opposite is true. A good pair of studio head phones will:
- Render sounds as neutrally as possible.
- Show every (or almost every) flaw in a song, in a sound bite, in a movie line, or any other snippet of sound.
- Allow you to hear background noise, distortion, the faintest of bad edits and cuts, and other imperfections.
Sound engineers need to hear all of this stuff because they are essentially building the sound profile for whatever it is they are producing. If they use a consumer headset to work, they will miss a majority of the imperfections that inevitably happen in mixing which then means consumers could hear them down the road.
Pricing and Where to Buy
You aren't going to see a lot of sales and marketing around studio headphones because they are sold to niche audiences. Sound engineers, technicians, and other professionals in that field get information on where to buy equipment from sources other than their Facebook and Google.
It's also important to not confuse studio headphones with 'studio quality' headphones. The two are not the same and you will be sorely disappointed with the latter if you're looking for the former.
The pricing on studio headphones can range as much as it does for consumer models. Starting models can be in the $100 - $200 range. Higher end models can be $500+.
You can find a lot of technical information on different headphone brands at the Audio Engineering Society website. They also have preferred vendors listed that sell bonafied studio headphones.
Our 5 Favorite Headphones for Music Production
The headphones outlined below are by no means the only ones you should look at. If you know of others that have great reviews or work for your purposes, chances are they are a great pick.
You can always use the buying guide above to verify you are making a sound purchase (no pun intended).
Audio-Technica is another critically acclaimed brand that show cases a ton of features but a lower price point. It's at the lower end of our range and sets itself apart with rare earth magnets and copper-clad voice coils. It also has an extended frequency range which makes sound quality extremely clear.
Features include 3 detachable cables, excellent sound insulation from ambient noise, 90 degree swiveling ear cups, collapsible, and professional ear pads.
Things we liked:
These are some of the most comfortable headphones we've ever tried on. The professional ear pads are perfect for long periods of listening. Multiple detachable cables are also a plus for when you want to switch among multiple applications. Lastly the price to performance ratio was very good.
Things we didn't like:
Some components seem sort of cheap like the plastic buttons. The battery life on the wireless version leaves a lot to be desired. The design is also sort of awkward. Audio Technica uses a lot of rigid corners and square shaping which is not typical of a lot of headphone designs (and not flattering for this one either).
The Sennheiser pair of studio headphones are at the higher end of our range discussed earlier. If you are in the intermediate to advanced stages of your audio engineering career, these are a treat for you.
Sennheiser 650's feature some robust technical specs including acoustic silk that ensures ultra-fine damping over the frequency range, a frequency response range of 10 to 39,500 Hz, and high performance neodymium magnets among other professional features.
These might be overkill unless your skill level has reached a certain point (but we'll let you be the judge of that).
Things we liked:
Comfortable to wear for prolonged periods (which is actually a great feature for dedicated audiophiles. A very nice titanium finish with a sturdy build (you'll know where your money went). Comes with a 2-year warranty.
Things we didn't like:
Pricey -- you can find other models with not as many features but that would probably do the job for less. Too feature-packed (I know that is a ridiculous thing to say but if you don't need the features, you're going to kick yourself and probably have a bad experience if you don't know how to compensate for the sensitivity of this equipment).
These are more in the starter to mid-range of our price estimates making them a great value for almost everyone.
They are versatile across a wide range of applications including critical listening, mixing, tracking, and even gaming. That's a big plus for sound engineers just starting out because you might not know where you'll be focusing most of your time.
They feature a spring steel headband, coiled single-sided cable, ultra-soft ear cups, and the company makes a couple of other models for other types of equipment. For the construction, features, and reviews, this pair is one of the best values.
Things we liked:
Great sound quality for the price both on amplifier and on regular devices like a cell phone. Also great for critical listening.
Things we didn't like:
The headphone cable is not detachable which can be sort of inconvenient. The headphones do not block out a lot of ambient noise.
Sony has long been a mainstay in the sound arena and the MDR7506 model of studio headphones are at the higher end of our scale. They are a closed-ear design headset and feature a 9-foot coiled cable with gold-plated plug, collapsible design, neodymium magnets, 40mm drivers, metal headband and durable construction.
These music production headphones have a pretty good feature to price ratio and you're pretty much going to get what you pay for. What we mean by that is you're not going to get a bunch of amazing stuff for the price but you are not going to get ripped off either.
Things we liked:
A very flat sound profile for good critical listening, These are really great at recreating live performance sound. Extremely comfortable to wear and comparable to brands twice its cost.
Things we didn't like:
The Sony brand headphones did not have a detachable cable or jack. Using adapters is an option however those tend to not be the right size for many popular devices and extensions. One negative thing we also experienced was that the head band (although metal) could bend very easily which could happen if you were storing them in a back pack.
The extreme isolation headphones from Direct Sound are a great value. They are low priced but still offer a lot of quality features. These are the lowest priced headphones we talk about in this post while still being good enough to for sound engineers to use in the studio.
They feature a premium detachable cable which sets it apart from a lot of the other premium headsets on the market that have dedicated cables. Other features include cable grommets that are aluminum grade, universal headband, and high precision audio drivers.
Things we liked:
Great for use in listening to drumming and fine-tuning percussion. Great sound quality for the price and you can plug them into multiple devices.
Things we didn't like:
You kind of get what you pay for with this set. Despite the high quality sound components, some other parts are made a little cheaper like the headband and housing. The design is sort of clunky making it seem like not a lot of thought went into it.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
After reading this entire post, one thing should pop into your mind. There is no such thing as a pair of 'best headphones for music production'. Sound engineers will be the first to tell you that the equipment they use is chosen based on the type of work they routinely do.
There is not a one-size-fits-all pair of headphones that will be great for all applications. You have to keep the key elements in mind to find a headset that will work for you.
Those are the build or construction, the sound signature, and the price. All of those factors considered together can guide you toward making a good purchase.
Of course if you still don't know what to do, our mini-reviews of the headphones above should enough to help you make a decision.
We selected the products in this post because we feel they fit the criteria (the stuff we outlined first) that make a high quality pair of studio headphones.
If you're at the point where you don't know what you need, one of those headphones listed will be completely adequate for your needs.
These headphones are really useful for beat making, arranging, sound designing and so on. Thanks for those nice collections.