headphones & other suggestions please

[pk1]

Hi guys,

I'm soon to be moving house and into an apartment, and so the 2nd bedroom will become my 'studio' so to speak. However, this means i'm very limited in terms of volume levels coming out of my monitors and I dont want to upset all the neighbours lol.
At the moment I have Behringer Truth 20301A monitors in my converted garage. i have to crank these up quite high in order to get any clarity/sound distinctions from them. As this will no longer be possible, i'm looking at other options, namely an excellent pair of headphones to do most of the work on, and a smaller but clearer pair of monitors to use at times when least likely to disturb the neighbours!
I'm considering Sennheiser HD650 headphones and Adam A5 monitors. I've just sold my CDJs on ebay (thankyou Pioneer for hiking the RRPs up lol) so am willing to spend this in whatever way will help me most. Also, as i'll only be renting the apartment, I cant really make any room modifications.
I've done loads of online research but haven't listened to anything myself yet. I saw that Sven recommended Beyer 770pros, would the HD650s be much of an improvement on these?
Apologies for the long essay! would like to hear any advice and suggestions,

Paul

[lataste]

I have the same problem as you. I bought a condo in Honolulu and I live on the second floor. I thought about sound proofing the spare bedroom, but until then I use headphones. I am mixing with my original MDR-7506's and now AKG 701's. It was a very difficult transition for me to mix with headphones, I don't enjoy it as much. I can recommend the K701's as they are very accurate, but the are open ear, so the bass response is lacking a bit. After a while, you get used to it. I long for the day when I can crank up some HR's in the home studio though.

Andre
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[sven hauck]

Hi Paul,

I used to have the Sennheiser 280 Pro's, and I liked them very much, but the Beyer Dynamics 770 Pro's are better for low end response (at least to me). The 280s started cracking around the headband after a while, and then my dog chewed into the foam pads, so I tossed them.

I can't comment on the other Sennheisers you mentioned, as I never used them.

The A5s should be a nice step up from the Behringers, but look out for the following issues:

1. Don't blast the monitors when producing, as that will fatigue your ears and trick you into thinking that there are more dynamics in the track than there really are. Of course, when you are done with a production, you can test drive it and rock the system.

2. Careful with using the headphones while putting together the kick and the bass. Low end frequencies to me sound different in the phones versus on some nice monitors. It takes a lot of experience to do this via headphones.

3. If you are producing 3 am with the headphones, as we all tend to do, be sure you check your work the next day on the monitors, because you can get some sounds that are really out of wack. Headphones aren't really stereo, so any spacial effects or panning may sound quite different on your monitors.

4. Finally, don't listen to that wicked loop you just wrote for 4 hours at a high volume. Protect your ears as hearing loss is permanent.

Enjoy the new gear.

[Medway]

You guys might want to check out that monitor plugin from 112db Audio:

http://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

supposed to make listening in headphones a bit more like monitors.

[przechuy]

well uhm might give a try to this pluing,why not .

[przechuy]

99 bucks is not much,well worth to check it,will give it a try

[pk1]

THanks for all the feedback guys!
I got delivery of Sennheiser HD650s a few days ago, theyll take a bit of getting used to, but the difference in them and my last headphones (audio technica m40fs) is amazing - I can clearly hear compression & reverbs etc so much more! Im actually enjoying fiddling around with my vstis loads more because I can hear every little thing thats happening. my ears do tend to tire really quickly with them though so I always try to not crank them up too much!
And i'm really paying attention to protecting my ears now!!
Haven't invested in any other monitors though - figure i'll use my Truths for general listening/panning etc, use my headphones when greater detail is required, and use the money i've saved to take my missus to Rome for her birthday gotta keep em sweet eh!

Paul

[Medway]

Nice they seem to be working out for you then. I really wish my scope card had a headphone out as I'd use it headphones more often.

Good idea, that'll earn a few points for future purchases I'm sure ;-)

[sven hauck]

Nice one, Paul.