langelo68

great article! i also (after more than 10 years mixing with studio monitors and headphones; mostly jazz, classical, folk rock) have arrived to the same conclusion: sennheiser HD600 are the better choice for mixing and mastering and getting great results! through the years i went through several pairs: ATM50X, Beyer DT1990, Avantone Planar, Neumann NDH20, Sennheiser HD650, Oppo PM3…
Besides the Sennheiser HD600 I also currently use a pair of Neumann NDH30 (low extension is better than the Sennheiser but treble is a tad subdued) and a pair of Audeze LCD-X 2021 for that very last stage…where I tend to enjoy the mix or master instead of doing super critical listening. I run my headphones through a Rupert Neve precision headphone amplifier (by the way, i also tried quite a few and this one is still my favorite; most honest one…if just a tad dry). Would love your take on suggestions for headphone amplifiers for mixing and mastering (beside the Rupert). also, you or anyone tried the HEDDs for mixing and mastering??
Thanks for the article!

robinsyl

I’m very much a newbie at mixing, and I never knew that studio monitors are better than headphones at mixing. I’ve always used my HD 600. Now I know, I should use both.

Jozlyn222

This article is simply brilliant and beautifully written.

I would STRONGLY encourage the author to write about more subjects, many more. I hope that professional magazines such as Mix, The Absolute Sound, Stereophile, etc. would welcome articles written at this level of excellence.

Pharmaboy

This post is authoritative, clear, and very well written. I know almost nothing about audio production, but this makes sense to me.

CarterKeller iFi audio

This is awesome! I’ve been having this same type of discussion with my studio buddies the past few weeks. I’ve always been curious as to why studio engineers tend to use headphones very little, if at all. Very well written

j0n4h

This is a great article, and I’m likely going to pick up a pair of HD800s for this purpose. However, I don’t see Resolve’s EQ profile mentioned anywhere. Was that just a typo. Oratory’s profile is probably what I’ll start with if I can’t find it.

1 reply

listener

Hey there! Resolve’s thread about the B&K Target testing has seemingly been removed. Here’s a profile I like to use with my HD 800 for mixing