I thought it would be interesting to get the discussion going on something that isn’t talked about nearly enough with headphones, musical pairing.
Headphones have all sorts of different tuning which makes some headphones better for specific genres of music.
Do you have specific pairs of headphones that you only listen to a certain type of music with?
Has your musical taste changed as you’ve gone through headphone changes?
For me I’ve got a couple of go to pairings.
HD 800S - I tend to stick to acoustic music and some Hanz Zimmer / John Williams movie scores. Lots of MTV unplugged in there.
AudioQuest NightOwl - Chill synthwave. They are just my go to when I want to relax I’m feeling stressed out at work.
Campfire Audio Andromeda - 80’s hairband metal. Lots of Iron Maiden and Metallica in there.
1More Quad Drivers - Stick to more of the top 40 stuff with these. Their tuning matches pretty well with that stuff.
I used to hate bright/neutral headphones but I’m finding my tolerance has changed over the last 2 years and enjoy them a little more. I now throw some classical tunes into the mix every now and then.
About me, in 45 years things have changed a lot, as well as my way of listening.
I currently use a Stax 009 to listen to everything that is not rock. I really like it for its naturalness and for the magic of reproduction.
For light rock HiFiMan HE1000, which I use, however, also for jazz, thanks to its ability to offer music in a real way.
For the hardest rock I use a deeply modified Grado, able to make me beat the rhythm with the foot like no other headset.
Currently, my headphones are pretty standard fair: Audio Technica M50 and a Sennheiser HDR 175 wireless. I usually listen to music in my studio through my Genelec speakers. Headphones are necessary now, as I have started making binaural recordings. Below, I’ll give some links to binaural recordings I have made:
This is so funny to me for some reason I love how bass-heady you are, Taron.
Oh my goodness, this first one really creates an environment! I need to listen to more Binaural, clearly.
I must admit I have a desire to stick to as few headphones as possible. I think about it in terms of desk and daily carry… I’ll allow myself those two easily,… if I go into having multiples in each categories then I may just be getting greedy.
But it is a chaaaaaaalenge. Some albums are just mixed too wildly to work well on every headphone.
Andrew is the musician in the family so he can appreciate the critical stuff a little more than me.
I was a competitive freestyle skier and hip-hop/edm tends to dominate that scene so it naturally translated over into my music taste.
Its very hard to narrow down headphones into having just one for home and one for travel /commute. I find myself being fairly happy with one headphone and think its the one and then I will give another headphone a try and be stunned by it. Having to make a choice between them is just too hard haha. Of course my wife doesn’t let me keep multiple pairs around for long but I definitely like to push it to the limit.
For the music I study I always use Dan Clark Audio Aeon Noire. Alvin Lucier, Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue, Bernard Parmegiani, Luc Ferrari and similar sound great out of these headphones.
The sounds are smoothened and low frequencies and resonances come out very clear and balanced.
Jazz and orchestral music and Hifiman Sundara make a great pair.
Complex instrumental passages highly benefit form open back planars to my ears.
It wouldn’t be the most recommended pairing but for music like Mika Vainio, Auteche, Alva Noto, Vladislav Delay and similar I really enjoy Sennheiser HD660s.
I love the way dynamic driver renders impact and slam in this kind of music. Basses are rich and good to my ears and the intimate sound stage really helps me to deal with this kind of generally cold music.
For relaxed, non critical listening I use my old Grado GS1000. Bass is absent, mids are there and highs are relaxed. Light weight helps too when I want to relax.
I love how bass-heady you are, Taron.