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Headphone question

I generally do not use headphones for listening, as I prefer my loudspeakers.  However, I do a lot of digitizing of my LPs (a long-term ongoing project).  For the last few years, I have been using Grado SR-60s to monitor the recordings I make on a Marantz pro-sumer CD recorder.  While these are very pleasant sounding headphones, they are a tad euphonic, warming up the mid-bass, and rolling off the treble.  This makes them great when listening for pleasure, but using them as monitors for recording tends to result in recordings that are too hot on top and too rolled off in the bass.  So I am thinking of looking for a new set of cans, one that would be more of a professional-style sonic balance, very revealing, and very flat in frequency response.  Sonic beauty is not the goal here; I want to hear everything being burned onto my CD-Rs, warts and all.  The headphone equivalent of studio-monitor loudspeakers is what I need.

I prefer over (around) the ear designs.  I do not need isolation, nor is bleed into the room an issue for me.

My ears tend to get sweaty with closed-back designs, so unless there is a closed-back design that avoids sweaty-ears, I would prefer open-back designs. 

Also, since I have a connection to a certain retailer, I can get big discounts on the brands this retailer carries, so I want to restrict my choices to one of these brands.  Also, since my budget for new cans is limited, I need to restrict my choices to headphones that have a street price of about $200 or less (less being better).

Here is a list of the brands from which I can choose, with most models from these manufacturers being available to me:

AKG
Sony
Sennheiser
Audio Technica
Shure
KRK
Fostex
Roland
Ultrasone
Grado
V-Moda
Direct Sound

Any adice would be very much appreciated!  Thanks.

bondmanp
bondmanp OP
1,816 posts
 

Thanks, everyone.  I can get a pretty good discount from this one retailer because I have family that work there.  I would not rule out used cans, provided I can easily and affordably replace the earpads (used earpads gross me out).

But based on these posts, I will focus on the best Sennheiser's I can afford (factoring in my discount) as well as the Sony MDR-7506.  The retailer offers these at $100, and I expect a substantial discount, although with Sony, you never know.  (Many years ago, when I worked in retail, Sony was notorious for not allowing retailers to make any profit on Sony products.  Sony's attitude was that Sony products bring so much traffic into a retailer that there is no reason to allow them to make a profit off of selling their products.  Perhaps that has changed.)

I have a birthday coming up, and this will be my gift to myself.

I totally agree with the posts that point out that Grados, while beautiful sounding cans, are not the best choice for monitoring.  Horses for courses.

darkstar1
180 posts
 

I have the Sennheiser Momentums and the HD 600. For what you need I would go with the HD 600. I don't find them bright but very natural. I much prefer the open back designs. You can wear the HD 600 for hours without hot ear.

I got the HD 600 and Schitt Valhalla OTL for under 500 bucks used. Almost everything is replaceable and washable. The HD 600 also sounds good on most built-in headphone inputs (Ipad, labtop, reccivers) maybe a tad darker and less volume IMO.

If you watch you could score them for 225 used including shipping and paypal,

ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,312 posts
 
Another suggestion you might or might not need at this point...

Consider AKG K550s.  I have these along with Senn HD600 and Sony MDRV6 (old).  Listening to computer audio with an Asgard 2 and Audioquest Dragonfly v1.2, I think the AKGs are most neutral of the 3.  They are a closed back design but VERY comfortable.  I don't find my ears getting too hot after wearing for a few hours.   They don't have the bass of the Senns but offer greater clarity and detail.  A caution - they took a LONG time to break in.  I think the Cable Company has a headphone lending library.  Maybe the best way to decide is set a budget and borrow a few from them to see which one helps you get the best recorded version of your LPs.   Good luck in your decision.

bondmanp OP
1,816 posts
 

accurus - that graph is impressive, and reflects a very desireable response curve.


Mapman - Kal Rubinson at Stereophile did a multi-part review of Dirac Live - in short, he loves it.

bondmanp OP
1,816 posts
 
Sorry it took so long to post this:  I ended up with a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M40X cans.  Comfortable, rugged, and perfect for my application.  Very neutral and accurate, with good isolation from ambient noise.  I would not call them "high-end" or beautiful-sounding, but as monitoring cans, they work quite well, and are a good value, IMHO.
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