High End Headphones - Which Ones?

High End Headphones - Which Ones?

  • Ultrasone Signature Pro

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Audeze LCD-X (open back)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Audeze LCD-XC (closed back)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sennheiser HD800

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sennheiser HD800s

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1

Squawk

Minor irritant. May cause a rash.
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I'm looking for another pair of cans to use in the mixing process, for adjustments, balancing, checking things, etc.

Currently I've got a pair of Grado RS-1's. http://www.gradolabs.com/headphones/reference-series/item/6-rs1e

Here's the ones that I'm considering:

Ultrasone Signature Pro - https://ultrasone.com/ultrasone-serie-signature/?lang=en/#SignaturePro

Focal Clear Professional - https://www.focal.com/en/pro-audio/monitoring-speakers/professional-headphones/clear-professional

Audeze LCD-X (open back) - https://www.audeze.com/products/lcd-collection/lcd-x

Audeze LCD-XC (closed back) - https://www.audeze.com/products/lcd-collection/lcd-xc

Sennheiser HD800 or 800s - https://en-us.sennheiser.com/high-resolution-headphones-3d-audio-hd-800-s

If you have experience with one or more of these, please let me know your thoughts, and how well they are working for you!
 
So, I decided to order the new Focal Clear Professionals. I use Focal monitors, and the headphones are purpose designed for studio, so I'm hoping I made the right call. Will report back once I have them!
 
I picked up my Focals yesterday. I haven't done any work in the studio with them yet, but did take them out late last night to quickly test out with my iphone. I ended up listening to a bunch of music for 2 hours. They definitely sucked me in. I'm hearing a lot more detail in commercial mixes that I hadn't noticed before, so that's a good initial sign.

In comparison, I notice how mid forward the Grado RS-1's are.
 
I know they're not in your list, Mr. T, but I've always found the Sennie HD25-1 to be the most-natural-and-balanced.

Auditioned many, many brands and models, but these puppies are the only ones that fit that brief for me. I find the others I tried to be too-forward, mid-scooped (hyped), too-trebly, too-bassy etc.

When I lift them from my ears, it's a natural transition to a good set of monitors; IOW it sounds the same but sans the room's effect on the sound.
 
Yeah, that's definitely what I'm shooting for. I did purchase a plugin (can't remember what it's called) to blend in crossfeed when using cans. I get what you're saying about being natural and balanced. The Focal's I believe were designed for that purpose, so we'll see. They just started shipping these, so they are a new design. I'll have a better idea how natural and balanced they sound once I've used these a bit more.

The Senn's are closed back, are they? The price is certainly nice on those ones. Probably worth checkout out anyway for a 2nd pair. :agree:
 
Yeah, closed-back.

They were (don't know if they still are) the pro standard for OB's and so on for many years because of the field-replaceable parts, isolation through the closed backs, toughness, super-low impedance which allows clients to plug into whatever's around and always achieve sufficient volume (which BTW can be huge ~ very-loud with imperceptible distortion), and balanced sound.

If you've ever watched WWE you'd see them there; at least, they used them for many years last time I checked.

The funny thing to me is that for a completely-unhyped, natural sound, I haven't heard anything else that does it for me. Not even close in fact. Obviously I haven't tried everything out there, but I even found the high-end Sennie range to be too "present" in the treble areas, with one model actually making treble sound like it was coming from metal. By that I mean that, for instance, toms sounded like they had metal skins. The 'phones had a response extending way up there, but for me, the 20-20kHz HD25-1 does it brilliantly and I couldn't ask for more.
 
So far I'm loving my Focal Clear Professional phones here. They weren't cheap, but they sound excellent, and are very comfortable to wear.

The only downside is that I'm constantly aware of how damn expensive they were, so I'm always putting them back in the case and being careful with them. These aren't throw around studio phones!
 
I know the feeling so well, Brother T.

On my pathetic budget it usually takes years to save for anything decent, so I treat everything with kid gloves.
 
I know the feeling so well, Brother T.

On my pathetic budget it usually takes years to save for anything decent, so I treat everything with kid gloves.


If it's any consolation, it took me about 20 years to build up my studio! :rolleyes:
 
These headphones match pretty well with my new Focal Shape Twin's :smile:
 
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