hey what's going on out there I'm Sean Divine hope you all are doing well
today's video I'm gonna be sharing with you my top 5 headphones for mixing so
that is both closed back as well as open back these are the headphones that I
trust and that I've been able to get the best results with in terms of
specifically mixing and even mastering in a lot of cases so let's go ahead and
dive in here number 5 on the list are the ones on my head right now which are
the sony MDR 7506 I've had these for over 15 years these were actually the
first professional headphones that I ever had and advantages to these are
they're very lightweight they have an extremely detailed high-end so even
right now as I'm speaking you know if you have excess sibilance or maybe you
have noise in your signal it's very useful to use these headphones to pick
that out in a mix and make sure and get things nice and cleaned up they are very
durable as I mentioned I've had these for an extremely long time and I
replaced the ear cups on them and for you know very low cost to be able to do
that and then they basically look the same way they did when I got them 15
years ago so pretty cool there as far as disadvantages you know going along with
the detailed high-end they are a little harsh in the brightness and they can be
a bit fatiguing so over time you know you don't want to turn these up to
excessive levels and also they lack a lot of low-end they're not a real
reliable source for you know monitoring sub-bass and extremely heavy stuff in
certain styles coming in at number four are the ollo audio s4 and these are
right around 300 euro 350 USD and have some great advantages in terms of just
the way that they translate I've done a lot of mixing even some mastering on
these and they translate extremely well outside the studio on other speakers
they're also great for long-term wear just because they're
very comfortable these are some of the most comfortable velour pads or cups on
any of the headphones that I have in this list there's a small little
suspended strap up here that seems like it wouldn't do the job that well but
it's actually surprisingly comfortable and it extends here so you've got some
customization there in terms of the size they're also just a really solid build
they've got a unique look to them and they do have replaceable cables so you
can just pull out you know the cable on each end and if you need to replace
them it's very easy to do that as far as disadvantages for the s4 the first thing
that I noticed when I got these was that there's these two metal rods up top and
they're used to you know provide some reinforcement however you'll notice that
if you just kind of barely touch them or flick them or you know you kind of move
suddenly they cause a bit of a vibration and that doesn't happen very often
they're also a little bit heavier than the others in the list so if you're
wearing these for long periods you know just something to consider I haven't had
any issues with you know having discomfort but just keeping in mind with
the wood design they do have a little bit more weight to them on your head
coming in at number three on the list you see these in most of my videos
because they are arguably the most versatile headphone in this list and
they are the adam audio SP 5 come in at right around 500 USD gonna be on the
upper end but they do a lot of things well advantages for the SP 5 they sound
amazing they have a really detailed high-end but it's not the same sort of
high-end that you get from the 7506 it's not as fatiguing it's not as harsh
it's just a really smooth top-end that you can still pick out a lot of those
subtleties that we talked about in a mix earlier additionally the low end is
full but it's not exaggerated so for a closed back that can be a bit rare to
have that kind of full low-end that's not extremely inaccurate I just find
that some closed back whenever that cup is against your head it just gives
you an inaccurate representation of the bass that's not the case with these
they've got replaceable locking cables and it actually includes
interchangeable cables both straight and a coiled cable so I have the coiled
cable hooked up right now but it also has a carrying case disadvantages for
the sp5 they are on the costly side more expensive on this list than most they're
also slightly more fatiguing due to the brightness in the high ends definitely
brighter than some of those that you may be used to and in terms of long term
reliability it's to be determined you know adam audio is obviously a very
respected name in the business however they teamed up with another company for
these called ultrasone I don't have any personal experience with them but I
assume they'll be fine we'll wait and see coming in at number 2 on the list
are the Sennheiser HD 650 these are right around four hundred US dollars
advantages they are truly open so right now as I have them on my head it sounds
like I don't have any headphones on in terms of my perspective I can still hear
the room I can still hear my computer fan going so it definitely gives you
more of a speaker like perspective it's very accurate and it translates arguably
the best of any on the list so definitely a nice sound here for mixing
and mastering purposes they're also really comfortable they've got some
velour pads here and they're really lightweight so when you see these and
you see the detail and the drivers you would think that these are gonna be a
very heavy headphone but as soon as you put them on you are pleasantly surprised
by the lightness of these I would say they're probably the lightest in the
list but they do have a replaceable cable I'm assuming that this is kind of
a proprietary cable though it has some unique pins on each side as far as the
low end on the 650 which I know a lot of you are interested in open-back
headphones it's definitely there but it's not exaggerated it'll go as low as
you need it to in terms of referencing those frequencies you get more of a
sensation that you're actually in the room listening to speakers and that's
the case for the low end as well it just sounds more natural disadvantages for
the HD 650 obviously open-back rules out you know any possibility of tracking you
know you're not going to be sitting in front of them
like recording I'm even right now you're probably gonna get some bleed in the
video from me tracking like this so if you want to record and mix and just
potentially have one pair of headphones these are not going to be the best
option you know also if you're in a situation where you may be in a room or
in a space where you don't want to disturb others or your neighbors they're
not discreet the high end of the 650 is certainly not as detailed as something
like the SP 5 so it's still there to make accurate representations but if
you're looking for a headphone with that brightness that's going to help you pick
out noise and other subtleties that you want to kind of clean up these are not
quite as good of an option they also require more power so open-back
headphones just generally you're gonna want a quality headphone amplifier or at
least have an interface that has a really nice headphone output on it in
order to get the proper drive for these to sound their best coming in at number
one on my list of top 5 mixing headphones are none other than the Beyerdynamic
dt770 so these come in it right around 150 US dollars which is
surprising that they would land first on this list and they're still much more
affordable than most of these so advantages for the 770 they're extremely
versatile you know these cushions provide a lot of isolation and they're
extremely comfortable just the sound that you get it's really accurate it's
not fatiguing at all it's also very balanced the low-end is a bit more full
then I would say something like the HD 650 but it's not misleading in any
way and I don't have to turn them up to loud - to get a good representation they
also have a very long straight cable which I like you know to be able to run
all around the studio if I'm tracking I've got the length there or if I'm just
in front of the desk disadvantages for the 770 first of all they wear a little
hot so if you tend to you know get kind of warm in terms of your ears or your
head I don't generally but I have noticed that others can find that
they'll get a little warm other disadvantage is that there's a lot of
confusion with the 770 because there's two versions so there
an 80 ohm and then there is a 250 ohm version these are 80 ohm and they tend
to be more versatile as they require less power so this means that you can
hook them up to your laptop or you know a lot of other consumer pieces of
equipment like maybe a phone or something like that and you're not gonna
have a really drastic change in terms of the sound the 250 are gonna require
more power you know definitely going to want more of a quality headphone output
or a dedicated headphone amplifier finally the cable is not replaceable now
this thing is pretty tough I've put this through the ringer had this just about
as long as the 7506 and these have really served their purpose and
I've had any trouble but if your dog gets ahold of the cable or you pull it
out yank it out you could be in trouble so just be careful about that
all right y'all so those are my top five mixing headphones I will put a link to
these in the description below if you have anything to add about these or
maybe you have some that you feel like miss the list we'd love to hear about
them leave a comment for us if you learn anything in the video please like
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