Damn, this video just made the whole "audiophile" community make sense to me: They aren't sure if they want more details and accuracy, or if they want an enjoyable listening experience!
somehow youtube recommended me ur vid about audio interfaces, now im watching my 10th video in a row u really know ur stuff man, subbed and i expect to see more vids from u in the future
For me Philips Fidelio X2HR has been my favorite headphones ever. Powered from FiiO K3 DAC/amp they just kick ass! Such a great relatively budget friendly combo.
Yeah after obsessively going through a bunch of options from a interface and something like sennheiser hd 400 pro (or the 560s since theyre cheaper and the same) with an xlr mic but I ended up finding a fantastic deal on a deity mic and got an AKG K371. Not needing an amp for the headphones or a interface for the microphone for now is honestly just so convenient. Plus, the K371 are just outright fun to listen to. So much better than the gaming headsets I had before.
I’ve tried the Sony once and never touch it again. Too much tool-ish for me super bright and uncomfortable. That day, I realized I’m a normie and sticks with a regular EarPod. Would love to try your recommend sometime. Good video as always. 🎉
Would highly recommend checking out the tago T3-1. Tried it out in a shop and they sound great. It has a flat But Quality base and just absolutely great for vocals and instruments. It’s not a detail monster but I would say a better headphone then the HD 600 while being a closeback and easy to drive, One of the few headphones under 500 that I would truly want to buy.
I know this sounds crazy. But I don’t need it - for what I use headphones for. I’ve tested quite a few headphones in this pricerange and I always find I'm “Nah, I’m good with the HD6xx”. It’s the dot of diminishing returns where things really don’t get much better. :P th-cam.com/video/JY24SoRJ5Iw/w-d-xo.html I just need it for mixing and for critical editing and the HD6xx is where I stop.
Heh, the SF2 thing makes me laugh, I guess I often "play with Blanka" in headphones - Ultimate Ears UE9000 ;-). There is very little classically good about them, the thing I personally hate the most is their weight and eh, lack of comfort doesn't reflect the intensity I wish to convey, but wearing any other headphones is going to be better. BUT - they just sound very good, wired in passive mode they are engaging enough but at the same time very exact in a balanced but enthusiastic way. Flip on the fun switch and I double dare you to sit still heh, as uncomfortable as they are you'll forget you're wearing them until they fall off from your headbanging. I am not suggesting to go buy them, but I am suggesting to give them a listen, just for the experience of it. They are the headphones you put on when no one else is home and you're playing the air drums and air guitar rocking out in your underwear. The "dirty secret" headphones heh if you have them, I think.
HI, I am glad to find your video, Im beginner in music and just started to learn music, could you give me what the best headphones for recording vocals like singing or rapping.? Thank you so much for your help.
I have Sony MDR-cd900st which can be considered an older and hotter sister of MDR-7506 and while I can agree that these are not forgiving (and I was said even less forgiving than 7506) I actually do enjoy them. I also like DT-770s a lot, too. I guess I just like the accuracy of monitor headphones.
one ding against the k7xx is that longevity isnt amazing compared to other headphones. the thing connecting the head rest is made out of breakable plastic, and the solder joints in the headphone can come loose (but you can repair it if you're up for that). it is however an incredibly fun sounding headphone
@@Dracomies you should do a video about headphone amps and DACs if you've used that many of them. because especiallt for those high impedance cans I've heard they can impact the sound quite a bit. i wanna hear your take on it
I would just recommend getting IEM’s if you’re going to go under 200. Iems like the Truthear Nova, Simgot EM6L, 500LM, Gizaudio × Binary Chopin (which I own an absolutely love, would recommend getting the Dunu S&S tips with them, stock tips suck with them). Are some great options.
Hmm. Going to have to disagree here. IEMs are nice for portability but you can't mix or use them at all for voiceover or for editing audio. They can be used to monitor but not for editing. I have the Blessing 2, Etymotic ER2XR and tested many others -- you can't mix with IEMs nor can you really use them for critical editing.
@Dracomies didn't watch the entire Video when I worte that. So thats on me. Also ment it more for close back use for music instead of mixing. So anouther mistake of mine, should have clarifyed that.
The Sundara for me would be perfect if they were lighter on weight, had more bass and the clamp wasn't so hard. I put extra thick pads on the Sundara and that made them comfortable clamp wise but after a few hours that headband starts hurting my head. I also bought an amplifier with tone control for extra bass but I've yet to find a solution for the headband or weight.
100% agree!! If the Sundaras were lightweight, they'd be an easy recommend. What use is something that sounds amazing if you can't wear it too long. Thing is too dang clunky, very heavy after a while.
I've tried Sonarworks and on that front something like an AKG 371 can be much more useful. But often I just want something I plug in (where I may not have access to that).
@@Dracomies yeah I think it's definitely a really good price (25€) They're a bit uncomfortable and are made out of cheap material but I think they sound really good for their price!
the sony mdr made me hate a lot of my favorite tracks jasdfja but I still love them (and use them everyday bc I don't have other pair of headphones lol)
Sure. Please note that when I evaluate headphones I don't evaluate them on music. But I look at it how accurately it tells me how various microphones sound. In other words if I listen to someone speaking on an SM7B, NT1, TLM 103, MKH 416 can I tell the differences with them? I'd say the Sony MDR7506 is very clinical in that it picks apart every flaw in a microphone recording. A Sennheiser HD6xx is a bit more accurate, the HD600 even moreso where it kind of just shows you how everything really sounds - as it is. Something like the AKG371 though - based on the Harman Curve - isn't what I would call accurate since it was literally designed to make it sound good on ALL music - and a headphone like that would make it difficult to discern differences between 20 microphones as an example. Another example, although a different platform are the Etymotic IEMs. The Etymotic ER2SE is more clinical, not as enjoyable and very accurate. The Etymotic ER2Xr isn't as clinical but still pretty accurate but still somewhat enjoyable. In terms of headphones, the M50x as an example isn't a clinical headphone but it's 'accurate enough' for me to tell the differences in multiple recordings.
3:30 So that is not the definition of the harman curve. It’s purpose is not to “make everything sound good” its purpose is to reproduce the sound of flat eq loudspeakers in a treated room. Essentially: studio sound. Music (what the curve is designed for) is almost never mixed and mastered on headphones, it is mixed and mastered on flat eq speakers in a studio. Which, turns out, is the exact sound that Harman and others found most people prefer in thousands of their blind studies. Probably why it’s mastered that way… Anyway the goal of harman curve is to mimic that “flat eq loudspeaker sound” in a pair of headphones. Which means when you listen the harman curve properly implemented it is an attempt to be as _transparent_ as possible, sounding exactly what the audio engineer heard when he made the music. “Accuracy” sort of is an irrelevant word when it comes to headphones for music. Because of how our brains interpret sound, headphones cannot be accurate across all frequencies. So the goal of the harman curve is not to pick one frequency and be accurate in it, it is to be transparent. And give the sound closest to what the artists intended: speaker in a room sound. If you want pure upper mid/treble accuracy for doing voice work. Yeah you want sennheisers. They essentially ignore bass. But if you want to listen to music the closest to how it sounded in the studio where they made the music, you want Harman curve headphones. After all, there is more to music than just voice.
I don't really agree. The Harman Curve was meant for overall enjoyment of the masses. That's literally the entire study and what the curve was based off of. "“The Harman Target Curve is one example that is preferred by a majority of listeners from a broad range of ages, listening experiences, and genders." They actually went through 238 people to come up with a curve that everyone found enjoyable. "A 2014 study tested 283 listeners with simulations of different headphones in the market, and surprisingly, they have found that a remarkably high proportion of the listeners preferred the Harman target over different frequency responses. Another study by the same researcher tested the correlation between proximity with the harman curve and the listeners’ preference scores (Olive et al., 2018). This study showed an impressive result: listeners preferred sounds the more they were close to the Harman target." From ones I've tested ie AKG 371 and other Harman curve headphones I've tested (and returned)--- they are certainly enjoyable. They make a lot of music enjoyable. But aren't accurate in the way I need accuracy. It's important for me to hear flaws in recordings, but the Harman Curve will mask those flaws. ie hear a mic shootout of 10 mics and you'll think all 10 sound good on a 371, ie you'll think a Neewer 700 sounds great on em.
@@DracomiesSo the part that you’re missing is that in many other studies done before the Harman curve ever existed, Harman and others researching early hifi audio (this is back in the 60s and 70s) found that the large majority of people preferred flat eq well dispersed loudspeakers in a treated room. This is why starting in the 70s and 80s once the tech was there we saw musicians and studios start to gravitate toward flat eq speakers for audio mastering, and “high fidelity” audio was born. The entire audio engineering industry is built on his and others blind studies from those days. Gauging listener preference on a mass scale means gauging how the human brain and ears actually interpret sound. The point of the later headphone harman curve studies were to recreate that “listener preference in loudspeaker” with “listener preference in headphones.” The idea being if neutral sound is what people prefer in speakers, it’s what they like in headphones too, which is the purpose of the curve. It’s much more complex than that once you get into the idea of how the brain interprets sound but that’s the gist of it. By the content on your channel, I’m guessing you are doing voiceover work, vocals and things like that. It’s important to remember that the harman curve is intended for accurate reproduction of _music_ which covers the entire frequency range. Human vocals make up small portion of the frequency range. So headphones that favor upper mid and treble will sound more accurate for pure voice than headphones designed to accurately reproducing what the entire frequency range sounds like on a set of flat speakers.
@@Dracomies Interesting. Will look into that. :) Still looking for a headphone to plug into my Zoom R20 for messing around with synths. This video helps. :)
Damn, this video just made the whole "audiophile" community make sense to me:
They aren't sure if they want more details and accuracy, or if they want an enjoyable listening experience!
somehow youtube recommended me ur vid about audio interfaces, now im watching my 10th video in a row u really know ur stuff man, subbed and i expect to see more vids from u in the future
awesome!! Thank you for watching!! :D
same😅
Same🤘
For me Philips Fidelio X2HR has been my favorite headphones ever. Powered from FiiO K3 DAC/amp they just kick ass! Such a great relatively budget friendly combo.
Yeah after obsessively going through a bunch of options from a interface and something like sennheiser hd 400 pro (or the 560s since theyre cheaper and the same) with an xlr mic but I ended up finding a fantastic deal on a deity mic and got an AKG K371. Not needing an amp for the headphones or a interface for the microphone for now is honestly just so convenient. Plus, the K371 are just outright fun to listen to. So much better than the gaming headsets I had before.
Absolutely! The AKG 371 is super comfortable and sounds great on just about everything. Great headphones, very comfy and plush too. :D
Great Info
I like your videos, you cut through the bs, and just know what we really wanna hear. Thanks!
Thank ye for the kind words!! :D
I love my dt770s theyre fantastic
I’ve tried the Sony once and never touch it again. Too much tool-ish for me super bright and uncomfortable. That day, I realized I’m a normie and sticks with a regular EarPod.
Would love to try your recommend sometime. Good video as always.
🎉
Yeah that headphone is not enjoyable at all. Everything is pretty harsh on it. And it took me a while to understand - that that was the point :P
Would highly recommend checking out the tago T3-1. Tried it out in a shop and they sound great. It has a flat But Quality base and just absolutely great for vocals and instruments. It’s not a detail monster but I would say a better headphone then the HD 600 while being a closeback and easy to drive, One of the few headphones under 500 that I would truly want to buy.
I know this sounds crazy. But I don’t need it - for what I use headphones for. I’ve tested quite a few headphones in this pricerange and I always find I'm “Nah, I’m good with the HD6xx”. It’s the dot of diminishing returns where things really don’t get much better. :P th-cam.com/video/JY24SoRJ5Iw/w-d-xo.html I just need it for mixing and for critical editing and the HD6xx is where I stop.
@@Dracomies No that makes perfect sence, sure there may be something better out there, but is that time investment worth it?
loved this
Heh, the SF2 thing makes me laugh, I guess I often "play with Blanka" in headphones - Ultimate Ears UE9000 ;-). There is very little classically good about them, the thing I personally hate the most is their weight and eh, lack of comfort doesn't reflect the intensity I wish to convey, but wearing any other headphones is going to be better. BUT - they just sound very good, wired in passive mode they are engaging enough but at the same time very exact in a balanced but enthusiastic way. Flip on the fun switch and I double dare you to sit still heh, as uncomfortable as they are you'll forget you're wearing them until they fall off from your headbanging.
I am not suggesting to go buy them, but I am suggesting to give them a listen, just for the experience of it. They are the headphones you put on when no one else is home and you're playing the air drums and air guitar rocking out in your underwear. The "dirty secret" headphones heh if you have them, I think.
HI, I am glad to find your video, Im beginner in music and just started to learn music, could you give me what the best headphones for recording vocals like singing or rapping.? Thank you so much for your help.
I have Sony MDR-cd900st which can be considered an older and hotter sister of MDR-7506 and while I can agree that these are not forgiving (and I was said even less forgiving than 7506) I actually do enjoy them. I also like DT-770s a lot, too. I guess I just like the accuracy of monitor headphones.
Oh all three of these definitely are more for precision or more of a tool for sure! The DT770s is well beloved by voiceactors :P
one ding against the k7xx is that longevity isnt amazing compared to other headphones. the thing connecting the head rest is made out of breakable plastic, and the solder joints in the headphone can come loose (but you can repair it if you're up for that). it is however an incredibly fun sounding headphone
That's actually true! I'm on my second one! :P
@@Dracomies at least it isnt a grado
@@Dracomies you should do a video about headphone amps and DACs if you've used that many of them. because especiallt for those high impedance cans I've heard they can impact the sound quite a bit. i wanna hear your take on it
@@whyareyoulookingatthislol :D
i was looking for an ath m40x and in a group told me that Beyerdynamic dt 240 pro are better and cheaper. I got these and they are fantastic
If it’s accurate, it’s enjoyable to me.
I would just recommend getting IEM’s if you’re going to go under 200. Iems like the Truthear Nova, Simgot EM6L, 500LM, Gizaudio × Binary Chopin (which I own an absolutely love, would recommend getting the Dunu S&S tips with them, stock tips suck with them). Are some great options.
Hmm. Going to have to disagree here. IEMs are nice for portability but you can't mix or use them at all for voiceover or for editing audio. They can be used to monitor but not for editing. I have the Blessing 2, Etymotic ER2XR and tested many others -- you can't mix with IEMs nor can you really use them for critical editing.
@Dracomies didn't watch the entire Video when I worte that. So thats on me. Also ment it more for close back use for music instead of mixing. So anouther mistake of mine, should have clarifyed that.
The Sundara for me would be perfect if they were lighter on weight, had more bass and the clamp wasn't so hard. I put extra thick pads on the Sundara and that made them comfortable clamp wise but after a few hours that headband starts hurting my head. I also bought an amplifier with tone control for extra bass but I've yet to find a solution for the headband or weight.
100% agree!! If the Sundaras were lightweight, they'd be an easy recommend. What use is something that sounds amazing if you can't wear it too long. Thing is too dang clunky, very heavy after a while.
Well Made Video
have u tried headphone calibration like sonarworks or autoeq? what's your opinion on them? does it chage how you feel about these headphones?
I've tried Sonarworks and on that front something like an AKG 371 can be much more useful. But often I just want something I plug in (where I may not have access to that).
i did Sub. you , becoz the way you drawing the 4 eyes guys and his graph LOL also the way you review headphone too : )
:D
Yo what do you think about the Superlux HD-681? ESPECIALLY regarding the insane price 👀
I have no idea. Never tried it. Should I? :D
@@Dracomies yeah I think it's definitely a really good price (25€)
They're a bit uncomfortable and are made out of cheap material but I think they sound really good for their price!
the sony mdr made me hate a lot of my favorite tracks jasdfja but I still love them (and use them everyday bc I don't have other pair of headphones lol)
Yeah they're definitely not for enjoying music. :P It's a harsh critic.
I was looking to buy a Lewitt LCT 240 pro mic. Do you have any knowledge of it. If its good for singing?
I have no singing experience so I don't have expertise in that area ^_^
I got x2hr used for 70$, could get sundara for 150 but will i get 2x of anything by paying 2x ? Love x2hr
idk, I find the sundaras to be very comfortable. Also, for the sundaras, you need a lot of power and eq for the bass.
They're comfortable but after a while it weighs in on my head. I can't wear it for long. Whereas some other headphones I can wear for hours on end.
Hello! I wonder how you describe accuracy, versus being clinical as an example.
Sure. Please note that when I evaluate headphones I don't evaluate them on music. But I look at it how accurately it tells me how various microphones sound. In other words if I listen to someone speaking on an SM7B, NT1, TLM 103, MKH 416 can I tell the differences with them? I'd say the Sony MDR7506 is very clinical in that it picks apart every flaw in a microphone recording. A Sennheiser HD6xx is a bit more accurate, the HD600 even moreso where it kind of just shows you how everything really sounds - as it is. Something like the AKG371 though - based on the Harman Curve - isn't what I would call accurate since it was literally designed to make it sound good on ALL music - and a headphone like that would make it difficult to discern differences between 20 microphones as an example. Another example, although a different platform are the Etymotic IEMs. The Etymotic ER2SE is more clinical, not as enjoyable and very accurate. The Etymotic ER2Xr isn't as clinical but still pretty accurate but still somewhat enjoyable. In terms of headphones, the M50x as an example isn't a clinical headphone but it's 'accurate enough' for me to tell the differences in multiple recordings.
What mic was used to record this video?
I don't remember XP I think it was either the SE8 or 416 which I used more recently.
3:30 So that is not the definition of the harman curve. It’s purpose is not to “make everything sound good” its purpose is to reproduce the sound of flat eq loudspeakers in a treated room. Essentially: studio sound. Music (what the curve is designed for) is almost never mixed and mastered on headphones, it is mixed and mastered on flat eq speakers in a studio. Which, turns out, is the exact sound that Harman and others found most people prefer in thousands of their blind studies. Probably why it’s mastered that way…
Anyway the goal of harman curve is to mimic that “flat eq loudspeaker sound” in a pair of headphones. Which means when you listen the harman curve properly implemented it is an attempt to be as _transparent_ as possible, sounding exactly what the audio engineer heard when he made the music.
“Accuracy” sort of is an irrelevant word when it comes to headphones for music. Because of how our brains interpret sound, headphones cannot be accurate across all frequencies. So the goal of the harman curve is not to pick one frequency and be accurate in it, it is to be transparent. And give the sound closest to what the artists intended: speaker in a room sound.
If you want pure upper mid/treble accuracy for doing voice work. Yeah you want sennheisers. They essentially ignore bass. But if you want to listen to music the closest to how it sounded in the studio where they made the music, you want Harman curve headphones. After all, there is more to music than just voice.
I don't really agree. The Harman Curve was meant for overall enjoyment of the masses. That's literally the entire study and what the curve was based off of. "“The Harman Target Curve is one example that is preferred by a majority of listeners from a broad range of ages, listening experiences, and genders." They actually went through 238 people to come up with a curve that everyone found enjoyable. "A 2014 study tested 283 listeners with simulations of different headphones in the market, and surprisingly, they have found that a remarkably high proportion of the listeners preferred the Harman target over different frequency responses. Another study by the same researcher tested the correlation between proximity with the harman curve and the listeners’ preference scores (Olive et al., 2018). This study showed an impressive result: listeners preferred sounds the more they were close to the Harman target."
From ones I've tested ie AKG 371 and other Harman curve headphones I've tested (and returned)--- they are certainly enjoyable. They make a lot of music enjoyable. But aren't accurate in the way I need accuracy. It's important for me to hear flaws in recordings, but the Harman Curve will mask those flaws. ie hear a mic shootout of 10 mics and you'll think all 10 sound good on a 371, ie you'll think a Neewer 700 sounds great on em.
@@DracomiesSo the part that you’re missing is that in many other studies done before the Harman curve ever existed, Harman and others researching early hifi audio (this is back in the 60s and 70s) found that the large majority of people preferred flat eq well dispersed loudspeakers in a treated room. This is why starting in the 70s and 80s once the tech was there we saw musicians and studios start to gravitate toward flat eq speakers for audio mastering, and “high fidelity” audio was born. The entire audio engineering industry is built on his and others blind studies from those days. Gauging listener preference on a mass scale means gauging how the human brain and ears actually interpret sound.
The point of the later headphone harman curve studies were to recreate that “listener preference in loudspeaker” with “listener preference in headphones.” The idea being if neutral sound is what people prefer in speakers, it’s what they like in headphones too, which is the purpose of the curve. It’s much more complex than that once you get into the idea of how the brain interprets sound but that’s the gist of it.
By the content on your channel, I’m guessing you are doing voiceover work, vocals and things like that. It’s important to remember that the harman curve is intended for accurate reproduction of _music_ which covers the entire frequency range. Human vocals make up small portion of the frequency range. So headphones that favor upper mid and treble will sound more accurate for pure voice than headphones designed to accurately reproducing what the entire frequency range sounds like on a set of flat speakers.
TMA-2s?
thoughts on the austrin audio hx 15 anyone??
Guess, I'll grab some K371's to compliment my K240's
(I'll take those Sundara's off your hand, they'd help with my weight training
The 371s are super enjoyable! You'll love them. Yeah the Sundaras are deceptively heavy on the head. My head at least.
Dt770 are not accurate either, they are extremely bright which makes them sound more detailed
Uni One P!
My favorite pen baby!! :D
@@Dracomies Love mine in orange. Been trying different gel refills. Glad it takes full size ones. Another nice small pen is the Tombow Airpress. ;)
@@mongarcia01 I have Tombow Mono Drawing Pen Size #1. I love how it writes but it often can break. Good thing they come in boxes of 12. :D
@@Dracomies Interesting. Will look into that. :) Still looking for a headphone to plug into my Zoom R20 for messing around with synths. This video helps. :)
In my experience, Sony makes the worst headphones, there are a bunch of other headphones with 100 times better sound and cheaper prices
Wich one is better for digital piano?