Portable Headphone Recommendation

Lampdog wrote:

Al Yeska wrote:I love my V-MODA M-100's. Tasty and emmersive sound. Not flat though. Ive never understood that plain saltines junk. Whats the point? To prevent offending someone?

Flatter the better.

It will sound exactly like you want it when played on several diff audio systems and headphones. Most systems put their own “color” into the audio played. You want your playback to be “colorless” and as close to your original creation as possible, if your serious about your audio.

I am halfassed about mine, but, I do recognize what works for me.

So I feel some kind of way about this ideology. I get it and its been my mantra for YEARS, but I find that when I'm NOT at a mixing down stage, I simply make better music when I let "some color in". I perfectly get it - but when you get a little color on a song during the initial production stage (what portable Live is for IMO), it can help guide you somewhere (assuming you are like me and go off the top more than come to the table with a formulated idea).

That's what drove me to the 50s over the 40s - what everyone said about them here, I've heard elsewhere in doing my post-MPC folks opinion - research (heh). Ultimately the big play for me was "a little more thump is good, it either brings my energy up, or makes me make sure to bring it down some".

I DO get it though.

As for how they are so far, so far so OK. They sound good and feel good, the shorter cable *option* is SO much better, but what I didn't take into account is that while the 50s fold up, they fold up *thick*, and not *flat* (turn in), so they still don't sit inside of a laptop style bag very well. It's been fine since as I've gotten them, my MPC bag has JUST been the MPC lately, but usually I roll with a music theory book, manual, iPad Pro, etc. So I'm happy with the purchase, but its not solving all my issues. Replacing the bag is the next option, but this is my second bag for the MPC.
- Unreall

Well its just been a weird thing for me, I always tout getting flat for pretty much everything so you can hear things as they were meant to be heard, but I purposely break-up sessions for QC purposes, and no matter HOW it sounds when I mixed it while producing it, I ALWAYS tweak/re-mix it after the fact, so I had to start wondering, what's the point of flat headphones? You aren't really supposed to mix or master with headphones anyway, headphone test are for practical purposes only - like the car test(s).
*shrug*
Def not fighting the idea, just wondering how much value there REALLY is in execution/process.
- Unreall

The theory for a flat response is that you aren't targeting a specific speaker that is coloring your output. With a flat response you'll know by ear what frequencies you are using and if a specific sound is muddying another part of the song. If you extend the logic, then the theory would be "if it bangs in flat response, it might just kill anywhere else".

However, you're right... if a set of headphones lets you get to business and be creative it really doesn't matter what their response curve looks like. Play hard and have fun!

Nah, I get it - again I've touted it for years, its only been recently when it kind of hit me, when creating I create, then I come back later to clean-up, I don't want to muddy up the process of making something good, by spending too much time focused on the sound design details, and levels, and when I'm doing clean-up, I shouldn't really be on headphones anyway, that should be done on monitors (now those 100% should be flat).

I guess the MPC Live has twisted some things for me - true mobile production is different for me than at home in the studio production. When I pull out the MPC - I'm usually at work on lunch break, so I have about 45 minutes (I eat for 15 heh) to try and get (3 is my goal) ideas going. In that time, I'm usually so focused on patterns and song ideas, that I don't worry about the mix - minus it hitting too hard and hurting. With THAT pretense I just started wondering - what makes headphones good for "production". Sure flat is good, but then when I start weighting the importance of flat headphones against "creating quickly", the priority shift to speed and energy and focus made me rethink things (a little).

It's all gravy though, its really just being more open to how the MPC has changed things for me.
-Unreall

I've got a crappy water proof battery powered speaker I take with me when I go out hiking with the MPC. Do you man!

NearTao wrote:I've got a crappy water proof battery powered speaker I take with me when I go out hiking with the MPC. Do you man!

When I was a kid I use to roll with these 3-4 inch speakers for my Walkman *shudders at age reference*. This makes me want to throw a pair of slim speakers into my MPC bag, could have some real fun with that.
- Unreall

So it may be a little late for a response, but here are my 2 cents. I have 3 sets of headphones right now that I cycle through.

Audio-Technica ATH-M40X - I got these for a good, cheap pair of closed back over ear headphones I could use for recording vocals mic'd instruments. ATH-M50X is not as good as the ATH-M40X.

AKG K702 - I got these to mix with. Open back, over ear.

Thinksound ON-2 - Closed back, on ear. I got these as a portable option. While I love my Porta-Pro's, and they actually fold up considerably smaller than these, I wanted a decent closed-back headphone for being in public or noisy areas.

All 3 were Amazon Warehouse deals because I refuse to pay full price for headphones, lol!

I co-sign on the ATH-M40X. Gives a flat signal and doesn’t color the sound.

AdamWeishaupt76 wrote:So it may be a little late for a response, but here are my 2 cents. I have 3 sets of headphones right now that I cycle through.

Audio-Technica ATH-M40X - I got these for a good, cheap pair of closed back over ear headphones I could use for recording vocals mic'd instruments. ATH-M50X is not as good as the ATH-M40X.

AKG K702 - I got these to mix with. Open back, over ear.

Thinksound ON-2 - Closed back, on ear. I got these as a portable option. While I love my Porta-Pro's, and they actually fold up considerably smaller than these, I wanted a decent closed-back headphone for being in public or noisy areas.

All 3 were Amazon Warehouse deals because I refuse to pay full price for headphones, lol!

Similar concept for me.

I got the Audio-Technica ATH-M50X as my portable, closed back option. I don't record vocals much any more, but I had a pair of Sony MDR-7506 for that. My younger brother broke those during an extended visit a while back.

I got the AKG Q701 for home listening as I prefer open back headphones. They were my "portable" set until I convinced myself closed back headphones were OK, at least for portable listening. Though I do reference mixes on them, I wouldn't say I mix with them. They do help me keep my bass in check though.

I'm waiting for one of those sales to purchase my affordable favorites, the Shure SRH1840. I probably missed the cheapest they will be during the holiday sales. They will replace my Q701, and I'd probably do more mixing on them.