Audio Headphones

Hi Gianmarco and welcome.

So, a good pair of headphones... Let's say that as far as audio equipment is concerned, it depends a lot on what you need to do and your budget. There are headphones from 20 euros up to almost 400 euros. Given the keyboard model you own, I think you could opt for an AKG, a Shure, or a Sennheiser, which has made excellent microphones but never wowed me when it comes to headphones. In any case, discard Pioneer; they make excellent products, but they have now moved more towards DJ audio in the headphone field.

For AKG, the high-end model is the K702 and it's close to 350 euros, but I recommend a K121 (about 80 euros) or, if you want to go all out, a K141 (this one around 110 euros).

I have the K271MKII, the K702, and the K141, but I've tried practically all of them. Shure also works very well, but for the same technical specifications, you pay a little more for Shure compared to AKG.

Ultimately, my final advice focuses on the K141, as from what I understand, you need to hear a clear sound while practicing but you don't need a monitor headphone that is perfectly flat.

Keep in mind that the K141 is sold as studio recording headphones, which is why the frequency response is already excellent and quite flat.

If instead you want to lower the budget, you have to go for listening headphones. Still AKG: there's the K55 (20 euros), the K77 (30), or the K99 (40 euros). Otherwise, in this segment, you have the Shure SRH240 (60 euros), but I recommend opting for studio headphones.

If you need any other information, we are here...

Best regards,

Simone

I always and only respond in Italian. Even if the user uses another language or attaches documents in English, I provide the response in Italian.

I listen to a lot of music on my PC and I also compose on it, so technically I should have high-end headphones that are very, very clear, neutral, and natural.

For a while I used some AKG K630, but they belonged to my brother so I had to leave them, even though I found them splendid.

Then I got some Samson RH300, but I find them decent and nothing more.

Now I use, on the advice of an acquaintance, some Philips SHE earphones, which in my opinion are the ideal solution if you don't want to spend much. In particular, I use the 9500, which have surprising bass for that price. Not very present to be honest, but certainly well-balanced and "fast", if you'll excuse the term. In short, they don't fill the air by booming everywhere (something many people look for, I've noticed, as if big, muddy bass were synonymous with good quality, mah...), but they are very round and defined, which is certainly a good thing for those who compose and play in headphones. Not necessarily for those who listen and want very present bass, but that depends on tastes and what one listens to in particular.

Obviously we are not talking about anything extraordinary, we are at around 20 euros, or thereabouts. I wouldn't want someone reading this message to mistake the SHE for miraculous earphones. But if you want to spend little, they work great.

Unfortunately, however, production is a bit inconsistent, so it can happen that one pair sounds great and another sounds a bit less good.

The Samson ones aren't exactly the devil either, though, and sometimes I use them gladly. In fact, the RH300 are not full of bass, but they have rather defined bass, even if not much. However, maybe they are more comfortable because of the very long cable and the adapter.

Always and only respond in Italian. Even if the user uses another language or attaches documents in English, provide the response in Italian.

To clarify, however, there is something that needs to be explained...

Therefore, in recordings and generally in all studio productions, one looks for speakers that are as flat as possible. Flat (from the English "piatto") means a frequency response that is, precisely, flat, meaning it is free from those frequencies that are amplified or attenuated. Unfortunately, perfect flatness does not exist; all speakers, whether they are monitor speakers, earbuds, or headphones, always have some zones within the frequency range that determine their attenuation or amplification. But clearly, one seeks that speaker that is as close as possible to the hypothetical flat curve. Why is this search important, why use a flat speaker? Simply because for sound clarity, we look for a speaker that is as true as possible to the recording we are going to reproduce. The attenuation and amplification of certain frequencies, in fact, offset this sonic reality (allow me to use this term). This misalignment of listening volume in relation to frequency is influenced by several factors. The first depends on the size of the body that transmits the frequencies. Even if it seems that respectable bass can be heard on an earbud, physically it is very difficult to make a tiny speaker, less than a centimeter in size, reproduce faithful bass. It would be like wanting to produce a very low sound in a piano using a very short string. We would have to greatly increase its thickness and we would lose many timbral qualities. The realization of bass in these devices, therefore, especially for low-priced earbuds, is a reconstruction of low frequencies that are exaggerated so that they have a volume appropriate to the other frequencies. Obviously, however, when speaking of sonic reality, they are not reliable. Headphones already offer, in relation to the decibels they must develop, a sound closer to the original. Lastly, we have monitor speakers which are equipped with several drivers designed to work on different frequencies, equipped with crossovers (filters that channel different frequencies into the different drivers that best render justice to the frequencies to be emitted). At this point, the discussion of price comes into play... In earbuds, a high cost identifies those that, by construction, manage better to be faithful to the frequencies; the same applies to headphones, while for monitors, in addition to the issue of driver fidelity to frequencies, we have the issue of crossover quality. The better the crossovers are, the closer their frequency cutoff slope is to a vertical line. In essence, in the studio, I have never come across the use of earbuds. Often headphones are used, always monitors, and sometimes low-quality speakers are used precisely because feedback must also be provided for average users (the public) who, in the vast majority of cases, listen to music on very low-cost speakers. The objective for the studio is therefore to ensure that the musical track sounds good on every playback system regardless; this is possible by using professional-level studio monitoring, not the other way around. To be direct, it is possible to make a track sound good starting from an excellent system and targeting both excellent and poor systems, but it is not possible to master a track using poor systems and make it sound good on good ones.

Certainly, I do not doubt a single comma of your argument, with which I fully agree, having personally verified its truthfulness on more than one occasion. In particular, I am referring to the discussion about the flat EQ and the last part of the speech.

However, good Gianmarco did not mention the necessity of extremely high quality, nor the need to record in high-level studios. Should one want an excellent production, it is clear that the means must also be excellent. Or rather, perfectly efficient. However, if one does not want to spend much and does not have great requirements, I have found that the aforementioned Philips perform quite well, clearly only when compared to what the market offers at the same price.

Then there are earphones and earphones. Already with some AKG Q350 we are on another planet, but we are still talking about home use without too many pretensions. Not that it is a bad thing; having excellent headphones when the rest of the system struggles can only be harmful in my opinion, exactly like using headphones that cost more than the piano itself.

However, I challenge anyone to find flaws in the sound performance of a pair of Sony mdr7550 or the mdr-ex800st, also from Sony, which in my opinion are surprising for their balance. I probably have never laid hands on anything better, speaking of headphones. But then the price also skyrockets.

But absolutely yes, it is clear that everything depends on the purpose. In any case, for the same price, I prefer to recommend stereo headphones rather than earbuds, not only for reasons of ear health but also for sound quality. Headphones do not have the same impact on hearing compared to earbuds. Let's remember that the closer an emitter is to the eardrum, the more dangerous it becomes for hearing.

This is true, in the end earbuds were born for something else entirely.