Picking the Right Pair of Headphones for Your Studio

Overview

Picking the right pair of headphones for your studio can be a bit of a daunting task. With so many brands and models to choose from it can be a little overwhelming. Especially if you’re new to home recording. So where does one even begin? Well this quick guide and video should help you narrow things down and help you find what you’re looking for.

Why Studio Headphones?

You will want to purchase a pair of studio headphones over, say a pair of gaming or general headphones. Reason being is that studio headphones are designed for use in a studio environment. They typically will have a flatter frequency response and are usually more durable. Gaming and general headphones will usually have hyped up high and low-end which is not something that you want in a pair of studio headphones.

Open VS Closed Back Headphones

Open back and closed back headphones each have their pros and cons. They both also serve different needs in a studio. Open back headphones generally have better sound quality and are great for mixing purposes. But due to their lack of isolation (high amount of headphone bleed) they are not recommended for recording when a microphone is involved. (ie tracking vocals or acoustic guitar, etc)

This is where closed back headphones come in handy. Where they may lack a little in sound quality they make up for with sound isolation. This makes them great for tracking instruments where you do not want to have headphone bleed getting into the microphone.

Features

Features in a pair of headphones is something else to consider when making a purchase. Some headphones can fold up into themselves, making them easy to stuff into a backpack or to travel with. Headphones with a replaceable, or detachable cord is another feature to look for. Headphone cabling can be rather fragile so if your cable gets damaged it is far easier to deal with if you just need to purchase a replacement cable.

Sound Quality

Everyones idea of what sounds good will be wildly different. Even professional control rooms in multimillion dollar studios will each sound different. But for studio headphones you are looking at the same basic things as with studio monitors. You want them to be as flat sounding as possible with as little added hype as possible. You want them to be as painful honest as possible and let you hear details you wish you hadn’t heard in your mixes. They do need to sound good to you, yes. But honest sounding good.

Cost

Cost can vary on headphones from $30 to thousands of dollars. So decide on a budget for headphones and always buy the best you can afford. It doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive you can afford. There are too many factors involved with headphones that need you will need to take into consideration. So basically buy the best that you can afford that suit your needs.

Durability

Durability is another important aspect to consider. Do the cables fail often? Do the ear cups deteriorate and fall apart? If you look at them the wrong way or drop them do they burst into flames? I cannot give you a durability review on the 8 billion models of headphones out there so you will need to research and read reviews of models that you are considering and go from there.

Comfort

Some headphones are more comfortable than others. Some will fit your head better, others the ear cups will fit better over your ears. The padding on the ear cups is something else to consider. Some are just wrapped in a thin plastic-y vinyl. Others are wrapped in nice soft cloth. When you put them on your head, does it feel like that old toilet paper ad with all the white fluffy kittens? Or does it feel like you’re being punched in the ear by a Hulk fist wrapped in 40 grit sandpaper. You’ve got to wear them. Make sure they are comfortable.

Impedance

I’m not touching headphone impedance. I know about headphone impedance, I have read many things over the years about it. For me it has not been something I’ve ever really worried about. With that said, I do not have enough expertises on this to give advice or recommendations about headphone impedance and matching headphone amps and such. There is an army of people on this site alone who would be better to talk to you about this subject.

Shopping

Ok, depending on where you are shopping, this may or may not be possible. Try to shop at a place where you can try the headphones out. We have guitar stores in my area with tons of headphones put out as demo units for people to try out. You can bring your own music or mixes and try out as many pairs of headphones as you like. THIS is ideal. Other stores will say “sorry, try them out at home and if you don’t like them, sucks to be you” Not so ideal.

Recommendations

I would always recommend to have at least one pair of open back and one pair of closed back. If you can only afford one pair to start then I would recommend open back if you are only using them to mix and are not tracking instruments where headphone bleed into a mic is a concern. If you are miking instruments and are concerned about headphone bleed getting into your recordings, then I would recommend starting off with a pair of closed back headphones.