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Headphone gurus: Best "isolation" cans?

Y

yellowperil

Diamond Member
I'm looking for a set of closed-back headphones for tracking a vocalist during home recording. I have a fairly cheap pair of AKGs that are closed-back but still leak sound into the microphone. At the moment I'm considering the Sennheiser HD-280 ($100) but if there's anything cheaper that will work as well then I'll get them. Thanks
 
I have (well had I'll get to this in a minute) the HD280 Pro's and loved them! A clean amp to power them goes a long way (ie they sound okay from a notebook computer, but you hear every flaw, every hiss, every bit of hd access). Bass response is excellent and once they get broken in sound very natural with a wide sound stage (at first they sound a bit bright and clamp down on your head as to suck out your brains 🙂 )

A plastic piece on the side broke off and so I RMA'd them to newegg (got them for $85), but they are out of stock at the moment so I have to wait...

I also used these on my Yamaha Clavinova (digital piano) and with the computer though the preamp on the Klipsch 2.1's. It added dimension to the piano but there was annoying resonance in the mid upper frequencies whenever I added a bit of reverb... I need to get an EQ me thinks. (this sounds more natural when reproduced by the piano speakers inside the wood structure of the clavinova I'm betting...)
 
I should mention some background info... The HD 280's are known for their "flat" and "accurate" frequency response at a good price.

Your MP3's through these will probably not sound that good... Higher quality sources though, satellite radio for example, sounds great when listening to jazz stations the bass line REALLY comes through (they go lower and cleaner than my Klipsch 2.1's with their dinky sub)

 
Another vote for the HD-280's. Just make sure you break them. It took mine over 100+ hours to sound good. So don't think the sound you hear at first is indicative of the overall sound.

Also, check out head-fi.org Go to headphones and search for the 280's, there's a large wealth of information there.

EDIT: "Your MP3's through these will probably not sound that good..."

I second that thought to a certain extent. These headphones definatley aren't 'easy-listening' in my opinion, in otherwords they don't make songs sound any better than they are, and sometimes make them sound worse (if poor quality, etc). But what they are is EXTREMELY accurate and bright. So if you have high quality mp3s, or lossless, or cds, then you should be good as long as you have a good output. I run mine off the Asus A7N8X Deluxe Soundstorm soundcard and they sound decent. Through a Sony reciever (using digital out from the computer) they sound about on par. Using my friends M-Audio Revolution 7.1 they sound slightly tighter. I wouldn't want to guess though how they sound on anything lower quality, as I think the Soundstorm is as low quality you can get to enjoy these headphones.
 
And another vote for the Sennheisers. I owned a pair for about eight months until I traded them in for a pair of Grado SR-80's (the Grado's are open air headphones with higher quality sound). If you want quiet headphones the HD-280 Pro will do the job flawlessly. These are especially useful if, like me, you have extremely annoying asshat family members that make a lot of noise. Put on the Sennheisers and its like they're gone 🙂. Like SXMP says, make sure you have high quality mp3's or sound card because these headphones will pick up any distortion.

My only real complaint about the Sennheisers is that when I wore them with glasses they would put pressure behind my ears and would become sore after a while
 
I also have the HD 280's. They were tight as hell at first but have loosened up nicely and are very comfortable. They sounded really harsh at first also, but after about 50 hours of break in, they are starting to sound really good. Highly recommended.
 
I recommend you get a pair of Etymotic ER-6's. They're not headphones, they're canalphones -- you jam 'em all the way up your ear canal, and they block out 15-20 decibels of outside noise, much more than any normal closed headphones can isolate and they don't leak any noise at all.

Like SXMP, I'd recommend you check out head-fi.org -- there's an incredible amount of information available on their forums.
 
Originally posted by: KevinF
I recommend you get a pair of Etymotic ER-6's. They're not headphones, they're canalphones -- you jam 'em all the way up your ear canal, and they block out 15-20 decibels of outside noise, much more than any normal closed headphones can isolate and they don't leak any noise at all.

Like SXMP, I'd recommend you check out head-fi.org -- there's an incredible amount of information available on their forums.
Click to expand...

How far into the ear canal do they go? 😕

 
The HD280's fall within the pricerange of most including myself... but I would wonder out load: what's the next step up? Say I wanted to spend $200 (including or not including headphone amp...)?
 
Originally posted by: KevinF
I recommend you get a pair of Etymotic ER-6's. They're not headphones, they're canalphones -- you jam 'em all the way up your ear canal, and they block out 15-20 decibels of outside noise, much more than any normal closed headphones can isolate and they don't leak any noise at all.

Like SXMP, I'd recommend you check out head-fi.org -- there's an incredible amount of information available on their forums.
Click to expand...

Yup I'd look at in-canal phones. Etymotic is a great brand and shure has a good reputation too.
 
You should realize that unless the singer sings very quietly, the headphones will need to be loud enough during tracking that you can expect some leakage regardless of what you buy. it just comes with the territory, it's something that all studios deal with. so make sure you have at least a rough mix of the music before you track vocals so that the leakage roughly matches the finished product. ie: don't have click tracks going or instruments that won't be in the final mix. beyond that, it won't matter much. the singer is so much louder that you won't hear the leakage in the final mix because it will be masked by the original sources in the mix. if you're really anal, you should gate the vocal track. this is a good idea anyway because it reduces background noise and movement noise from clothes and things.
 
the HD280's are 69.99 at ecost. you have to add them to the cart to see the discounted price.
 
Thanks for the responses. Thanks dc for that eCost price, it looks like there's another $10 rebate on it so I ordered a pair.
 
I was looking for a pair of these headphones, so I ordered them from ecost also. Very comfortable.

Quick question, though...what is the proper way to "break in" these headphones? Can I just play music on them for hours on end?
 
Originally posted by: stormbv
I was looking for a pair of these headphones, so I ordered them from ecost also. Very comfortable.

Quick question, though...what is the proper way to "break in" these headphones? Can I just play music on them for hours on end?
Click to expand...

yeah, play some bass heavy music mixed in with other types of music. Just let it loop for as long as possible at a slightly higher volume level than you would normally listen. The more you break these in, the better they sound.
 
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