In The Age Of Digital Processing And Lower Bit Rate And High Compression, Can I-Pod Earbud Headphones Really Cut It?
I’m constantly having conversations about the best types of headphones or monitor speakers to use and I’m always torn between all the answers that I get. Right now I’d like to talk about headphones. Over the past couple months I’ve basically had to go through 2 different sets.
My first set was the Sennheiser HD-280 Professional Headphones
My second set was the ULTRASONE HFI 550 S-Logic Surround Sound Professional Headphones
I went through two high quality headphones so quickly NOT because of dissatisfaction or poor manufacturing quality, but because I have a Beagle pup named Kobe that chews anything and everything within reach. I’m not sure how many of us here are really into audio quality, or whether you care or not but I decided that it’s time that we make a discussion about it here….again (you may remember my rant a few months back about MP3 bitrate compression).
Steve Jobs over the past decade has single-handedly changed the direction of music forever with the rise of the almighty I-Pod
Surely one can argue against this claim but the facts speak for itself with the downfall of many of the music distribution retailers across the country (remember Tower Records?). Prior to the MP3 craze physical stores were actually making bank off the sales of millions of CDs world-wide. Nowadays I have to wonder who in their right mind would want to buy one today when you can instantly gratify yourself by listening to a song and purchasing it within seconds. Ok, so back to the I-Pod. If you own one you’re probably familiar with the set of headphones they come with, yes…the almighty white ear bud headphones that everyone loves and audiophiles love to hate on. Hell, I liked them for their convenience since they DID come with my I-Phone, but after Kobe the Beagle pup chewed them to oblivion did I miss them? Hell to the NO. Why not you ask? Well, for one listening to these was like taking two AM radios from the 80s and putting right next to your ears and playing them really loud for extended periods of time. I found myself having to take the volume down to a level where you’d probably wonder whether or not I was even listening to music at all. Well, I have to take care of my ears because in return my ears will take care of me so screw that. You should feel the same way, after all who wants loud pops, clicks, buzzing, and ringing in their ears? So if you have these puny little wastes of space and creativity I’d say toss them RIGHT NOW, no…better yet… BURN THEM and let’s start fresh.
Where Was I??? Oh yeah, so I went through those two headphones…
The HD280s were really great. When it came to audio I really didn’t care much before I realized that I wanted to be really serious about music. Prior to these I was used to sticking to cheap Sony headphones or Philips…DONE. What I didn’t realize was that you really get what you pay for! Upon listening with the Sennheisers for the first time, I was blown away from the sounds I was able to hear throughout my music collection that I never was really able to hear before. It was like hearing for the first time! I bought them so that I could use them to monitor my mixes when I was actively DJing but when I realized how great they were I began to use them for casual listening. It then progressed to using them for actual music production. The only problem with these was that after a while my ears were hurting because they were such a tight fit, and they weren’t as accurate as I liked them to be. The low frequencies were a bit low as far as dB (decibels) are concerned and the high frequencies were pushed up a bit but all in all it had a pretty flat frequency response. When you’re monitoring recordings or producing from home you have to work with speakers that have the flattest response possible. If you look at normal speakers that are mainly used for listening, like the ones you get with boom boxes, they’re usually equalized or pre-tuned so that you’re hearing more bass, or more treble so it sounds like you’re getting more output and better sound for the money. If you use these types for monitoring you’ll run into trouble because you’ll think you’re getting a lot of bass when you’re really not. The speakers are producing bass, and not your song. So with that in mind, these weren’t the perfect headphones to use, but they sounded GREAT! Another great feature about these was that all the parts are replaceable. If you break the cable, cool, you can order them, you lost a cap to the ear piece? Cool, order them. They’re also very durable if you tend to throw your stuff around.
Next up were the Ultrasones. These are excellent headphones for monitoring. Really flat response and they came with several key technologies that make them sound really good. One important factor was that they reduced SPL (sound pressure level) to your ear drums by 40% so you could safely listen with these for long periods at at time. Alas, these also ended up in the jaws of the little monster as the HD280s did.
So, after all that where do you go from here? Well I had recently gotten my hands on a pair of these:
The AKG K701 Studio Headphones
After dabbling in the $100-$200 price range I got the opportunity to test out this $400 pair of sonic bliss. Remember earlier how it was when I went from those cheap rag tag Sony/Philips headphones to the Sennheisers and I felt like I was hearing for the first time? Well, it happened again when I listened to my first song with these. The only thought that came across in my head was WOW!!!!……WHAT!?!? I was hearing certain sounds and finding little nuances in my current music selection that I wasn’t able to make out with the Sennheisers OR the Ultrasones. After long hours of using them, my ears weren’t fatigued at all! The stereo field it created was INCREDIBLE! I couldn’t believe….my ears. They are so good that it makes any MP3 of crappy bit rate quality sound good. It had shimmering high end thanks to it’s ridiculous frequency range of 10Hz–39.8kHz. If you’re reading this and you really want to experience true sound in all of its glory and listen to music how it should be heard, then please please please invest the money into some high-end listening products. Your ears will really thank you. You will enjoy life as it should be enjoyed especially when you combine that with the quality music choices from Deftune…hehe. Oh, also if you’re interested in investing in hi-fi products in this price range be sure to check out the beyerdynamic DT 880 Premium Headphones
. I have yet to try these out but I hear they’re comparable if not better than the AKGs.
- Conrad
or 
surface controllers to use with the 003 RACK models but you’ll end up spending A LOT more. The Factory model 003s also come with $3000 worth of professional grade software plug-ins. 
which is comparable to the Digidesign 003 Factory. It supports Pro-Tools M-Powered which almost identical to Pro Tools LE. One upside of the Project Mix is that it offers 8 pre-amps versus the 003’s 4. One area where the 003s trump the Project mix however is the quality of its pre-amps. The 003s have a much higher dynamic range giving you more output as well as better frequency response. This made it a really tough decision but with the Project Mix priced at about $1000 less it made me lean more towards choosing the Project Mix, especially after checking out 
, which I use A LOT. Oh, and BTW, M-Audio AND Digidesign are owned by 
is known as perhaps the best all around microphone you can buy. This thing was introduced in 1967 and it’s still alive and kicking to this day! With its rugged and superior design, it can be thrown around and handle physical and acoustic beatings. It’s used for recording a range of musical instruments- particularly ones with high SPLs (sound pressure levels) like drums and guitars. It’s also flexible enough to record vocals. 
and it’s ready to go. You may have also run into the 
It’s basically the same exact mic but it has a different windscreen. If you’re starting off building a small recording studio this is definitely a mic you need to have in your arsenal. 
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