Which Headphones??

tombaker

tombaker

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So, I've decided to go with getting a pair of Sennheiser headphones for practicing bass at night.
I just don't know which ones. I'm thinking atm of getting either a pair of Sennheiser 500A's or a pair of Sennheiser HD 380 Pro's.

Here's the specs to both:



and




So, which ones should i get? Any other headphones I should look into getting?


Cheers
 
Personally, I just went for some cheapie 'phones for practising. the main requirements for me were to get the ones that totally cover the ears, for better bass, sound insulation, and comfort; as long a lead as possible; an adaptor, so I could use the 'phones with a mini jack and a full sized jack; and most of all, lightweight and comfortable. I used to have them on for hours and hours, so they have to be light, and not so tight that you end up with a pear-shaped head!
High quality sound was not an important factor for me, as long as I could follow backing tracks and hear what I was playing. however, I paid £20 and the quality was till pretty impressive, but that was coming through my EBS microbass. If you want to use them in recording, of course, you might want better quality
 
if it comes down to choosing between A and B, take the one with the larger drivers...

However, if it's for practice and not for monitoring/recording purpose, any over-the-ear muff-style headphones should do the trick, no need to splurge on high-end phones...

That's of course only my humble opinion, YMMV, use my advice at your own risk, etc, etc...
 
i got sennheisers i like them alot just turn your gain all the way down and the distortion will be minimal to none
 
The size of the speakers in the headphones... for over-the-ear headphones it can be anything between 30mm and 50mm, with some bat♣♣♣♣-crazy models going up to 80mm (and 1500$...)...
 
I had some Sennheiser HD 280 Pros - very nice headphones, and good value.

I just can't get comfortable practising with headphones on though.

;)
 
I've destroyed like... 3? headphones by practicing bass on them. All were between 30 and 50€, but I never used totaly new ones. Always worn out or with broken cables whatever - but all of them had membrane damage after me practicing a bit. I was not TOO loud, not too much bass boost - no idea why or how it happened, maybe the headphone-output from my former bassamp was somehow bad.

So I decided to get REAL good headphones, not only for practicing, but also for mixing and also simply enjoying my music.

Sennheisers are quite good, but they are -imo- overpriced.
I got myself AKG K 272 HD.
They are made in Austria and they are simply... good.. really good!
Only problem is: Listening to mp3 music with low bitrates or high compression really becomes a pain in the a** - it sounds like crap. But then comparing to real high-quality audio you are simply blown away how amazing those sound.
Simply love them and would never (neither for bass practicing or listening or mixing) go back to lo-fi cheapo headphones. It's just another level of enjoyment and I'm not buying basses for above 1000€ to listen to their sound through cheapo headphones (i have to play through headphones most of the time, when I'm not at my parents home)
 
Eberbachl said:
I had some Sennheiser HD 280 Pros - very nice headphones, and good value.

I just can't get comfortable practising with headphones on though.

;)
Click to expand...

are there any disadvantages of the 280 Pros? Pros, cons? Are they good for practicing bass with? Im guessing that the 380 Pros are a bit better (i think i wider frequencie range). atm I'm leaning towards the 500A's but seeing as i wont hav the money for them for a while, ill probs keep changing my mind :roll:
 
if you want headphones for practicing, then go with cheapo over-the-ear headphones, like PHILIPS SBC HP195 (they cost about 6 euros in germany, and really don't sound bad at all !!)




if you want something to record with, for monitoring, mastering and such stuff, where it is important to have an even frequency spectrum, then i have to say that the Sennheiser HD 280 have too much bass frequencies.
and they shield from environmental noise better.

i would say, the best headphones for this purpose are the BEYERDYNAMIC DT 911. they don't shield the environmental noise that good, but when you are doing mixdowns, you do it alone in a quiet room. and they don't press as hard on your head as the sennheiser hd280 does. i compared them 1 on 1.


first, you have to make sure you know what you want.

the philips headphones are ok for "normal stuff", and VERY cheap.
the beyerdynamic are the best i ever head, they sound very even and transparent, it never gets muddy, everything is just right, but they cost quite a lot.

on the other hand: everyone likes different stuff.
 




Focusing on the idea of practicing, and especially
at night, I notice two things:

The 500 has a feature to reduce standing waves.
Remember, most headphone users are not going
to be listening to continuous pure bass. General
music listeners would not miss that feature were
it to be lacking in their headphones.

The 380 makes no claim about standing waves
but does claim better isolation. Hey, you're not
doing sound in a club, you're practicing at night.

Just on spec's and claimed features, between
those two models I'd take the 500.

If your budget allows, I'd want an adjustable
lo-cut [hi-pass] filter for spending long periods
"inside" my sound. I learned to play very nearly
completely by headphones, and I needed good
isolation in my environment [there was house
music ... ]. No phones have complete isolation
so I tended to turn up the volume. A lo-cut
filter, and something to limit standing waves,
would've been nirvhana !
​


 
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I bought some skull candy double agent headphones, and i really like em. They're audio geek worthy (which is why bought em :D). The respond to the full range of human hearing, and the sound really good. I use em for everything, practicing, recording, listening etc. They're really light and there is also a build in mp3 player (sd card), and you can still use your ipod. The only bad thing i found was my first pair wasn't very durable, but they have a lifetime waranty, and it was pretty much my fault, but they sent me new ones anyways! Check out the skullcrushers too, they have a built in subwoofer! :D
 
tombaker said:
are there any disadvantages of the 280 Pros? Pros, cons? Are they good for practicing bass with? Im guessing that the 380 Pros are a bit better (i think i wider frequencie range). atm I'm leaning towards the 500A's but seeing as i wont hav the money for them for a while, ill probs keep changing my mind :roll:
Click to expand...

Hey - I haven't done any comparisons with the 380s or 500s...but the HD 280 Pros were very nice - great for practising bass. No cons that I discovered.

;)
 
i use Audio Technica in my studio i ahve two pairs very nice especially for 70 bucks. Ive spent quite a good bit of time practicing bass with them. The low end response in them is awesome.

I would never spend that much on headphones.
 
I personnaly use the HD555 from Sennheiser and they do a wonderful job when I play bass.
 
i have a set of Shure SE420's and they are pretty damn amazing headphones, i'd reccomend any of the shure headphones, and just get the best you can afford!
 
Grado SR60 (or SR80 if I could afford them). Oh yeah, babey! Probably not the best for practise / practicality (bit flimsy, short lead, open), but incredibly clean.
 
so i was just playin my bass pretty loud just then and my dad said to use headphones coz he wanted to watch tv.... so he made a deal with me that if i use headphones when its getting late at night, then he'll buy me some decent headphones:d
i think im gonna go with the Sennheiser HD 515's.:)
ill let ya know how they go when i get them in the next few days;)
 
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