Headphones

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My two favourite headphones are Sennheiser open backed ones, which I have owned for years, and Bose noise cancelling headphones which I'm reluctant to buy as I don't think much of the ethics of this company.

[johnb]

Personally i'm not a great fan of the ubiquitous Sennheisers, the cheaper models are rather badly built
AKG / Bayer make much better models that are more robust and last longer IMV

I think you are right about the cheaper Sennheiser cans but the HD600s are pretty well built. Mine have suffered quite a bit of abuse and heavy use in the years when I was mostly living in hotels during the working week. I did need to replace the leads and I eventually replaced the velour/foam ear surrounds and headband insert because they had started looking pretty grotty (and the foam in the headband insert was starting to deteriorate) - but then they are now 14 years old and still going fine.

I can't compare them with other headphones but as far as I am concerned they are one of the best purchases I have ever made.

[Bryn]

My persistent moan re. Sennheisers is that even those in the higher price range have tended to have very poor connections at the head end. I have a folding noise-cancelling Sennheiser set for travel use. They do cut out a reasonable level of ambient noise, but at the expense of considerable colouration of the main signal. When my current Sony Xperia Z smart-phone contract with 3 runs out next year, I might consider whatever Sony have upgraded the Xperia Z2 to by then. They the Z2 has built in noise cancelling.

[johnb]

Bryn, the experience with my Sennheisers (which admittedly are in the higher price range) is that the actually connections are rock solid (so solid that you need a pair of pliers to remove the plugs) but the connecting lead is vulnerable to careless treatment, especially the part of the lead near those connections. The only somewhat mitigating factor is that replacement leads are readily available (depending on the model) and are easily replaced.

I too have a set of folding noise-cancelling Sennheisers, which I use when the St Pauls Festival is taking place, down the hill from me (the lie of the land acts as an amphitheatre). I find them somewhat useful but frustrating - not ideal.

[Bryn]

It's these damned miniature things which plug into the headphones which I have always found unreliable, forever needing wiggling about or unplugging and plugging in again every few minutes:

[Ferretfancy]

I had a nice pair of STAX headphones some years ago, but although the audio quality was excellent I still didn't find them convincing musically. Unless the source has been recorded binaurally the sound feels very enclosed, with the left channel in one ear and the right in the other. After all, the music was monitored on speakers with the concept of a soundstage in front of the listener, not passing through your head.

The BIS recordings of the Bach Cantatas with Suzuki and the Collegium Japan were monitored on STAX headphones, at least in part. I enjoy them, but the venue has a very reverberant acoustic, which sounds a bit muddy at times on conventional speakers, and I can't help wondering whether things might be a little cleaner if headphones had not been used at the sessions. The engineers might have produced a tighter sound using speakers, who knows ? Unfortunately I haven't the facility to listen to Suzuki's Bach on headphones, is anybody disposing of a pair of STAX?

[richardfinegold]

Ferret-is the Suzuki Bach series an outlier in terms of being mixed using phones? I thought this was a common practice, especially in Pop Music.

[Bryn]

Reopening this thread for https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...1-3-headphones

[Dave2002]

Reopening this thread for https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...1-3-headphones

Amusing curiosity. Thanks for this one.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My two favourite headphones are Sennheiser open backed ones, which I have owned for years, and Bose noise cancelling headphones which I'm reluctant to buy as I don't think much of the ethics of this company.

I finally succumbed to the Bose headphones in 2019. They're extremely good.

[Bryn]

I finally succumbed to the Bose headphones in 2019. They're extremely good.

But the customer service from Bose, especially regarding such parts as the custom hinge screws, is not merely poor but absent. Third-party clones of such parts are available, at a price.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But the customer service from Bose, especially regarding such parts as the custom hinge screws, is not merely poor but absent. Third-party clones of such parts are available, at a price.

True. One of several issues I have with this company. Their way of repairing a product is to suggest you buy a new one.

[pastoralguy]

I finally succumbed to the Bose headphones in 2019. They're extremely good.

A friend couldn’t believe what I paid for my pair of BOSE headphones and suggested I’d wasted my money. However, we flew back from Washington with a baby in the seat in front who cried the entire flight and NEVER was I so grateful for them! The beauty of these noise cancelling headphones is that they don’t have to be connected to anything to provide an almost noise free environment.

[Lordgeous]

For mixing, and especially mastering, be-it 'pop' or 'classical' I continually alternate between speakers (ATCs) and headphones (currently Beyers) so hopefully getting the best (or worst!) of both worlds. Headphones can show more clearly clicks etc and suspect edits and I quite like being 'immersed' in the sound. I've had, and used for many years, a rather elderly pair of Stax headphones which I love but aren't so practical in a studio control room - heavy cable for example.

[Sir Velo]

A friend couldn’t believe what I paid for my pair of BOSE headphones and suggested I’d wasted my money. However, we flew back from Washington with a baby in the seat in front who cried the entire flight and NEVER was I so grateful for them! The beauty of these noise cancelling headphones is that they don’t have to be connected to anything to provide an almost noise free environment.

Never ceases to amaze me how people will happily spend 50-100 grand on a new car and then question the cost of a new set of phones.