Pyrohazard Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I want to do music making and production and I have been needing to buy some new headphones. So I am wondering what the difference is between DJ headphones and studio headphones. Is there a huge difference or could either be used for music making and production? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederic Petitpas Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Can you draw your home with a pencil or do you need an architect's ? Sure the architect's pen will be more precise, reliable, ... but still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Not sure which headphones you are comparing, though it's worth checking out http://www.headphone.com/headphones/ to do some comparisons (they'll even let you overlay multiple selections to compare frequency response and square wave accuracy. With that said, the needs of a DJ and the needs of a music Producer/Mixer are quite different. A DJ needs a strong attenuation (think passive noise isolation) because you need to hear the beat of one record through headphones over the beat of the currently playing music, even if that music is coming from a 200 Watt speaker system just over his/her shoulder. A strong but accurate bass response is crutial. A Producer/Mixer needs an even frequency response (no dominating frequencies) with a huge amount of detail. Noise isolation is not an issue as the Producer/Mixer is working in a controlled listening environment. Sometimes open backed headphones are good for getting a more accurate sense of spatial width as they tend to be a bit closer to the sound of direct field monitors than close backed headphones (but they have 0 isolation). Their needs are almost opposite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrohazard Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 Not sure which headphones you are comparing, The headphones I'm looking to buy are the Skullcady Mix Master, but those are headphones are ideally made for DJs. although, Many people say it gives very precise and crisp sound. I just want to make sure I'm not paying for headphones that give me the wrong details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eilios Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 The headphones I'm looking to buy are the Skullcady Mix Master Please don't buy those~ these are far cheaper and superior. E: especially for producing!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 So, I did some quick comparisons keeping in mind that the ultimate test is your own ear, but this might direct your attention to some alternatives: I compared your Skullcandy Mix Master Mikes to the Senn HD280 Pros, and then two other headphones in the Skullcandy MMM price range: The AKG K271 II and the Shure SRH940s. What you're looking at is a measurement of a sine wave swept through the cans and into a monitoring system that measures the dB level, then the graph is produced by taking the difference between the constant volume of the source sound and the resulting volume. The goal for a Producer is to stay around 0dBr and if possible, not swing too widely. Here you can see the Shure SRH940s have the most tame graph. The skullcandys are okay, but you can see that when you hit around 8,000Hz, it really starts to drop off rapidly. This is a problem if you're mixing high hats and other high frequency content. I would not be surprised if this was also Mix Master Mike's hearing range, as DJs have TERRIBLE hearing, generally. This is a harmonic distortion graph. That means that they pumped a 500Hz frequency through the cans and measured what other frequencies emerged. All of them have an appropriate spike at 500Hz, but you can see the AKGs are the worst offenders of creating additional harmonic content. This is due to the quality of the speaker construction and material and indicates what accidental frequencies your headphones create (not just reproduce). This is the 500Hz square wave response, this is a graph showing the waveform that the speakers send out based on a simple square wave. Ideally, all of these would look like a solid square wave with minimal wavering. I think the Skullcandys and the Shures look the best here. The Shures have a snap right after the first hit of the wave but after that they really stay fairly solid with a nice almost right angle drop back to the opposing wave. This is the same test except with a 50Hz frequency, so here's a visual representation of your bass clarity. I think that the Shures and the AKGs have a nice strong articulate attack, but you can see that the AKGs practically wither and distort on the hold. This test is where the Sennheisers really shine, their waveform is almost a solid square, it looks really well formed. The Skullcandy and the Shures are almost identical on their hold shape, with that slope, but I will say, both of them have a very nicely defined right angle drop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrohazard Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 Well the Shure SRH940 look more promising than the Mix Masters. This definitely helps with my decision. Thank you dannthr, I really appreciate the time you have taken in helping me find the right headphones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederic Petitpas Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Nice website for headphones specs! Does this mean my headphones aren't reliable ? (blue line) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Hey Metal Man, What it means is that bass frequencies are probably going to be underrepresented with the Shure SRH440s. So, let's say you're working on your mix, and you've got a rock drum set, and the kick bass is hitting at about 40-50Hz. It's going to sound quieter on the Shures than on the Sennheisers which could be dangerous because that means that you might over mix your kick-bass and your mix won't translate as accurately on other speaker systems (resulting in an overly boomy bass--which would also suck out the headroom on your mixes, taking away the punch of higher frequency content). With that said, more than anything else, it's important that you UNDERSTAND your cans and how a good mix sounds on them, you can usually compensate, at least somewhat, if you have a good sense of how your cans sound. Also, it's important to have a variety of listening/monitoring devices, anything from Headphones, great direct field monitors, and even car stereos or little radio speakers. I sometimes will work on an iPhone game, and so I'll mix on Headphones, my Equator D5s, and I'll also bounce out mixes and listen to them on my iPod Touch's crappy external speaker. You want to find a happy middleground where your mix sounds optimal on all of your various listening systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Well the Shure SRH940 look more promising than the Mix Masters. This definitely helps with my decision.Thank you dannthr, I really appreciate the time you have taken in helping me find the right headphones. No problem, man, keep checking out other potential options. A $300 budget for Headphones leaves you with a lot of great options, so look around, and then make a list, and try to find a way to try these out yourself, especially if you can do it side-by-side--the best way to test your cans out is to make a playlist of high-quality, well mixed tracks that are in or around your style and tracks that you know, really, really well. Ultimately, these are just cold-hard graphs; the true test will be your ears. EDIT: I also wanted to mention that the square wave tests, I would assume that both the Skullcandys and the Shures shape would improve over time as the snap back is due to the elasticity of the speaker material, and after 50-80 hours of listening, these materials tend to loosen a bit and become more flexible. But that is a supposition, I don't have any hard evidence that this would happen. I just know that it does happen with many headphones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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