The Best Headphones for Mixing and Mastering (ALL Models Compared)

Hello, hello, I'm Justin Coletti from Sonic Scoop. Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of the Sonic Scoop podcast. If you're here to watch the premiere live, let me know if you can see and hear me in the chat box. It's great. I've got you with me and today we're going to review

headphones

, the

best

headphones

for

mixing

and

mastering

. Years ago, producers, engineers and audio professionals told you that you can mix and that headphones don't mix and that you need headphones to mix. Speakers and honestly, today I would give you almost the opposite advice.

It's great to have amazing speakers in a room with amazing sound. I have fantastic speakers and a very well treated room here that I can rely on, but even I use headphones to check each master. I work as a

mastering

engineer and along the way I have mastered tracks with these headphones and my clients have not known the difference between the ones I made in the studio and the ones in these and I can do it because there are two reasons, one is: a proper pair of headphones for

mixing

and mastering and I'll give you my criteria on what they are and two.

I know them very well. I've listened to all the Masters I've done through them, but these headphones that I used to recommend to people, they're not being made anymore, I think one of the reasons is that you might see this code just fall off of these and every Every time I wear them there are a little black flecks everywhere and although I really love them, I want to get a replacement for them and I know there are even better options out there these days. I'm very sorry to say that these were the blue mix fi headphones, you can still find them in mix files and Lola's.

I still think that for The headphones around 300 and under have some of the

best

bass you will find in headphones and this is one of the criteria that for a long time made audio professionals not recommend mixing with headphones one. One reason would be the rollercoaster of upper mids and highs, making it difficult to get headphones that are reasonably flat in the mids and highs. There are some headphones that solve this and I actually have a few of them here, some of the most popular ones. The headphones to solve this problem were these, the Sennheiser HD 600 and HD 650, really good detail and flatness of mid and high frequencies, really usable accurate headphones, but one of the problems that these headphones always had is that they didn't necessarily extend as far. short like you.

You might want to make really good choices on low-end headphones that are still really useful in your price range, but today I think there are some even better options, one of them made by the same brand that makes these Sennheiser, from the which we'll talk about in just a moment. minute, they are still great headphones, but I wanted to see if there are things that are better and there are things that I would recommend even more and we'll get to those in just a minute, today we'll look at the best headphones for mixing. and mastering, that means we're not going to be looking at 50 headphones and hundred dollar headphones.

Pretty much everything here will start at about 300 and go up from there. The most expensive headphones that I will mention cost almost five thousand dollars, but those are not going to be one of the best options because they cost almost five thousand dollars, although I will mention, they are fantastic, if anyone thinks they know what they are, let me know in the chat box before I tell them, but there are some amazing hearing aids between three hundred and fifteen hundred dollars and we'll look at the pros and cons of each one in Excel and which ones might be best for you because here's what hearing aids They are an extremely personal choice. and the headphones that work best for me may not be the headphones that work best for you.

People ask me for my opinion and a lot of people here ask if they like the mm-500 and the HD 650 better. The mm-500 more, the whole cow becomes clear. I'm going to answer all these questions. Let's go over all the

models

that people are asking about in the chat box right now because I have literally a dozen headphone

models

on here right now. which I just tested back to back and I have a dozen more that I've made extensive notes on and we're not going to make this daunting, we're going to make this really easy to handle, so what are my three?

Criteria Before I get into my list of the best headphones, I just want to give you my criteria real quick. One is that we have reasonably flat mid and high frequencies that won't lead us astray. Number two that we have usable. low frequency that extends deep enough and is free enough of resonance that we can make critical listening decisions about our bass better than we could in our bedrooms and then the third criterion is transient response and this is something that You'll start to understand the more you work with very high-end speakers and headphones, if you've had the luxury, like me, of working in a very high-end mastering studio, with very high-end mastering monitors, you'll find that transient accuracy It's totally a thing and you didn't know it was a thing because you've never heard it before and I have to say that some of the best headphones on this list do it very well, that they are relatively free of resonances and that we get incredible transient detail and not all the headphones on the list will be sold in this category and that is one of the places where the high-end headphones will be separated from the low-end headphones, other criteria like how comfortable they are, how cool they are.

Look, they're heavy, they're light. I'll give you my notes on all of that, but keep in mind that my personal preferences won't necessarily be your personal preferences. This is deeply personal, but I'll listen to you. notes that I think will be useful to you even if you have different tastes and sounds than me, okay, with all that preamble out of the way, let's start talking about the actual headphones and I'll give you my top pick. An article will be published, if you want a version of the article, you can check the description below. I'll give you my full notes and there are affiliate links in this video.

There is no sponsor on this podcast episode. You can simply click on the affiliate links. which are down there on the video version of this or click on the article version of this will be in the show notes and you can click on the affiliate links there if you want to purchase any of those that kind of stuff allows me do. this without any brands sponsoring this video, that's really going to influence my opinions, so I came up with winners in several categories and my first winner for best overall is I love these headphones, they come in this amazing box. the Odyssey mm 500 headphones now there are some headphones that are almost as good as these and I will give you my opinion on them, there are some that are neck and neck with them, but these are the ones that would win for my personal taste and I will tell you why and I'll also give whatever little criticism I can to each of these headphones, but pretty much all of the headphones that we're going to talk about now, if you bought them, you'd say they're amazing, they're better than me.

I'm using them, they're great, but how he or I should say Odyssey is actually how it's pronounced. I know it sounds like something out of Z or Odyssey, but it's pronounced Odyssey. um, these headphones were the ones that were designed. teamed up with Manny Marroquin, an amazing mixing engineer, that's where the mm on these mm-500 comes from, these headphones are around $16,1700. Now I will leave aside my only negative about these headphones, they are not my favorite headphones. Of the bunch, these are fantastic headphones, with incredible sound, some of the best low frequency response of any headphone.

The only criticism I will give them is that they are a little bigger, bulkier, and heavier than the average headphone on this list. There are actually even larger and heavier versions of the Odyssey. The first headphones I tried from Odyssey were the lcd4 and I just want to tell you about my experience hearing these headphones for the first time, this was right before the world shut down at an AES Convention I went there and there was a brand called Odyssey. I had never heard of them before they were apparently a hi-fi brand and I thought, "I'll check out these types of You Know audio files.

I don't really like them." Audiophile Brands I'm a pro audio guy, but I'll give them a chance. I assume I'm ready. I really went into the wine to hate their headphones because it's like they're showing off four or five thousand dollar headphones. I had never heard of four or five thousand dollar headphones before. It seemed like snake oil to me. It seemed ridiculous to me. I tried their LCD4 models, which were then their top flagship headphones, and I said, "No, these aren't headphones. No headphones have anything to do with it." sound this good this is the closest I have ever felt or heard to being inside a super high end mastering studio without being inside a super high end mastering studio.

They're amazing if you have four thousand dollars to spend on headphones. It could be worse than a pair of Odyssey LCD4s. Still to this day I have not heard anything like it. They have a new flagship model called The Odyssey lcd5. They cost around $4,500. They are fantastic headphones and they are also a little smaller than the original LCD 4S, but the LCD4 has bass that is out of this world, it is like being in a room with speakers, you can not only hear but feel the bass and it is completely usable and the details in the midrange and the high frequencies and the transient details the transient response just take them out, honestly, you could spend tens of thousands of dollars on a mastering system to listen to in your monitoring system or you could just buy a couple of four thousand dollar Odyssey headphones and I think you'd get the same results and I'm not the only person who thinks that Glenn Schick, who now uses I think he uses the LCD Fives for mastering, now masters all of his recordings with the Odyssey LCD headphones and is doing better. level, you know, multi-platinum selling work, headphone mastering only, totally achievable, totally possible, these are substantially less expensive, let me see my price sheet here, here's an article.

I'll show it on the screen here so you guys have some visual aid if You're on the video version of this podcast, let me increase my visual engagement, this is the mm 500, it's a photo of them. $1700 is basically where you'll find the retail price, you won't find them at Sweetwater so if you're going to check out the affiliate links below. I think B H has them. I think maybe the kids in Europe have them. So we have a few different links, we also have Amazon links there so check them out. Sweetwater doesn't. I don't have these which I know is a place where a lot of our readers shop but BH has them and I have to say the winning man is the best overall for me the only thing I want to do is if I want to look cool in front of the camera, to be honest, they are not the first headphones I would choose and that is really my only negative about them, and maybe the shape, but absolutely fantastic.

Well, my next ones here will be others that come in a beautiful box, I think. it gets the styling side of things even better than the Odysseys and they are actually almost neck to neck with these 500mm and are completely clear. Pros, these are the mg pro model of course and these headphones, I must admit, are a little more comfortable. I think they look a little better, feel a little better and the sound is really in the same ballpark, so here I am trying these on headphones. I think they look better, a little bit lighter, a little bit better, they feel they're the same type. of incredible low frequency extension and transient precision transient response I'm looking for in a pair of headphones where I can make decisions about the level of mastering.

The only thing keeping these headphones from being at the top of the list for me is that they feel like they are in the upper middle. The range and high frequencies on the Odysseys are a little more neutral and a little better balanced, they just sound closer to really good mastering grade speakers to me than these Focals, don't get me wrong, the Focals sound wonderful and if you start to mix or if you master them, you will get excellent results. Almost all headphones are worth knowing. Will they be somewhat biased generally in the upper midrange and high frequencies?

If you look at them on a frequency chart they will usually look like a rollercoaster, but they usually don't sound as bad as they look on a graph, these in particular have a bit of softness around 3K where they taper off and then flatten out. they raise a little. I think it's around 10K, so it makes them really nice to listen to. If I was just listening to music for enjoyment, these would be on par with the Odysseys 100. I just think they almost sound too soft and nice, where they might not be as revealing. of the harshness of the environment. 3K or dullness around 10K, so for me they might have a bit longer learning curve, but on the other hand these sound a bit softer and thickerbecause of this the Odysseys and I think these would be some of the least fatiguing headphones you'll ever use if you're going to listen to headphones for hours and hours, just the softness and the openness and the attractiveness of these, they're just a gorgeous design, they sound , all the price of these guys, let me. bring back my article that should be published shortly after this live stream ends man. in this article there are like 8000 words here I write almost a thousand words about everyone who uses these headphones but here the clear ones cost about twelve hundred dollars , the older version of these cost about fifteen hundred dollars, so now that I'm I was able to find these Pro MGS that are supposed to be better than the older version for twelve hundred dollars.

Excellent buy, they are priced less than some other disease and are at the same level of quality so definitely a pair to check out now. I'm going to use less and less expensive headphones as we go, but I want to stick with some of the things that feel more luxurious from time to time, we'll get into some of my favorites and slightly lower price ranges, but one more brand than I would put in the luxury type, but much more affordable than the Focals and the Odysseys, they will be purely dynamic. I'm a lover of Bayer Dynamic microphones and I know there are many Die Hard fans out there.

Of the Bayer Dynamic headphones, the ones I have in my hands at the moment are the dt700, but the most relevant,

compared

to the ones we were looking at, would be the 1770s and 1990s and the prices of those, I think, are around 530 . dollars each, let me open my screen for those of you on the video version of this. Here's a photo of the DT 1990 for you, the open back version and I have to say, once again, these really win for me in style and comfort. Think even these models that I have in my hands now cost around 269 dollars 270, the dt-700 and the dt-900 and they are just a slightly less sophisticated version of the 1990s and 1770s, these again look good.

The headphones sound good, they are just comfortable, fit and stylish. These guys are clear about it. They feel like they have almost the level of quality of some of those super high-end brands we just looked at, but for a much lower price and I think this is one. Of the highlights, if you want a product that feels like a luxury product, is fun, engaging and easy to listen to, it does some of the types of things that the Focal Clear offers you at a substantially lower price, so another great brand to check out My criticism of these is the same as my criticism of the clear focals, which is that they almost sound too good and there is almost too much adaptation of the upper mids and treble to make them feel a little smoother and more engaging, I had some listening notes.

Here I think they have a dip in a slightly different place, there's a little dip, I think it was around four or five k, where they were a little bit softer and they rose a little bit around eight or nine k, so again. You have to worry about whether you're pushing things bright enough in that 8K to 9k area when listening with these headphones. Are you pushing 10K too much to compensate for that boost you're hearing at eight or nine K again? You would have to really learn these headphones or maybe use some software fix on these headphones, like if you're having trouble learning them, of all these that we've reviewed, the high-end luxury models for my taste, the Odysseys are. the ones that would translate best so I know my biases are out of the box, but none of these headphones are perfectly flat, no headphones are and you have to find the ones that best fit your biases.

A quick note. I want to give you something very important here: one of the most important concepts in monitoring is that your mixers will tend to sound like the opposite of your speakers or headphones, so if you have very dark headphones, they will tend to sound really bright. it mixes well if you have headphones that are very soft at 3K, it will come in and tend to encourage you to press 3K more if you have headphones whose screen matches a lot of 8K, it will encourage you to press 8K less if you have headphones with a thin and bright sound, You could end up with really big, boomy background heavy mixes, so the closer you get to Flat, usually the better, but since everything moves away from Flat, it's probably your best bet to choose something that takes you in the direction you need to go. .

So, for example, if you tend to mix too thick and too dark and you know you should make things brighter, you might want to use headphones with a thicker and darker sound if you tend to mix, you know, too thin and too bright. and too light and too bright on top, maybe it's good for you to use some really bright sounding headphones or speakers that already have some of that in them, so we encourage you to balance them out a little bit more, so that's another thing to think about. Now that we're on the topic of making your mixes sound like the opposite of your speakers, I think some of the most useful speakers or headphones out there will often be the ones that focus the most on the midrange and give you the most sort of range. neutral and forward midrange and allow you to make good critical listening decisions about the midrange without too much tilt and the next headphones here are cheaper than many of the ones we've been reviewing.

They are in a similar price range to the more expensive Bear Dynamics, costing around 550 and they are the new Neumann ndh30 headphones, still relatively new, and for me they win for being some of the most useful and some of the best in the range half. The headphones won't impress you right out of the box the way the Odysseys will or the focal lenses will; They probably won't win in a quick sip test because they aren't that good. bright, clear and shiny at the top and not so big and spread at the bottom, but what they do have is a really impeccable neutrality.

The headphones that came out before these, the ndh20, were the closed version of these headphones and were some of the best. There are closed back headphones that I've heard that are totally in the top 10, top five, top three best closed back headphones ever made, in my opinion, especially for the price they are, but these open versions don't sound like the closed ones sound flatter, More neutral and potentially more useful, they have the same kind of extended low-frequency response that some modern headphones eventually use and that will help us make critical listening decisions where our rooms may be leading us astray, but they're not as elevated in the bass. like to make your mix sound good before it sounds good.

These are headphones that will make you work a little if you want things to really ring and shine. I'll have to put it there because the headphones don't put it there, so it's possibly these two, the Odysseys and the Neumans, of all the new headphones I've tried opening up for mixing, probably my top two picks, the Odyssey mm-500s and the Neumann ndh30s for my personal set of tastes and preferences, but again, your tastes and preferences may be different, so I really encourage you to not just take my word for this, but try some headphones and keep that idea in mind for your mix.

It sounds a bit like the opposite of your headphones and helps guide you in some of these decisions. There is another comment I must make about the Odysseys. If you want a slightly different voice in these headphones, there are a couple of options here, they actually have a lot less. expensive model now called mm100, cost only about four hundred dollars. I didn't get to try the mm100s in my own studio, but I did try them at the last NAMM Show followed by all the high-end odysseys and it's In my opinion, you know, listening to the Odyssey 4500 LCD five and then listening to these 1700 mm- 500 which are closely related to yes, the lcd5 sounded a little better and was enough to make me want to shell out an extra three thousand dollars for me personally, oh it's very difficult, very difficult to say, for most people absolutely not, They're not going to miss out on that extra five to five percent improvement, maybe eight percent improvement for three thousand dollars more, but it's a difference that I can hear and I'm very conflicted about it, but 98 of the people If I would recommend high-end headphones, I would tell them to buy the mm-500 for 1700, they are extraordinary and they even listen. these mm 500 now in my own studio.

I can't understand how any headphones could be better than these. They are fantastic and I have personally heard headphones that are slightly better than these, the lcd-5 and the lcd4, but I can't even imagine after listening to them and not having a good pair, how the headphones could sound better than these, how it is possible that there's a model under them now, the mm 100. I tried to make a prototype at NAMM and thought. They were very good, they didn't have the same transient response as these guys and they were maybe a little bit softer around 4K, but they cost like four hundred dollars, they cost a third of that, so if Odyssey gets their marketing right, they might have become on some of the best selling headphones, the mm-100, so check them out as well as a chance of around 400.

Another comment I should make is that the Odysseys also have a pair of headphones called LCD X and those are a little fatter, thicker, softer, sounds like they're a little bit darker on top, they don't have as much 3K, kind of like that upper midrange, there's a little less and then it doesn't have as much low frequency extension. It sits like the 500mm, but the LCDX, if you want something that's a little bit thicker, a little bit meatier in the body, that encourages you to shine even brighter than the LCD I join a lot of mix engineers who really like them and I would say that from my sensory memory these clear vocals were like somewhere between the Odyssey mm-500 and the slightly darker LCDX, very good, I'm possibly getting away a little too.

I got really into the weeds with some TMI, but back to these neumanos, if you want headphones that aren't fancy sounding headphones that are like these headphones will help you get better mixes, great, fantastic headphones, these would be another superior option. for me, especially if I wanted to spend a third of the mm-500 that we mentioned and I just don't understand how these Sennheiser that have been so popular for so long, the 600 and 650, are going to continue to exist with For me, these tires have the same kind of uniformity in the mid frequencies, but they also have the added extension of the bass, really usable low frequency information, which is what a lot of us at Project Studios really want and need, so luckily Neumann and Sennheiser's proprietary same company, they are both owned by Sennheiser, so if they take market share from Sennheiser, they are giving market share back to Sennheiser, so we won't cry for Sennheiser Neumann and Sennheiser, the same company.

Okay, let's move a little further into my next pick here. I'll re-upload my screen share. Well, this one is really interesting. A finalist in this category for being the most useful. A completely different vibe. These are the Sony MDR MV. These, let me hold them up so you can see them now. These headphones, one of the best things about them, is also one of the worst, when I first picked them up I thought they were the lightest headphones I've ever owned. I once felt like they are, they feel super cheap like their Walkman headphones, but then I thought, oh, they're super light and I put them on like you forget these headphones are on, this is one of the coolest things about them.

Easily the lightest headphones in this entire group and I think that's a big selling point as if you're going to be working with audio for eight hours a day or more and you're going to have headphones on your head, you just won't have these. even when you feel them you forget they are there, they are the lightest and some of the most comfortable, although they are not very expensive at four hundred dollars, now I put them again in the category of the most useful because I think they are headphones that give you a good bass extension, good mid and high frequencies, but they are much more hyped than the Neumans, they have a different feel and I have to tell you that although I love the Neumans, not everyone will love them. working on them because they are unenthusiastic, they are the opposite of over the top headphones, these Sonys bring a bit of excitement and enthusiasm to the equation and at the same time they are still really useful critical listening headphones and in theory they can become even flatter than they are. they are ready to use because there are some studios that are certified by Sony to do a head relief transfer function with head relief, hrtf measurement of your head, your shoulders, your ears and all that so that they can mimic the results that you would get . on some of these high end studios so I can create a custom head release relief transfer function for you, as I understand it, so if the Sony guyhe was telling me on the phone that this is something that's designed for people who are going to be doing high-end mixes and like Atmos systems and want to be able to do a binaural type of monitoring, so there's that potential added benefit here.

These headphones sound a bit like the old Sony mdr7506, except they are not as advertised. Sony mdr7506 . I think these are only $80 nowadays and their design hasn't changed since, I don't know, 1995, maybe even before. My problem with the Sony mdr7506 is that I don't think they're good for mixing, they're overhyped, they're a not too bold, too bold, too bombastic, they sound too exciting and like I said, your mixes can sound. like the backs of your headphones or monitors and if they're already super bright and hyped up your mixes might end up sounding less bright and hyped up that's what Andrew Schepps said doing amazing multi-platinum Grammy winning work using Sony mdr7506 headphones with that I said I think these Sony MDR mv1 capture some of that fun excitement of working with Sony headphones and some of that extra sense of detail that you feel like you get from them without it being over the top while still being flat enough to be useful and while I had enough bass to be useful for my personal taste, I found them a little excessive and was just worried that they would encourage me to put a little less bass than I would like on the records, but that could be incorrect I have not mastered them or mixed a record.

I've only listened to them extensively but they easily work as well as the others if you want headphones that have good transient response, good for critical listening at a commercial level, but want a little more. excitement and excitement and you're a fan of Sony's signature sound, these could be a great way to go, so I'll put them second in my most useful category, the next ones we look at. We're going to get to some of the best small profile headphones and I have to tell you, if you're going to be on camera, many of these headphones that we've reviewed are some of the best headphones out there. big, clunky and ugly looking at times and if you're podcasting or you're screen mixing screen recording or you're an artist you're doing recording sessions or you know interview venues and you want to have headphones that are a little bit smaller and a little bit most flattering, the Sony ones are the lightest, but even smaller in profile are these Austrian audio High these headphones just the profile is a little easier for me.

I think the black look and red trim on these High x60s are even better for me. I think I also have a pair of Series I'll hold them by the side. The Odysseys simply have a thinner, more compact feel and are still as good as headphones in this price range, they cost around $430 and they also have some models that are less expensive than these. The High X 60 are some of the best closed-back headphones out there. There are some that I prefer a little more, but they are more expensive. The Atom close-back headphones, which are sleeping headphones, almost no one knows about and the Neumanns.

I personally like the closed ones better, but these are on par with some of the best ones and I think they cost 100-200 less than some of those headphones, so the closed ones are really nice, not perfectly flat but not closed. The headphones will be the open ones, they are really interesting. I haven't heard any headphones sound like these High 65's, they really have their own unique frequency response, you'll listen to them and be like. these are great these are my headphones I like this Vibe finally or can you say: do you sound different than other headphones?

I've liked looking with that and in my experience I've never heard what the midrange is, something's different, there's this meaty hit in the midrange, it's like there's a little over 300 Hertz and 700 Hertz in these headphones which I think is the norm for open back headphones and then maybe there's a little bit of a drop, I think, between 1K and 2K again. The headphones are far from Flat in some ways, but these were far from Flat in a different location than I'm used to hearing and don't have the same voice as the closed ones. I just thought it was interesting and I don't know. how I feel about it yet, I would have to listen to them more, but if you are a person who wants to listen to a little more earthiness in your headphones, you might want some headphones that encourage you to clear some of the center. mids and lower mids a little more instead of selecting that area in advance, these headphones can do that, so if you find that so many headphones you try sound so unique that you're not doing enough in your mixes of these could potentially land you in that address.

I think they are good headphones, but again, different flavor, really unique voice. Austrian audio. I think he's trying to find his own sonic niche that's different from other brands. I really have to try them out and compare them to others like all of these to find out which ones will suit you best. Well, the next headphones I have for you are the strangest headphones I have for you now, again. I have about a dozen headphones scattered around me, so it'll take me a second to find them. I had them all sorted when we started this and as we go along I'm getting less and less sorted as I pull out pair after pair. of headphones, give me a second and I'll take them, okay.

I don't want a ton of dead air on the live stream, so you'll have to believe me I was listening to these headphones and I have them. Over there I'll show the photo of them right now and anyone can guess what I think are the strangest headphones, the most different from anything else, it will be the Slate vsx headphones, let me upload them here, these are only three hundred. dollars and I say they're weird because they're a totally different concept than any of the other headphones we've seen, they were literally on my desk a second ago, but these headphones deserve their own video.

I almost hesitate to put them on. They put them in the same categories on their headphones because they're not just headphones, they're headphones plus a full software listening environment that makes these things work on their own if you were to just take these headphones and plug them in without using the Slate hardware. They're not bad, they're surprisingly deep for headphones, which again is helpful and one of the things I've been looking for in headphones because, again, one of the main reasons I would recommend headphones to people is that it's difficult to get really good bass. frequency monitoring in your room environment, you really have to invest money in acoustic treatment, sometimes a thousand and two thousand dollars if you have the pre-built things that will start to give you a decent room, so low frequencies are one of the places where headphones can be used.

They can help us more, but these do something interesting. The slate vsx headphones basically mimic rooms and other pairs of headphones, so if you just plug them in they are good enough headphones with decent and good low frequency extension, they are a bit in the dark. On the other hand, if you were to use them alone but you're not supposed to use them alone, you're supposed to open a plugin on your Daw or a system-wide app on your computer and this allows you to model a wide variety of rooms, basically there's a plugin that comes with them and you can emulate the sound of a few different sets of headphones.

They also have a linear type of flat response to these slate headphones where they start to get closer. The quality of some of the headphones we've been looking at here, once you put them in their linear configuration, they sound better than the 300 headphones, but the crazy thing about them is that they emulate things like cars and specific mixing and mastering studios. The studios just opened up some of the default presets, like Steven Slate's personal mixing room, and then they opened up the nearfield monitor, which is an auraton, it's like my reaction is this is ridiculous, no, there's no way that it sounded like there was an auratone. in front of me was absolutely extraordinary, it doesn't sound like you're listening to headphones when you hear that auraton emulation, it literally sounds like an overtone speaker that maybe I don't know, it's five or six feet away from you.

It doesn't sound anything like listening with headphones, it's a similar effect with some of the other nearfield, midfield and farfield monitors that you can listen to and you can also take the mix into a car and you can do the car check from your headphones. Right now we're looking at the Platinum Edition here which is 500 and this Platinum Edition comes with a bunch of extra virtual rooms and virtual cars that you can hear on the base model which I think is more like 300 it just comes with a couple of different listening environments and headphone models, this is just a trick, although you know it's impossible to tell unless you try to work on these yourself and I can tell you that it seems to be some people who are on social media sites in places like Reddit and people giving their opinions on YouTube and saying man, buying these headphones, the Slate, these vsx changed the way I worked and really helped me improve my mixes, and I gotta tell you, I would absolutely say the headphones Slate vsx son will probably give you results in bed than any other headphones under 300 dollars when listening to the linear configuration of these headphones, there is no doubt that just taking the linear configuration of these headphones, they will outperform any headphones you have been using for 50 or 100 or 150, they're also three hundred dollars and will absolutely outperform any speaker you have in an untreated room.

If you haven't put a thousand or two thousand dollars into acoustic treatment in your room, these three hundred dollar headphones will probably help you improve. results than a much more expensive pair of monitors in an untreated room, now the only problem here is that that also applies to a bunch of other headphones that cost three hundred dollars. A bunch of other headphones that also cost three hundred dollars could also give you better results than almost any headphones under that price and could possibly give you better results than even really good speakers in a completely untreated room, so that aspect is not exclusive to slate vsx, but what's unique to slate vsx is in addition to having this really cool linear preset that you can use, you have these other virtual listening environments, you can analyze how useful it is, I don't know because I haven't mixed or mastering entire albums through one of their pre-arranged rooms, it's almost a little daunting.

What room do I use? I need to know all these rooms now and pick my favorite like I almost want to not have all these options and you just gave me a really good pair of 300 headphones so that's my preference as someone who's been in a ton of different rooms and I've listened to a lot of different monitors, I really want to know inside and out one or maybe two or three sets of headphones or speakers that I'm going to use and that's all I'm going to use and I've listened to all my references through everything my work through that and I get to know those things deeply to be able to master today are basically two sources, they are my main mastering monitors and my secondary headphones which were the blues ones and probably now will be the Odysseys back in the day when I was mixing In the past it would have been my main near field monitors, my little Aura shades and then I used those as really cheap.

Sony headphones like the Walkman headphones and the really cheap MDR 7502 like if it were today I would probably use headphones instead of those so that's what I use and I had those two or three things that I really listened to everything with and the Slate vcx it's the only one. The problem is that there are like four dozen options here and you'll never be able to know them all, so the options really are there. I don't want to say it as a trick, but you would have to put in the effort. Try to figure out which of the two, three, or four listening environments within slate vsx you're actually going to use, but that being said, it could also be instructive and fun to virtually go to all of these different spaces and listen to them.

Virtually but functionally, I really think that to get the most out of them, you could definitely learn to do a great job with them, but you'll want to limit your options and you'll want to play and experiment with a lot. of options and then say here are the ones I'm limiting myself to, herethere are the two or three different models that I'm actually going to use outside of the vsx universe and that's how I'd be inclined to approach it so another Great option here, really any of the headphones we've seen so far, you can mix things up with great sound .

I've given you my biases and preferences, but let me go over one last couple more that people will want to know. Let me go back to this draft of this article that we are about to publish. I need to finish writing my section on vsx headphones before posting, so some of the honorable mentions I gave here were the blue mix. files, these are the headphones I've been using forever, you can get the mix five or the discontinued Lola ones at a huge discount and I think some people can find them for 150 180 at resale, just be aware that some of these flaky things they're going to come out but I've done tremendous work on these for years mastering records on these um that, you know, have been streamed millions of times on a pair of what was 300 headphones um when I'm on the road and then I compare them to my speakers mains so those are cool um The little downside to the blue mix files is that they're a little weird, they look a little big and clunky and I look like an air traffic controller.

I don't love their aesthetics, but they have an interesting and unique design. Of the others that I don't have with me, but that I put in my last headphone roundup the last time I did my listening test in 2019, this would be the Sennheiser HD 650. We had them here. I talked about them. Great, halfway there. range and high frequencies in both the 600, which are a little less expensive, and the 650. I think the 650 has a little more low frequency than the 600. I have to double check, but I think the 600 is probably the More popular. version of the two, some of the other ones I had here, actually the headphones I ended up preferring, which were very similar to the Sennheiser, were the Shore SRH 1840, those were a similar concept to the Sennheiser, but I thought they were just a bit.

It sounds a little better, a little more balanced, and a little more useful. Low frequency energy. I don't think they're as there at low frequency as some of the higher-end models we've seen, like the Odysseys and focals. and the blues, which have some of the best bass of any budget headphone, but much better than the Sennheisers in that regard for my personal tastes. I just felt like wow, these Shores, how come people don't talk about them? They are like Sennheisers. They just sound prettier with more depth. I like more. The other headphones in that category were the Audio Technica r70 X.

These were only 350, so they were similar in price to the Sennheiser. I felt like they didn't have as good of a build quality. As on the coasts, these had really good build quality, the SRH 840s, but of course they cost around 500 at least the last time I wrote this article. I have to update the prices and then the r70x 350 instead of around 500 um is not so good. build quality, but on par with the Shores and the Sennheisers, you can really listen to these Shores, the Sennheiser HD 600s, and these Audio Technica r70xs and just pick your favorite of the bunch because they're all good, they're all similar, but Once again , my advice is to go all out for being the best in that specific category.

Another fun one here is the olives, they really look a lot like the Grado headphones, which are marketed more towards HiFi, which are some headphones that even more people use on Pro. Audio should know, but those guys refuse to market pro audio , although I think they should. Olives are fun. I think last time I reviewed these headphones they are like 360, they could be a bit more now that they weren't. flat and neutral like some of the other headphones and they didn't have the same low frequency extension that we're finding in things like the Odysseys and Focals, but they are unique, fun and attractive. and they just have a great vibe, but there's a little bit of a smiley EQ curve that picks up the mids a little bit and, you know, boosts the upper mids and highs a little bit to make them sound more fun, which they don't. necessarily a problem, but it's not necessarily what I'm looking for among open headphones for mixing, if that makes sense and that's all.

I think they are like all the headphones in this price range. If this was helpful to you, please click. Some of the affiliate links like And subscribe, share this video if it was helpful to you, but the other thing you can do if you really want to sponsor this podcast, if you've been listening to me talk for so long, then clearly you don't care. listen to me talk, which is weird and I like you, but who better to learn more audio stuff from? So if you really want to support this podcast in the deepest way, you can check out one of our great full courses like Breakthroughs in Mixing.

Mastering the demystified advances in compression will really help you improve the way you work forever, for the better, guaranteed or your money back, they are the most useful things I have ever done and of course there is even more preparation and more editing involved. than some live streams, so the amount of similar value that you get per minute on those courses is amazing and really focuses on what the big wins are going to be for you by combining learning to listen to yourself and understanding compression, how can you ? You really get a sense of how to master at the highest level and at the conceptual level from the beginning and then how can we give you exercises that will help you get there faster?

So check them out: advances in compression, mixing advances, mastery, everything demystified. of them have a 30 day money back guarantee, also big shout out and thanks to sound toys that create some of my favorite creative mixing effects in the known universe, try anything they make free for 30 days at soundtoys .com and one more. What I want to tell you is that you can become a member of this channel if you like live broadcasts, if you like me to go into all these details and you want answers to your questions in real time, we have a membership here. a join button that you can press at the bottom of any of these videos, if you're on a desktop or Android phone you can just click the join buttons for five dollars a month and you'll get unrestricted access to Q&A live with me.

Guaranteed answers to your questions, as well as dedicated mixed feedback sessions if you're on an Apple iOS device. I think you have to go to their desktop app or open it in your browser to be able to click that link, but five dollars a month is an incredible value and there are a ton of additional bonus videos as well as personalized comments and answers to your questions, okay, let's see how we did today. I was able to keep it up in less than an hour. I have no idea. Try to get out all the things I want to get out.

We are 49 minutes and 47 seconds away. Should I cut it now before reaching 50 minutes? Mark, let's do it, this was Justin Collettios. Sonic Scoop, thanks for hanging out with me. For this week's episode of The Sonics podcast, we'll see you next time.