The best headphones for recording in the studio

The 5 Best Headphones For Recording

To start, I need to clear up a few things:

A) I am focusing on the best headphones for tracking. The best headphones for mixing or the best headphones for mastering are a whole other discussion.

B) When we get into any kind of audio playback, there is no such thing as the best. All audio playback is messed up, whether using a $10 pair of earbuds or a $30,000 pair of mastering speakers, what you are hearing is not at all accurate. So much of this comes down to personal taste so I am really just sharing things that I have discovered that work really well in my professional work.

C) There are lots of headphones I have never used. If a certain model is not on this list it means that I have either not used them or I have used them and they did not make the cut. Please do not write to me asking me what I think of XYZ headphones. I do, however, ask that if you have a favorite pair to please share them in the comments section with a short explanation as to why you are recommending them.

Let’s dig into the headphones!

1) Shure SRH840 – $199

The Shure 840s are actually one of my favorite all around headphones and if I could have only one model of headphones for tracking it would be these. They are the headphones I use when traveling around the world and working in remote locations. Of all the headphones I have ever worked with they just sound right to me. They make sense to me. They are a great general purpose option for tracking because they have great sound, decent isolation and they are fairly comfortable to wear. Shure has a new model out called the  SRH1540 which sound as good as any headphones I have ever heard, but I still prefer the balance of the less expensive SRH840 for tracking and, truth be told, musicians are really hard on headphones and it’s tough to think about the $499 SRH1580s getting dropped on the floor over and over.

2) Vic Firth SIH1 Isolation Headphones – $50

My huge praise of the Vic Firth headphones is that they do not sound awful. That is actually pretty darn cool, because they do an outstanding job of isolation and they are cheap. The big advantage to isolation headphones is that they cut out a good amount of outside volume from the other sounds in the room or of the musician playing a loud instrument like a drum set or a blasted guitar amp. Reducing the outside noise makes it easier for the musician to hear the headphone mix (including a click track) without having to blast the levels in their ears. Not only is blasting headphones bad for the health of your ears, but it also gets fatiguing for the musician, and I want my players to have all the energy they need for great performances.

Keep in mind that isolation headphones should not be confused with “noise canceling” headphones like the famous Bose models that make air travel so much more pleasant. Noise canceling headphones are good at reducing the level of static low frequencies (like the drone of an airplane engine), but they actually provide very little isolation from loud dynamic things like a drum set or guitar amp. The Vic Firth’s are essentially the earmuffs you would use on a shooting range with little speakers inside. There are some other companies that also make great isolation headphones, but the Vic Firth’s get my vote because of the great price to performance ratio.

3) Sony MDR-7506 – $100

The Sony 7506s have been a staple in recording studios for years. Kind of like a Shure SM57, an LA-2A or a Les Paul, and for good reason; these headphones have a few real advantages.  They are lightweight and comfortable to wear. They are not too expensive. And most important of all, singers often love them. They are not sonically flat or accurate by any stretch of the imagination, but that is why singers love them. They are hyped in the high end in a way that is exciting but not too harsh. This hyped top end brings out a lot of subtlety and nuance in the singer’s voice as well as an overall sheen that many singers find inspiring.  On the downside, because of that great light weight and comfort, they do not provide as much isolation as some other options. This can start to be a little bit of a problem if they are being worn in the same room as loud drums or amps, as the musician will often need lots of headphone volume to be able to hear themselves well. Also, if you have a vocalist headphone mix with a lot of click track (metronome) you run the risk of this bleeding into the vocal mic. This issue of bleed and isolation is why you will see no open backed headphones on this list.

4) Sony MDR-V700DJ – $17 to $789

I love these headphones because they are stupid.  Really loud and super exaggerated and with an exciting low end. Accurate or faithful sound? Not even close. The product description claims they go down to 5Hz, and with all that low end coming out of a 50mm driver (less than two inches, or essentially the size of a tweeter) you know there is some monkey business going on with the sound to get all that low end to happen. I never use these for pleasure listening or critical listening work, but I keep them in the studio because they can inspire musicians. Just like the high end hype of the MDR-7506 can inspire acoustics guitar players and singers, the hyped low end of the MDR-V700700DJ can be inspiring to bass players or keyboard players that are used to hearing big low end from their instruments or amps, but are now having to hear themselves in headphones.

I debated putting the MDR-V700DJs on this list, because while putting the article together I realized that they have been discontinued and have developed a bit of a cult following. At the time of writing there is a shop on Amazon asking $679.75 (plus shipping) for them and an eBay seller asking $789.95 for them!!!!!! But I did check and several went for about $20 on eBay in the last few weeks.

Apparently they have been replaced by the MDR-V55. I have not tried those yet, but they seem to get pretty good reviews.

5’ish-A) Whatever the musicians are used to – $0

This might be a cop out for #5, but if you are working with a musician that has a pair of headphones they listen to a lot and are very comfortable with, consider letting them use those in the studio. Going into the studio is a strange enough experience for many artists and anything we can do to make them more comfortable is worth considering.  I figured this out a few years ago when I was working with a great Celtic rock band from Texas called The Killdares. They are a band that plays a ton of gigs and have their own in-ear monitor system. They suggested just using the in-ear monitors they use on stage. I agreed and the tracking went incredibly smooth.

5’ish-B) Don’t use headphones at all.

A lot of the times the best headphone choice is to not use them at all. Many musicians perform better without them. Working without headphones sometimes creates some engineering challenges, but if doing something gets better performances, it is usually worth it.

Not headphones, but…..

The SwirlyHook – $10.95

From SwirlyGig, the folks that brought us those awesome mic stand drink holders also make a mic stand mounted headphone holder called the SwirlyHook. This may sound like a silly small thing, but it is actually very cool and can be a great investment. As I alluded to at the beginning of this article, for some strange reason musicians treat headphones horribly. It does not seem to matter the age, gender, style of music etc., musicians treat headphones like crap. It is amazing how often I will see musicians just drop a $200 pair of headphones on the floor like it is a piece of trash. The SwirlyHook seems to change that. If you put the SwirlyHook on a mic stand by the musician, they know where to put them and they will usually put them on the hook rather than throw them on the ground. At our studio we use the hear back system for headphone mixes which mount onto a mic stand, so the musician can get a personal mixer on a mic stand with a convenient place to safely hang the headphones (and even one of the drink holders). Musicians like it and it helps save my headphones from getting smashed.