A WIDER ANALYSIS OF HEADPHONES, AS I HAVE LEARNED THOUGH INVESTIGATION IN 2023:
• Your head and your inner ears are different from your neighbor’, headphones will sound slightly different from person to person, and, every set of headphones is different to each other, even being the same model and trademark, they all sound slightly different too, like guitars and basses, for example.
• There are more people listening to music today than in the rest of our human history, but most people listen to music through headphones, and the use of cans is increasing by the day. What you do in your mixes and masters will be listened at, in most cases, through headphones.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a risk of harming your ear losing frequencies for the rest of your life, (and there is no way back if you lose them). This can happen if you monitor too loud and for many hours in a row. The general medical recommendation is traying to mix at lower volumes and rest every now and then your ears, instate of going on for so many hours without stop. ¡I have to do it because even if I already know it, I get involved with the music I’m doing, totally forgetting my ear health! Please, don’t do the same.
• Most commercial headphones are conceived toward increasing bass: “X-Bass”, “Boom-Bass”, etc., etc., because this is the commercial trend, but they do not represent balance and quality. I guess we all know very well this one but here it is nevertheless as a reminder.
• Engineers recommend to A-B when mixing or mastering with headphones as it is easier to lose ground with headphones than it is with speakers, you need to move and listen from different sources if at all possible.
• Most headphones ranging from 50 to 200 USD are good in their own realm, but there is NONE of them in the market to be taken as the “only” element to reference the complete spectrum of the material you are working on, you need speakers or, at least, several headphones sets to judge with more objectivity what you want to do.
• Nevertheless, you can nowadays mix and master with headphones with amazing accuracy and without the need of expensive speakers, (if you choose the right ones of course). We have reached the point of being able to mix with only headphones, as long as you get into the 300 USD price range and you choose the correct technology. The following headphones are equivalent to having a pair of high-quality speakers in front of you, or even, having several of them at your disposal. It is, so far, the only pair available with such technology, I guess we will have many more in the future, this are the Steven Slate Audio VSX cans. These headphones are creating a revolution in the mastering industry!
• If you are going to buy headphones for mixing and mastering, like me now, you have to know that paying a higher price will not mean necessarily getting a better sound quality, this matter is extremely subjective and complex, too many things to consider, but this is the basic point. You need TOOLS, not headphones, and each TOOL solves a different problem. You could eventually get a 30 to 50 dollar can that could solve a problem a very expensive one cannot, that’s the idea. It is not the concept of “better” vs “worse” in terms of money or trademarks, it is rather getting the right “tools” for the job.
I am glad I’ve paid attention to all this stuff; I love to learn in those terms. That said, it is not worth to kill yourself searching for the perfect pair of cans, they do not exist, except if you go with the Steven Slate Audio VSX cans, that are for real perfect, but quite expensive. Some engineers have tried these new cans in a total skeptic way, with a reason, the concept presented by Slate has already been tried several times and it was a scam. Well, not this time, they DO work, and so they say it is crazy how accurate the sound is. I have not tried them myself, but I trust several of the guys that gave me the evidence.
What is happening to those who are working with these cans is that after several hours of mixing they forget they are wearing headphones, and when trying to reach for the volume controls of the speakers they realize they have been in headphones all the time, and voila, there it is the reality of the VSX.
This are not my words, they say so, some engineers are angry to have spent many thousands of dollars in speakers that can be replaced now with a 300 dollars can, this is what they say themselves. Much to be learned here. I will keep my investigation going on, cheers