Hi, What your suggestion for under $150 worth of good monitor headphones?
I’m currently in the market, and been thinking about sony 7506 .. just need some more inputs .. thanks!
I use atm40fs, pretty flat, closed back, good fit, great price. I also have Sennheiser HD555, little more punchy, circum aural design, great fit good price. Hope it helps!
I use AKG K240 studio’s and they work great for me, and are in that range.. There are some decent Seinnheiser’s in that range that are closed back.. the AKG’s are not closed back so you do get a bit of bleeding while recording if your close to the mic, but I prefer the AKG’s as I feel its a bit more natural sound.. thats only my opinion though, some people swear by seinnheiser. I think the K240’s are discontinued but they got he K240 MK 2’s, which are just a improved version.. going for 180$ canadian in retail so I’m sure you could find them cheaper elsewhere.. just go into a music shop and try a bunch of them out!
AKG K240 here as well. Great “standard” studio headphones. These are open ear though so you might not want to wear them if you are recording vocals since they will bleed. Otherwise, great sound and pretty comfortable.
Regardless of the phones you choose - listen to your music on a variety of setups (speakers, phones etc.) to learn how the phones you choose sit in relation to everything else.
Agreed! When I first got the 240’s, I loved them so much I never took them off.. then I noticed that even know stuff sounded great and clear and full in my headphones, I’d transfer it to my ipod and it would sound horrible and thin. I guess thats just where quality EQ’s and mastering comes in (something I’m just really learning lately) .. so I would definately recommend taking earsmack’s advice.. listen to it on everything to make sure it sounds good everywhere.
I totally agree on AKG K240S(tudio), which is semi-open.
I bought the SVT’s, man they sound good.
I have the AKGs as well.
I used to run a pair of (what I thought were decent) Sony headphones, but they were cheaply constructed and when the adjustment mechanism broke I decided to splurge on a nicer pair.
What a difference. Just to reference, I went back and A/B’d the Sonys against the AKG and it was the proverbial night and day improvement. Plus they feel as though they could survive much more abuse and are made in Austria rather than some country with dodgy manufacturing techniques.
Which model of sony did you refer to?
And which k240 is better? cos seems like there are several of that model (240s and MKII).
I was about to get the 7506 cos so many people swears by them, so i might wanna try first .. although never experience with their headphones.
Hey, the K240 MK II 's are just the newest updated version of the K240’s.. if you can find a good price on them I recommend those, but the regular K240 studio’s are really great.. those are what all of us here are referring to.. and probably cheaper if you can find them online somewhere, as they are’nt being made anymore.
I just wanted to mention too… I personally would never buy Sony’s. Overpriced and usually poor manufacturing.
Sennheiser HD-280.
About $100US most places.
Crap… I just led you down the garden path, sorry. They’re K271 Mk2s, not K240s. I’m terrible with model numbers. The Sonys are long gone (like I said, the head strap broke so once I had done my little experiment they were consigned to the bin.
I just wanted to mention too… I personally would never buy Sony’s. Overpriced and usually poor manufacturing.
Very true, and I learned that the hard way. 
yeah I feel your pain.. anyone who knows that well usually learnt it the hard way haha. Damn Sony. They make a good gaming console I’ll give them that but they are staying out of my studio haha.
The Sony 7506 headphones work very well, while they are slightly hyped in the mids but for me and many others this has not been a problem. Mine for the most part they have been problem free ( one pair is abut 8 years old) they have been used in the studio and on location. Out of the three pair I have only one has either a semi blown driver and or lose wire near that driver. Hard to fix unfortunately so it gets used a a Mono monitoring pair 
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For me the 7506’s have always been comfortable and always worked well in a noisy club when doing live recordings.
Also check out the Audio Technica M50 headphones, sound about the same as the 7506 but without the hyped mids a a bit more bass. I’ve only had a short amount of time with them in a friends studio who pretty much used 7506’s for studio and field work but now he pretty much uses the M50’s.
Their bookshelf speakers are awesome, but their headphones are pretty bad. I use Skullcandy headphones, myself. Reasonably priced, and look cool to boot. And, they have a good well-rounded sound, which is the most important thing. 
I never tried the skullcandy ones myself though I admit some of them do look pretty cool. I’m sticking to AKG’s in the studio but I am shopping around now for some personal headphones for outside and at work etc..
Everyone has an opinion and that’s good . Maybe the cheaper Sony headphones are “bad” but the 7506’s are one of the industry standards in Pro Audio world . I can’t say I have ever listened to their book shelf speaker, my preference for"stereo speakers is the upper end Polk. For the studio monitors I prefer Event APS 8’s.
The AKG’s are also nice, to me I don’t think they are as comfortable as the 7506 though but I’ve only used the AKG’s once or twice.
I guess thats it at the end of the day, it just boils down to personal preferance. You’ll never really know whats better for you untill you listen to all of them and see what you think sounds best in your opinion. I tried a lot of them on before making my decision, and even know technically the Sennheiser HD’s and AKG 240s are similar other than the closed back vs semi open, when I listened to the Sennheisers, I just didnt like them. AKG’s were the only ones I felt sounded right, and I would’ve never known that had I not tried every pair I could get my hands on.. I just suggest going to a music shop that has a large selection and asking to try them all out.. most stores will be more than happy to accommodate you.
I use skullcandy headphones for my iPod because they look cool and sound OK… plus it’s a freakin’ iPod, when I care about audio quality I don’t listen to mp3s ! 
For serious music listening (and synth tweaking) I use and recommend Ultrasone headphones. I have the HFI-700, which are discontinued now… there is an HFI-780 out to replace the 700 which looks and sounds even better. These are seriously nice cans, especially detailed and with the smoothest and most powerful low end I’ve ever heard in a headphone. Supposedly the sound reproduction goes down to 10 (that’s ten) Hz… and it feels like it.
If I was trying to mix down tracks, I can’t say the Ultrasones would be my first choice… they sound “almost too good” and lack a certain unflattering clinical sound that makes mixing easier… although when it comes down to it I would not recommend trying to mix down on any headphones, period. When it comes to pure audio enjoyment though, Ultrasone does it for me like nothing else I’ve personally experienced.
Note: I don’t work for Ultrasone and they don’t give me free stuff. I got a bit of a discount on the pair I have but they were still kinda pricey. Amazon has 'em for about $250.