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Typically I use my headphones while working an a track but after a while my ears tend to hurt from turning them up loud to get a more clear listen to what I making ( I usually only turn them up loud when I'm at the end of production). I've thought about getting monitor speakers so that I don't screw up my ears but I wasnt really sure where to look or if I really needed to get any at all.
If you turn the monitors up until your ears are getting the same level of "loud"...you really have not saved anything...and you have added all kinds of room interactions to the mix.
Turn the headphones down. Then use the Equal Loudness Contour to adjust the EQ until you have the same relative balance of a higher volume (in simple terms, add a "smiley face" EQ to the headphones). There is nothing about louder sound that inherently makes it clearer sound or higher fidelity sound. It will take a little time to get use to monitoring lower...but in the end it is REALLY worth it.
Agreed on working quieter, if you can make a track sound good at lower volumes, most often it will sound great when turned out. Turn it up once in awhile to check, but save your ears and work at more reasonable volumes for most of the time.
Monitors are way over rated for home use.
I would also agree, there is no need to turn headphones up to get a better sound. What headphones are you using?
A good pair of headphones should give you great sound at very comfortable volumes.
The Technics RP-DJ1200
I completely agree with mixing at low volumes. I used to turn my headphones up pretty loud, but then when I listened back at other volumes or on different speakers, it never sounded anywhere near what I actually wanted.
Get it sounding good on a low volume first, and you'll be surprised how much better it sounds when you finally do turn the volume up again.