For production with headphones, I don't think you should look farther than the Sony MDR-7506 or V6. They sound great and are really flat. They probably broadcast a bit of what you're hearing to everyone else if you're going deaf, but they're not bad at reasonable volumes. And they isolate well enough for DJing in a club (yes, I've done it).
They're also one of the standards in studios for monitoring recordings while they're being made as well as on-site recordings. I use my HD-25s for that because my 7506s ain't been seen lately (I should get on that), but the 7506s probably did it better.
If you can only have one pair of headphones, I'd say either 7506s or HD-25s. I haven't heard anything else that sounds better, and the HD-25s are effing indestructible. Mine survived a car wreck that destroyed a Macbook and an iPod that were in the same bag as them and that left me in a trauma center for a while. I replaced the headband on the HD-25s, and they're still perfect…this was almost 5 years ago, and I still use them every day.
Bookmarks