Practicing with Studio headpones instead of DJ ones?
Will Studio headphones (I am looking at the AIAIAI TMA-1 Studio) be better than standard dj ones for practising at home when I can’t play music on the monitors?
I am wondering, because I have the TMA-1 dj ones and they are great, but I play trance (psytrance actually), where blending and flow is critical and the boomy bass tends to hide a bit the mid/treble clashes. I only end up hearing those when I come back to the set later and do it on my monitors.
Studio headphones are supposed to be flat in frequency response whereas DJ headphones typically have an exaggerated bass. If you’re not hearing it well using your current cans, you might want different cans.
I am aware of the differences. But isn’t the point of the DJ headphones boomy bass, so that you can hear the beat well in a loud club environment. Hence the lows are more dominating in the sound. At home - there is no loud noise, so my thinking is that I should get better practise out of studio headpones? I mean don’t get me wrong - I can hear the mids/highs, but it just I want to hear them more clearly without having to turn up the volume and deal with the extra booming in my ears. I guess there is only one way to find out - I have ordered a pair to see how things sound. Also the TMA-1 Studio seem to be a hybrid dj/studio, so maybe they will work well. Will report.
I guess most people don’t have to practice on headphones
You can def practice out of your studio cans at home. Just keep the volume down. They are meant to be used for referencing, not blasting to overpower the sound of monitors and club noise. Then use your TMA’s when playing out.
Everyone’s ears are different and hear different frequencies differently. And obviously every headphone is different as far as its ability to represent those frequencies.
I never mix solely using my headphones, but I also mix at very low volume levels.
I use Sony MDR-7506 for mixing. Tried ATH-M50’s, but they’re too boomy/bassy and I lose the mids. Haven’t tried with my production cans - Beyerdynamic DT-880’s because I’m too comfortable with the MDR-7506’s. You may just need to find the headphones that work for you?
you want the clearest loudest durable headphones you can get. at lot of it is how much you spend. i own audio technica ATH-40fs and what i like about them is how clear they sound. meaning you can here all the elements of the track with them. i would buy studio headphones cause they sound better.
If the headphones are boomy, it’s because they’re drastically boosting low-mids or low-passing the whole signal, which is why they sound muddy. In order to beat match, you mostly need to hear the thump of the kick and the snap of the snare, both of which happen well above the LF rolloff of basically any headphones. It’s most important that they isolate well, followed by being true to their input, which means you want a flat response and a HF rolloff higher than your ears.
FWIW, I’ve always used “studio” headphones (mdr-7506, hd-25, hd-280, etc.) and never had problems in clubs. If it’s too loud for them to work right, it’s too loud to DJ in without hearing damage, and you either need to turn the booth monitors down or calmly talk to the sound guy to let him know you’re not deaf…yet…and switch to IEMs if he won’t listen.
The one set of “DJ” headphones I’ve ever owned (HDJ-2000s) sounded like complete garbage, and I was happy to get rid of them.
I use the Allen & Heath XD 53. They sound clear to me with a full sound I can hear both high and low frequencies clearly… I went to guitar center and tried out the HDJ-2000’s… I must say they sounded like garbage… They very tinny and empty sounding. Never heard a set of DJ headphones like that before.
Is there anything better out there? I am always looking for improvement, and it’s about time to get a new set of cans.
Something I noticed from using my Roland monitors for DJing when I first started is, they’re not built as tough as DJ headphones. The constant removal and re-applying to your ears will eventually start rubbing the cover over the cushion around your ear. You can still use it, but have to be more careful. Now when I use those headphones from producing, I’m left with little black rubber pieces around my ears.
I found using studio headphones and monitors you will pick out your imperfections a lot easier… Listen one of your mixes on studio monitors and then compare to car audio or a PA system you will be surprised how many imperfections come through on monitors… I find when I use my monitors for mixing I am more precise because I am more aware of little things because the flatness of it…
In my opinion, it is all up to your personal preferences.
However, with psytrance which has often a higher bass than the usual trance, you hear less difference between real dj-heaphones and studio ones.
You could dj with studio-headphones like the AKG K-240 MKII (which I own for playing my Korg KROME) but for the other genres of music it could be harder to hear the bass really clear.
I’ll second this. Also, good monitors are even better.
Now…it’s a bit of a “why bother?” question (like so many sound quality things) whether you’re putting out mixes or playing in clubs or whatever…because almost invariably the people you’re performing for will hear a worse version of your stuff than you do. The only real exception to that is when you’re in a club that tipped too far to the loud side of the volume-quality-price equation on both the house and booth systems.
But, yeah…listening to one of my dj mixes while demoing better studio monitors was like hearing all those songs for the first time. Switching from HDJs to MDR-7506s was the same way, but less so since headphones aren’t speakers.
I use a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50 cans…I really like the detail and sound they have…maybe not the warmest, or boomiest, but I find them very comfortable to wear for long periods, and the isolation is great.
