Sennheiser Hd-25 VS Allen & Heath XD-53
Oppinions?
Producing heavy dustep, dnb, and some electro. Also wanna use for regular use and worried about sound from the outside entering, and exiting, if you know what i mean. Don’t wanna hear other things, and don’t want the people around me to hear my music.
More worried about sound quality for production. Need to be as accurate as possible.
I have the 53s, but I am biased. I love, or used to love, Allen and Heath.
They had the largest drivers at the time, not sure if this is still the case.
Anyway, I love mine. They are a little big on my head, but the sound more than makes up for the minor inconvenience.
These are both great headphones but you’ll get more sound isolation and more “truth” from the Senns. The A+H headphones sound great but they definitely add some punch.
I own the XD-53s and they are imo the best dj headphones around. The HD25s are pretty wimpy sounding compared to them but people will tell you the hd25s have better isolation. I don’t like on ear headphones in general and that’s just my preference and anything with less than a 50mm drivers sounds weak to me.
If you need accuracy for production you shouldn’t be using headphones at all since none will be really accurate, that’s what studio monitors are for. Also, you have 53 posts right now so I think that is a sign as to what you should buy.
Made me laugh.
Oh and I’ve got the 53s and couldn’t be happier, might not suit all head shapes though
i’ve never been a massive fan of the 25’s. i had a pair when they came out. but sold them about 2 months later. I love the denon 2000’s (i have a pair) but for the cash i think the sony 700’s are a steal nowadays on ebay and have probably been my favourite dj headphones of all time. I was well sad when i snapped my trusted pair i’d had for 10 years, and after 3 repares. don’t think i’ll be able to repare them again though 
Most of those are fakes…
The real ones are pretty mediocre anyway and are known to break so I would not bother.
Can’t comment on the fakes. like i said mine were about 10 years old. They were my second pair i’d ever bought and like i said i’d repaired them at least three times (last was wire ties)
However to say their mediocre was a bit harsh. Firstly they were industry standard for many years including after other headphones coming to market. The cup size and feel was almost perfect. The sound even though it wasn’t the best i feel was/is good out of them.
The HD25’s cup is way to small and sits on your head. The sound isolation is poor for a set of Dj headphones as some boothes are shit for club noise or monitors set incorrectly
The Denon’s are great phones but at the price you’r way way above what a genuine pair of sony’s should cost. The HD25’s are closer but the cup and isolation problems i see completely make we want to save the cash and get a better product IMO.
I can’t speak about the A&H’s i did try a pair @BPM but couldn’t really make a valid opinion due to only having them on for a few minutes.
I guess headphones are very personal at the end of the day
I got the 53’s and am happy with them.
I think there is a lot of people produce using the sony 7506’s
but I think the most important thing is to recognize the sound qualities of whatever headphones your using.
I think the 53’s add low range that really isnt there and thats probably because they are a primarily dj headphone.
Whatever you pick, train your ears on different systems to compare what your hearing in the headphones and how that transfers.
If you are using the xd-53s u won’t hear any outside noise in general use but ppl around you are going to know exactly what u r listening to! Good for djing defo not for production and mine start to hurt my head after about 3 hrs use wiv both cups over ears, don’t seem to do it when djing wiv mostly only one cup
being used
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.
It depends on your personal preference. For me, i like having on ear headphones and i wouldnt like having massive drivers, but i know some people really like chunky headphones. I wouldn’t buy the sonys because they are known to brake, but if you do make sure there not fake!
How do the 7506 and HD-25 compare in terms of output volume? I once acutally ran into the issue of my 7506s being to soft (then again, that was when playing through an 11kW PA, probably not gonna happen again that soon) and therefore might want to upgrade somewhen.
I prefer flat audio response, therefore HD-25’s.
isolation and warmth for me when dj’ing. i generally use monitors for production rather than headphones. if i do, I use in ear headphones
The 7506s were a bit quieter, but, well, if I ever need my headphones to be louder than that, I won’t play in that venue without doing something about it. But, I’m really careful with my ears.
I haven’t played a gig or gone to a show in years without earplugs in the whole time. Often time, I end up using bar napkins because I forgot or didn’t clean my musician’s plugs, but I have something. I’m actually about to go back to IEMs for DJing because I just think it’s an overall better experience with almost no danger to your ears…as long as you can turn off the booth monitors (and I won’t play anywhere they won’t let me turn them down or off). The only reason I haven’t done it yet is that the xone:62 doesn’t have a cue/master blend control for the headphones. Honestly, I use traktor and sync, so that’s not that big of a deal except that if you accidentally monitor 2 channels at once the volume spikes, and I don’t want to have to be that careful. When I either build a midi controller or buy a different mixer, IEMs and custom molds will come with it.
Anyway, for production, if your ears are so shot that the 7506s aren’t loud enough for you…first, if you use a mic for anything, you’re going to get feedback or noise; second, you’re not hearing things properly and should consider giving up before you go completely deaf. I never used my 7506s in a superclub (because I’ve never played one) but I have used them in clubs, and they’re plenty loud.
Also,
I think this guy probably has more experience than any of us, and I’ve seen him use 7506s on some pretty huge sound systems.
They’re loud enough. They also deal better with mixers that have weird headphone amps. My HD-25s don’t sound right on my xone for some reason. They sound right everywhere else and everything else sounds okay on my xone, but it’s like the xone’s headphone amp saps all the bass out of them. They’re still useable, but I still preferred my old IEMs before they went to the big headphone bag in the sky.
Hey, after reading a bunch of threads on headphones I think the xone 53’s sound perfect for me; great sound, bass, over ear, fairly competitive amongst other headphones.
So while trying keep my noob questions at a minimum, where should I buy them at? I usually buy most things off ebay but it can be a little sketchy and I think I might forfeit the extra $20 or whatever to get them off a well respected website.
Thanks for any help
P.S. One last question: I wear glasses, do the 53’s accommodate for this with extra space or what have you?
Ive got glasses but never dj’d with them.
just tried it out and they fit under fine. If i bounce my head a bit they move on my nose but you will probably be alright
TBO i thought they would make the headphones sit off my ears too much but its really not that noticeable
kind of related and maybe semi-helpful.
Thanks, where did you buy yours from?
wow those look and by the review, seem awesome and at roughly $60 USD, it’s very tempting to purchase those. Do you have them or know of anyone that has those? I can’t find many reviews on the internet atm.
