 The best studio headphones are not necessarily the best recording headphones. Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you're well. If you're mixing with headphones then I would say that sound is the most important aspect. However, if you're recording or tracking with headphones there are other things which may be more important. I'm going to be running through nine pairs of headphones I've used in my studio ranging from $99 through to $1,299 and everything in between. I'll be giving you my final verdict at the end as to which I think are the best of the bunch but don't just skip towards the end. You need that information in between so that you can make a good decision for you. Don't forget if you're releasing some music soon to follow the VIP link in the description down below for the sponsor of this video, DistroKid. Now let's get started with both the cheapest and the oldest pair of headphones I've got in my collection. These are the Sennheiser HD280 Pros. I bought these headphones about 10 years ago after researching the best studio headphones in terms of isolation. Now when we're talking about isolation with studio headphones we're not so much concerned about sound coming in from the outside as we are with sound leaking from these headphones and into a nearby microphone. Now that sound may be something like an obnoxious click track which you definitely don't want to hear later on in the mix and which may show up particularly in quieter passages of the song. If that's important to you then I would definitely consider these headphones. I would say out of the nine headphones that we're going to be looking at today these are the best in terms of isolation. However, and there had to be a however, there are other things about these headphones which are not quite so great. Let's start off by talking about comfort. I think in order to get that isolation they do clamp fairly hard to the side of your head. Now if you're wearing these for a few hours I would say they do get pretty uncomfortable. In fact after about an hour and a half I can't bear the many more to be honest with you and need a break. This is a good time to take a break anyway I guess. Now the other thing I don't like about these headphones is the cable. I definitely don't like this. This is an attached cable. It's fixed, it's not detachable at all and it's a curly cable. Now I know from previous polls that I've done with you guys that most of you prefer straight cables and I'm with you there. A few of you do prefer curly cables but I do find this particular cable it always finds a way to bang into something. Usually my acoustic guitar or the seat that I'm sitting on or whatever and it often has ruined a nice pristine recording in that way. So I'm always sort of pegging it up out of the way and it's just a bit of a hassle. It can also feel a little bit heavy after a while. However that isolation aspect is excellent and it's a really good price. These are the High X15s the first of two pairs of headphones from Austrian Audio on today's list. Now Austrian Audio much like Sennheiser specialise in headphones and microphones and although they're kind of the new kids on the block in terms of a brand they actually have a kind of a long heritage because many of their initial employees actually came from AKG and of course they have a very long heritage in headphones. Now these $119 represent incredible value. They've got a really nice sort of premium feel about them for this price point. They've got very comfortable nice thick ear pads and they're very light. They're nice to wear for a few hours at a time okay and they also have a detachable straight cable okay so you can see that comes out there you just pop it in and you twist it to lock it into place. Now in terms of sound I don't think these could double up as mixing headphones at all. They just don't have a good enough frequency range for that. They kind of lack in terms of low end but they do have a nice sort of crisp and light sound about them which means that if you're wearing them for hours at a time they're not sort of overbearing in terms of sound. Overall at $119 these are a really good pick. The Sony Corporation massive of course they make headphones and microphones but they also make consumer stereo equipment. They make TVs and games consoles and it's kind of that which put me off getting these headphones for quite a while. These are the Sony MDR7506's. I don't know I always had this feeling that it wasn't going to break Sony's heart if they didn't succeed in the studio headphone arena. However after seeing how popular these are with you guys I eventually ordered myself some out of curiosity and I have to say I was very very pleasantly surprised. I can see what you see in these they actually have a much better sound than the previous two headphones that we've looked at and they're super comfortable to wear for hours at a time. That's a big bonus with these headphones. They're quite light and yeah just have a great feel to them. Now the actual ear cups or the ear pads are not that big on them so they don't totally encompass your ear. They kind of sit on top of them so they're not that great in terms of isolation but not bad enough that it would disqualify them from the list but you should be aware of that. The other thing about them is the dreaded attached curly cable. Now this one, this drives me crazy in the sense that it sort of stays curly for a while but after a few months it stretches out in weird ways. It curls back the other way. I don't know it kind of loses its curl a little bit. It just looks like a tangled mess. It's a very sort of minor thing but yeah it's worth keeping in consideration. Now $130 these are a very good price however if you follow the link in the description at the moment Sweetwater have them on special. These are the Audio Technica ATH M50X's and I'm going to say something about these headphones which is going to upset some of you in the comments down below. Oh by the way quick question for you. Do you already own some of the headphones on this list? If so which ones and do you agree with my summary about them? I'd love to hear from them. Now back to these. So the ATH M50X's there's also some M30X's I think they're called which are very popular. I went for the 50s. These are a great quality pair of headphones from Audio Technica. No surprise they've got a great feel about them. You know the quality of the hardware is good. The pads feel nice and cushioned and comfortable. They've got decent isolation properties to them as well and they do have a straight detachable cable which we could detach like so. Okay so that's all the good stuff about these headphones and I can see why people love them but I know that a lot of you use these for mixing and I have to disagree with using these for mixing. So in terms of sound they've actually got a much better sound than the previous headphones we've looked at so far overall. A good frequency range and that makes them really pleasant to listen to for hours at a time. Now that could be important. Yeah when you're singing if you've got a nice pleasant thing to listen to you could get a better performance. However they've got a very smooth sound to them in my opinion and I think that disqualifies them from any serious mixing because they kind of lack detail especially in the mids and the high mids okay. So eat me up in the comments down below but that's my opinion. But overall for tracking for recording where mixing is not so important these are an excellent choice. Now I think they're normally $169 however these are also on special at Sweetwater at Sweetwater at the moment follow the link in the description down below. The Bear Dynamic DT770 Pro you could probably describe these as classics. They've certainly been very popular over the last few years and although they're a big step up in price there is a great special on at Sweetwater at the moment for these so you should definitely check the link in the description down below for that. Why are they so popular? Well one of the reasons is build quality. We haven't talked about that much but build quality is really important for studio headphones. You will be using them for years hopefully so you want them to last and also they can get dropped on the floor trodden on all that kind of thing so you want them to be sort of fairly robust in that way. They've got these really distinctive pads there these gray pads made of a kind of a velvet material and they're pretty big as well they totally encompass the ears they're nice and comfortable and they've got good isolation properties. Those are all the good things about these headphones and oh well I should mention as well the sound. These could probably be used for mixing maybe not as your primary sort of mixing monitor but definitely a good second to check things on okay they've got a good reasonably detailed sound a good frequency range good for checking the low end of mixes I find so they're very useful as a sort of a double up for some mixing as well. The only thing about them is is they do have an attached curly cable. Now I know that many people over the years have actually modified this okay. I see people making youtube videos and things about modifying this where they sort of detach that and they put in a socket so that you can put in a detachable cable and these are probably the first headphones which are worth doing that to because they're good headphones do bear in mind you probably lose all chance of getting advantage of your warranty etc but yeah they'd be worth doing that with however you might also consider the next headphones on our list. I think of these as a kind of an evolution of the DT770 Pro. These are the Bayer Dynamic DT700 Pro X's okay. They've got all the good stuff of the DT770s plus they've been improved okay so they've got they're very comfortable to wear for several hours very very comfortable and that's partly because although they've got these sort of gray velvet like pads again they're quite a lot sort of thicker these ones and they just feel much much nicer on your head gray isolation properties they do feel they don't look like it but they actually do seem to cover my ear entirely which is nice the build quality is there just as it was with the DT770s all of that stuff is good and the sound as well okay so the sound is not the same I wouldn't say it's at all the same as the DT770s but it's a really good sound it's a little bit more full to me to be honest with you but equally as good in terms of these could double up for some mixing again perhaps not as your primary mixing source but definitely something you get a lot of a mix done on and you know you need to check different sources anyway and the great news is about these is that they have a detachable straight cable okay thank you Bay dynamic for doing that locks in there very very nicely indeed now these are the DT770s have not been discontinued these are in a slightly different range okay I think they've been inspired by that range but these are in a bit of a different price bracket they're kind of another step up again however the great news is follow the link in the description down below because at the moment Sweetwater have a very very good price on these although are a bit more of a boutique brand who specialize in headphones and I have to say they make some of my favorite headphones including these these are the HBS S4R's closeback headphones great for recording and tracking they're the first ones of the headphones we've looked at today which use these kind of this kind of suspension system I guess you would call it where you've got a metal headband and then your head this part this sort of soft part here is what actually sits on your head so they kind of sit there suspended wonderful quality pads here very very comfortable combination of a kind of a faux leather and velvet on them as well and very distinctively of course made of wood there that doesn't make them particularly heavy but yeah I think it's a very nice touch in terms of aesthetics they also have a detachable cable which fits you've got an individual cable for each ear cup okay I think they call this a Y cable now that may not seem very significant but I actually think it is when you're wearing headphones for a long time if you've got the cable weight all pulling on one side they feel kind of out of balance in my opinion so I prefer headphones where there's a cable attached to each cup okay that just makes me feel over hours that the whole thing is then just sitting there in balance very very nice indeed I really can't speak highly enough about the build quality the hardware of these very very good but also the sound is very very good as well again like the previous Bayer Dynamics I think it's even more true of these that you could use these for quite a lot of your mixing not as good as the open back versions of these for mixing but still very very good indeed and I think it's important because I think if you do have a good sound while you're recording it can be very inspiring and it can just give you that little edge in your performance it really makes you want to sing or play whatever it is you're doing at the time and if you're going to be releasing your music to the world then having that little edge and getting the best possible performance is really important and of course I would recommend that if you do release your music to the world and you want to get it on all the important platforms like Spotify iTunes Amazon etc etc then follow the link in the description down below you're going to get 7% off of an already amazing price to release your music commercially to the world the Austrian Audio High X 60s are definitely what you would call a premium headphone okay they feel so nice in the hand they feel wonderfully engineered all the materials are really really nice okay and you know they don't feel like tanks but they just feel nice and robust they sit on your head for a few hours they're not super light but light enough that when they're on there for a few hours they remain comfortable that's partly to do also with the really nice soft cushion pads which do encompass your whole ear and I feel a very very good in terms of isolation not quite as good as the Sennheiser's that we looked at right at the beginning but very very close so these are often a choice for me when I'm looking for a good isolation and comfort for many many hours they also have a straight detachable cable I think you get a choice of cables actually with this maybe some different lengths and it's all just feels very premium and high quality and the sound is excellent when I say excellent I don't mean it sounds nice I mean again it sounds detailed it sounds balanced I'm going to use the term flat loosely here okay so there's no truly flat headphones but the sort of response that I can imagine using for some mixing as well so these could kind of double up for that and overall just an excellent choice the LCD XC headphones from Audizi stand apart from all of the other headphones on this list for a number of reasons firstly the price these are considerably more expensive than anything else at $1,299 another way in which they stand apart from the rest is the technology used in these headphones these are plain and magnetic drivers whereas all of the others are the much more common dynamic drivers it's a much more expensive type of driver to actually produce that's partly why they're more expensive but it does give you a unique sound we'll talk about at the moment but with the rest of the headphone an amazing build quality just very very robust some wonderful pads on their extremely thick pads super comfortable and they're sort of shaped in a particular way that they they fit nicely on your head when you have them on the correct way again you know you have this kind of suspension system on them okay they also have a detachable cable which is attached on with both ear cup with a really nice sort of plug on there and a great quality they call this a braided cable but it's not like any other braided cable you normally have ever seen it's a work of art in itself the cable to be honest with you so as I say they're plain and magnetic and that gives them a very natural sound is what I'm going to say okay quite detailed just nice to listen to for hours on end because of that natural sound and quite detailed as well now they're not heavy on bass at all so if you're looking something for a thumping bass these don't ever really get there but for me they're a natural sounding low end okay so I kind of like them they're probably the best sounding headphones on this list by far not the best sounding headphones I own but on this list in terms of closed back headphones for recording okay so with all of that said you would imagine wouldn't you that I'm going to say that this is my pick for the best headphones on this list but so my number one recommendation out of this list of headphones are a pair which really ticks so many boxes they've got great build quality super comfortable to wear for hours on end that's partly because they've got really nice comfortable ear pads which also add to great isolation properties detachable cable really nice quality detachable cable with them as well and also great sound and I'm talking about sound in terms of sound which could be useful for mixing at times but also it's kind of inspirational sounds so nice when you're performing it's going to inspire you to perform a little bit better now when we mix all of this up with price which is a super important factor I'm going to say I have to recommend the Austrian audio high x 60s these are just that sort of complete package especially in terms of price now at $429 we could hardly say they're cheap and that may just be out of your budget completely so I would recommend that for say under $300 you would go for the Bayer Dynamic DT700 Pro X's now those headphones are not normally under $300 but they are at the moment if you follow the link in the in the description down below so they are a great choice and then if you have to go cheaper than that say less than $150 at the moment I would go for the Audio Technica the ATHM 50x's they're just a nice all-round headphone now if you want to find out more about the Austrian audio headphones that I've talked about in this video then I reckon you should watch this video right here