 I own 11 pairs of studio headphones, but these are my favourites. The Austrian Audio Hire X65s, they're well made, they're comfortable, and they give me a sound which is close to that of my studio monitors. That's why you'll see me wearing them on all of my live shows, where I have to evaluate mixes and wear them for several hours. But they do have one drawback, they're open backed headphones, so they're not absolutely ideal for recording or tracking, because the sound bleeds from them into the performer's microphone. So I was delighted when they sent me these high X60s to try out, these are kind of closed backed versions of the same headphones, and much better for recording. I was also intrigued when they sent me these high X15s, I've heard a lot of good things about these headphones, and it got me wondering, how well can these $119 headphones compete with these $429 headphones? I mean surely for a start they would have saved money on the packaging, right? Well not really, they both come extremely well packaged, as I've found with all Austrian Audio products. Okay, so what about what's in the box? Well they both come with identical cloth bags. And whilst it's true that the more expensive X60s come with two high quality detachable cables of different lengths, and the X15s only come with one lesser quality detachable cable, they do have the same type of fitting, which means this is an upgrade option for the X15s. Perhaps a little bit of money saved here, but not a lot. So what about build quality? Well the X60s weighing in at 320 grams, sport a lot more metal in their construction than the X15s that come in at 255 grams. And whilst they both have sturdy swiveling metal hinges, the X60s go that extra mile. There's also a slightly different approach to the headbands. The X60's metal headband has a nicely padded vented design, and the X15s have a standard single strip, not quite as good a quality of padding in my opinion, but still not bad. The actual earpad design on each is not identical, but I have to say very close, and of similar quality. In other words, both great, both comfortable. So that's the physical side, but what about performance? So both of these are closed back headphones, which makes them useful for artists to wear while recording because they don't bleed so much of the sound into the microphone. Now in terms of performance, I found them somewhat similar in this regard, with the X60s having a very slight edge, but honestly, they're both good for this purpose. Comfort is such an important factor, especially during a long recording session. And we could say the X15s have a little bit of an advantage here because they're so much lighter. However, there's a little bit more to comfort than just weight. There's also of course the ear cups themselves, and then there's things like how well they feel supported on your head, and importantly, how much pressure they appear to exert on the side of your head. Now in this regard, I reckon the X60s are very, very similar to my X65s, and I reckon they're the most comfortable headphones in my studio. The biggest difference between these two headphones is the sound, and I'm very pleased to be able to say that because too often with more expensive headphones, they are more expensive because of their physical properties and perhaps things like packaging. But in this case, they've really focused on the sound of them, and it is very clear. I feel like I can really trust these X60s across the board. In the low end, it's nice and solid, but it's not hyped. In the mids, they're very nice and clear with lots of separation, and the highs are crisp without being kind of fatiguing. It really is very clear to me. Now, does that mean that you shouldn't buy the X15s? We're not quite. Budget. Let's not ignore the elephant in the room. If your budget won't extend to the X60s, then buy the X15s. I don't mean over other Austrian audio headphones. I mean above any other headphone in this kind of class. I've tried a whole bunch of them, and in terms of build quality, in terms of comfort, in terms of isolation, these are definitely the best. So why even bother with the X60s? Sound quality. Okay, the overall quality is a little bit better than the X15s, but it's the sound where you can really hear the money. Now I reckon that opens these up for multiple applications, because as well as using them for recording or tracking, I reckon these can also be used for mixing. They're that good. And I know many of you are mixing on the go. You may be mixing a track on a laptop while you're in a cafe or something, and isolation is then going to be important to you. So these could very well be the choice for you. If you want high quality headphones, you can mix with, which also have great isolation properties. For recording, I will 100% be using the high X60s from now on. They've got a great build quality, they're super comfortable, and of course they've got good isolation properties as well. However, I'm in a very privileged position because I also have the high X65s, and I will still be using these for the mixing that I sometimes do on headphones and for monitoring as well. If you'd like to find out a little bit more about these, then do check out my video right here. Enjoy.