Monitoring Headphones Recommendations Please

[Hans Punk]

HD25 MKII's are a good all rounder and you can sometimes find a good pair second hand. If you sit on them and break something - you can often find replacement parts (official or third party) that can prolong their life considerably. Not the highest regarded for dedicated recording by some, but very respectable for monitoring and have ability to easily swivel either ear away so you can pretend to be listening to someone, whilst actually listening to Barry White's greatest hits in the other ear.

[Bioskop.Inc]

Anything by AKG - lots of different price ranges, so you can go for the cheap £50 ones or up the price. Quality is outstanding, far better than anything mentioned here, even the cheap ones. Found them due to an end of year round up from a magazine called What Hi-Fi a few years ago & haven't looked back since.

Would also suggest you test your sound with something really bad (speakers, TV, Phone/Pad or whatever), just so you know how your sound holds up with the worst option available - not everyone watching your stuff will have a top of the range ....... (fill in the blank) & sound can change dramatically depending on what device you/your audience is using. Good sound should transfer to whatever is available & not just good stuff.....

[Cinegain]

Mainly rocking the Sennheiser HD25 SP-II and the Audio-Technica ATH-M50x DG here.

My favourite earbuds are the Vsonic VSD3.

[Lintelfilm]

9 hours ago, Bioskop.Inc said:

Anything by AKG - lots of different price ranges, so you can go for the cheap £50 ones or up the price. Quality is outstanding, far better than anything mentioned here, even the cheap ones. Found them due to an end of year round up from a magazine called What Hi-Fi a few years ago & haven't looked back since.

Would also suggest you test your sound with something really bad (speakers, TV, Phone/Pad or whatever), just so you know how your sound holds up with the worst option available - not everyone watching your stuff will have a top of the range ....... (fill in the blank) & sound can change dramatically depending on what device you/your audience is using. Good sound should transfer to whatever is available & not just good stuff.....

AKG look interesting. They have some quite nice looking & small bluetooth sets as well. Haven't found any that are neutral monitoring cans yet though. I'll take a closer look. 

As I do with visuals, I always check my sound on several devices in post (in fact my 7506's are my only decent way of monitoring for "good" sound as I don't have reference speakers). I'm looking for something for location monitoring here though ...

[jgharding]

proper down-the-ear earbuds give proper isolation without needing active circuitry.

I have a couple of 15-20£ sets that i use, and they're fine

[Lintelfilm]

1 hour ago, jgharding said:

proper down-the-ear earbuds give proper isolation without needing active circuitry.

I have a couple of 15-20£ sets that i use, and they're fine

Completely off-topic JG but do you ever use a rain cover on your C100? I think I need to get one but have no way of knowing which is gonna be best ...

[jgharding]

5 minutes ago, Lintelfilm said:

Completely off-topic JG but do you ever use a rain cover on your C100? I think I need to get one but have no way of knowing which is gonna be best ...

I've never yet done thatbut I'd be interested to know! I've usually had someone with an umbrella

[Lintelfilm]

1 minute ago, jgharding said:

I've never yet done thatbut I'd be interested to know! I've usually had someone with an umbrella

Yeah perhaps that's the best solution anyway. I usually shoot alone though and if it's windy too brolly can be a real pain ...

[jgharding]

24 minutes ago, Lintelfilm said:

Yeah perhaps that's the best solution anyway. I usually shoot alone though and if it's windy too brolly can be a real pain ...

Also, the fellow I work with uses Bose active noise cancelling on-ears. It's the other good option for monitoring I think.

Noise-cancelling (either active or passive ear-filling) is paramount, or you can't hear the difference between captured and real-world sound so well.

[Lintelfilm]

1 minute ago, jgharding said:

Also, the fellow I work with uses Bose active noise cancelling on-ears. It's the other good option for monitoring I think.

Noise-cancelling (either active or passive ear-filling) is paramount, or you can't hear the difference between captured and real-world sound so well.

Yeah I use in-ear buds currently and they're great for isolation, but I want the flexibility of swapping between real and recorded sound quick and easy. Especially important for interviews. Another tick against the HD25's for their swively earpieces.

I've half a mind to make my own rain cover for the C100. The rare times I'll use it don't really warrant the £100-£200 they cost.

[dahlfors]

I have AKG K271 MKII: http://www.akg.com/pro/p/k271mkii 

These are the best easily driven closed design headphones I've found. They work fine with my camera and laptop. They are a bit heavy to drive for my old Nexus 5 phone, but they still work with that combination. Hence I think they'll suit just about any DSLR / mirrorless.

Been using them for 2-3 years, and I don't have anything to complain about the audio. Frequency response seems very well balanced for monitoring.

Another plus side is that the cables are easily replaceable, and you get them delivered with one fairly long straight cable, and one coiled.

They are not super-light, but I find them comfortable. I work in front of a computer all days, and these usually sit on my head all day long.