Why are Heaphones so important?

[CapFive]

I'm sure we have all heard it before, your heaphones are you most important piece of equipment you will buy.

this got me to wondering, why is this so? howcome the heaphones are so important?

here are some things that you should look for and the reasons why it is so important.

first of all they are the only line between you and the booming speakers that are going to confuse your cueing... you need something that will be able to cancel out those low and high frequencies, the different between a ok set and a great set, is canceling out the high frequencies.

this is the reson you see almost every DJ out there with over ear heaphones, buds just wont cut it, they cant cancel out enough noise, because it will resonate though the small gaps in your earhole.

but there is another reason why over ear headphones are used, the simple method of air pushing to make bass, the foam cup creates a little boom box over your ear, and as the bass hits, it creates a sound cusion for it to bounce off, giving that true feeling and sound of REAL bass.

for this reason dj headphones compared to others are only ever going to be over ear styles...

whats the difference between normal headphones and DJ ones you say?

well... im glad you asked jimmy... im glad you asked...

you see DJ headphones has a whole different make-up to a normal heaphone, without going into too much detail, they are designed to hit those so-called "guilty-pleasure" frequencies, which define a track through the cymbals and bass drums, and which help ayou keep tabs on the rhythm even if the melody is drowned out by other sounds, the headphones accentuate those levels so it is easier to control them.

i know what your thinking now, "but i see those ear-bud ear cancelling headphones everywhere, can i buy them?" NO! you don;t want total cancelation, beacause you do still need to keep an eye on the master output, you could be cueing up your track and then the music has been off for a minute and you would never know... lol

so try to go for something that has a good bass driver, is a cup over ear style, and msot of all, make sure you actually listen to them... remember everyones ear is different, some people like a bassey headphone, some like a bright high end heaphone, don't just buy a set off the internet... because you may regret it

as for recommendations? i can only recommend what i have used...

but have a gander at thsee

Skullcandy SK Pro

these are a good start for your first set, unless you wanna be serious... they do the job, but only JUST, only buy these if you REALLY dont have the money

Sony MDR-V700

probably one of sony's strong points is sound, they make a decent set of cans, these are good for the extra cash, nice and solid and IMO VERY comfortable

Sennheiser HD25's

i currently own a pair of these, and im finding it hard to move on...

these little babies have been industry standard HD 25’s and the headphones of choice for professional DJs for many a year for one main reason, every part is replaceable without having to buy a whole new pair... They also have really good isolation from outside noise, making them ideal for use in extremely noisy environments, and their rugged build construction means they won’t break easily.

they also have a 3m long cable,

for those times when you wanna jump down on the dancefloor and have a dance while your DJing... maybe not...

Sennheiser HD-215

these are good if you can't afford a pair of HD-25's. Excellent isolation from outside noise, a rotatable ear cup for one-ear monitoring and a detachable single-sided coiled cable (3m), the draw back is they are pretty chunky...

Allen & Heath Xone XD-53

they sound fantastic and with an incredibly wide frequency range (5 – 33,000 Hz); their large (53mm) drivers produce deep thumping bass, punchy mids and detailed crisp highs without distortion. A detachable cable would have been the icing on the cake on an otherwise near perfect pair of headphones, which is the one reason i didnt buy them... i tend to destroy my cables pretty quickly... But i think one day i will upgrade to these, they have wider range which i would like to have

[pundaddy]

Good shit dude +rep

[eggssell]

Nice write up. A few comments though.

Noise cancellation is important and the more noise cancellation the better as you want to be able to isolate the track you are cuing without being messed up with the monitor. The issue you mention about not realising that the music is off is why you cue with one ear off.

And good in-ears are a reasonable solution and even argued a way that you dont have to turn it up as loud and hence so you can save your ears. Djtt had a good article explaining the advantages. Craze and ztrip amongst others use in-ears but of course theirs are professionally moulded ones

Other then that nice article. I use xd 53's and they are great

[BeatLeSS]

Sorry to pick at your opinions of the cable on the HD-25's and the XD-53's but you'd probs go through less cables if it was coiled. probably one of the big decisions i'd make is the cable needs to be coiled! XD53 > HD-25 for this.

[Gandy]

maybe include a write up for the hdj 2000's as well

[CapFive]

I am worse with coils, they wrap up on me..

[imadje]

skillz caps

That post is mainly aimed at the beatmatching EDM DJ or the dj in a big room though yes?

Hip hop DJs, scratch DJs and those of us who like to do a bit of everything dont all have to the same amount of care into our headphone choice. Mobile djs and those of us who play smaller rooms also dont need to concentrate on headphones so much IMO.

Personally I much prefer to listen to the front of house output, that way i am in the same place with the same vibe as the punters, hearing exactly what they hear and eqing accordingly.

I use the headphones to:

1)chk i've chosen the tune i want

2)set a cue point (or maybe 2 or 3 hot cues and possibly a loop)

3) beatmatch the tune as close as i can get it.

then it's headphones off and listen to the front of house again for the mix. Sometimes there are delays, echos or horrible frequencies... but if i can hear them the punter can hear them and this knowledge affects how i eq and mix.

If the sound quality is really bad i may use my shoulder to push the phones back up to my ear occasionally so i can monitor my beats. This ruins the cable on the phones.

For this reason the factors that affect which phones I buy are as follows:

cheap: less than £50 as a pair never lasts me more then 4-6 months due to the shoulder/cable squashing mentioned above

pack flat: coz i like everything easily stowable for transport

reasonable sound quality: nothing amazing but i need to be able to make out the song and hear the snares so i can beatmatch. bass response s not that important.

I generally use akg k518 dj headphones or sennheiser hd 212.

however i can also mix in headphones if the need arises and so understand your post above. If i'm on a huge stage where someone else is controlling the front of house sound (not happened in a while!), doing a silent disco or mixing at home i like good quality sound so i use beyer dynamic 770dtpro.

[CapFive]

I only reviews headphones I've used... other peeps feel free to include your own write ups