Headphones

Headphone mixing is becoming a core skill for everyone. We asked some of the biggest names in engineering how they get the best results.

Everyone is listening to music on headphones these days

Martin Seidl, Founder and CEO of Microphone & Headphone manufacturer Austrian Audio, chats about current products and future technological developments, plus why their core range of products will remain analogue at heart.

The frequency response of your headphones probably isn't neutral, but at least it's always the same. Or is it?

Headphones are central to music-making and music listening. But can we trust what they’re telling us? We ask the experts...

Why is it that reverb is so much more audible on good headphones than good speakers? Is it to do with the ambient noise or reflections in the room?

Can I use the headphone output (Output 9-10) on an RME Fireface 800 audio interface to feed a click track to an IEM (In-ear Monitor) transmitter for a drummer?

Bearing in mind my room is untreated and I do the bulk of my mixing on headphones.

Musician Chris Thile is quoted as saying he'd decided never to record wearing headphones again. I don’t get this. What’s wrong with headphones?

When does one need a headphone amp? I have some Shure 1840s, which are great, but I’ve read about headphone amps and want to be sure I am getting the most from the cans.

I have a Casio PX310 digital piano. When jacks are inserted into the (quarter-inch) line out sockets, the onboard speakers are not muted. They are muted when headphones (or a jack) are inserted...

My two sons have been reading on forums about how crosstalk appears in headphones that share a ground connection in a single cable...

I have been making music for years now, and although I have a set of Genelec 8040s that I use during the day (when I'm home),...

Everyone keeps going on about how great the Cardas cables make headphones sound. Is there any truth about cables ever making...

I wear custom-made earplugs when I go to live gigs, to protect my hearing. These have physical (and therefore passive) filters, but I find that their frequency response is less than ideal...

I recently purchased some Sennheiser HD600 headphones and have been told that I'll need a good headphone amplifier to make...

Every article I have read on the subject of mixing states that you want to have an 'uncoloured' room sound. So wouldn't it be better to mix using headphones, which will have no issues with room acoustics at all?

I'm considering the purchase of two sets of headphones: the AKG K240DF (flat response) for mixing, and the K271 (coloured response) for musicians to wear when monitoring their own signal, giving them the best sound for inspiration and encouragement. Would these models be suitable for these applications?

Learn how to choose and use on-stage speaker or headphone monitoring systems. After all, if you can't hear what you're doing, then your live performances are going to suffer.

I produce electronic dance music. Much of the time I work with headphones on, to help me focus on detailed sounds in repetitive loops. However, I often notice that when I switch to listening on speakers (to check the actual mix and so on) the track seems a bit faster. What could be the cause?

It's often necessary to work on headphones in the home studio, even when mixing. So what headphones should you choose, and how do you go about getting the best results?