At 08:05 AM 9/25/2010 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I'm in the market for a pair of headphones for use while monitoring as
>well as editing. I currently use a rather beat-up and inexpensive pair of=
>ATH-M30s. It's time to upgrade. My budget is $200 CDN. Any suggestions
>would be most appreciated.
Hi Sarah,
After many years of being a headphone user, here is what I find works best=
for me as far as headphones are concerned...
As to headphones for monitoring and editing (post processing) I use three
Sennheiser headphone models that I've found over the years to work best for=
me. I also have one pair of Sony earphones for field work that work quite
well when monitoring what the recorder is hearing, however these are sports=
type and not full sound, I will describe these last.
My background is underwater acoustics for a career of over 35 years and in=
the mid or late1970's I started using Sennheiser 420 headphones due to
their light weight and full range of sound. These are open ear piece style=
over the head type headphones that allow one to hear what is going on
around them as well as hearing what the equipment is hearing as in my case,=
under water. I needed to be able to hear the ships crew as well as operate=
my equipment and the Sennheiser 420 headphones were ideal in this
application. To the tribute of Sennheiser, I have two sets of the 420
phones today that have lasted many years of abuse and one set of the
original 420's being used as a teething bone by a young dog and they still=
work as well today as they did the day I purchased them in the late
1970's. My success with Sennheiser quality encourages me to stick with
Sennheiser as a brand.
Recently, I have added two more Sennheiser models to my kit, the Sennheiser=
PMX-60 which I use for both field work as well as post processing, and a
set of Sennheiser HD-280 Pro which I use for critical post processing editi=
ng.
The Sennheiser PMX-60 is a full sound inexpensive headphone set, here in
the US about $30, and work very well for a low priced headphone. They are
unique in that they are a behind the neck band, not an over the head band
type phone and yet have full ear open coverage padded phones, are light
weight and comfortable to wear for hours at a time. My main use for these
is field work with a recorder as well as being my primary pair to use when=
doing post processing work on the computer. They are extremely comfortable=
to wear and I often forget I have them on.
The Sennheiser HD-280 are a large full ear cup type phone, hot to wear in
the summer heat, but give very accurate rendering of sound, especially in
noisy background environments. The Sennheiser HD-280 sells in the US for=
about $140 down to about $100 with careful shopping, however will provide
very accurate sound reproduction. This model was designed for, and is very=
popular with professional sound engineers in the music industry from what I=
understand from a sound engineer friend. I purchased them on his
recommendation and I've been very happy with them for my critical needs.
Last is the Sony MDR-AS50G, a set of "in-the-ear" earbud type phones with a=
"behind the neck" headband designed for people doing high activity sports
such as running and jogging, and these I use with a Olympus LS-11 recorder=
for impromptu field work while out with the dogs for our daily jaunt
through the woods and the tree farm. These are the smallest and lightest
of my headphones/earphones, and have poor low frequency response however I=
find in my application that low frequency response is not an issue as most=
of what I'm recording for wildlife sounds is above 500 hz so these phones
work quite well for ambulatory field monitoring. In the US, these sell for=
about $35. If I were to replace these phones, it will probably be with
Sennheiser "IE 6" Earbud style phones. I was not sure this style would
work for me and as the Sennheiser IE6 Earbud type is about $175, I
initially chose the Sony as a better cost risk to find out if this type
would work for me. Now, based on my success with the Sony AS50G, I would
spend the money for the Sennheiser next time around...
Interesting to note, I still use the 35 year old Sennheiser 420 headset for=
my field work when working from the RV, they are still probably my favorite=
set although the PMX-60 run them a close second.
Good luck with your work...
--
Thanks,
Mitch & Shadow...
http://www.4shared.com/dir/UTASxktL/wildlife.html
Shadow's area: http://www.4shared.com/dir/ecfWjyZb/Shadow.html
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