Headphones

  • I am very new to this although I have been playing tube amps for over 30 years. One thing I think I know for sure at this point, is throw your headphones in the garbage. Even if they cost $300. Maybe they are useful for some things like very low volume playing but for the most part they just do not do any justice to recording, to the profiler, to practice playing, and they just kill the tone.

    But I have over 300 purchased profiles and now they sound beautiful. Especially my latest addition. Friedman BE100. What a great amplifier.


    I’m sure this will get some people stirred up that love their headphones. I’m just saying this is something I learned for my own preferences. Would love to hear people’s feedback though but please be nice.:)

  • I'm using some of the Friedman profiles from Michael Britt and yeah, it's an awesome sounding amp. I would think you'd want to put it on Rig Exchange so it's available to everyone using Rig Manager. Easier than burning disk space on your Dropbox account.


    Speakers color sound, whether it's guitar cabs, expensive studio reference monitors, or the tiny speakers in your headphones or earbuds. What I've come to recognize in the studio is that, assuming a general baseline of quality, knowing your speakers is more important than spending a gazillion dollars on the most expensive Genelecs you can find. I think the same can be said of headphones.


    If you play through headphones out of volumetric necessity, then you'd want cans that enhance your listening / playing experience. If it sounds good, it is good, and that's all that matters. If you're mixing, you're looking for "truth." There are lots of products out there that serve that need, and if you get to know how they sound versus reality, you're usually in good shape.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • I admire your honesty. That being the case, not sharing it would be the most noble path, since someone else is trying to make a living.


    What would be helpful, however, is a link to the Tone Junkie one that you're using. I listened to some of his stuff and he seems to be more oriented towards really nice, clean / Fender-y type sounds. If he's doing rock-ish stuff, too, it would be worth hearing.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • Thanks for the tip about the Friedman. Went to his site and found it, as well as perusing others.


    Since Black Friday is going on and I'm a bit flush with cash from selling a small herd of amps, I decided to throw some business his way with the Friedman and also one of the dual amp packs. The Friedman sounds great, and they do the clean / mildly crunch stuff very well.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • It’s on his website it’s called the brown eyed girl pack. And it’s on sale. And there are some great tones on there and yes some of them you have to turn up the game but they are super high quality compared to all the other ones that I’ve purchased

  • It’s on his website it’s called the brown eyed girl pack. And it’s on sale. And there are some great tones on there and yes some of them you have to turn up the game but they are super high quality compared to all the other ones that I’ve purchased

    Heading down to the studio to try them now. Thanks!

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • My Sennheiser HD25-1s sound phenomenal directly from the Kemper.


    I chose them 20 years ago 'cause of their physical robustness (one reason DJs, OB teams and sports broadcasters such as the WWE have used them for decades), ability to be driven by practically any h'phone amp (70Ω, also a sports-broadcaster-choice factor 'cause venues' facilities vary widely), ability to be driven hard with minimal-and-undetectable distortion (another OB-choice factor - crowd noise can be huge and you've got to be able to hear yourself properly) and what was for me the most-natural response / sound of all the models I auditioned, a pool of around 10 popular models.


    The most-relevant factor here is the "natural" response. No hype that I can detect. A good test is removing and replacing a set from your ears repeatedly whilst your monitors, assuming they're good-and-natural-sounding, are sounding at the same time. If it sounds "the same" - same overall timbre and response, you're onto a winner IMHO, and that's where these puppies aced with literally a 100% pass mark whilst all the others I auditioned failed, most of them miserably. Even the most-expensive, so-called high-end models exhibited obvious hype factors, which frankly shocked me. Sibilance in classic songs everyone knows well was OTT, toms in said pieces sounded like they had metal skins, and so on. Unbelievable IMHO.


    Once you've found a pair that exhibits a flat, un-hyped, natural-sounding response, I defy anyone to tell me with a straight face that good-sounding Profiles sound shite via the KPA's h'phone amp. It ain't gonna happen.

  • It’s on his website it’s called the brown eyed girl pack. And it’s on sale. And there are some great tones on there and yes some of them you have to turn up the game but they are super high quality compared to all the other ones that I’ve purchased

    Any chance you could link this? I can't seem to find it. Maybe I'm just dense...

  • Chris Duncan totally agree about the key being to know your speakers and/or headphones rather than just assume splashing cash equals better results. The other aspect of that when it comes to speakers rather than headphones is that most people underestimate the impact of the room on the sound. A fairly basic set of speakers in a well treated room will sound better than brilliant studio monitors in a room with no treatment and unfortunate dimensions.


    When it comes to headphones I love playing with cans (ATH M50X) or IEM (Shire SE425). They both sound totally different though. The Shure are pretty light on the bass and real top end but they are amazingly detailed in the mids (just where guitar sits) I find I can hear things on them that I can’t hear on the M50X or even my main monitors.


    Basically, I can have fun playing through virtually anything. It will sound “different“ but variety is the spice of life as they say ^^

  • Chris Duncan totally agree about the key being to know your speakers and/or headphones rather than just assume splashing cash equals better results. The other aspect of that when it comes to speakers rather than headphones is that most people underestimate the impact of the room on the sound. A fairly basic set of speakers in a well treated room will sound better than brilliant studio monitors in a room with no treatment and unfortunate dimensions.


    When it comes to headphones I love playing with cans (ATH M50X) or IEM (Shire SE425). They both sound totally different though. The Shure are pretty light on the bass and real top end but they are amazingly detailed in the mids (just where guitar sits) I find I can hear things on them that I can’t hear on the M50X or even my main monitors.


    Basically, I can have fun playing through virtually anything. It will sound “different“ but variety is the spice of life as they say ^^

    Absolutely true on the acoustics! Spent a lot of time and money this past year treating both the live room and recently, the control room. I built some very simple panels out of 703 for the live room and got great results, but it was a major pita so when it came time for the control room I just bought pre-made ones. Got the 703 and fabric first time around, and pre-bult panels, from these guys. They're a fraction cheaper than the others and overall it was a good experience. It's not cheap, but I've tried the foam thing and there's a world of difference using Roxul or 703.


    https://www.acoustimac.com/aco…els/suede-acoustic-panels


    That said, unless you have the bucks to hire an acoustician (and implement 100% of what he recommends), even after good treatment you're still going to have some issues. Right now the SonarWorks Reference vst plugin is getting a lot of attention. It's probably good stuff but I couldn't even get their demo going, and the fact that they're on the other side of the planet with no clear support made me decide against buying it.


    What I already had in place is a hardware version of what Reference is doing, the DBX DriveRackPA2. Same principal, you do multiple measurements at the mix position and it auto generates a curve on an 8 band parametric. The auto stuff gets you close, but it's still not as good as it can be. Fortunately you can see the resulting room curve and edit the parametric, which is the next bit of tweaking to do. They also have another parametric and a third octave graphic strapped across the output bus but I didn't need it.


    I have the AT M50 cans in the control room and love them. For IEMs, I did the custom ear mold thing and went with Ultimate Ears (who are also very nice folks). Holy cow, what a difference custom ears make! Even the UE folks will tell you privately that there's no real value in spending the $1200 on their top of the line. I got their Pro 5s, which are around $500, and it was a life changing experience over the stock Shure earpieces I had.


    All of this stuff costs money, but when you have the budget to do it, the sonic rewards are well worth it. My perspective is that the pain in my wallet goes away quickly. Great gear (like, you know, a Kemper), lives on day after day.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • I think a lot of it comes down to how familiar you are with the sound of your headphones


    Much like Monitors, you need to learn them. You can get some great results


    However, speakers always win! (IMO)

  • I'm not into using EQ to flatten responses; something about it just doesn't feel right. Call me an old-school fuddy-duddy if you like.


    Nevertheless, I thought I'd share the best reference resource I know of for dialling in your own curves manually, so here 'tis:


    [PSA] - oratory1990’s list of EQ Presets : headphones


    Click on the link to your chosen model and marvel at the detailed-and-comprehensive response-and-guide charts.


    Only German beer accepted...

  • I have a pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pros and a pair of their HD650s, I really really hate playing through either of them. No comparison to playing through my KRK monitors. They are great headphones, I enjoy music through them, but absolutely hate playing guitar through them. Weak/flubby/none of the "mojo" I get through my KRKs.

    Disclaimer: When I post demo clips for profiles, there will be some minimal post-processing, unless stated otherwise. I normally double-track hard L/R, and add to the main buss a small amount of EQ and a limiter/comp set pretty light as well. Sometimes I get test profiles in advance of release, though 90% of my clips will be from packs I have purchased.