BEST HEADPHONES X KEMPER

  • Hi everybody. A little help. Please. Within few days I ‘ll buy my kemper (no power amp) . I would like to create my rigs (that will be used in live situations too) usng a good headphones. Which one to choose? I need a very dynamic headphones , very flat, transparent, not “coloured” with a good sound pressure. Can you please advise me?

  • Hard to go wrong with a set of Sony MDR-7506s.

    Not the 'best', but still very much a standard in audio production and mixing. Not to mention inexpensive and very durable.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • I am using my twenty years old Sony MDR-CD380 headphones which are just amazing with Kemper. I have several newer

    headphones but they don't sound good at all with Kemper. My Sony headphones are also very comfortable to use.

    Edited once, last by Jarkre ().

  • I would say, if you have to use headphones (max volume constraint in the middle of the night, or just don't have monitors, FRFR or a PA), just plug in whatever you already have.... and enjoy what you'll hear. You can worry about buying something else that sounds better later. I have plugged in everything into our Kemper by now for headphones that we have at home and they all sounded great - even the SkullCandy (spelling?) that did not have its "bass booster" battery changed in 10 years. ;)


    My recommendation would be though that if you want to tweak profiles for live use, do not use headphones. Use as close to the real setup as you can when getting profiles ready to rock live.

  • I like my Sennheiser HD 25-C II’s however headphones are a really personal choice type of item.


    The Sennheisers are pretty good monitoring headphones.

    I swear by my HD-25-1s. It's an old model from the '90s, but AFAICT the sound-reproducing hardware is the same across all models; the differences lie in other aspects of the physical design.


    As I've said previously here, I tested about a dozen recommended models and found the HD-25s to have the most-natural sound of all of them by a huge margin (zero hype anywhere in the spectrum), undetectable distortion even at insane levels and as a bonus, the ability to sound loud when driven by practically any headphone amp thanks to the 70Ω rating.


    Only criticism is the pressure on my ears caused them to ache. My solution is to store them clamped onto a box slightly narrower than the distance between my ears. Loose, comfortable fit now.


    I felt compelled to say something 'cause AFAIK you're the only Kemperite who's said in any of these sorts of threads that he uses the same 'phones as I, Davo. You've got good taste, bro'. 8)

  • Cheers Nicky and I agree they have the most natural drivers/speakers out there IMHO.


    I’d like to say great minds think alike ;) but it’s most likely an age thing....Most drivers these days are little bass heavy for me but my old ears are that shot they possibly can’t tell the difference. :D


    The HD-25’s in my opinion are excellent sound quality, lightweight with good build quality. Great for travelling and in the studio or monitoring . As you point out they can be a little tight and I put mine on an old polystyrene head as storage which help keep them a little more manageable for extensive use.


    I have had two sets of replacement cables due to me being a little careless/heavy handed but the sound is still great and possibly even better than when I bought them as the drivers are well and truly worn in.

  • actually has anyone any tips of trying to get same sound out of powdered atomic clr neo active monitor as head phones maybe it's because head phones are on both ears I dunno

    Ian Flynn

  • I won’t go into my headphone choices again but will say consider open back cans unless you need to be absolutely quiet, far better sound reproduction without the uncomfortable almost claustrophobic feeling, my opinion only ?.

    New talent management advice to Laura Cox -


    “Laura want to break the internet? let’s shoot another video of you covering the Nightrain solo in the blue singlet, but this time we’ll crank up the air conditioning”.

  • has anyone any tips of trying to get same sound out of powdered atomic clr neo active monitor as head phones

    Your headphones are stereo, CLR is mono and due to distance not as "direct" as your headphones. So imho no way to achieve a headphone-sound through a single CLR. But: It helps raising the Mix in your post stack effects when playing mono because in a mono setup these effects are not as prominent as in a stereo setup where lower Mix settings are enough.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)