Headphones CAN’T Replace Monitors… Or Can They?

Brother, I beg you not to pay for stuff to get your speakers or headphones EQd.
We have measurments of hundreds of headphones on different headphone measurment rigs, and we have the well studied Harman target, just get the frequency response of your headphones and EQ it to the target, there are numerous websites that do this for you. Download free open source software like Equalizer APO (and the Peace GUI for nicer and easier user interface) for Windows and eqMac for MacOS that apply systemwide EQ on your PC. Going back to those websites, they will provide you with a .txt file that's compatible with for example Equalizer APO, you just insert the .txt file and EQAPO will recognise it and apply the EQ, you can modify this to your heart's content, unfortunately these things are more prevalent in the audiophile community and less so the audio engineer one.

As for speakers, just get a measurment microphone and use REW (Room EQ Wizard) to EQ your monitors flat according to your room (resonances etc.), I recommend you watch Julian Krause's video on how to use REW.

If you or anybody else needs help, let me know, I'll be happy to help out.

I have the same exact setup with them rme 2/4 and audeze mm500. A Stellar combo.

Nice green screen btw !

Just got some Audeze LCD-X and they rule.

I work with the shure srh840a and srh1840

They're really good and my interface is the babyface pro fs

My monitors are the m-audio av40

They do the job well , hoping to upgrade the monitors soon

What Dac do you use?

Agreed! Headphones have come so far. So much you can get done just with headphones

I love my DT 1770s, DT 1990s, and focal clear mg pros

What if you have a hifi headphone amp?

What are your thoughts on essential equipment to have for tracking something like vocals aside from monitors, room treatment and good mic. Is a plugin preamp as good as hardware? Is something like Apollo UAD plugins as good as hardware vocal chain?

you sold me on these headphones

already got dt990 pro and apollo solo do i need DAC or not i never tried one before

brother, big fan of the channel. If you're impressed with the DAC quality of RME ADI-2, you gotta test out a unit of Neumann MT48, tho they're harder to manage in terms of AES connectivity, the DAC output, both speakers & monitors beat the ADI-2 by a mile, I'd say about 15-20%, might make up for the difference you mentioned between analog & AES. This was tested in shootouts in multiple studios (countries even, if you wanna count that), speaker systems, headphones, etc, and it was a universal agreement that the Neumann is better, not even close.

Looking at the price & even DAC chip specs, it seems to make no sense, but with converter tech being newer in the Neumann and their implementation, along with even better headphone amps (and I guess higher headroom speaker output stage), it's really surprising! Best purchase I've ever made. Tho I gotta say, I've tested converters with fuller and more impressive low end (tho it's more detailed on the MT48), it still has way more low end than the ADI.

Would love to see your thoughts!

The thd in mdr 7506 is fuckin horrible below 200 Hz. That is, the bass is WILDLY inaccurate and sounds "saturated" off jump. Yes you can get good mixes anyway, i do, but man, it can be difficult. For the most part you're completely right but not with every pair.

Cheers Rayne. Good to know about the DAC being more important. I've just ordered a RME UXC ii so I'm keen to hear how my current headphones sound using that instead of through my DJ mixer audio Interface.

I commented before on your PMC-62 video about using the DJM900 Nexus Mixer AES to run PMC6s.. after getting some advice from another producer I've decided to stay with my Mackie Hr828s for now and instead upgrade my DJM900 to RMEUCX and importantly to fix up my room (Speaker stands, clear out the clutter, add more acoustic treatment and experiment with speaker placement) before going to PMC6s

I think I was doing things in the wrong order by getting PMCs before Interface and room optimisation. + This way when/if I even need to upgrade to the PMC6s then I know they're running through the best AES interface and in a room that is fixed up as best it can.

Hi what do you think of the lauten audio Atlantis?

I don’t know…i find that i need to triangulate to make all the right decisions. My room is fully treated but square so i have bass modes. So i use vsx headphones to get proper sub bass monitoring. When i mix high frequencies on headphones i find that everything sounds good. My Neumann kh150 speakers reveal much more in the midrange as well as mix depth. Maybe some ppl can learn to hear this but i certainly have found that it’s impossible to make eq decisions on a vocal with headphones, as well as proper volume balance and reverb decisions. Headphones are good for listening to individual details. My other pair is the hd600. Never tried super high end

the NEUMANN NDH 30 is my stethoscope.