Are there any headphones that can replace monitors?

I heard from my friend (he is audiophile/mixing engineer) that AKG K 1000 sounds very similar to monitors... Others are limited by technology limits and cannot fully compares to monitors...
 
hrrr... I mix ONLY in headphones. cuz its the only way i have listened to music since i was a kid. I think its better to know your monitors (and thier limits). there are no perfect monitors. get to know your listening enviornment is best. if you've never mixed in headphones before prepare for MANY re-re-re-re-remixes. the proximity is lost, so really fine tuning your ears to your headphones is super important. as for headphones, lots of people recomment Audio Techinica ATHM50s. i have ATHM40Fs and they are perfect for me.
 
Honestly, for about a year I had a $100 pair of multimedia speakers and my ATH-M50s, and I still did all my mixing on my computer speakers, since I know them (from listening to music on them) and I just hate mixing with headphones, I get sorta claustrophobic and feel like I'm losing all perspective. Then again, it'd probably be better with semi-open headphones (indeed, I've heard they're better for mixing), but my main criterion for cans was good isolation, so I got the Audio Technicas.
 
I've got semi-open BeyerDynamic DT-990PRO but I'm still more used to these 50$ Creative Speakers I've got at home.... hah.. :(

But I believe it's all about getting used to it. You can mix in almost anything, it'll just take more/less time depending on what it is. I intend to learn my DT990PROs inside and out... some day.
 
I can't do whole mixes with my K240's at all, I've tried a couple times. The do complement my B2030A's very well, however. I do almost all of the low end mixing (kick, bass) with them. When doing tweaks to the "final product", I constantly switch between the AKG's and Behringers. If I could only choose one though, I'd pick the Behringers, even though I don't have any room treatment and the Behringers aren't even semi-pro quality (I guess). The decisions I make with the monitors seem to translate a lot better almost all the time, only the low end sometimes ends up weird; that's why I use the AKG's for that. I must admit that I listen to music (and whatever else) mostly through the Behringers, so I'm very used to them; especially in this room.

...Oh shit, it's 5AM already? I didn't realize until I noticed the time in my post :lol: I'm glad I don't have any work tomorrow!
 
Sounds like i'm gonna have to dig out my ATHM50s and put a plug back on them. I always thought they were good but i was convinced out of it...........which is why i'm sitting here with a pair of DT100s on with no bass response whatsoever
 
Don't think I could mix entirely on cans. I always have a fear that they're skewing the response in some surreal way. I use the ATH-M50s for some tiny bass adjustments at times, but that's it. The low-end is where your average room will suffer most. FWIW I spent the first 3 years of my engineering life mixing on $300 generic chinese monitors in a completely untreated room and some of my best mixes are from that time simply because the source tracks were captured and played well. If you learn your environment, you can do some pretty crazy stuff with cheap gear. It's all about confidence and familiarity.
 
I mixed only on headphones till I bought my first monitors (A7) some time ago, and I was shocked and took me a long time to adapt my ears to monitors. Everything was far away from me, very blurred, I cannot recognise all the details which was audible in headphones...
 
also another difference is when you are mixing with headphones that you get a different stereo image as when you mix on a stereo monitor setup.

example:
put on a song like, pearl jam - alive...

on monitors, you hear:
the different guitars, left, right, etc..
but the vocals, coming out directly of center
close the eyes.. listen to the music, aim to the direction where you think you the vocals come from, open your eyes.. exactly in the middle, where no speaker is bumpin.. :)
(of course this only works if your monitors are standing in "calibrated" stereo position, not too far, and not to close since then the stereoband gets distorted)

on headphones, you dont get this phenomen, but i do often work with headphones too (AKG 240) because i hear much more details and can analyse the left/right pans faster..).

cheers
exoslime

PS: (i hope you understand what i trying to tell you, expressing that wasnt that easy for a non native english speaker ;)
 
My opinion is that mixing on cans is fine, but you'll definitely want check your mixes on other sources. Your mixes will translate different from headphones to speakers. When you are listening to a pair of speakers in a room your left ear isn't only hearing the left speaker, and your right ear isn't only hearing the right speaker as you do when wearing headphones. You can work around this by either using a headphone amp with a crossfeed circuit or there are some plugins out there that will do the same thing.

Use the tools you have at your disposal to the best of your ability.
 
siegfried said:
I mixed only on headphones till I bought my first monitors (A7) some time ago, and I was shocked and took me a long time to adapt my ears to monitors. Everything was far away from me, very blurred, I cannot recognise all the details which was audible in headphones...
Click to expand...

Room treatment will help that ;)
 
I actually enjoy mixing with headphones, but I also feel hearing the monitors is completely necessary in order to get a more accurate audio picture of everything. I can actually work on cans for a long time, though. Low end, as mentioned, I find easier to judge in my room with cans, but otherwise for me it's a lot of going back and forth between cans and monitors in order to judge everything else!

Those Grado RS1 headphones look cool, I don't think I've even heard of them. Are they worth $625? I'm still using the Sony MDR-7506 cans (I know, slap me now!)... I know people complain that they're bright, but I'm very used to how they translate. The low end is pretty weak on the Sonys though...
 
to be honest im not really a fan of monitors because there are so many different types out there that create different sounds. the idea of a monitor is to represent a balanced sound so when you take your mix into the real world it will sound good on a crappy 20 bucks radio and when being kranked through a huge p.a.

so i stick with headphones. the best tip i've ever heard is eq your headphones (or monitors) to any sting album. apparently his albums have the most balanced sound out there so if you can get it to sound good with a sting record then your mix will work.

i done it before with my mate in his studio and the results are astonishing - just try it yourself.
 
equilibriax said:
haha really? sting? which albums are listenable?
Click to expand...

Can't say anything about it being especially balanced, but brand new day
has some nice songs ^^

Anyway, I'll second what many people said before, mixing on cans is nice,
but even my crappy nEar 05 tell me things my akg k701 don't (reeeaaally nice headphones by the way ;))
 
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