So a lot seemingly opting for open back over closed back then is the gist so far. The 770s probably the most referred to set of headphones yet. Is there any difference between the various ohm options in terms of quality, or are they all equal and just suited for difference output/amplifier options?

 

Would an Audient ID14 MkII be OK to power a 250 ohm set of Beyerdynamic 770/880/990 to decent volumes?

And of the Beyerdynamic ones, which is best from the 770, 880, and 990 Pro models?

 

Pretty much depends on whether you need closed, or med open design. They are all very transparent and accurate sonically and mixes checked with them translate well. They are HI-Z cans so you'll need a headphone amp with a bit of juice to drive them.

 

Wouldn't am Audient ID14 MkII interface be enough to drive the 250 ohm variants?

 

It should be able to, but in my personal experiences; sometimes this can vary a bit more than what "on paper" would lead you to expect. This is a good example of something you want to buy from a retailer with a good exchange policy, should you have to return them for an exchange vs. get stuck buying an unwanted amp. My 250ohm 990's arrived with a defective 1/8"-1/4" adapter, and it was very confusing.

https://support.audient.com/hc/en-us/articles/205565985-Audient-Headphone-Amplifiers-Safe-SPL-Levels

"Conclusion

The bottom line is, that iD14 (and also iD22) is more than capable of driving any professional headphone on the market loud enough for all comfortable and safe listening."

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2023

Thanks for this! This is exactly what I needed before making the purchase. I think I may take a punt on the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 Ohm headphones as my alternative and open back set, and continues to use my Audio Technica ATH-M50X as my closed back set. I do also have a set of Aiaiai TMA-2 DJ Profile for DJing too, but they are way too bassy and punchy for production, mixing, and mastering, notwithstanding that they clamp a fair bit on my huge head so not fit for long term use for hours on end

 

I would recommend to add a headphone amp to your setup, you can get top performing ones for just over 100$ these days e.g. Topping L30.

Also i would add Hifiman Sundara to the suggestions.

 

Looking at the specs given for the phones output on the audient it's not really clear as to how they are listing the output ratings. The "R" designation they place next to the "spec" is unclear as to what they are on about. IF the audient gear is considered to be in a "pro" or "semi-pro" genre it could be assumed that the design is made to be universally correct for lo AND hi-z cans alike. Personally I have never heard of audient. I do know that the phone amp on my RME HDSPe AIO pro interface card is well able to drive the 880's just fine.

 

Here are the stats from the above video about the Audient ID14 MkII, where it shows a difference between using USB-A and USB-C connector. From this, it seems like it should have plenty to power the 250 ohm DT 990 Pro's when using USB-C.

Also, Audient is normally up there with the best and most recommended audio interfaces, and am surprised there are people who haven't heard of them.

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2023

They make rather decent stuff, inexpensively. But most listed on that chart are models in the ~200$ range. Motu M2/M4, Focusrite Scarletts, UAD Volt, the little SSL, etc. I thought you already had a racked MOTU for some reason.

 

I lot of great advices in this thread and a lot advising open back headphones because they are better for mixing and mastering. A golden rule in studio is to have closed back headphones for recording and open back for mixing. So what you clearly need is buy some good open back headphones.

I am personally leaning towards Beyer Dynamic, AKG and Sennheiser ones, so I would advise you BD DT990, AKG K712, or SH HD650. You can't go wrong with any of these. Just take some time to get used to them.

If you'd like to buy something more "modern", I heard a lot of praise for these (generally on GearSpace...) new Austrian Audio Hi-X65 open back headphones. I'm sure they are great. Check them out here.

btw. 600 ohm headphones should be just fine with any audio interface (but not phone, ipod and similar shit). More impedance actually means better linearity. Headphones with low impedance (32-64 ohm) are always too bassy. The best headphones always have at least 250 ohm impedance.

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2023

I did used to have a racked MOTU 828, but it's firewire and had issues with connecting to Windows 11. Now I use the MOTU as an ADAT into the Audient ID14 MkII to get additional inputs, so the audio output comes out of the Audient now.

 

When I started I had AKG 241 mkII. Now, for years I have the HD650, very happy. To my taste, much better. I have a friend who is delighted with Neumann NDH30. The same friend sold the Audieze...

 

This afternoon, I have actually just picked up an opened box and unused Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 Ohm locally that I got for £35 (probably about $40/Euros). They look totally unused, in box with packaging, and seem to work perfectly. Yet to try them out with my Audient ID14 MkII though, which I plan to do later this evening.

 

Volume wise you should be good with your MkII, in fact they made one of the louder interfaces. You should not listen higher than normal conversation level att all, if you value, and want to preserve your hearing, and avoid tinitus and high frequency loss, or hearing loss in general. My tinitus is coused with loud headphone listening. I stopped with that practice more than 20 years ago, I am 43 now, and even that tinitus is still and always there, I still can hear all the way up to 19.800 Khz. Stay away from loud listening like plaque.

With Audient ID14 MkII, and other models of their interfaces you should be more concerned about headphones impedance, becouse they're headphone amps all have pretty high impededance of around 23 Ohm, and will shift your headphones frequency response if you use it with low impededance headphones. So you should not be using it within headphones below 80 to 90 Ohm.

In response to headphones you would not gain much, if anything if you go with 770s from 50x. Specaly with software frequency corection (witch seadly is a must to this days for serious work with any headphones). Even though that 770s are one of the beater closed back phones, so are the 50x. For mixing even better. They are flatter and more accurate off the two. On the other hand Bayers are much, much more comfortable with valure pads. But that whole series clamp like depression. Good thing that metal headband is extreamly bendable and you can conform it however you like, so they can just lightly rest on the ears once you expend them. Just don't hold it to headphones speakers when you force it. Hold it for the ends of headband itself so you don't reap it apart when banding. Becouse you need to really meanly bend it. A lot. They even start to sound difrently. More natural with lees comopreson more speker like, when you expand and relax headband. Myself personally wouldn't use closed back for anything other than tracking. Audio-Technica ATH-R70x are the one to look at. They are one of the most acurate outside the box with, for headphones, pretty good frequency response and well menaged distortion figures. Sennheiser HD 650 probably first choice for many, and deservedly so. They, and ATH-R70x are pretty much neck and neck. From lower cost model, go with AKG K612 Pro. This are best value for money and even flater=better in frequency response than K712 Pro. They also have lees distortion and is well menaged (distortion) in sub bass region. Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro and 990 pro (I will always go with this instead of 770 for mixing), are more than pretty solid choices. 990 pro are different from other open back because fave much more impact in lower bass, and that is a good thing becouse you don't have to be boosted as much in sub bass region like all other open back HPhones. And once corected and headband expanded they become one vary respectable pair of phones. Outside the box, without software corection they are inaccurate and just average pair of phones. But correction do wonders with this pair if it's done right. In the more expensive "Higher End" you should look in Focal Elear, pretty good frequency response for headphones and exempary low distortion. They have more premium build quality, but doesn't sound any "batter" than ATH-R70x or even AKG K612 Pro. Witch ever you choose,, for any of tham, software corection curve is mandatory if you value honest representation of frequency response and acuracy, witch afcourse you should.

Sorry on my bad English.

 

With higher impedance headphones and a lower output amp/interface, you can still get the volume up to this "listening level", but it's very bad to use for monitoring if you have to overdrive the amp to achieve this level. It will be the dB SPL you want, but it will introduce distortion because you will have the interface/amp up way too high, just to overcome the resistance of higher impedance headphones. You will usually notice this sounding "thin" or "Brittle", as well. It's pretty obvious, and very fatiguing. Short version.

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2023

I had a headphone obsession for years, tried to test as much as possible and ended up with the Denon AH-D7000, this with CanOpener and TB Morphit was my mixing headphone. (second place was the sennheiser HD600), but now the Denon is back in the box and I'm using the Slate VSX, not as nice as the Denon in looks, but it sounds fantastic!

 

Wanted to get VSX, but they were out of stock at that moment and Realphones was on sale and supported my cans, so I went with it and after 2 years of using it, don't regret a thing. One needs to learn what he got and than truly rely on it, changing cans and solutions all the time is pointless IMO. That's why I think VSX is perfect for that, you pay enough bucks and stick to it, there's so many people with huge amount of credibility on GS having amazing results with them, you just know it's you who is lacking, not solution, so that keeps the GAS at minimum, thinking, maybe if I only get other cans or other solution, than I would get better results and stuff like that.

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2023

Time to change the oil!