Friday, June 10, 2011

Choosing DJ Headphones - How Much Should You Spend?

By Peter Scott


Just how much you will need to pay to have the headphones that are the best for you depends on the things you are planning to do with those headphones.

DJ Headphones may vary considerably in cost, beginning in the $20-30 area, up to over $1000.

High priced headphones are often costly for two reasons: Isolation and Accuracy.

Isolation is just how efficiently the headphones keep out outside sound, like the roar of a club or maybe the newborn baby screaming in the airplane seat behind you when you are attempting to sleep. The better your headphones are at isolation, the more costly they will be.

Accuracy can be quite essential, which is why very accurate headphones are incredibly high priced. When you hear a song on your laptop speakers, then listen to the very same song on your car radio you'll see that they can come across as radically different.

This is because speakers and headphones that are not high quality may have flawed frequency response. This means that various audio frequencies can be louder or possibly softer than they should be. For instance, your computer speakers probably have very little bass frequency response. You are not going to get that subwoofer thump from a notebook. Conversely, if you hear a song on that huge sub you hooked up inside your trunk, you're probably hearing too much bass, and not nearly enough treble or mids.

Ideally, as a pro DJ or musician you want headphones or speakers that have a flat frequency response. This means that when you listen to a song, the sound you hear is exactly the way the recording engineer mixed it, with virtually no flawed frequency boosts.

This can be crucial, because you want your mixes to sound exactly the same on stage or in the club as they did when you were mixing them back at home.

So what amount of isolation and accuracy do you actually need?

Well, that depends on what you want to do. Let's say for instance, that you're DJing a smaller event at a college, you're spinning other people's records and you're not remixing anything ahead of time or doing anything too complex. Or maybe you just want a nice sounding pair of headphones for casual listening.

In either case you'd be fine if you choose a set of Shure SRH 440s. These headphones sound very good, they give you a good, mostly flat response, and they're also made well which means they'll last a long time. Additionally they are extremely well padded and they fit snugly around the ear to deliver great passive isolation. I would highly recommend these headphones for anyone from a casual user, to someone who's looking to get somewhat more serious about music, but who isn't completely professional at this point.

On the other hand, if you are considering being a professional DJ, DJing big clubs where you spin your very own remixes and cue up every record, in that case you'll probably need a set that's considerably more accurate and isolating, so you can hear the track in your headphones over the music presently wailing out of the speakers.

Ultrasone DJ1 Pro headphones are ideal for professional DJs. These are created to protect your hearing by reducing the actual decibels hitting your eardrum, while keeping exactly the same perceived loudness. So basically they as loud as other DJ headphones but your eardrums take 40% less damage. Great especially if you're going to be in the mix for a very long time. Not great, however, if you're on a tight budget.




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