Which headphone you use for digital piano practicing?

nhanzero · 2022-10-24T02:46:39+00:00

Hi, It's been a year since I got here and have been practicing piano like a madman on P-515 and ATH M50x headphone, but lately the headphone has started dev...

johanibraaten

nhanzero I had a similar process this autumn that ended up with choosing between the Beyerdynamic DT 900 pro X and Sennheiser HD 400 pro (which is the same headphones as the 560s). I liked both but I decided to go for the HD 400 pro. The DT 900 pro X sounded good but they had a strange dip just above 4k which resulted in that I couldn't hear the fundamental of the the highest C (C7) on the piano. It sounded like a string was broken and I only heard overtones. I guess the 700 pro X doesn't have this problem.

nhanzero

johanibraaten Yes the 900X would also be good but my problem is the noise the neighbors making through their karaoke sets is too much, I have to use the closed-back, otherwise the HD 560s would have been perfect!

nhanzero

CyberGene This 700 X Pro has only 48Ohm so it is very loud, I did read your old comment and after testing for quite sometimes, this 700 X Pro has the same characteristics as HD 560s, and it kills all the loud noise my neighbors making through there karaoke sets, so I'm good!

CyberGene

It's possible that these SRH1840 are genuine but coming from a batch that was rejected for some trivial reason, e.g. bad label printing or something like that and somebody got hold of the batch and sold them for a bargain price and that would certainly not be Shure themselves 🙂 I know for sure the the Superlux factory manufactures headphones for AKG and other big brands. Some of the Superlux models are almost universally liked even though they are just €30, so the technology is already mainstream and a pair of headphones is cheap to manufacture, you pay for brand.

SouthPark

CyberGene It's possible CG. Just from looking at these ali ones, it looks like nobody would just create a production line that produces something that looks and feels exactly the same. I reckon they grabbed these from the same production line - or they somehow managed to get some --- somehow. It's definitely suspicious though. Thanks for mentioning Superlux. I'll do some online reading about Superlux!

Johnstaf

I use the Grado RS-1 and Sennheiser HD 650.

MHirsch

I use Sennheiser HD 650 since January. Quite happy with it.

OlivierW

CyberGene Warning : i use DT 770 PRO 80 ohms, with an external MOTU audio card. i don't use the Headphone jack of N1X or MAC mini. The Headphone DAC/amplifier is as important as the headphone…

HZPiano

CyberGene 🤦🏻‍♂️ At least I am consistent

😄

It happens more and more that I google something I would like to know, and find a useful description which was written by… myself.

Well, well.

🤦 Indeed…

Cheers and happy(?) information overload,

PS Just this weekend I got (yet another) recommendation from my brother for the Beyerdynamic DT770 80 Ohm. These are his go-to headphones; he is much into virtual synths and building complete songs in his DAWs. He is not a piano player though.

Indeed, the 250 Ohm version isn't the sweet spot, and only useful with powerful dedicated headphone amplifiers. If any headphone output isn't up to the 250 Ohm task, they just won't sound any good.

Frédéric L

I am using the AKG K712. If find it quite nice: comfort, sound. But it is not very sensitive.

Koobenot

If you're gonna play with VST-s, Sonarworks on the output channel is absolute must.

https://www.sonarworks.com/

CyberGene

Koobenot Sonarworks is a very useful tool that I use but it introduces additional latency (on top of the already inherent latency of playing VST-s in realtime). It's mostly targeted at mixing/mastering rather than realtime playing. It has a mode that is suitable for realtime playing but it introduces audible artifacts.

CyberGene

Here's a quote from the Sonarworks manual:

Advanced features
The Zero Latency mode ensures zero latency of the plugin, making it accessible for live tracking applications. As a trade-off, this setting increases CPU load and slightly changes the phase response of the signal, which is a natural property of minimum phase filters. (View the effect on phase response by enabling the "Filter phase" curve under the "Add" curves selector.) In most cases the phase shift is inaudible - the human brain simply tends to ignore the phase alterations in the signal. However, we recommend the user to decide for themselves the audibility of minimum phase filter artifacts by performing listening tests.

Also:

The Linear Phase setting guarantees linearity in phase response producing ~50 ms latency at 44.1 kHz sample rate. Most of the time this is the best setting to use when adjusting the overall spectral balance of your music.

50ms is an awful lot for realtime playing. For piano playing 10ms is the absolute maximum and it's still rather unacceptable and most people strive for 2-3ms. And these 50ms would be added on top of the regular audio latency due to the buffering. So, only the zero-latency mode can be used but it can introduce phasing issues.

Starfish

nhanzero I use Sony WH-1000XM4. They are ultra-comfortable, excellent sound quality, and have highly effective noise cancelling. They support bluetooth - but I use them wired for minimal latency.

I needed headphones for jamming over the Internet (we do this using Jamulus), both with the keyboard and also acoustic instruments like violin. Particularly with an acoustic instrument I needed to hear the sound coming back as others hear it, so cutting down direct sound was important - hence the noise cancelling - but actually, it helps in really helping me focus in on the piano and what I'm playing when playing on my own.

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