SwingDJs

Having recently destroyed my pair of Sony MDR-V150, I've been looking around for a new pair of headphones without a lot of success. I've figured out at least the following:

- no earbuds. They tend to hurt my ears, or I wander away and hurt the equipment and my head. I'm currently using my iPod buds and they're causing me misery.
-preferably a metal-reinforced frame of some kind. The plastic headband and clips on my previous phones was their downfall. There is a lesson to be taken about abusing one's equipment that's already been learned the hard way, but I'd still like to try to avoid possible future mishaps by upgrading as well.
-padding on the headband, just for comfort.
-reasonable sound. I don't need full-on audiophile equipment, but it needs to be able to be heard over the sound at the venues I'm at.
-cost anywhere up to $80-$100 retail (meaning $30-$70 Amazon or other online vendors). Cheaper is obviously better, but I'm trying to get a range of options here.

I'd like to get opinions before I go ahead and post my first choices. Thanks!

Sony V700DJ

Sony V600

I have both.

--Stan Graves

Sony MDR-7506. They appear to be about $89-99 these days. I use a pair of these regularly for live mixing, and have never been disappointed.

Not as good for DJing/mixing, but very pleasant for listening for extended periods, I have a pair of Fostex T40-RP, which go for about $70. The only reason I wouldn't recommend them in a live sound or DJing environment is that the earpieces don't fold outward to make it easy to listen in only one ear. If important to you, they also don't collapse into themselves, so they're kind of bulky for storing. But the cord has two terrific features. First, it is quite long -- about 6 feet, which makes it very easy to move way across a sound booth without removing them. The second is that it is detachable and replaceable, so if you smash it, or the cat chews through it, you can replace the cord without ditching the headphones or (shudder) cracking them open and soldering in a new one.

Brent

SoundInMotionDJ wrote:Sony V600

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these headphones! I have used them exclusively for the past 8 or 9 years on countless gigs. The are durable and sound amazing. I can't recommend them enough.

Jesse

JesseMiner wrote:

SoundInMotionDJ wrote:Sony V600

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these headphones! I have used them exclusively for the past 8 or 9 years on countless gigs. The are durable and sound amazing. I can't recommend them enough.

Jesse

Me too!

Would you pick circumaural headphones or supra-aural headphones with a noise-reduction feature?

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD-473's which are circum-aural and they seem pretty good at limiting outside noise. I wear them at work where there are sometimes 2 conversations that I'm not part of going on in the same office plus a noisy server rack. That unwanted noise is suppressed enough that I don't notice it when I have music playing.

I have a pair of fold-up PX-100's which I travel with, they're alright but not near as good. They are supra-aural. For DJing, I don't like them as much but they are handy for travel.

looks like I found a few models that are circumaural and sound-limiting. But they cost maybe $20 more than the types previously mentioned (which, btw, were running about the same price).

I have not bought headphones since 1971!! So this discussion is interesting to me.

more discussion-

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/lofive ... 06437.html

I guess it would be fair to name the ones I've been looking at:

Sony MDR-NC50 - $115
noise canceling circumaural.
Skullcandy Proletariat - $100
Strongly looking at these. folds up nicely, award-winning, and well-reviewed (and very favorably so!)
Sony MDR-V600 - $67
had a good pair of these but they didn't survive a couple trips through airport luggage. Probably won't get again unless I can find a good case for it.
Sennheiser HD-280 - $80
Strongly looking at these as well.
Sennheiser PXC-250 - $150
Seems a little overpriced imo.

I am perhaps one of the most snobbish audiophiles I know amongst Swing DJs, and I buy earbuds that are as expensive as my IPod purely for sound quality, even for listening while working out.

However, for Swing DJing, I frankly would not spend more than $50 on headphones unless you plan to travel with your headphones and use them for more than DJing. Noise-canceling and other audiofile-quality considerations should be irrelevant to a Swing DJ. And if you have the high-quality, audiophile headphones, then you should buy a second, cheap pair for DJing so the good ones don't get destroyed.

First, DJ headphones get knocked around so much that it is not worth the risk of destroying $100+ headphones while DJing. Second, not only do you not need the sound quality of better headphones, any sound quality benefits will be worthless 90% of the time because your prime focus is often on the rhythmic flow, not the subtle audio nuances of the musicianship and recording quality. You also should mostly be looking for reminders of what a song sounds like, not selecting songs you have never heard before. If you get absorbed into listening to the audible nuances of a song while DJing, you might not be paying enough attention. to the more important aspects of DJing.

Two factors: 1) cover your ear and 2) durability. Durability includes NOT having lots of moving, rotating, twisting parts necessary for a "perfect" fit, because those parts will break with all the on-off action. Virtually all headphones will suffice in audio quality.

very good point Lawrence. In that case, my research is pretty much null and void. So does anyone have any suggestions of a robust headset or a case to make my headphones last a bit longer through luggage?

If you want really rugged headphones, perhaps look at the ones used for military applications. Like these.

If you have a problem with headsets getting damaged in transit in luggage, try hard shell luggage with enough padding so stuff doesn't bounce around but don't overstuff. If you're really paranoid, but an aluminum flight case and take it carry on.

... or don't bring any headphones, just buy the cheap $3 ones for sale on the plane on the way to the gig.

Really, I think any of the headphones marketed for mobile DJs should be pretty good for normal use and abuse. If you manage to easily break them, it's likely not the headphones that are the problem.

I use an old pair of Sony headphones. The headband piece broke (due to abuse), and now makes a great way of just grabbing one and holding it up to my ear for quick cueing.