headphone/monitor recommendation

Get that song on tape! Errr... disk?
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jthomas
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headphone/monitor recommendation

Post by jthomas » Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:05 pm

I'm looking for a recommendation for an inexpensive headphone that won't rattle at various frequencies when I play guitar through my computer recording setup. I have a very basic setup going from guitar to Focusrite Scarlett to computer to amp to speakers/headphone. I have a Yamaha RH-5Ma that rattles with the higher frequencies. That makes me unhappy. Last year I bought a Pioneer SE-MJ721. (this is a $100 or so POS). Grrrr!

I am looking for something in the $100 range that won't f'ing rattle. I don't want to buy headphone set after set and hit the same problem. Anybody know of anything that would be essentially guaranteed to not rattle?

Thanks in advance.

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oid
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Re: headphone/monitor recommendation

Post by oid » Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:40 pm

Are you dumping raw guitar in? If so run through some compression and perhaps a limiter to catch any big peaks before feeding the headphones. Raw audio has a huge dynamic range and even if it sounds quiet there can be strong signals at the edges of your hearing which are slamming the cones. Throwing on a high and low cut at the extremes of the instrument is also useful.

Failing that, Sony MDR7506 can take a beating, cheapish and good sounding.
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Embenny
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Re: headphone/monitor recommendation

Post by Embenny » Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:59 pm

oid wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:40 pm
Are you dumping raw guitar in? If so run through some compression and perhaps a limiter to catch any big peaks before feeding the headphones. Raw audio has a huge dynamic range and even if it sounds quiet there can be strong signals at the edges of your hearing which are slamming the cones. Throwing on a high and low cut at the extremes of the instrument is also useful.

Failing that, Sony MDR7506 can take a beating, cheapish and good sounding.
Wow. I was about to post literally the same advice after reading the OP. The bandpassing. The basic dynamic processing. The MDRs, which are as honest and reliable a headphone as you can find in that price range.

I have nothing else to add. That was good advice.
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jthomas
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Re: headphone/monitor recommendation

Post by jthomas » Wed Nov 28, 2018 6:41 pm

Cool and thanks. I'll give the compression a shot.

The Yamaha headphones rattle even playing back a CD. That's too bad because they are comfortable.

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oid
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Re: headphone/monitor recommendation

Post by oid » Wed Nov 28, 2018 7:48 pm

If they rattled from day one when playing back a CD they likely had a flaw, if not you just damaged them by feeding them too wide a dynamic range and/or listened at to high of a volume.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: headphone/monitor recommendation

Post by jthomas » Sat Jan 12, 2019 7:14 pm

G'Day...

Just wanted to pass on a follow-up:

Compressor (Digitek Main Squeeze using the monitor out) limiting the guitar signal didn't fix the problem. Oddly, it seemed to produce some unpleasant distortion and when I tried to dial that down, made the guitar signal sorta weak. I have to believe that it's possible to use a compressor in that position, but I'll need to experiment to sort it out. I'm using the free version of guitar rig and I have played around with the "tube" compressor that comes with it but that didn't really fix the headphone rattle. (Same rattle with 2 different ones)

SO: I bought a Sony MDR7506 set and the rattle is effectively gone. These are great sounding headphones. So, mainly, I just wanted to say thanks.

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