Monitors or headphones?

[oliviergus]

I'm getting closer to my recording rig and I have started looking for some headphones or monitors.

My situation is that I have around 100€ to spend on monitors/headphones and I have come up with 2 ways to do this.

1. I buy some studio monitors for all the money and I can play quiet with my trashy iPhone earphones.
2. Buy good headphones but no monitors. How would this affect my mixes/guitartone?


Thanks in advance and sorry for like the 2d thread in the recordingforum in 2 weeks.

 

[ThrustTony]

I'm getting closer to my recording rig and I have started looking for some headphones or monitors.

My situation is that I have around 100€ to spend on monitors/headphones and I have come up with 2 ways to do this.

1. I buy some studio monitors for all the money and I can play quiet with my trashy iPhone earphones.
2. Buy good headphones but no monitors. How would this affect my mixes/guitartone?


Thanks in advance and sorry for like the 2d thread in the recordingforum in 2 weeks.

I'm in the same situation and I'm going for decent headphones first

My thinking is if the room's not sound treated properly then theres no point in spending on decent monitors

Decent isolation headphones will cut out a lot of hassle in the future with recording vocals as well as the click track wont bleed into the vocal mic

 

[Winspear]

Yeah, phones.
Most untreated rooms aren't terrible and shouldn't full on ruin a mix, but you can be more confident with a good pair of headphones.

100 euro will not afford any new monitors worth having. Used maybe. It's 200 euro upwards for decent monitors.
Should be able to get yourself a pretty decent pair of headphones though

 

[oliviergus]

Okey then I made the right choice then. I did just order AKG K-121 headphones.. Are they any good? Its the lowest priced AKG, but I guess its alright.

 

[rectifryer]

I bought the AKG 240 and I'd say they are a worth antagonist for my Event TR6s. Headphones are a better reference for the money.

 

[Handbanana]

I dont know about you guys, but I get ear fatigue quick with cans. I recommend monitors any day of the week unless you're using cans for something simple i.e. midi sequencing/basic track laying/etc...

 

[Ill-Gotten James]

Here's my two cents. Get monitors and a cheap pair of headphones. I agree with the statement above from Headbanana, it does start to hurt your ears after wearing headphones for an extended period of time; however, they are nice for keep the volume down and not disturbing neighbors, if you have any. When I mix and I have not in a while because of lack of time due to school obligations, I use the monitors first to get the mix as perfect as possible. Then I compare the mix through regular computer speakers. Computer speakers are factory eq'ed, meaning they are not perfectly balanced like monitors. By comparing your mix through monitors and a not so nice pair of speakers, you can get a better idea of what your final mix will sound like outside of a studio environment. Hence why I feel that you should invest in monitors and potentially crappy headphones, or vise versa, good headphones and crappy speakers. I prefer monitors though because I have big old ears and after a while those headphones start to really hurt my head. Do what's going to best suit your needs though.

 

[stewartsdecay]

the biggest thing with headphones is they cause ear fatigue a lot sooner. whatever you end up going with the best thing is to use other speakers (laptop, stereos) to see how they respond in the really world.

 

[Oxidation_Shed]

You're not going to get a decent enough pair of monitors for that price. Either save up and get some, or just go with headphones. At least with headphones you will have flat frequency response.

 

[JamieOxford]

You're not going to get a decent enough pair of monitors for that price. Either save up and get some, or just go with headphones. At least with headphones you will have flat frequency response.

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