After listening to your headphones for a while do you ever get headaches or become agitated? Do your ears start to hurt? This is called ear fatigue, and it is closely related to hearing damage.  A bad pair of headphones will have presence peaks, meaning that certain frequencies will 'stick out'. Having your ears bombarded with the same frequencies for hours on end causes these problems, and in extreme cases your ears will eventually 'tune out' those frequencies permanently.

Nearly all consumer headphones are 'colored'--meaning that they contain presence peaks--because the manufacturers sell more headphones that way. Consumers tend to think that the headphone with frequencies that 'stick out' sound better when in fact the reverse is technically true because other frequencies are being overpowered and therefor can't be heard! Such headphones also cause the most ear fatigue and hearing damage. Unfortunately, many professional models of headphones are also made this way. Examples: Beats / by Dre, Sony MDR-V700, MDR-7506, and most other Sony professional and consumer models.

Professional studio headphones more often have a flat response. Studio engineers demand flat response headphones because they need to hear all of the frequencies as completely and naturally as possible.  Knowing this, many audiophiles will purchase studio headphones for home use. Besides sounding better, a flat response headphone causes less ear fatigue and hearing damage. What is more, professional-level headphones tend to have a lower impedance which makes them louder with less amplification.  This means that the headphone amp does not have to work as hard to make them loud.  Recommended examples: BeyerDynamic DT770, DT1350; Fostex TR80-80, T40RPMK3; Ultrasone HIF450, HFI580, HFI680 & HFI780. High-end audiophile examples of flat response headphones: Ultrasone Edition 8 and others in the Edition series; Fostex TH600, TH900 and TH900MK2

Good professional DJ headphones (and some studio headphones) are flat on the high end with an extended low end for extra bass. All of that extra bass is not good for your ears, of course, but at least the high end presence is reduced. Note: These headphones are generally not recommended for any sort of studio mixing, unless you like ending up with recordings that lack bass! Recommended examples: Allen&Heath XD2-53, Ultrasone DJ1; Audio-Technica ATH-Pro5 MS; Sony MDR7506; Vestax HMX1.

Whatever your headphone needs, give the experts at Audio-Depot a call or drop us an email to learn more!