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[humbugP]

Hi!

I want to buy some new headphones, but I don't know what characteristics they need to have. My budget is max $200, I want the best I can get for the money. Can anyone give me any recommendations?  

Thank you

[Audiosprite]

If you're looking for headphones for production, I like the ATH-M50s, they've got a level low end & I use them to help mix often.

[1instrument]

Bryerdynamic dt 770 pro. They are right around two hundred, and worth every penny. Good luck

[tbe]

Around the same price band - big fan of AKG K551. Really comfortable, feel solid, and great sound.

[ZackParrish]

Above but K553 is on sale for $169 on musicians friend right now, and if you can fork over another $50 they have AKG K701s on sale for $250 and they usually go for close to $400+. Really nice phones.

AKG K240s are also on sale for $69 dollars and those usually go for around $100, and that WAS my goto set for the last ten years but I have decided to take advantage of the K701 sale.

The Beyer DT###s are usually pretty good but also have a slightly raised bass response so if you are looking for a super flat frequency response I'd suggest the AKGs.

[humbugP]

Thank you for your recommendations! 

If you're looking for headphones for production, I like the ATH-M50s, they've got a level low end & I use them to help mix often.

Yes I plan to use them for production. When I google around the ATH-M50 keeps coming up as being some of the best. What worries me though is that I read here that they have so-called "closed backs": http://www.headphonesunboxed.com/best-headphones-under-200/ which according to them means that they have less natural/open sound. Do you not find that to be a problem when you mix? In that case maybe it's better that I go for one of the AKG models that ZackParrish and tbe suggest, since they have open backs.

[Kyle Preston]

I've got a pair of the M50s, love em. I always find mixing with headphones to be problematic; I try to use monitors whenever possible. So I can't comment much whether open back or closed back is better for mixing, but I CAN say that these isolate outside noise very well. Pretty sure my neighbors have steel-toed slippers, so these headphones have been a godsend.

[dawid w. mika]

I'm using two different kinds of headphones: Beyerdynamic DT-880 pro (quite close to $200) and Sony MDR-7506 (~ $100).

Beyers are semi-open back headphones and I find them less fatiguing and neutral sounding - excellent to check some aspects of the mix. The dark side with semi-opens are problems with tracking or fieldrecording. In the first scenario your mic can catch clicks of metronome and in the second one you simply hear too much of the environment around you. This led me to buying...

Sony MDR-7506 - closed back, quite cheap, quite robust, quite neutral in sound (but heavy on highs). Good for monitoring while recording and checking mixes. Today I use them even more then Beyers in studio.

Everyone here proposed closed back headphones which are better for first serious all around headphones but if you want only mixing headphones then you may be more happy with open or semi-open ones.