My dad and I both play bass so i was looking to get him a pair of headphones for Christmas. Any suggestions!? Obviously I’d want them to have an amazing bass sound but I’m also looking for something that would work for just casual music listening too. Knowing my dad he’ll probably use them while doing yard work too.
I was looking at beats and audio-technica but haven’t used either. Any feedback would be great (also suggestions for other bass related gifts would be awesome!)
This thread may have some useful info…
Hey Kaitymarch, I have a pair of Sony WH-1000X M3 that I like very much. Highly recommended.
Andrew.
Pedals! Do you know of any he might like?
I also use Sony WH-1000X M4 which I had before I bought a bass. Sounds great for music and bass noodling but I have never had a pair of dedicated “Bass headphones” so your experience may vary.
Depending on your budget, I can’t recommend the Sennheiser 599SE enough. In fact, I like them so much I have two now. Not sure about using them for yard work though! Keep in mind they are open headphones which means you can hear background noise and others can hear what you are listening to some. But this helps the sound fell more natural and spacious. It also helps the comfort for long sessions as they are breathable. Lastly, they have low clamp force, which means they don’t squeeze your head a lot, which is a big plus for me. If I wasn’t going Sennheiser, I’d go Beyer Dynamic. Both brands are excellent. Just my two cents.
A lot of bassists use Audio-Technica ATH-M50X. For a reason. For the price, they deliver a great sound in a whole spectrum, but the closed-back design really makes the drivers deliver huge bass, but the rest of the spectrum is still there.
I love bass through my 50s, BUT! big but … they are delivered in default with an absolutely atrocious pair of earpads. Your ears will hurt after an hour or so. Therefore, custom earpads are a must. I use these Dekoni ones. There are alternatives, but you have to include them in the purchase price if you will go for these bass headphones evergreen IMHO.
If you’re going to use them for casual listening and you want them to sound good for that, pick them for that first and bass second. If you pick something that’s great for bass, it’s not going to be as good for regular listening. Pretty much any pair of reasonable quality headphones will be fine for bass. Anything with a flat freq response is great for mixing but not so good for playing bass. I have good headphones for listening to music and use a set of cheap One Odio A70 headphones for bass and they work great, esp for the $35 they cost me.
Also if you’re using headphones, you’ll want to make sure you plug them into something that has an amp/cab sim or even the “best” headphones won’t sound that great.
Hi, I was also looking for something similar, the Sony suggestion looks great.
I’m usually plugging my bass to my pedal board along with the sound output from the tablet which I use for following online courses, therefore I’m listening to everything through the bass amp, which sounds fine for me.
My newbie question is: how do I transfer the sound from my bass amp via Bluetooth to the headphones without latency? I’ve tried some cheap and not-so-cheap Bluetooth transmitters plugged in to the bass amp output, but the latency in the sound reaching my standard headphones makes it useless.
Thanks!
Short answer - you don’t.
You would need to move to professional wireless systems (non-Bluetooth)
There is a new Boss Waza system that is supposed to have no latency for $449 that should work. But I’ve not demo’ed it. It’s supposed to plug into your bass output but you could plug into your amp output if you have a 1/4” out.
Bluetooth has latency pretty much built in so it will lag. My Sony’s came with a short cable with a mini jack on it which I plug directly into my amp or Zoom pedal (using a 1/4 inch adapter). The noise cancelling is awesome when listening to music and much better than my Airpods. I do find over ear headphones hot (I have sweaty ears I guess) but the Sony’s are my goto for Bass and for using in my hobby wood shop to protect my ears from loud noise.
I use SONY MDR 7506 and AKG K702 which are quite different in sound and comfort.
For shure a bluetooth one doesn´t work for recording, but maybe for rehearsal it will do fine for you.
You can get reasonably low latency for much cheaper. The latency depends on the bluetooth codec being used, with SBC being the slowest, and aptX Low Latency and Faststream being the fastest.
Take a look at this video for example. Those headphones are around EUR 120, and can do both aptX-LL and Faststream.
i’m definitely too much of a newbie to know anything about this myself but i’ll pick his brain and see what he says. any suggestions?
Thank you everyone for all your suggestions!! They were super helpful. I ended up going with the Sony WH-XB910N bass boosted!
Second this pair of headphones they are the best to listen through, I us them when doing sound tech
Yeah they are commonly recommended.
I think the currently most popular monitor headphones likely are:
Audio-Technica ATH-M50
Sony MDR-V6/MDR-7506
Beyerdynamics DT990 Pro (or one of its closed-back siblings)
AKG K240
This is a Preamp Pedal that is highly regarded…
Tech 21 SansAmp Character Series VT Bass DI | Sweetwater
Let me know if you need a suggestion in a different price range or if he has a particular interest.
I, with couple of others, have DT990 PROs and ATH-50x constantly both connected to my interface. They are really good in a different circumstances, but both are great.
MDR-7506 are … IMHO … absolute shit, but a lot of people like them.
If I was in a tight budget spot, I would definitely take a look on Samson SR-850, they are insane for the money.
I have DT990 Pros myself, really great.
I also have a pair of MDR-V6. I would not describe it as bad in any way, and after all, it was the most used studio monitor in the world for a reason. But the MDR-7506 is indeed a step down.
