How Do You Listen? A Selection of Headphones for your VO studio

Gear Roundup: VO Studio Headphones

Step One:
You must clearly hear your audio

When you start producing work out of your own studio, you need to accurately hear what you record. The tiny speakers on your laptop or your earbuds just won’t cut it. They don’t provide the full audio spectrum, and there can be a lot of noise or other issues hiding in that signal. You need good headphones.

Blasting stuff back over your home stereo won’t work either. For a lot of reasons, listening back over free-standing speakers can be misleading. Remember all that work you put into damping the reflections and resonances inside your recording space? Guess what… when you position speakers in an open room, the same thing happens all over again. Those projected audio waves start bouncing around your listening space, finding all kinds of nooks and crannies to fill up and mislead you. 

The acoustics of a listening space are complex and need as much attention as your recording space (if not more). Few home environments lend themselves to the type of critical and detail listening needed to produce work going to air, audiobooks, eLearning projects, or even daily auditions.

Free-standing Speakers or Monitors Cause Problems

You might think – “Oh! I’ll just stick a speaker into my booth!”

That could work, or you may find that the speakers you own aren’t designed to be a couple feet from your head. Near-field monitors (the type that are designed to be a close to your ears) are quite different from the speakers used while listening for enjoyment. Also, it’s generally a bad idea to have speakers and microphones in close proximity to one another. It may have worked for Jimi Hendrix (kids, ask your parents…), but this kind of feedback is not your friend.

Even if you don’t create the howl of feedback, you may find that late-night editing sessions are not appreciated if you have to crank things up to hear the details of your crossfades, edits and whether there’s excessive mouth noise.

When you start needing to know the true quality of your recorded audio, I recommend you invest in a set of STUDIO MONITOR type headphones. They’ll let you listen at moderate levels, but still hear the imperfections you need to edit, as well as background noises that you wouldn’t notice when using speakers.

A quick word about wearing headphones in the studio while recording: My short recommendation is “Don’t!” It’s too easy to start listening to yourself while reading a script, which tends to take you out of the moment and undermine your performance. Recording while wearing headphones is a skill that should be developed. Far too many new voice actors only get distracted by headphones. Learn VO skills first, then add headphones when you need to be directed in a live remote session, or if specific projects require them.

How to Listen to your voice: use “Studio Monitor” headphones

In order to get a true sense of audio quality, your headphones be rated or described as “Studio Monitor”, “Studio Reference” or “Reference Monitor.”  This means they will have a “flat” response – they won’t emphasize or restrict certain frequencies.  That is important.

Consumer models or brands which tout “Noise-Cancelling”, “DJ”, “bassBOOM”, Beats or other things you find (even if recommended by a “Dr.”) at your local Best Buy are not what you want for evaluating your recordings.  They will actively change the tone of the recording and may lack the clarity to work for our needs. Remember how microphones act as a filter? Same thing here – there’s a “curve” to the output frequencies as well.

Bear in mind that you will likely be using these headphones ~90% of the time to listen back, so a decent pair is a good investment. This is not a place to cut corners. A bad set of headphones can be painful to wear – both in terms of how they fit your head and how they sound to your ears.

More headphone setup considerations

Your headphones should fit comfortably on your noggin, not be overwhelmingly heavy (though most folks generally get used to that) and should be “closed back” (as opposed to “open back”) design – to prevent sound from leaking out and being picked up by your microphone (important for directed sessions).

Depending upon your physical recording setup and the distance to your microphone, it might be a good idea to run a headphone extension from your interface into your booth area. That lets you go in and out of your booth while wearing them. You can usually find these at local music stores, in coiled (which tend to wrap around themselves) and straight versions (which you tend to trip over). (I prefer the potential of tripping and use the non-coiled type). 

A side note: over the years the most constantly failing cord I seem to encounter are these types of cables – they live a hard life of being bounced around, stepped upon and toss aside. I’ve repaired and replaced more of these than any other connection – going back to music/recording studio days.

Update: When my last molded plastic connector failed, I replaced it with this model from HOSA – which seems to have a heavier metal connection that appears to be replaceable. Will update as it gets more hours on it.

Recommended Headphone Models:

Just like microphones, there will be sonic differences between each of these headphone models. What you are looking for is clear and consistent audio, so that you know how you should sound on them. This is also one place where comfort matters. It helps to try them on. Even if everyone you know says to get a certain model, if it hurts your head to wear them, then don’t get them.

(Updated early 2020 – pricing listed is generally full retail shown via common US retail sites. Links are generally to Sweetwater.com site. These non-affiliate links are provided for current pricing reference and may not be the lowest “street” price to be found on the internet…)

Beyerdynamic DT770 – $180 

These are like wearing kittens on your ears. My current set. Comfy for hours. Nice flat response. None of that plastic-against-the-cheekbones feeling. The more I use these, the more difficult it is to use other models. No, they are not cheap. But, remember, you will be using these for hours every day.
Available here

Update – I was searching for factory replacement ear pads for my DT770’s. They did not appear to be available through audio retailers or even through the Beyerdynamic site – however, a quick email to their customer service department revealed that they run sales through their ebay store – and the replacement pads can be found here.

Sennheiser HD 280 Pro – $100

Very good isolation, which can help if you have more background noise in your studio. Some folks feel they are heavier. One of my favorites as they do a nice job of blocking out environmental sounds.
Available here

Audio-Technica ATH50 – $129

Audio-Technica headphones aren’t super exciting, but they show up in a lot of studios where I record, always sound fine and withstand the abuses of a constant use. Some of the less expensive models seem to leak a little more sound than they should (an issue in directed sessions when you are wearing them while recording), but these (and the ATH40 below) fit well for most people.
Available here

Shure SRH440 – $100

Generally comfortable, a client who used these in their studio introduced me to this model – decent sound and not a bad option.
Available here

Audio-Technica ATH40 – $80

A little more economical version of the ATH50 model, above. Another often found knocking around recording studios. 
Available here

Sony MDR 7506 – $80 (ish)

(Sadly, the Sony headphones I did like -the MDR 7510 model – appears to have been discontinued…)
I had purchased a set of these on the recommendations of other voice actors, but find these to be a bit harsh to use for long-form editing, and they seem to emphasize sibilance a bit more than most.  However, these tend to be commonly found on gigs and many call them “industry standard” (an unfortunate term which gives these a bit more credit than they deserve). A number of VO’s swear by them, but I find them difficult to use for longer than an hour at a time. I still have mine, and see use as my “travel” set and for the hotter days of late summer when my ears appreciate the more “on the ear” fit.

You can sometimes find these more deeply discounted via Amazon. I include these as they tend to be strongly recommended by some people.
Available here

Update – I recently replaced the earpads on my Sony 7506 headphones with a velour set from Wicked Cushions – more info here. ….and of course, soon after that review, Wicked Cushions appears to have discontinued the velour covered style.

Shure SRH240A – $60

Probably the least expensive set I’d trust for detail editing and accurate sound. I’d probably go with these over the Sony 7506 models – but prefer the ATH40 over them both.
Available here

There are many other models to be found – and if you are one of those people who like to see everything which is out there, here are a couple general searches to Studio Monitor grade headphones via Amazon and Sweetwater.

What About IEM’s?

IEM’s or “In-Ear Monitors” can be an option, but at this point, I have not found much of a consensus among the few people who use them. Those who use them for critical listening (mixing engineers or live sound engineers) seem to opt for the custom-fitted type, which are not terribly cheap.

At this point, if you have a strong impulse to try a set, I’d make sure you have the ability to return them if they do not provide the clarity or balance you are looking for.

Some further references –
Musician on a Mission article
Sweetwater.com resource article

A word about “Affiliate” links on products, my gear recommendations and whether I might get a kickback if you click through a link

Items and products included in any article appear because I like them, have used them, and have an opinion about them. If a product interests me enough to investigate, I’ll typically buy the product just the way you would. That lets me consider how much something actually costs, and weigh that against how good it actually is.

Any time a company sends me something to try out for free, I’ll mention that explicitly. But, if I’ve chosen to talk about a piece of gear, or linked through to a specific retailer, it’s because they’ve treated me well and I appreciate it. (In case you haven’t heard me say it recently, Dave Brow at Sweetwater has always been a great resource and understands the needs of voice actors.) 

I currently do have two site sections – Gear and Books – which utilize Amazon affiliate links, and are labeled clearly to that effect. But, stuff doesn’t get listed there unless I like and use it. You can always use smile.amazon.com to support an organization which is important to you.

Of course, I always love working directly with you to address your specific voiceover recording challenges, or if you are good to go and this has been helpful, I always appreciate a cup of coffee.  Thanks for your time and attention here!

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