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Ultrasone headphones for location work. Which ones?


Christian Spaeth

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  • 2 years later...
On 2014-1-20 at 7:29 AM, John Blankenship said:

I use Ultrasone HFI-680, Sony 7506, Remote Audio 7506HN, and Etymotic E-4.

 

Typically: 680s on the cart, 7506s for bag work, HNs when appropriate (e.g. Indy 500, NFL games), and the E-4 for special situations where regular cans are difficult to manage (e.g. wearing a hard hat).

I've been thinking about switching up to a new set of cans. Im using the 7506s for bag and assist/utility work, but have been interested in the ultrasone 680s or beyer dt250s after reading people's experiences of less fatigue on the ears after a days work.

Was curious if you had any insight on how bulky the ultrasones may be compared to the 7506s.

I've seen a few on different mixers carts but I'm curious if anyone's putting them to use for bag work. Going to try and track some down locally, but any insight would be appreciated in the meantime!

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I find the Ultrasone HFI-680 a bit more bulky than Sonys, but not by enough that it matters. 

Much bulkier than either are the Remote Audio High Noise cans (which use Sony 7506 drivers).  When I need to isolate better what I'm hearing, the RAs are often a good choice. 

Another option is the Bose noise-cancelling phones.  They're lightweight, comfortable, and sound really good -- even though they're not as accurate overall as the Ultrasones.  A well-established successful mixer that I know and respect has used Bose for years and loves them.  I've been using them for NFL game day action, and once they become familiar, they're a good choice for knocking out a lot of background gibberish.  I also use the Bose for plane travel.

 

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Come on guys
The standard is Sennheiser HD-25-2
Get real!
mike

Not so sure if this was meant as joke, but if not then I definitely disagree.
I have tried so many different headphones and originally liked the HD-25's for a nice compromise for many aspects, such as sound, isolation, comfort and so on. Then I switched to the 7506 and I much prefer their sound. So much more open and revealing - not nice, definitely wouldn't choose them for music listening, but much more suitable for the job.
After trying and discarding others, I bought the Ultrasone Signature Pro. Such nice headphones (albeit a bit pricey). Love their sound. Worked with them for a while, but it turns out they actually have the ability to make everything sound nice and conceal problems I want to identify and them solve. So they make the job better, but they make me worse at doing my job. So I switched back to the 7506, partly because I also aquired the HN7506 and the switch back and forth is obviously much easier. Now I suffer again, because I hear all this crap.

Sometimes, though, I do wonder if I shouldn't switch back to the Ultrasones and just relax a bit...
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I like the idea of the bose noise canceling headphones. I have never tried them for location sound work but I have tried them on many times and think they are incredible. Also having such good noise canceling would be great. I wonder how they would compare to the sound of my 7506. I agree that it should not sound good, it needs to sound accurate. If your getting too much ear fatigue you might be monitoring too loudly. 

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I don't know... I did work with noise-cancelling headphones on a couple of student projects. It wasn't Bose, but some Audio Technica model. They are fairly noisy, but sound ok'ish, and comfortable to wear. Not a very closed design, so you need to rely on the noise cancelling part to do its job well. And it does to a degree. But I suspected that they would also change the audio in a way I couldn't really know, so in the end I simply didn't trust them.
Not an option for me.

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From what I understand the Bose noise-cancelling units are way ahead of others.  They sound really good for music and once you're used to them (true about all headphones, of course), they perform well for our application also. 

I like them for NFL gigs because they're much more compact than the Remote Audio HNs and I also use them on the plane when traveling.

For location dialog I start with the Ultrasones and switch to the RA HNs when I need the extra isolation.

I switched from the 7506s when years ago I did a live streaming event that required mixing a musical group in real time and I simply couldn't hear the mix the way I needed to with the Sonys.  I pulled out my Etymotic in-ear units to finish that gig and added Ultrasones to my sonic arsenal soon thereafter. 

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I love the ath m50x. Used to wear 7506, then went to Hd-25's. bag work only now with the Hd-25's except when I require more isolation. Some seinheiser hd 280's for a while then I did a day with the At's... never went back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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