How to select the best headphones for your home recording studio?

Selecting the best headphones for your home studio does not have to be too complicated. The first step is to identify your need or the primary purpose for the headphones. Your headphones could be for tracking, mixing, monitoring, or any combination. Identifying your purpose would help narrow down your search and produce great results.

What are studio headphones?

Studio headphones have features that are designed with audio recording in mind. One of those features (that many don’t think about) is acoustic isolation. When recording music in a studio, you not only want to prevent outside sound from entering in but also prevent sound from leaking out. As singers are normally in front of a very sensitive vocal microphone, the sound leakage from a headphone may be picked up by the mic, and create audible “bleed-through”.

Another feature of a good quality studio headphone is that it reproduces the sound you’re hearing as accurately as possible. The sonic neutrality or minimal coloration of studio headphones help to reveal any flaws in the captured sound. They provide reliable sound reproduction for the engineer to make the required changes to his/her mix. Headphones are one of the most often used equipment in a recording studio. Therefore, comfort and durability are also important factors that you must consider when searching for headphones for your home recording studio. The Focus headphone from Fluid Audio offers high-quality, comfortable headphones mixing for sound engineers and music enthusiasts.

Types of headphones

Headphones used for recording studios are categorized into 3 types depending on their open or closed ear cups.

Closed-back headphones

Preferred by vocalists, closed-back headphones are much better in preventing noise (and sound leakage) compared to open-back headphones. However, the internal soundwaves in the closed-back headphones can sometimes interfere with the accuracy of sound. Hence, these headphones are best for monitoring purposes but not for mixing sounds.

Open-back headphones

The design intent behind open-back headphones is to allow sound to escape, and not get trapped inside the enclosure. This allows the headphone to bring out a more natural sound. The open-back headphones are used mainly for mixing purposes as there is a complete absence of internal wave reflection inside the headphone. However, they are less helpful in recording as a vocal mic may pick up the sound leaking from the headphones.

Semi-open or semi-closed back headphones

The semi-open or semi-closed-back headphones bring the best of both worlds together. They help in mixing as well as monitoring as they release the sound pressure. These headphones have the right amount of ambiance. Fluid Audio’s Focus headphone is a semi-closed back headphone best suited for studio tracking, mixing, mastering, and casual listening.

The price of a headphone is secondary when choosing the perfect fit for your home recording studio. As the performance of many budget headphones has improved so much in recent years, many are just as good as costly ones. The detailed and responsive quality of the Focus headphones makes them one of the best headphone values for the money, and definitely an option to consider for your home studio.