Headphones while shooting - which ones?

[Cliff Etzel]

Wanted to know which is a better way to go for monitoring audio while shooting - in ear noise isolation or over the ear headphones.

I'm leaning more towards in ear as they are small and easy to travel with. But I'm not sure if they are the proper/best solution for monitoring audio while shooting. I've used over the ear headphones - specifically the AKG K44's and they seem like a decent set of cans, but the size is difficult to work with when needing to transport them since I work as a one person production crew.

My budget is pretty tapped after my recent purchases of a Sennheiser G2 wireless Lav and new Shotgun mic so I can't go for the upper crust cans - Any recommendations for a moderately priced monitoring solution while shooting???

[Don Bloom]

Sony 7506-had the same set for 7 or 8 years and they work great. Small enough to fit into a small bag crammed with all kinds of gear -comfy enough to wear for hours.
About $100 IIRC.

Don

[Richard Alvarez]

I'll second the Sony 7506s. I think I paid around $90 for mine, been a while though. Good cans, fold up nice in the pack.

Ear muffs are the way to go for really monitoring your audio. I do keep a pair of ear buds in my camerabag as emergency spares, and if I'm in a situation where I need to hear 'outside' the camera's audio for safety reasons.

[Martin Catt]

Third call for Sony MDR-7506's. Shot a documentary of the Doolittle Raiders symposium at the local flight museum. The sound crew had 'em. I had a pair. Seems everywhere I look, the sound guy has a pair clamped on their head. Currently running about $99 USD. They seem to be a common denominator in the audio world. Plus, they give a good, loud sound from a low level drive.

Martin

[Colin McDonald]

I just bought a pair of Sennheiser HD25 mk IIs three weeks ago after a lot of research. They are compact comfortable and isolate the audio very well, but I don't know if there are outwith your budget.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._25_1_II_.html

[Bill Davis]

Just to expand this, there are a couple of good REASONS that the large numbers of shooters use Sony MDR-7506 headphones. And neither of them are about how great they are as general purpose musical headphones.

The first reason, as others have noted is their efficiency. It doesn't take a lot of juice to drive them to a very useful monitoring level. So they work great when being driven by a relatively anemic camera amps. (neither camcorders NOR pro cameras have even close to 100 plus watt home stereo system style power amps - so efficiency is mission critical)

Secondly, they are NOT the most accurate cans available and you don't WANT them to be.

The Sony's have a pretty pronounced "presence peak" right around the general frequency areas of human speech. This makes them pretty mediocre for listening to your stereo (unless you perversely enjoy brittle mid-range cellos and somewhat harsh horns, anyway.)

But PERFECT for monitoring dialog. It's the DIALOG that drives most field production. So you've GOT to hear that properly. If a talent slurs a word or mumbles, or reads a critical line wrong, it's just no good to discover that back in the edit suite. You need to hear it IN THE FIELD, so you can call for another take.

7506s are designed to let you monitor human speech well.

So you want to listen to music? Great - go buy yourself some full spectrum, balanced and very "musical" headphones and enjoy them. You want to listen to field recorded dialog to make sure you're not screwing up your recordings? Consider tools designed to do that well.

And one of those tools proven over time by countless professionals are Sony 7506 headphones.

My 2 cents, for what it's worth.

[Michael Nistler]

Originally Posted by Cliff Etzel

Wanted to know which is a better way to go for monitoring audio while shooting - in ear noise isolation or over the ear headphones.

I'm leaning more towards in ear as they are small and easy to travel with. But I'm not sure if they are the proper/best solution for monitoring audio while shooting. I've used over the ear headphones - specifically the AKG K44's and they seem like a decent set of cans, but the size is difficult to work with when needing to transport them since I work as a one person production crew.

My budget is pretty tapped after my recent purchases of a Sennheiser G2 wireless Lav and new Shotgun mic so I can't go for the upper crust cans - Any recommendations for a moderately priced monitoring solution while shooting???

Right Cliff, the Sony 7506 is THE standard enjoyed by most filmmakers. Actually, I love to use my Sennheiser CX-300 earbuds for non-critical, casual work and wear them hours each day with my iPod or simple audio/video shooting:

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-CX3.../dp/B000E6G9RI

But you needs a set of cans to isolate ambient noise and ensure you're only hearing true audio from the headset without leakage from a set of earbuds.

BTW, when you get your Sony 7506 headphone, get a Garfield softie - your ears will be very happy you bought these:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...C=GAHSBK&Q=&O=

Good luck, Michael

[Wayne Brissette]

Like Colin, I use the Sennheiser HD-25 headphones. I prefer these over the Sony 7506's, but you have to search around to find good deals on them, even then they are usually double the price of the 7506 headphones. I find these headphones much more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time (and I wear them a lot). Here in the US, the Sony headphones tend to be worn more often, but it seems that in Europe the Sennheiser's are preferred by many of the mixers over the Sony's.

Regardless of what headphone you use, avoid earphones. They are too cumbersome to put in and unless you get a great seal, you don't get the frequency response you need.

Wayne

[Gary Nattrass]

Sony 7506 for me too, I also have two sets of the MDR-V700 DJ cans which have the same drivers, I use them and are used for editing if I need to be quiet.

[Paul Kellett]

Sony MDR 7506 for me too. They're excellent.

Paul.

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

Would this Audo Technica cheaper one perform the same? Or is it not so good in some aspect?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Headphone.html

[Harm Millaard]

I second the Sennheiser HD-25. Especially the rotatable left capsule for single ear monitoring is a handy feature. Superb quality and very high sensitivity.

[Hubert Duijzer]

Sony MDR 7506 too.
Comfortable, good isolation and good volume.
The downside is that i paid more than twice the US price here in europe.

[Gary Nattrass]

Originally Posted by Hubert Duijzer

Sony MDR 7506 too.
Comfortable, good isolation and good volume.
The downside is that i paid more than twice the US price here in europe.

There are plenty of ways to buy them from the USA and even with import duty and vat here in the Uk they are still a bargain.

[Hubert Duijzer]

I looked into that too, but for the Netherlands it didn't matter that much. The price doubled also on shipping/import/vat.