The 6 Best Headphones for Electronic Music Production

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The 6 Best Headphones for Electronic Music Production

Best Headphones for Electronic Music Production

This is our review of the best headphones for electronic music production.

Getting a good pair of studio-grade headphones is essential for an electronic music producer, especially for younger producers when you are just starting out. It may be a better option than having a studio monitor that may cost you twice the amount of money to get started. 

So what makes a headphone great for electronic music production? Here’s some of the perspectives to consider. When it comes to EDM, it’s often heavily emphasized on the bass frequency, so a neutral headphone that with solid but not murdy bass response is a gold. 

The key factors that were taken into consideration including the budget, durability, frequency responses, and portability. The winner goes to the Audio Technica ATH-M50x, but don’t just take my words for it, continue reading to find out what may work best for you. Let’s get straight to it.

Our Recommendation of Best Headphones for Electronic Music Production

Image Product Feature Price
TOP Pick
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x
One of the most popular headphone of all time, great clarity in high and mid frequencies, durable built quality. Check Price
Trending
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro
The most affordable professional headphone on the list. Interchangeable ear foam cushions. Check Price
Trending
Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro
An airy sounding open back headphone, comfortable ear cups, great worn for long period of time. Check Price
Trending
V-Moda Crossfade Wireless 2
A solid build wireless headphone with an option attached to a cable, long hours of battery life. Check Price
Trending
Audeze LCD-X
A premium audio headphone with solid and firm bass frequency, great responses to mid and high frequencies as well. Check Price
Trending
Neumann NDH20
A very durable metal built headphone with memory foam ear pads, even frequency response. Check Price

1. Audio-Technica ATH-M50x

Audio Technica ATH-M50x

The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x is widely used by many studio and music producers, making it an all time best selling, and most classic headphone to be included in any headphone roundup. 

In fact, this is the headphone that I’ve been personally using for many years too, very versatile, and you can pretty much use it for any studio setup. In terms of the audio quality, the clarity is good at mid and high frequencies, with a great amount of bass as well. Good for casual listening and professional mixing too. 

It’s a well built headphone, even though most parts are made of plastic but the core is actually made of steel, it has a durable feel to it. 

Nice leather feels on the earpad, it’s kind of comfy but the ear cups could get warm after wearing it for awhile. Get an over the ear headphone instead for maximum comfortability if you are more of a headphone producer. 

The headphone also comes with a variety of attachable cables including a 1.2 straight cable, a 3 meter straight cable and a 1.2 to 3 meter coiled cable. 




2. Sennheiser HD 280 Pro

Sennheiser HD280 Pro.jpg

Very similar to the ATH-M50x but with a much affordable price, here we are looking at the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro. 

As a budget studio headphone, it offers quite a decent sound quality for music production usage. It’s smooth, some of the nuance details may be blended over but it doesn’t lead to blurry sound at all, it’s  still one of the best at this price point. 

In terms of the built quality of it, it is foldable, light weight and it has a good amount of cushion closed around the ear, and the headband. 

The cushions are all interchangeable, which means if they ever wear out, you could order a set of cushion ear foams to replace the old one. 

The only thing that should be improved is the non removable cable, unlike the more modern sets of headphones today, they usually come with detachable cable that could be easily pulled right out. If you happen to damage the cable you would have to crack it open and rewire it yourself. 


3. Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro

Beyer DT 990 Pro Headphones

 If you are familiar with the Beyerdynamic classic DT770 which is a closed back headphone under the same product line, the DT990 is kind of the same but with the opened back ear cups.    

This is great if you prefer a headphone with more airy sound due to the open back design of it, very close to listening to a pair of speakers but you may hear the sound leak out of the side of this headphone, and your recording mic may pick up the feedback from it. 

The sound it provides is fairly true, not over coloured, lows and highs are more pronounced, and not fatiguing for long hours listening.

Solid built in quality, great worn for long period of time due to the over the ear design and comfy ear cups.

There are two versions with different impedance of this headphone, which are 80 ohm and 250 ohm, the lower the number the easier it is to power this headphone. If you have the equipment to drive it you could choose the 250 ohm if not the 80ohm is great too. 


4.V-Moda Crossfade Wireless 2

V-MODA Crossfade 2 Wireless

The V-Moda headphone has always been unique. The build quality and the design is just matchless. If you are somewhat familiar with the V-Moda Crossfade M-100, this is the wireless version with an option attached to a cable

The bass enhancement is what makes it a great choice for electronic production. For the sound overall, treble might be a little bright for some people, very forward and into your face kind of sounding, if you like it you like it. 

One cool thing about V-Model is that if you order from their website, you get a free pair of custom plates. Yes the plate on your ear cups are removable, and you could customise it however you want, giving a bit of the character to your headphone. 

It’s built like a tank, steel frame with military levels of durability and if that’s not enough the V-moda offers a 50 percent lifetime warranty towards a new pair if you damage it. 

The fact that the headphone features memory cushions for the over the ear earpads makes it one of the most comfortable wireless headphones in the market as well. 

14 hours of battery life, 10 meter range, built-in microphone on the wire, and it can pair simultaneously with two devices. 


5. Audeze LCD-X

This LCD-x has a solid and firm bass without being overly thick and boomy. The treble is managed perfectly on this headphone, bright enough to maintain the details and clarity. it has all the presence you would want without being too bright. 

In terms of the soundstage it’s not a very wide headphone, it might be a little narrower than the average headphone to be. It doesn’t mean it’s bad at all, I suppose this is part of what keeps this headphone so attentive and great for the nuances

It’s a bit of a heavy headphone due to the complete metal housing, extremely well built quality.

A 20 ohm headphone with a sensitivity level of 103 decibels, which means you could literally run this off of anything, the power requirement is minimal.

To sum up, the fantastic low end makes it a great headphone for EDM, electronic, although it’s kind of pricey but if that’s what you are looking for highly recommend you to check it out. 


6. Neumann NDH20

The sound is a warm neutral presentation, very even frequency response

The bass on this headphone does sound a little bloated at times, but it has a good amount of dynamics as well as a reasonable amount of details, the mid-range sounds really accurate, but the treble is a little bit recessed

The brush metal built material of this headphone does give it a premium kind of feel, the whole piece looks like a solid piece of metal. 

The ear pads are made of memory foam, it is also very stiff, kind of a strange combination, not a deal breaker but it just not as comfortable as the V-Moda or DT990 in my opinion. 

The soundstage is probably the weakest area of this headphone. It’s quite intimate, imaging is good but not spectacular.

If I may say so, overall it’s a phenomenal sounding headphone that outperforms many of its competitors at this price point. 




What’s Next?

So it all adds up to this, our choice of the headphone is ATH 50x but if you prefer an over the ear headphone and money is not your concern the V-Moda wireless 2 may be a better option.

We hope you find headphones you like here, test them out at your nearest music store, or leverage on the Amazon 30 days return policy to test them out if you really like it especially if you are stuck at home like most people. (Disclaimer: we do not advocate anyone to abuse the policy)

Related Articles: The 5 Best Headphones for Podcasting

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AUTHOR

Javen Yap is a music composer, producer and content creator from Malaysia. He has been making music for 10 plus years and is still passionate about it. He set up Good Noise to share all the tips and knowledge he has picked up along the way, and to help as many musicians as he can.
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