Understand What You Need From Your DJ Headphones, and What You Don't    by Peter Scott

in Entertainment / Music    (submitted 2011-05-26)

How much money you will need to invest to get the headphones that are right for you will depend on the things you plan to do with your headphones.

DJ Headphones can vary drastically in price, from the $20-30 area, all the way to upwards of $1000.

High priced headphones usually are costly for two reasons: Isolation and Accuracy.

Isolation is how ?effectively? the headphones block out external sound, like the roar from a club or the infant screeching in the plane seat behind you while you're trying to sleep. The more efficient your headphones are at isolation, the more expensive they're going to be.

Accuracy can be quite important, which is the reason very accurate headphones are very expensive. When you hear a song on your notebook speakers, then hear the very same song on your car radio you’ll see that they can sound radically different.

The reason this happens is because speakers and headphones that are not professional usually have flawed frequency response. This means that some sound frequencies will be louder or quieter than they should be. For example, your computer speakers probably have very little bass frequency response. You won't be able to get that subwoofer thump out of your ?laptop computer?. ?Conversely?, when you listen to a song through that enormous sub you put inside your trunk, you're almost certainly getting way too much bass, and not ?enough? treble or mids.

Preferably, as a professional DJ or musician you want headphones or speakers that give a flat frequency response. In other words when you listen to a track, the music you hear is precisely the way the recording engineer mixed it, without the ?inaccurate? frequency boosts.

This can be very important, because you would like your mixes to come across the same on stage or in the club as they did when you were listening to them in your studio.

So how much isolation and accuracy will you actually need?
Well, it depends on what you need to accomplish. Let's say for instance, that you’re DJing a low key event for a university, you’re spinning other people’s tracks rather then remixing tracks upfront or doing anything too elaborate. Or perhaps you are just looking for a good pair of headphones for casual listening.

Either way you'd be good with using a pair of Shure SRH 440s. These headphones sound excellent, they provide a good, mostly flat response, and they are made well so they'll last many years. In addition they are extremely well padded and they sit snugly around the ear to give impressive passive isolation. I would highly recommend these headphones to anyone from a casual user, to someone who is attempting to get a bit more serious about music, but who may not be entirely professional at this point.

On the other hand, if you're interested in becoming a professional DJ, DJing large clubs where you spin your own remixes and cue up each song, in that case you’ll need a pair that’s a bit more accurate and isolating, to help you to listen to the track in your headphones over the music currently wailing out from the speakers.

?Ultrasone DJ1 Pro headphones are ideal for pro DJs. These are built to safeguard your hearing by way of lessening the actual decibels pounding on your eardrum, while keeping precisely the same perceived loudness. So basically they just as loud as similar DJ headphones but your eardrums just take 40% less abuse. Wonderful if you’re likely to be in the mix for a while. Not as good, however, if you’re on a tight budget.

About the Author

It's important to figure out exactly what you need from your DJ headphones before you buy them. Depending on what you're using them for, you might be able to get away with a good $30 pair, or you might need a fully professional $300 pair. Check out my website My DJ Headphones to learn more about how to choose a pair of DJ Headphones, and what you should look for.