I mixed on the most popular studio headphones in the world for about a year, and my mixes did not translate. Too much bass in the car. Vocals buried on a phone speaker. The same notes back every time from anybody I sent them to.
I assumed I had bought the wrong pair. I had not, exactly. I had bought a pair built for tracking and then used it for mixing, which are two different jobs that want two different kinds of headphone. Nobody had ever told me that, because most gear guides just rank headphones by price.
So before the picks, the decision that actually matters.
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. If you use them, it supports AlwaysBeOG at no additional cost to you. Prices are approximate as of August 2026 and move constantly — check before you buy.
Open back or closed back: the only decision that matters
Closed back headphones seal against your head. Sound does not leak out, which means you can wear them in front of a live microphone without the beat bleeding into your vocal take. They also isolate you from the room. The trade-off is that sealing a speaker inside a small cup does strange things to low frequencies, so bass tends to read bigger than it is.
Open back headphones let air move through the back of the driver. That gives you a more natural, less pressurised sound, a wider stereo image, and a much more honest read on your low end. The trade-off is that they leak badly in both directions. You cannot track a vocal in them, and you cannot use them next to anybody who is trying to sleep.
That is the whole thing. Closed for recording, open for mixing. Most artists own one pair and try to do both jobs with it, which is fine as long as you know which compromise you are making.
The picks
| Headphones | Type | Approx. | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sennheiser HD 560S | Open | ~$180 | The most honest mixing at this price |
| Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro | Open | ~$169 | Detail and stereo imaging |
| AKG K371 | Closed | ~$150–170 | Mixes that translate, without leaking |
| Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro | Closed | ~$159 | Best all-rounder if you buy one pair |
| Audio-Technica ATH-M50x | Closed | ~$150–170 | Tracking and working away from the desk |
| Sony MDR-7506 | Closed | ~$99 | The budget tracking standard |
Sennheiser HD 560S — most honest mixing under $200
If mixing is the job and you have a quiet room to do it in, this is the pair. The frequency response is close to flat, the midrange is honest in a way that is occasionally unflattering, and the soundstage is wide enough that panning decisions stop being guesswork.
Open back, so it leaks. You cannot record with these on. That is not a flaw, it is the design doing its job.
Buy them if: you mix more than you track and nobody is trying to sleep in the next room.
Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro — detail and imaging
Also open back, and known for a treble response that is genuinely revealing. Sibilance, harsh reverb tails, cheap-sounding hi-hats — the 990 will show you all of it, sometimes more than you wanted.
That brightness is the thing to know going in. Some people find it fatiguing over a long session. Others learn it and never look back, because a mix that sounds smooth on a bright pair of headphones is usually smooth everywhere.
Buy them if: you want your problems shown to you rather than hidden.
AKG K371 — closed back that still translates
This is the interesting one. The K371 is tuned to the Harman target, which is a research-backed curve describing what most listeners actually perceive as neutral. In practice that means mixes made on it tend to hold together on consumer playback — phones, car speakers, earbuds — which is where your music is actually going to be heard.
Closed back, so it works for tracking too. If you want one pair that leans toward mixing without giving up recording, this is the strongest argument on the list.
Buy them if: you want one pair and mixing is the priority.
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro — the best all-rounder
The 770 has been in project studios for decades because it does everything acceptably and nothing badly. Strong isolation for tracking, comfortable enough for a long session, and honest enough to mix on when speakers are not an option.
It is not as accurate as the open-back pairs above and it is not trying to be. It is the pair that survives being the only pair.
Buy them if: you record and mix in the same room at unsociable hours.
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x — the popular one
The most common studio headphone on earth, and the one I spent that year mixing on. It is genuinely good, built well, and folds up for travel.
Its low end is flattering, though. Mixes made on the M50x have a habit of arriving bass-light everywhere else, because the headphones gave you more than was really there and you compensated. For tracking and for listening back on the move it is excellent. For final mix decisions it is not my first choice, and that is not the headphone’s fault — it is a tracking headphone doing a mixing job.
Buy them if: tracking and portability matter more than final mix accuracy.
Sony MDR-7506 — the budget standard
In studios since 1991 and still on carts in broadcast facilities everywhere. Around a hundred dollars, closed back, unglamorous, reliable.
Bass extension is limited compared to newer designs, which makes it a poor final-mix reference but an honest tracking headphone. If the budget is tight, this frees up money for the things that will change your sound more.
Buy them if: you need working headphones now and the rest of the setup needs the money.
If you can only buy one pair
Buy closed back.
The logic is simple: you can mix on closed backs with some care, but you genuinely cannot track on open backs. The bleed goes straight into the microphone. One of these compromises still lets you make records and the other one does not.
Between the closed options, the AKG K371 if mixing matters more, the DT 770 Pro if you want the safest all-rounder. Add an open-back pair later when you can. That second pair changes more than upgrading the first one ever will.
Why your mixes still might not translate
Here is the uncomfortable part. Better headphones help less than you hope, because the problem is usually not the headphones.
You have not learned the pair you own
Every headphone colours the sound. Engineers who mix well on headphones are not using magic ones, they have simply used the same pair for years and know exactly how their bass reads against a finished record. Switching pairs every six months resets that knowledge to zero.
You are not referencing
Pull up two or three commercially released tracks in a similar lane, level-match them to your mix, and switch back and forth constantly. This one habit fixes more translation problems than any purchase on this page. It is free and almost nobody does it consistently.
You have not checked on a phone speaker
Most of your listeners will hear the song on a phone, in a car, or through cheap earbuds. Export a rough, play it on all three, and take notes. Uncomfortable, useful, free.
Correction software is a real option
Software like Sonarworks SoundID Reference applies a calibration profile for your specific headphone model, flattening its known colouration. It is not a substitute for learning your pair, but it does narrow the gap between a $150 headphone and a much more expensive one. Worth considering before you upgrade the hardware.
What not to mix on
- Consumer headphones. Beats, most wireless models, anything sold on how exciting it sounds. They are tuned to flatter, and you will mix against that flattery.
- Anything with active noise cancellation on. ANC alters the frequency response while it works. You cannot make decisions through it.
- Bluetooth. Latency and codec compression, neither of which you want between you and a decision.
- Earbuds, for anything but a translation check. Useful as a reference, useless as your main pair.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best studio headphones for mixing under $200?
For pure mixing accuracy, the Sennheiser HD 560S at around $180. If you need one pair that also handles recording, the AKG K371 at roughly $150 to $170, because it is closed back but tuned to translate well to consumer playback.
Can you mix on closed-back headphones?
Yes, with care. Closed backs typically exaggerate low frequencies, so reference against commercial tracks and check your mix on other systems. Plenty of released records were mixed on closed backs by people who knew their pair well.
Are the ATH-M50x good for mixing?
They are good headphones being asked to do the wrong job. The M50x is a tracking and monitoring headphone with a flattering low end, so mixes made on it often come out bass-light elsewhere. Excellent for recording and listening back, not my first pick for final decisions.
Do I need an amp for studio headphones?
Usually not at this price. Any of these will run adequately from a decent audio interface headphone output. Watch the impedance version you buy — Beyerdynamic sells the same model in several impedances, and the high-impedance ones do want more power.
Headphones or studio monitors first?
Headphones, without much doubt. Monitors in an untreated room mislead you about low frequencies, and treating a room properly costs more than a good pair of headphones. We put the reasoning in the under-$1,000 build.
The part that matters
Pick a pair from this list, and then use it for two years.
That is the actual advice, and it is worth more than which one you choose. The engineers whose mixes translate are not the ones with the best headphones. They are the ones who have heard a thousand finished records through the same pair and know precisely how much bass is a lie.
Buying a new pair every time a mix disappoints you is a way of avoiding the harder work of learning to hear.
If you want the rest of the chain: the interface guide, the complete build under $1,000, and room acoustics, which is still the biggest improvement available to most people.
Reference one track against a commercial release this week. That is the next right thing, and it is enough.
