Choosing the right headphones for location sound recording is very important. You want a flat frequency response from your headphones so no frequencies are boosted or cut unnecessarily. When recording, you want to trust that the sound your hearing is the sound that’s actually being recorded. That’s why headphones designed for listening to music are not the best choice. Many brands boost the low frequencies for more bass response and are great when listening to music but not so much when you’re trying to record accurate location sound. I’ve used a variety of headphones over the years primarily of the studio variety like the Sennheiser HD280 Pros, Sony MDR 7506 and AKG K 240s.
I recently picked up a pair of Sennheiser HD-25 PLUS headphones for doing location recording. The first thing you notice is the split headband. I don’t know how many times I’ve been on set and bent down to pick something up or looked up at something and my headphones started to slide off my head. The HD-25s are designed to be opened up so they fit securely on your head and won’t fall off.
The next feature is the flip away ear cup that can be moved off your ear when you need to listen to someone next to you or other sounds in the environment. Of course, you want to have ear cups that cover your ear to block out ambient sounds and these do just that. The PLUS version comes with an additional set of soft velour ear pads that can be easily switched out with the vinyl ones that come attached.
The PLUS version of the HD-25 headphones include a 10 foot coiled cable and a 5 foot straight cable. If you’ve ever been on location recording and gotten your coiled headphone cable tangled up in a mic cable or other accessories, you’ll appreciate the 5 foot straight cable that eliminates that problem. I switched to the straight cable and velour ear pads when I started using mine.
Sennheiser HD-25 PLUS headphones are lightweight and can be worn for extended periods of time without ear fatigue. They include some handy options like the additional straight cable, extra earpads, 1/8” to ¼” adaptor and carry bag. But ultimately, how do they sound? With a frequency response of 16 Hz to 22kHz, and from my experience using them, these headphones give an accurate reproduction and sound great!
