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Best headphones for guitar amps and practice? We all love the overdriven tones when the tubes are driven to saturation. There is nothing better than a creamy saturated lead tone, sensitive to your touch for legato, hammer and pull-offs, tapping, or some real shredding. Or good clarity of the tails of the delays and reverbs and the modulation of the flanger or Chorus is something we want to get to ensure our tones stand out from the crowd.

But this becomes possible only when we crank up the volume of the amp. This might be possible in a studio set up or a place that has proper soundproofing but definitely not in your house or apartment. You will not only have the folks at home disturbed but perhaps the neighborhood.

Also, to have your “me” time with your guitar and effects, you will need a quiet surrounding and but at the same time have a setup which provides you the tonal clarity which you want to achieve.

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Welcome to the world of headphones

Though most headphones look more or less the same, they could be entirely different monsters from one another. Especially for music production or practice usages, there are certain variations that we need to be aware of.

Wired or Wireless

The moment this is asked, the natural tendency is to gravitate towards wireless headphones thinking you can use them in the studio as well as outside. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.

First and foremost, if you are in the middle of an intense solo either in the studio or in the practice room, the last thing which you want to rely on would be a blue tooth connection. If the connection fails then the crescendo which you have built up will be destroyed in no time.

Second, wireless headphones have a latency which does not help musicians. Latency is the “F” word in the music circle. The wireless headphones also tend to color the sound and do not give a transparent and accurate picture of your tone. And lastly, they are battery dependent and can die in the middle of a session.

So, your best friend is one which has a cable coming from them. Of course, you have specifically wireless headphones made for the guitar like the Boss Waza Air. That is a different animal altogether which we will cover later. We love it.

Open or Closed Back

The diaphragm of the headphone is responsible for producing the sound. It produces sound by moving back and forth, displacing air. This process does not only push the sound towards your ear but also away from your ear in the other direction.  

Here come the open back and the closed-back concept.

The open-back headphones do not have a sealed cup letting this sound also dispersing outside. When an open back headphone is used, the sound could be also heard by others nearby. This can lead to sound bleeding into any microphone when placed nearby.

On the other hand, a closed-back headphone has a completely sealed cup which does not allow the sound to escape. It bounces back in the sealed cup and reaches back to the ear.

Open-back headphones provide a much more expansive sound experience. You can hear the sound in more dimensions than what you can hear in a closed-back headphone. They are more expensive than a closed back and are a better choice for mixing needs.

For guitar practicing both open backs and closed backs are fine. Of course, a better sound quality could be achieved by an open back, but again that comes at a higher price.

Impedance and Efficiency

The reason we are using headphones for guitar practice is because we are not able to crank up the volume of the amp to get the tones we need. In such a situation we need headphones to hear the sound LOUD and clear. In order to do that, you need to have headphones that are LOW Impedance and HIGH efficiency.

With this understanding now, lets go through our recommended 5 headphone which we consider the best for supporting guitar.

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Boss Waza Air Wireless Personal Guitar Amplification System

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This entry is a bit of an oxymoron in the context of this article after sharing how wireless headphones are not the best for practicing, and here we come with our topmost recommendation being a wireless one. But stay close and read till the end to understand how this is different.

The System

The Boss Waza Air is a completely different kind of a system and is more than a headphone. This is designed by the good folks at Boss Japan and takes practicing experience to a different level by giving a three dimensional amp in a room experience. After the success of the Katana Air, Boss wanted to package the same experience in a smaller unit and came up with the Waza Air which is an amp in a headphone.

Inbuilt effects

You have a full amplifier and effects experience with Waza Air. The system comes with the Katana amp models. It gives you five different settings Brown, Lead, Crunch, Clean, and Flat/ Basic Acoustic. You can control the gain and the volume and has a 3 band EQ of Bass, Mid, and High to further sculpt your tone. You can add three effects between Modulation, Distortion, and Reverb/ Delays to this mix. It also comes with 6 presets.

The WAZA Air comes with an app and you can also choose from 50 effects in the app. In addition, you can also download more presets from Boss Tone Central. Lastly, it also comes with a tuner built-in.  

A 3D sonic experience

The WAZA Air comes with a Gyro sensor system which gives you a virtual experience of your location. This is very different from using a standard headphone, which in a way just injects sound to your ears.

With the WAZA air, you can have a virtual 3D experience. In the “static” mode, you can fix the position of the amp. When you physically move around or move your head, you will get an experience as if you are moving around a physical amp.

You can also activate the “stage” mode, which puts the amplifier to your back just like in a stage. You can use Bluetooth to import backing tracks. When you jam on a backing track, it will put the band behind you just like in real stage setting. The third mode is “surround” and gives you a surround experience all around.

The headphone cushions are super comfortable. The system comes with a rechargeable battery and the wireless transmitter pairs with the headphone jack for a wireless play experience.

This takes practice amps to a different level where you and the WAZA Air by itself are good to carry out practice and jam on a backing track anywhere you want. A truly liberating experience and hats off to the folks at Boss to think of something like this and bringing it to us. Highly Recommended.

Sennheiser HD 650 Open Back Professional Headphones

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The HD 650 is not a new entry into the market but in reality, this has been around for more than 15 years and still ranks as one of the most recommended headphones for serious music. These headphones are Open Back headphones and produce very clear and accurate sound. The quality of a headphone is measured by the kind of frequency response it produces. A flatter frequency response means the sound is not colored and can be used to mix music which ultimately will sound great in any audio system.

The Built

The headphone comes with a detachable cable that ends on a ¼” connector. It also comes with a 3.5mm adapter to which the ¼” connector can plug into for use incompatible equipment. The detachable cable is great because in case the cable wears off over a period of time, you can just change the cable and not the entire set.

Since this is an open-back headphone, the ear cups have a grilled enclosure. This allows air to come in and go out from the ear case. The earpads are soft and extremely comfortable. The open nature of the headphones makes them easier to be worn over a longer period of time and does not get warm and uncomfortable. It allows better air circulation and makes them a comfortable wear.

Sound Quality

These are a great pair of sounding headphones. This is perhaps one of the best sounding headphones around this price point. The headphone provides an accurate sound response. The open nature of the headphone helps you to identify and place different instruments or components in the three-dimensional sound space. The sound is very richly detailed and transparent which helps you to get a pretty accurate feel of the sound which is coming from your signal chain without coloring it.

The headphone has a wide and natural frequency response. It provides a very natural bass which not unnaturally boomy. The mids are prominent and smooth. The trebles are rich. Provides a very tall sound stage. 

These are 300 Ohm headphones and you are best to have an amp to pair with these. Of course, the better the amp that you use, the better sound you will get out of these headphones. One of the best-sounding headphones that money can buy.

You will need a preamp for this headphone and given below is a great option. This will go a long way in your sound journey.

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Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT Headphones

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Audio Technica is a known name in the sound circuit, be it a microphone or headphones. The company is known to manufacture some of the best audio equipment and the ATH-M50xBT is not an exception. Clearly the focus of Audio Technica is on the depth of quality rather than rolling out meaningless features.

The Built

The headphone is built well for the price at which this is offered. When you unbox the headphone, you get a nice leather-like carrying bag to keep the headphones in it. It also comes with 2 cables – a 3.3mm one and a micro USB cable. The cushioning on the ear cups are nice and comfortable. The band of the headphone is made up of metal inside and is well padded. Very comfortable. This is a closed-back headphone.

The left ear has a bunch of buttons for controls. These are the on and off button, the charging section, the 3.5 mm jack, volume, and the pause button. These headphones come with touch control and touching and holding the left earphone launches the virtual assistant, very much like Siri.

The headphone comes with a 1.2 m cable for it to be used as a cabled headphone. We feel the length of the cable is a bit short and could have been made a bit longer. There is a mic on the cable as well as on the headphone themselves, so you can take calls wirelessly if you want.

The Sound

Now coming to the sound of the headphone, Audio Technica shows their quality in the near accurate sound which these headphones produce. This is a studio-grade headphone. The headphones produce a slight boost on base with a good balance of mid and highs. Being a closed-back headphone, there is no leakage of sound and provides much better isolation than what an open back headphone would produce.

These headphones use Bluetooth 5 which produces a relatively faster data transmission. But whatever said and done when you are using Bluetooth, there will be a minute amount of latency which is unavoidable.

Overall a very good quality headphone for hooking up to your amp and silently playing while in reality stirring up a storm with your guitar solos within the headphone.

The price at which this comes via a vis the quality makes it a very compelling buy indeed.

AKG K240 Studio Headphones

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These headphones are perhaps best described as studio staples. You always would need to have at least a pair of them in the studio. These headphones have been around for a long time and you still have these as being one of the best ones for studio use.

The Headphone

The headphone is a full plastic built, has an adjustable headband, replaceable cable if you need to change the cable and not replace the entire set. The interesting part of this headphone is that it is not fully closed or open either. This is a semi-open headphone and incorporates the best from both worlds.

The K240 uses a 33 mm diaphragm and a patented technology from AKG called the Verimotion. This produces less self-noise in the diaphragm itself resulting in more pure sound delivered with less distortion. This along with the semi-open structure of the headphone causes visibly less ear fatigue and use for hours.

The Sound

Being a semi-open headphone, it provides a better sound experience than a closed back. You get the entire spatial experience associated with the open backs but at the same time provides better isolation than a completely open-back headphone.

This headphone has a low bass response and a good mid and high which makes this a great option for guitar practicing headphones. The K240 is able to produce the nice mids which your creamy overdriven solos or highly distorted and saturated solos will deliver. Being semi-open back will not fatigue you if you are a lover of distortion and fuzz.  Overall a good choice for guitar practicing headphones.

Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO Studio Headphone

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Though we talked a lot about the benefits of open-back headphones, but when isolation is key you cannot beat a closed-back headphone. The Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro is one of those. Again like most of the other headphones in this list, this is not a new kid in the block and has been around for almost 3 decades. It is legendary.

The Headphone

These headphones are passive and provide great isolation. Though it is not absolutely required to have a headphone amp but having one will improve the sound for sure. At 80 Ohm any headphone amp can get the job done. The built of the headphone is solid with metal frames and the cups reinforced with metal. Ear cups are very comfortable and come with valor padding.

The headphone uses a 3.5mm TRS pin connector and is a pretty long cable – a little less than 10 ft long. This is great as you will need this extra length from the amp to your ears to be comfortable while practicing. The only disadvantage is that the cable is not detachable.

The Sound

These headphones produce great sound. The bass is slightly boosted while the mids and the highs are just perfect. This sound is transparent and accurate for you to decide what your actual tone of guitar is like. These are studio-grade headphones are not one of those cheap closed backs which color your sound.

The only drawback perhaps is that you may not be able to use this headphone except in a home studio or practice sort of a setup. But if you are investing in headphones for the purposes of practicing and playing then it is a great option.

You can try the below amp to drive your DT 770 Pro.

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A well built headphone with accurate sound and at a price that is very affordable. You perhaps cannot get better studio-grade headphones at this price range. I would say, go for it

Conclusion

Headphones just like studio monitors are very personal. Each individual has a different preference of a headphone and honestly, there is nothing called a bad or a good headphone as long as it is of a certain quality. It all depends on what your sound is and what you want to achieve. You can read more about closed back and open back here.

Perhaps the Boss WAZA air exceeds any of the headphones here but to be honest, that is more like an amp in a headphone. All of them are great choices. I am a fan of open backs more than closed ones and love them. They are generally all-rounder headphones, be it for practice, mixing in your home studio, or enjoying music in isolation.

Last update on 2024-11-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API