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

Just how much you must pay to have the headphones that will be right for you will depend on what you are planning to do with your headphones.

DJ Headphones vary considerably in cost, beginning in the $20-30 area, to excess of $1000.

High-priced headphones are often pricey for 2 reasons: Isolation and Accuracy.

Isolation can be defined as how effectively the headphones keep out outside sound, like the noise in a club or the kid screeching in the plane seat behind you while you are attempting to sleep. The more effective your headphones are at isolation, the more costly they are going to be.

Accuracy can be quite important, which is the reason really accurate headphones are extremely high priced. When you hear a track with your laptop speakers, then listen to the same song on your car radio you’ll find that they sound completely different.

It's because speakers and headphones that are not high quality usually have poor frequency response. Therefore certain audio frequencies will be louder or possibly softer than they should be. For example, your computer speakers have little or no bass frequency response. You won't be able to get that subwoofer bump out of your notebook. Conversely, when you hear a track through that enormous subwoofer you hooked up in your trunk, you're almost certainly getting too much bass, and not nearly enough treble or mids.

Ideally, being a professional DJ or musician you want headphones or speakers which have a flat frequency response. This will mean that whenever you listen to a track, the sound that you hear is precisely the way the recording engineer mixed it, with no incorrect frequency boosts.

This can be crucial, since you want your mixes to sound exactly the same on stage or in the club as they did when you were listening to them at home.

So what amount of isolation and accuracy do you absolutely need?
Well, it depends on what you would like use them for. Let's say for instance, that you’re DJing a smaller event at a college, you’re spinning other people’s records and you're not remixing anything upfront or doing anything too complex. Or perhaps you just want a good pair of headphones for casual listening.


Either way you would be fine with a pair of Shure SRH 440s. These headphones sound very good, they provide a good, fairly flat response, and are also made well which means they will last a while. Additionally they are extremely well padded and they sit firmly around the ear to deliver very good passive isolation. I can highly recommend these headphones for anyone from a casual user, to anyone who might be looking to get somewhat more serious about music, but who isn't quite professional at this point.

However, if you're interested in becoming a pro DJ, DJing large clubs where you want to spin your very own remixes and cue up every track, then you’ll need a pair that’s considerably more accurate and isolating, to help you to hear the track in your headphones over the music currently blasting out of the speakers.

Ultrasone DJ1 Pro headphones are great for professional DJs. These are designed to safeguard your hearing by minimizing the actual decibels hitting your eardrum, while keeping exactly the same perceived loudness. So they just as loud as similar DJ headphones but your eardrums just take 40% less punishment. Great especially if you’re likely to be in the mix for a long time. Not quite so good, however, if you’re on a tight budget.

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. Visit my website My DJ Headphones to learn more about how to choose a pair of DJ headphones, and what you should look for.