As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. The same is obviously true for DJ headphones, so listen to it from somebody who learned his lesson the hard way — spend more and you’ll get more. I’ll explain…
There are so many cheap DJ headphones on the market that look like the real deal — while they may be large, twist and bend just like pro phones that they’re modeled after, that’s where the comparison stops.
Do some closer examination and you’ll things (literally) break down. As a popular DJ you are definitely going to give your phones a great deal of wear and tear. Intense mix sets, lots of traveling, stuffing them in and grabbing them out of your DJ bag, being snagged by that cute (drunk) girl who thinks she’s at a private bachelorette party instead of a major club… Whatever the scene, your DJ headphones are going to suffer a lot of abuse, so make sure you purchase something that is durable if you want them to last more than a few gigs.
Another major quality consideration is sound. Cheaper headphones mean, obviously, materials of lower quality. The fact is, every DJ needs something that is powerful enough to hear what’s in your phones instead of the house sound system. Bottom line, cheap equals cheap. Seems like a fairly obvious formula, right? But how many times do we choose to ignore it?
In these rough economic times, without a doubt you want to be practical, so ponder this — you can drop 40 bucks on cheap headphones that have to be swapped out nearly every year OR you can put down 100 bucks and get something that will last FIVE years. Do the math.
If you buy something of quality at the beginning, then you’ll save yourself the hassle of having to trade out cheap junk over and over. Trust me, as DJ with 10 years in the mix — I learned my lesson the hard way. So now I’m sharing this experience with you, in the hopes that you won’t have to learn the same lesson. Find the best DJ headphones you can afford and you’ll find they’ll last longer and sound better. Better yet, promoters and fellow DJs will take you a bit more seriously if you’ve got a decent pair of headphones cradled around your head instead of those cheap poser cans you can get for 30 bucks at Guitar Center.