George Lucas, successful filmmaker and creator of the Star Wars franchise, once famously quoted, “Sound is 50 percent of the movie-going experience.” Audio is a significant portion of video production and should be given the same level of attention as the other aspects of your video production — such as lighting or camera work. Without decent video audio, you can quickly lose the engagement of your audience. Even though all aspects of audio mixing during the video production process are crucial, we’ll be focusing specifically on the significance of on-set/location sound recording. In order to achieve great sound during a video shoot, you’ll not only need a proper microphone and audio gear, but you’ll also need headphones. But not just any headphones. You’ll need headphones best-suited for location sound recording. What Are The Best Headphones To Use? image1 It’s important to understand what makes headphones best suited for location sound recording during a video shoot. Having a flat response in your headphones is ideal when recording audio on location. This is because when you go to edit audio in post, you can manipulate the natural-sounding audio to your own creative desires for your video. Ideally, you also want your headphones to have good isolation and the ability to reproduce simple audio well, such as dialogue. Having solid isolation in your headphones is really important, especially if you’re recording audio in a very noisy and busy location. You want to be able to clearly hear what’s being recorded. I would avoid using open-back headphones — which leak in outside noise — and try going for closed-back headphones to keep the outside sound isolated away from your ears. Another thing to consider when choosing headphones for monitoring audio is impedance. High-impedance headphones require more power to generate audio, whereas low-impedance requires much less power. For example, devices that deliver weaker amplification to your headphones include phones, computers, and other small portable devices. These devices would be best suited for low-impedance headphones. High-impedance headphones generally require headphone amplifiers to deliver the ideal volume level of sound. So, depending on the equipment you’re using to record and monitor sound, make sure your headphones have the proper impedance so that you’re getting the best possible sound through your headphones while recording. You don’t want quiet sound while monitoring, otherwise, it may cause issues. Ideally, it’s best to use headphones with low impedance, especially if you’re plugging your headphones into your camera — which is a device with low amplification — in order to achieve audio at proper volume levels. If you’d like to learn more about headphone impedance, check out our previous blog post to learn more about this topic. The Sony MDR7506 Headphones image3 If you’re wondering what headphones I’ve been using to monitor sound during video shoots, it’s the Sony MDR7506. Now, by all means, I’m not saying these are the best-suited headphones for recording audio, but these headphones have been fantastic to use for all my video shoots. Some people claim that these are even the industry standard for recording audio at location. These headphones come at a low impedance of 63 ohms, perfect for powering the audio devices I use on-set. The MDR7506 also comes with a wide frequency response range of 10Hz to 20kHz — which allows me to get playback audio that easily covers the entire audible spectrum. These are also closed-back headphones with great isolation capabilities, which is important when monitoring so you can listen to crisp, uninterrupted audio while recording. They are also very portable and durable, which makes transporting and traveling with these headphones much easier. Also, the great thing about the Sony MDR7506 headphones is that they’re not only great for recording audio during a video shoot, they’re also great for sound editing during post-production and studio monitoring. How Important Is Headphone Comfort? image4 Something I’ve come to realize after recording audio for many video shoots, is how important the comfort is of your headphones. And it’s not even just while recording audio, it’s during post-production while you're editing the sound and video for extended periods of time. You don’t want to be rocking with an uncomfortable pair of headphones for long editing or recording sessions. It only makes your experience much worse and you don’t want to have to worry about your headache while trying to capture perfect audio. I’ve been there before and it’s not fun. Luckily, I’ve been given the opportunity to work at a luxury headphone accessory business, so I’ve been able to replace the pads on the Sony MDR7506. The stock pads have worked nicely for me, but I’ve noticed that over time they can get a bit worn down and become a little uncomfortable. With my replacement Elite Series Dekoni pads on my headphones, I’ve been able to monitor audio much easier. The level of comfort and isolation they give to the headphones allows me to simply focus on the audio and not the discomfort of the headphones. Conclusion As I’ve mentioned before, audio is a crucial component of filmmaking and video production alike. It is important that you have a great pair of headphones that allows you to capture and monitor the right-sounding audio during video shoots. You don’t want to walk into the editing room and realize all the audio you recorded is unusable because you didn’t catch something while you were monitoring. There are a variety of headphones that work perfectly fine for monitoring audio during a video shoot, but it’s important that you consider using headphones that give a flat response, have low impedance, and have great isolation. You also want to use headphones that are comfortable around your head because there’s no telling how long video shoots and editing sessions can go on for. Here’s a list of headphones we recommend using that are best suited for at-location audio recording for video:
  • Sony MDR-7506
  • Audio Technica ATH-M50x
  • Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro
You can get the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro with different impedance options. These options vary from 32, 80, and 250 Ohms. Typically, we’d recommend going with the low-impedance version of the headphones, but higher-impedance headphones can work well if you have built-in amplifiers within your audio recording gear. Also, if you have these three headphones listed or you’re interested in obtaining them for future video shoots, we have replacement earpads of the highest-quality to greatly improve comfort and sound reproduction. If you’re serious about improving the quality of your audio for your video or film shoots, one of the first things you need to do is obtain a great pair of headphones. It’s important to never settle for less, especially when dealing with audio. If you’re someone looking to improve the comfort and quality of their headphone monitoring experience, check out Dekoniaudio.com and see if we have replacement earpads for your headphones.

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