Closed-back studio headphones

Closed-back studio headphones have solid ear cups without a grille, so very little sound escapes and only a small amount of outside noise reaches your ears. In the studio, you use them for recording when the microphone is just a few centimetres from your head and must not pick up the backing track from your headphones. They also suit drummers, monitoring while playing and any situation where you want to avoid disturbing others. Examples in the range include Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO and DT 700 PRO X, Audio-Technica ATH-M50x and ATH-M40x, Sennheiser HD 280 PRO, AKG K92 or Roland RH-5.

Why are closed-back headphones used for recording vocals?

When recording vocals or acoustic guitar, the musician listens to a backing track through headphones while the microphone captures their voice or instrument. With open-back headphones, the backing track would leak into the room and the microphone would record it along with the vocals. A closed ear cup reduces this leakage, keeping the recorded track clean. For mixing, where the natural sense of space in the recording matters more, open-back studio headphones are used more often.

Which impedance should you choose: 32, 80 or 250 ohms?

Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO comes in three versions with impedances of 32, 80 and 250 ohms. The 32-ohm version plays loud enough even from a phone, laptop or small audio interface, much like Audio-Technica ATH-M50x at 38 ohms. The 80- and 250-ohm versions are designed for studio use, where a mixing desk or a separate amplifier drives the headphones. To connect the 250-ohm version to a computer, headphone amplifiers are a suitable option.