Phonon-SMB 02: Why having the right pair of headphones is important!
We’ve all been there.
You just spent 5 hours working on an amazing track in your fancy thousand-dollar headphones and you can’t wait to show it to your friends. Then you play it out loud on studio monitors and it’s a total disaster.
And you think to yourself, “what? I didn’t make this!”
The bass is off, the vocals are way too loud, there are bad notes everywhere, and you’re ready to throw in the towel and give up making music.
Why can’t somebody create a solid pair of cans where what you hear is what THEY will hear?
Well the good folks at Phonon have certainly figured this out.
If you have ever wondered what it’s like to wear an acoustically treated studio on your head, then the Phonon SMB-02's come pretty darn close!
Stunning clarity at low volumes (keeping ear fatigue to a minimum), and top-end so detailed and smooth you will literally taste the saturation on a record.
I showed it to one of my students, and all he said was “WOW, I CAN HEAR EVERYTHING!”
What he really meant was the instrument separation, placement and sense of space was unlike anything he’s ever heard.
Above 500HZ, it’s way more musical and pleasing to the ear than an Audeze LCD-X, yet just as detailed and accurate. And for a fraction of the cost (under $400 USD.)
You will easily find yourself spending hours auditioning synth patches or listening to your favorite records over and over again because they sound THAT good.
Below 500HZ, it’s got enough boom and tonal accuracy to get your 808’s and bass synths sounding right. (I get pretty good tonal response on 808’s all the way down to 30–45 HZ) Combine it with a Subpac, and you’re unstoppable.
It took a few weeks of consistent use to get the bottom-end to soften up to my ears, as I felt they were a little peaky around 125–200HZ at first.
Now it is often the first and last step in my production workflow; as I mostly start songs on the go, do mixing tweaks in nightclubs and studio monitors, and listen on Phonons again before the final bounce.
At the end of the day, you want a pair of headphones that will inspire you to create; and give you total confidence that what you hear is what THEY will hear when you play it out loud.
These certainly do the job.
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About The Author:
JP Solis is a pioneer in modern DJ and Electronic Music Education.
He Co-Founded Dubspot in 2006, Tin Pan Alley Studios in 2013, and continues his dedication to nurturing and developing budding talent through his platform Noise212, providing K-12 after-school DJ/Producer training programs in New York City.
Some of his past students have performed at Ultra Music Festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Creamfields; have produced charted singles and currently occupy leadership roles in the music industry.
He is a respected figure in the Manhattan nightlife community and often referred to as a “secret weapon” for his talents as a DJ and Music Director.
