one for dj'ing.
one for studio monitoring.
the ones you'll use to dj should be loud and 'closed' (covers your ears real good) so as to compensate for the dodgy-ass JBL monitor (the one you see goddamn everywhere that should say Fisher Price on it) the sound guy will insist on turning up way too loud and pointing a mere two feet from your fucking skullpiece.
the ones you'll use to make tunes should have AS FLAT A FREQUENCY RESPONSE IN THE ENTIRE RANGE AS POSSIBLE.
sorry, i get heated on this topic... i've heard way too many t'ings made solely on those sony mdr's that sounded crap everywhere else but on the producer's headset.
(this criticism does of course not apply to producers who understand Reference Monitoring and will not only use their headphones but also nearfield monitors, their friends' car stereos, and the local clubs to better judge their tune in many environments.)
that said, there are deffo headsets that are excellent at reproducing pretty much the entire human-comprehensible frequency range with no additional colouring, and can thus be relied upon to be your primary point of reference for how things will sound out in the 'real world'. two i highly recommend (and talk about a lot, i can't express often enough how much i love them) are the Sennheiser EH2200 and the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro. key points for both: lightweight (can wear for hours with no fatigue), flat response (very very little colour other than what you're puttin into the tune itself), loud but not too loud (again, no fatigue after many hours). heads on this forum will especially love the fact that the eh2200 goes down to 12hz, the dt770 to 5hz.
sennheiser eh2200 -- 12 - 22,000 Hz / 4.9 oz
beyerdynamic dt770 -- 5 - 35,000 Hz / 270 g
for DJ'ing, the Sennheiser HD25SP are good at being loud but not bulky and replacement parts are widely available. (this is by far my fave element of the sennheiser manufacture philosophy - every little bit is made to be easily replaceable and they're good at having many international parts distributors who can post things very quickly.)
also (and we've ALL had this happen) in the likely event of someone in the booth stomping on the slack in your wire (or you, carelessly) -- a situation that would utterly destroy most other headphones and have you beggin' someone else for a pair of cans for the rest of your set, or send you packin' for home -- the earcups of these are intentionally made to slide off the headband. it takes a good tug for this to happen, but not so much that the wire is affected in any way whatsoever. besides that, the design overall is solid and totally basic. very hard to break / mangle / crush.
