Studio Monitors, Headphones & Accessories

Studio Monitors, Headphones, and Accessories

Whether you're recording your music in a home studio or mixing for a professional audio project, a set of good headphones or studio monitors are essential. Headphones and studio monitors produce a flat audio frequency response across an entire frequency spectrum, to help you hear what you've recorded with accurate detail. As a result, your audio translates well to all kinds of listening devices, such as TVs, radios, car audio systems, home theater systems, and consumer-level headphones.

Variations of Studio Monitor Speakers

Studio monitors fall into two main categories: active and passive speakers. Active speakers house their own amplifiers, to eliminate the need for external amps. This design makes them more compact and popular for small studios and home studios.

While they don't come with the convenient design of active speakers, passive speakers offer their own advantages. With their external amps, these speakers give you the flexibility to set up multi-speaker arrays in order to have a variety of reference points.

Choosing Studio Monitor Headphones

Depending on your listening needs, you can either go for closed or open-back studio headphones. Closed-back headphones have sealed earcups that prevent noise from leaking in or out, and they're ideal for all kinds of audio referencing. Open-back headphones have open earcups to create a more open, natural sound. These help you locate particular instruments in your audio, and are perfect for mixing and mastering music.

Studio Monitoring Accessories

You can't have a complete studio monitoring setup without some essential accessories. For instance, you'll need headphone amplifiers if you have more than one musician recording at the same time. However, if you're working solo, then your audio interface will have a decent built-in headphone amp that's perfect for the job. Consider studio monitor stands to support your studio speakers. You can use these to adjust the monitors' positions for optimal sound. If you have several monitors and sets of headphones, be sure to shop for studio monitor controllers to help you manage where the signals go.