I like a bargain, and I like headphones. I once made a joke with my wife that everytime she buys a pair of shoes, I get to buy a pair of headphones.  I currently own two Beyerdynamic DT770-pros, a tattered Sony MDR-V6, AKG 240M's, Koss PortaPro's, Sennheiser PX100's, Sennheiser HD201's, and custom molded IEM's (in hear monitors). 

Bargains that impress me with great sound quality:

Sennheiser HD201- Available for under $20 from Amazon, I find these comfortable with really good fidelity.  Featuring a circumaural, sealed design, they reduce outside noise, create minimal bleed into a mic, and don't press on my pinna, which can really hurt after awhile.  They aren't very bass heavy, but for monitoring voice-over recordings that is a good thing.  They don't get terribly loud with an iPod, but I am far from deaf so that's fine, too. 

Sennheiser PX100- While they look like your classic cheap "walkman" headphones, looks are deceiving.  These $50 beauties (or less) sound shockingly great.  They come folded in a nice hardcase with wire caddy to keep everything well protected in your laptop bag.  They are soon to be replaced by the PX100-II's, so you might find some deals.  Then again, they were so well loved it could be hard to even find them for sale at all.

Koss PortaPro- Koss is unique in the business with a lifetime warranty on all of their headphones, and these you'll want to keep around for a long time.  With sound very similar to the PX100's, and a unique headband with adjustments for the amount of tension on the earpads, the Porta Pro has stood the test of time.  They fold down pretty small and slip into a small satchel.  They sell for $50 on the Koss website and can be found for much less.  Get spare ear pads for them if you use them a lot, they eventually fall apart. 

Have a pair of headphones you just can't live without?  Leave a comment and share!

I recently attended the 2010 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, Getting a hearing test from House Ear Institutespending only one precious Sunday there to take it all in.  I concentrated my time on the Pro Audio vendors, naturally, but every year there's one booth I NEVER miss.   The House Ear Institute, based in Los Angeles, brings their mobile hearing test lab to the convention center floor. 

The tests are so popular among the attendees that you must arrive first thing in the morning to sign up on the list and book a time slot, or you'll miss out.  I was there on the last day of the show and amazingly only needed to wait an hour for my slot.  You fill out some info and hand it to the test administrator, take a seat, and strap on some pretty utilitarian headphones.  They squeeze tight against your ears and are just bareable for the lenght of time it takes to complete the test, which in my case was less than 10 minutes. 

When all are finished their tests, the door opens and you return to the show flow to await the results.  I spoke to a few guys nearby and share a bit about what we expect to discover.  In five minutes the results are prepared and handed out to the subjects.  I was expecting pretty good results since my previous exam showed I was on par or better for men my age.  This test's results were consistant with my expectations, if not better. 

So, here's the results for your own examination.

What they show is that my left ear has a bit of loss at 500 hz, but left and right ears have 5dB or less of hearing loss across the test spectrum from 1khz to 8Khz.  This is as good or better than average for my age.  The fellow standing next to me, on the other hand, and huge dip in his hearing at 6khz, down to 30dB.  This is all to common when monitoring music or any kind of audio at too loud a volume for extended periods.  Turned out he is a production sound mixer and works in loud environments, so no big surprise there.

Moral of the story?  Keep your headphone volume as low as you can throughout your workday.  If you use speakers, the SPL (sound pressure level) should be under 85 dB at your listening position.  How do you find out what SPL you're monitoring?  Why with an SPL meter, like this one.   



The name Harlan Hogan should be familiar to anyone active in the voice-over community.  His quest to create innovative products and informative, fun to read books never ceases, and his signature VO: 1-A microphone manufactured by MXL is his latest endevour to hit.  We have one here at ERS and took it to VoiceTrax West to give it a spin, along-side a venerable model U87 from Neumann.  It might sound crazy, perhaps insane, to compare a mic that sells for $199, INCLUDING shock mount, carrying case and mic cable, to a Neumann U87.  But we figured, what the hell...

For this test each mic was connected to the same channel of a Presonus M80 preamp, with 80 Hz roll-off engaged, positioned as close to the same as possible, with the same source (me, reading badly).  The U87's switches set to no bass roll-off or pad, and capsule in cardioid mode. 

Give the two a listen and you be the judge:

Neumann U87 voice-over recording test

MXL Harlan Hogan VO: 1-A voice-over recording test

While the U87 has that smooth, almost dull top end in comparison, the VO: 1-A's response is almost identical to my ear across nearly the entire frequency spectrum.  The VO: 1-A is slightly hyped at the top, but not overly so, and sounds very even and natural all the way down. 

The physical construction of the microphone is quite impressive, and consisent with the quality we've come to expect from MXL, which continues to give their German counterparts a run for their money.  Why else would Neumann release cheaper mics in their product line than ever?   The shockmount is a common design that is functional and easy to install and remove.  Harlan even supplies you with replacement elastic, who else does that??  If you don't care for the shockmount, a standard rigid mount also comes in the package. 

We're so impressed with VO-1a that we'll begin bundling it in our "The Audition" package beginning in 2010.  Coupled with the MicPort Pro, the two work wonderfully together either as a budget home studio setup, or as a travel companion for the working voice actor.  If you just gotta get one, Harlan's ready to ship them at his Voice-over Essentials shop. 

We screened this for a room full of voiceover actors at the SAG Foundation, and it was a huge hit.

If you haven't looked at our FAQ lately, we've made a lot of updates.  After a highly sucessful Voiceover Summit Panel at the SAG Foundation, George came back with a lot of questions to add to the list. We will continue adding material to the ever growing Voiceover Technology FAQ as questions pour in.

We've also got some new products available and a new package called "The Audition", making it easier than ever to get started with your home voiceover studio.