Headphones
On my desk lie a pair of Sennheiser headphones. That is reason enough to briefly write what “cans” can do and what they cannot.
I use headphones regularly for two things. First for focusing on acoustic details as if i look for noises or if i try to find the perfect amount of attack to set on a compressor (it determines how much the transients of the signal get through and generally sound good if set for “long” but to keep signals “hot” i often try to reduce the attack as much as possible without killing the transients). The second use of headphones in my working room is to judge the bass - that is the amount of bass in a track. Mainly because the bass response in my working room ist not perfect as in 99% of all rooms.
Headphones work like magnifying glasses and therefore you can work on details or an single sources and they dont interfere with your room so good headphones have a very linear frequency response.
Sounds like you can sell your speakers and spend everything for great headphones for mixing ? No ! First the stereo-response is bi-aural and hence a mix dont translate the same when heared on speakers. But even more important is that you cant see the whole picture with magnifying glasses. A great tip for mixing is to judge a mix played from good speakers just above the hearing threshold (very soft that is) - and that is the absolute opposite of the hearing experience with headphones. In the “cans” you still can hear most of the details of a bad mix which will get lost if played on speakers. So, dont mix with headphones on.Â
Oh, but there is another great use of good headphones - listen to well recorded music on them with your eyes closed… you will hear details you never heard on speakers and the intimate listening experience is really cool for many styles of music. For “ambient” electronic music for example 
Lastly i will just add that i seem to be a serious Sennheiser fan… the last years my main headphones included HD580, HD600 and now HD650 and i two times did listening tests comparing them to other brands (didnt like AKG at all, but the high-end Beyerdynamic came close)
19. May 2008 at 09:19
Yes, I’m using an AKG 501, but it’s good. It’s really difficult, sometimes to use the monitors, sometimes the headphones… hmm.
[one-score]
19. May 2008 at 16:16
I used some headphones from Creative…. not such big quality but I saw a difference when using different impedance load of headphones. I used one at 16 ohms and another at 64 ohms. I got a louder sound on the headphones with lower impedance (i.e. 16 ohms).
I think that this can have also impact on the battery duration for mp3 players.
But what about the sound quality? Can you find some advantages using low impedance or high impedance headphones?
20. May 2008 at 13:05
I had only some “cheap” (when around 60,-Euro is cheap) Sony Headphones. But I agree with the point that you can relax to or enjoy some pieces of music with headphones much more as in other ways.
20. May 2008 at 13:46
>> Can you find some advantages using low impedance or high impedance headphones?
Dont know about resistances in headphones… just that my HD650 even sounds good when plugged into my ipod… of course not as when plugged in a decent amp
22. May 2008 at 20:58
You have to try different headphones with different impedances. Some works with the operating point of any amps, my test with a tubes-pre-amplifier just for headphones shows me: The quality is so high for AKG501, It seems the event playing in the backgroung of my own person. I use the monitors to fix the deep in the room, sometimes the headphones for the real direction and loudness between the sounds and reverberations. And to use the phones to produce an very dry bass is a good way. Yes, I agree.