Sennheiser HD-490 PRO

Nothing will replace a pair of good near-field monitors and an acoustically treated room, but this is the next best thing in a reasonable price category. I really like them, very comfortable during long mixing sessions at night, and once I got to know their sound "signature" my mixes translate fairly well to a wide range of speakers, requiring only some tweaking. I take away 1 star for the finish quality which is not top notch, mostly plastic that doesn't feel very premium, but I guess Sennheiser used the available budget where it counts the most - on audio properties, and I'm glad they did.

THE MOST COMFORTABLE pair of headphones ever. Great that you can swap and clean the pads (however I prefered "producer" pads even for mixing, both in comfort and sound). Sound is great: realistic reproduction of stereo image, they're not hyped in bass, nor highs. Mids are really good. I had pleasure listening to music and the references were good guides for mixing and mastering. I didn;t keep them all in all: took Audeze MM100 - they're little cheaper and the sound was more appealing to me in therms of realism. However if I were to mix on them I'd be totally satisfied. They seem a little too shacky and thin... I think they could break easily.