Why does my guitar sound so s**t through cans?

pmbomb

@guitars4you please update when you have tried, ta.

skullfunkerry

Years ago I had some Skullcandy HESH headphones which sounded absolutely pants for music, really harsh and middly. They were great for playing my guitar through, though: sounded almost exactly the same as my amp (Yam THR5 at the time), just directly into my ears.

They broke last year, and I replaced them with a different model. These ones sound much better for music, but crap for playing my guitar through. I guess it's to do with the 'tuning' that's being done by the cans to make music sound better.

I presume that studio monitor headphones will be a lot more flat tonally, so guitar will sound good through them?

fftc

Modulus_Amps said:

Presumably they have some components in the headphone out to try and emulate a speaker, sounds like they have got it wrong

I think it's the opposite.
They use fancy tech from the Hi-Fi department to make the speakers sound good, but what it takes to get a good room sound from 2 tiny speakers is different to a full size guitar amp output. So if headphones reproduce the amp output sans the acoustic engineering that is applied to the speakers then they will not sound the same.

Modulus_Amps

Get one of these, then you can play through headphones anywhere in the house...

they sound just like a tube amp ... honest

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Korg-Toneworks-Pandora-Px3-Multi-Effects-Processor/1123120024?iid=202570964017&chn=ps

shuikit

Not familiar with the THR10, does it also have some from of speaker emulation/IR on it?

I have found that when I use earphones, even 'good' earphones that aren't designed for monitoring then I don't tend to get good results when playing guitar using them.  Using ones that are designed to be monitors is a lot better, but when used to listen to music, it can sounds quite lifeless.

thegummy

skullfunkerry said:

Years ago I had some Skullcandy HESH headphones which sounded absolutely pants for music, really harsh and middly. They were great for playing my guitar through, though: sounded almost exactly the same as my amp (Yam THR5 at the time), just directly into my ears.

They broke last year, and I replaced them with a different model. These ones sound much better for music, but crap for playing my guitar through. I guess it's to do with the 'tuning' that's being done by the cans to make music sound better.

I presume that studio monitor headphones will be a lot more flat tonally, so guitar will sound good through them?

The headphones I get good results from are definitely monitor headphones.

The inventor of the parametric EQ has said they are the only headphones he would mix on due to their flat response .

TimmyO

pmbomb said:

yeah but I'm playing along to Ace of Spades!

and my family's definition of "too loud" is directly equivalent to "audible".

Sounds like you need to trade in your family - does Reverb have a category for that? 

roberty

pmbomb said:

roberty said:

I track through cans and find it helps.  You don't get any transient smear from room reflections so you can lock in better

I don't know what this means.

It means the attack of the notes is smeared in the time domain by the sound travelling around the room. Basically not as crisp and dry

pmbomb

trying my iPad with Tonebridge - sounds way better on 'phones than the Yamaha. even usable!

BeardyAndy

Modulus_Amps said:

Get one of these, then you can play through headphones anywhere in the house...

they sound just like a tube amp ... honest

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Korg-Toneworks-Pandora-Px3-Multi-Effects-Processor/1123120024?iid=202570964017&chn=ps

I've had a couple of these over the years, great little gadget.

bingefeller

Try John Dale's shelving EQ presets.

https://guitarpatches.com/patches.php?mode=show&unit=THR10&ID=9323

I had a THR 10 and found they improved the sound a lot. 

Voxman

ICBM said:

I hate playing through headphones. I'd rather just play clean at very low volume or even unplugged.

+1...But not unplugged. However, I do use headphones sometimes if I want to play loud late at night.