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If you do any type of voice over work, either in a home studio or a more professional setting, it can be extremely important to have a pair of high quality studio headphones with excellent sound quality.
Not only will these studio headphones allow you to hear every nuance of a tone in your voice, or any background sounds, but proper balance of high quality audio through a set of headphones can help with proper sampling and studio editing.
Finding the right pair of studio headphones specifically for any voice actor and a range of voice over work can take quite a bit of time and possibly even a bit of trial and error. There are a variety of considerations you need to keep in mind before making your purchase.
The best studio headphones for voice actors will depend on what features that matter most to you. Maybe you focus on comfort and style more than connection options, or are looking for something with a deep bass boost over a treble balance. Once you understand your own unique needs and goals, finding the right studio headphones for voice over artists can be much easier.
In this article, we will be taking a closer look at several studio headphones which are highly rated for voice over work and most voice over artists. We have compared the pros and cons, cover what features each set offers, and how they can benefit your studio work with high sound quality and low sound leakage. We’ll also cover a detailed buying guide so you can fully understand which features may be more important to you.
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Comparison of the Best Headphones for Voice Over Work
| Best Budget Headphones for Voice Over WorkSee On Amazon |  | Sennheiser HD 280 Pro 2016 | See On Amazon |
| Also Recommended Headphones for Voice Over WorkSee On Amazon |  | Sony MDR-7506 | See On Amazon |
| Best Value Headphones for Voice Over WorkSee On Amazon |  | AKG K371 | See On Amazon |
| Best Overall Headphones for Voice Over WorkSee On Amazon |  | Audio-Technica ATH-M30x | See On Amazon |
| Most Comfortable Headphones for Voice Over WorkSee On Amazon |  | Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO | See On Amazon |
| Best Premium Headphones for Voice Over WorkSee On Amazon |  | Fostex T50RP MK3 | See On Amazon |
Reviews of the Best Headphones for Voice Over Work
Sennheiser is a well known name in the headphone industry, and their Pro HD 280’s are no exception. Made specifically for professional voice actors, vocalists, or musicians, these studio headphones for voice work are lightweight and extremely comfortable for long term use. We also highly recommend these headphones for bass guitar.
Regardless of your volume choice, the Sennheiser HD 280’s can provide high quality and pristine clear sound at both low and maximum volumes. You can easily hear the clear distinction between highs and lows without distortion, while sound leakage and ambient noise are kept to a minimum.
The Sennheiser HD 280 studio headphones are top of the line when it comes to a headset that can handle high audio levels without distortion or excess pressure and ambient noise attenuation. The linear sound reproduction is highly accurate giving you a clear distinction between tones when sampling and editing audio.
Sony’s professional studio-use headset with massive 40mm drivers for incredible sound balance, highs, and lows.
Specifically made for audio professionals, the Sony MDR 7506 is an excellent choice for any voice over artist, musician, vocalist, or audiophile that demands high quality bass lows and treble highs. Reaching a frequency range up to 20 kHz, and as low as 10 Hertz, you’ll hear pristine and crystal clear notes in all types of audio.
Made with massive 40mm Neodymium drivers, you’ll get a highly powerful and very crisp and detailed sound in these closed-back design studio headphones. With a connection cord measuring almost 10 feet in length, you’ll have plenty of room to move around your studio with or without a musical instrument.
Lightweight and made with a very thick and comfortable pair of earpads, you’ll be able to wear these studio headphones for several hours without feeling ear fatigue, discomfort, or pain. In addition, the headphones are foldable which gives you the freedom to pack them away for travel or storage to your digital audio workstation as needed.
Massive 50mm drivers to provide clear and pristine sound reproduction in both music and vocals up to 40 kHz.
As one of AKG Audio’s highest quality professional studio headphones for voice actors and musicians, we know you’ll love these for a wide range of professional and casual uses. Whether you are an audiophile or a studio professional, AKG’s K371 included 50mm drivers for superior sound isolation and frequency response.
The audio frequency range spans from a low of 5 Hertz to a maximum of 40 kHz to give you a highly sensitive and detailed return on audio of all types. Especially useful for voice over artists and other voice actors, you will absolutely notice super levels of sound isolation in these sleek and lightweight studio headphones.
The ear cups are extremely well padded, plush, and perfect for several hours of constant use. If you’ve struggled to find a high quality and comfortable pair of studio headphones in the past, we highly recommend you give the K371’s a try.
Made with high quality 40mm Neodymium drivers, you’ll get a high quality and detailed return on sound with these headphones.
As a mid level brand known for a wide range of audio equipment, Audio Technica’s M30x is an excellent option for both casual listeners as well as voice over professionals. The connections are aluminum coated in copper for an excellent transfer of sound and power when you need it most. You’ll never notice an unnatural and muddy sound, regardless of the frequency range you are using.
Additionally, you’ll find that these studio headphones are collapsible for easy storage or transporting to and from the studio, and can be perfect for daily use due to their high level of comfort. Reaching up to 40 kHz gives you a professional level audio experience for both casual music listening as well as studio recording, sampling, and more.
Made with voice over professionals in mind, the DT770 is extremely comfortable for hours of non-stop wearing.
With a large frequency range, you’ll love these BeyerDynamic professional studio headphones for enjoying music, or performing studio recordings and sampling. Made to be highly durable, long-lasting, and resistant to scratches.
The large ear cups are thoroughly padded and great for long term use. You’ll find extreme levels of comfort, as well as resistance to sweat which helps extend the life of these studio headphones whether you are using them for casual or professional use.
Unique style headset perfect for anyone looking for a versatile and well-sized larger pair of vocal monitoring headphones.
Extremely easy to resize from a small size to larger than average, these studio headphones are an excellent choice for anyone that has had issues finding large and comfortable headphones.
These partially open-back headphones can not only provide decent sound cancellation, but also excellent balance on highs and lows.
When you need clear sound free from external noises and other distractions, these are the best headphones for voice actors that demand a high audio quality and frequency range.
How to Choose the Best Headphones for Voice Over Work
Sound Quality
As the most important consideration when it comes to studio headphones for voice actors, sound quality is the entire reason you are searching for a new pair of headphones. The higher quality sound, the better experience you will have when it comes to voice overs, studio sampling, and other audio related work.
Sound quality can vary between manufacturers as well as models from the same manufacturer. Over time, as technology advances, studio headphones can become higher quality with better components, while remaining the same size or reducing in size. These advances in technology can not only offer an improved bass response, but can also create excellent sound isolation to give you a truly natural sound at a very reasonable price.
When searching for high quality audio in any headphones for voice overs, regardless of your purpose for them, always ensure you are looking for a set of headphones that use quality components, including the cable, to provide excellent sound reproduction.
Brass or gold plated connections, as well as high quality internal headphone drivers can help make your voice over or audio listening experience much more enjoyable with a natural sound to your own voice.
Frequency Response Range
Like speakers, studio headphones for voice actors will have a set frequency response range in either Hertz or Kilohertz. This number is telling you just how effective that particular pair of headphones will be in replicating a variety of sounds and signal noise.
Both extremely low bass and high soprano or whistle register tones can be extremely uncomfortable to hear on lower quality headphones with a smaller frequency response. While studio headphones with a large and varied frequency response can provide a high quality listening experience for both casual listeners and audiophiles, as well as studio professionals and voice actors.
Design and Build Quality
When it comes to design and build quality, this will be a feature that differs between manufacturers. Well known brands may have their own unique and trademarked designs, other lesser known brands may have a more generic shape.
Build quality can also differ between manufacturers, as well as independent models in the same manufacturing company. Build quality differs from design as it is more related to internal components, as well as exterior craftsmanship.
For external craftsmanship, the build quality will revolve around durability and longevity as well as scratch resistance. In general, lower external build quality may not always affect the sound quality or internal components, but it never hurts to focus on finding the total package with high quality components inside and out.
Internal components are extremely important and are directly related to overall sound quality in a professional or home studio. Lower quality drivers, magnets, and other small internal gadgets can make or break a set of studio headphones when it comes to voice over work. Always try to compare internal components between headphone brands and models when possible.
Comfort
When wearing studio headphones for a long amount of time, comfort can have a much higher importance than you originally thought. What is comfortable for the first hour may not always be comfortable several hours later.
For voice over work, you may be required to wear large and bulky headphones with circumaural ear cups for a majority of your day. Finding the best level of comfort will depend on a variety of features including the size of the headphones, the overall weight, the ear cup materials, replaceable ear pads, and more.
For example, closed back headphones compared to open back headphones will normally be somewhat lighter overall than. Even a reduction in a few ounces can help improve the overall comfort of a pair of headphones when wearing them for long amounts of time.
Ear cup materials and shape can also play a huge part in comfort. Most headphones used for voice over work and studio use will be over the ear headphones that make use of large padded cups that sit on top of your ears.
Materials can also be important, with foam, neoprene, and other materials being a potential choice for ear cup materials. In many cases, heat can become an issue when wearing headphones for long amounts of time. Some headphone ear cups will collect heat from your body and hold it close to your ear which can become uncomfortable over time, while other ear cups will dissipate heat quickly.
Sweat can also become an uncomfortable issue to consider when wearing headphones, both in your inner ear as well as on the surface of your ear. In today’s modern market, many retail headphones will have sweat resistant neoprene or similar materials on the ear cups to not only prevent sound leakage, but also to help keep your ears dry and cool.
Connection Options
Most headphones have anywhere from one to three different connection options, with wireless being a fourth open for some brands. Normally you can find headphones for voice over work set up to accept 6.5mm connections, though 3.5 mm is also extremely common.
In addition, extremely high quality single sided cable connections can be found with USB connections. In general, USB is best for certain studio sampling and recording software when connected through a computer, but 3.5 or 6.5 mm connections can be best for stereo sampling.
Wireless or Bluetooth connections can also be used with a variety of recording equipment, but the overall consensus is that the quality may end up being lower than with a wired connection. Ultimately, the quality of the vocals for both recording and sampling will depend on the quality of the connection itself.
Wireless compatibility will depend on a number of variations as well, but will solely depend on your voice over recording software and hardware. If you are using a PC or laptop, most reliable and high quality headphone connections will be via USB wireless dongle connection.
Open or Closed Back
When searching for headphones suitable for voice over work, you will have the choice between open-back or closed-back designs. While each style can offer different benefits, one may be better suited for voice overs and voice actors specifically than the other.
Open Back Headphones
In many cases, open back headphones can be highly beneficial for professionals doing voice over work. The biggest benefit to an open back headphone is the inclusion of certain background acoustics from the room or studio.
When working with another voice actor, this can be extremely important in order to bounce scripted vocals back and forth between multiple people. Being able to not only hear the other person, but hear any audio cues or playback in the headphones can help improve the overall quality of your studio recordings.
Closed Back Headphones
Unlike open back headphones, a closed back pair will not allow background sound to leak in. This can be very good for listening to music, especially in busier areas of your home or business, or for when sampling audio files. But for any voice actor and any voice over work this can potentially be a detriment.
One of the biggest benefits to closed back headphones is the noise isolation. You’ll be able to hear every nuance when it comes to bass lows and treble highs in crystal clear quality. If using closed back headphones for voice overs, you may have trouble hearing other voice over artists when working on group projects.
Price Range
All electronics will have a variety of different prices to fit a variety of budgets. The price can change with several variants, including brand name, design quality, features, and more. If you are looking for a pair of headphones specifically for voice over work, you will most likely be looking for investment quality headphones instead of a lower end pair that will be replaced each year.
In this case, the price range for suitable headphones may be somewhat higher for you than it would be for a casual music listener, for example. As a professional voice actor doing voice overs, or any other studio audio sampling, you want a higher quality set of headphones that can deliver crisp and clear sound regardless of the audio being replayed through the headset.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Open-Back or Closed-Back Headphones Better?
While both options can work perfectly well for voice actors and other voice overs, the best option will depend on your particular needs and workflow. For example, if you are working in a professional or home studio and providing vocal input which will be edited and sampled, closed back professional headphones are best for perfect bass response.
If, on the other hand, you will be recording on a daily basis with another artist, or need more control over balancing your vocals with background audio, open-back professional headphones are a better option. While they still offer noise cancellation to some extent, you will have more chances of working with background vocals or audio as needed.
How Do I Determine Headphone Quality?
If you are purchasing your first set of professional headphones, you may want to know how to tell which is high quality and which is average. High quality professional headphones will have a much higher frequency range than average, sometimes up to 50 kHz or higher.
Additionally, high quality professional headphones will have better components, both inside and out. The exterior construction will be more durable, and could include metal, while the interior components use advanced driver technology to ensure you get the best headphones for voice actors.
Conclusion
After comparing the various options together, we have concluded that the Sennheiser Pro HD 280 is the best mix of features, price, and design. They are lightweight, comfortable, and great for long term wearing whether you are enjoying casual audio, or are a studio professional.
The high quality sound, excellent audio balance, and high quality internal components all combine together in the Sennheiser professional headphones to make them the best option, in our opinion, from the multiple choices on this list.
Now if you are looking for a microphone for your voice-over work, you can check our OneOdio FM1 review.