Patrick Doesn't Need to Know About This Pt. 1

​This has to stay between us.

For a long time I used a pair of Sennheiser HD 598s for everything I did at my PC. They were great all-around headphones and while they looked like a father's basement retreat in the 1990s, the kind with furniture from the 1970s and a dry bar with pictures of retired running backs hung around it like portraits of saints, they also felt like it thanks to ultra-comfortable velour earpads. The problem is, they were open-backed and once Waypoint was recording 2, 3, sometimes 4 podcasts a week, the sound of other people's voice and laughter was constantly bleeding onto my audio tracks.

I did a bit of research and alighted on the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros, a well-regarded set of closed-back headphones with a coiled cord that is a godsend if you need some range to move around but can't afford to have long loops of headphone cable creating little tripwires all around your desk.

They are great, but from the start they had an issue: they cut out so much noise that it's hard to hear myself talk when I am wearing them. I find I am talking a bit louder than I should when recording, or that my overall pronunciation and awareness of microphone habits goes out the window. Suddenly I am almost yell-talking and slurring my way through shows, as if I am leaning into their ear at a bar trying to tell them we have to cut to commercial.

In a proper studio setup, this isn't a big issue because you can get monitor audio from your microphone so you can hear exactly what you sound like, which you'd like to think would bring me some self-awareness but mostly makes me like the sound of my own voice even more. Trouble is, I couldn't ever get my monitor audio loud enough to hear myself well compared to the audio from the rest of the panel.

The issue could not be the headphones obviously because they were great headphones. I make a point of buying the best stuff I can! So obviously, the solution must be to identify new "best stuff", which is why I bought a nice new external audio interface to help with this problem, the Volt 1. I figured it would deliver way more oomph than my humble Focusrite, especially because it had a nicer chassis and more pleasing knobs and buttons, which suggested a build quality and attention to detail that I can admire, and obviated the need to go digging into the specs too much. Anything that feels this good is sure to be a match for the rest of your gear.

Except naturally, the problem persisted. Even on the new device, I could barely hear myself until the gain and the volume control knobs were almost maxed-out. On my recordings, the quiet ceiling fan in my office sounded like I was speaking just as a Category 2 hurricane made landfall behind me.

Which is when I realized: I'd bought the nicer 250 Ohm DT 770s, which are probably "better" headphones than their 80 Ohm counterparts but which also require some significant power to drive, likely way more than a monitor channel in a USB powered device can provide.

I didn't have the wrong external audio device. I had the wrong headphones. As soon as I plugged in my leaky old open-back Sennheisers, I could hear myself perfectly, including how ridiculously loud my microphone was in actuality.

So I should have just gotten a pair of the 80 Ohm DT 770s right? But I already have the 250s and aside from the fact they're middling for podcast work they're terrific. Sublime through my headphone amp.

But you know what else is fairly easy to drive?

That's right, polished-walnut Meze 99s. Are they more expensive than the DT 770s? Significantly! But I am pretty sure just wearing these will make me smarter and wittier on Remap Radio. Some headphones you'll realize you need to return, but these? These will make you realize you want to RETVRN.

I'll give it a bit before I expense these to Remap. Patrick is still skeptical I needed the Electro-Voice RE20 and he won't love what the matching shock-mount costs. But I am pretty sure once he sees me wearing the Meze 99s he'll understand everything.