Help Me Pick a Bedroom Rig - HX Stomp + Headphones?

[Crundles]

Heya lads,

So December is rapidly approaching, holidays are almost upon us, and I feel with how things have been going, I could stand to spend some money on myself. While I've kept up-to-date with new gear releases, I haven't actually tried anything myself. So, could definitely use some advice.

Budget: 1k EUR max
Location: European Union
Goal: Upgrade from my Yamaha THR10x to an ultra-low volume bedroom rig

Current plan: Get an HX Stomp, and some headphones. Looking at beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro, because apparently 250 Ohm headphones work well with the stomp.

I mostly just want a good-sounding solution to play by myself. I'd prefer digital, because I can just plug it to my PC, and have an all-in-one playing/recording setup.

I live in an apartment, and the walls are thin enough to hear casual conversation from the neighbours on all sides. I also occasionally play at night due to insomnia, so I figure headphones are a better idea than a FRFR speaker/monitors. I live alone, so open-back headphones are not an issue.

I definitely prioritize having a good sound when playing by myself over super-accurate flat response for recording.

Am I ok to just mosh myself a stomp and headphones? Obviously it'll work, it's not exactly a piece of avantgarde indie equipment, but am I overlooking obvious flaws/issues/better alternatives? Any better set of headphones for a similar/slightly higher price?

Cheers!

 

[coffeeflush]

I have a bedroom rig myself, Its really good for song writing.
I suggest you switch out the Helix for a Boss 1000 GT Core , more effect blocks etc.
Why not go with a closed back pair ? The Austrian audio X55 looks cool.

 

[Crundles]

I have a bedroom rig myself, Its really good for song writing.
I suggest you switch out the Helix for a Boss 1000 GT Core , more effect blocks etc.
Why not go with a closed back pair ? The Austrian audio X55 looks cool.

Mostly "because the internet said so" on all of the above questions, to be honest.

From the videos I've seen, the HX stomp manages to keep up with the Fractal FM3, and is significantly cheaper. The Boss is ~700 eur, and I've not been impressed with the GT-1000 sounds in general. Obviously I haven't tried any of them myself, so, users with experience welcome to join in!

The X55 does look cool, but at 300 EUR it's also kind of expensive. I could finagle it in my budget, but I'd really prefer to leave some on the table. The BeyerDynamic seems to be a decently popular choice with HX Stomp owners, and is more or less a third of the price. Unfortunately, I've little idea what the differences between the 770/880/990 are.

 

[Dineley]

You got the right idea. Plus with HX stomp you can add Helix native for $99 whenever so for recording you can have more bells and whistles. Just overall Helix ecosystem is very good.

 

[laxu]

I'd recommend Sennheiser HD6XX from Drop.com over the Beyerdynamic. I own both and the DT-990 Pros I have have a lot of high end that sounds kinda nasty for guitar. The Sennheisers are more balanced.

Honestly the THR10 is great as is so unless the more metal oriented sounds of the 10X don't do it for you, I'd just use that with headphones.

 

[Crundles]

I'd recommend Sennheiser HD6XX from Drop.com over the Beyerdynamic. I own both and the DT-990 Pros I have have a lot of high end that sounds kinda nasty for guitar. The Sennheisers are more balanced.

Honestly the THR10 is great as is so unless the more metal oriented sounds of the 10X don't do it for you, I'd just use that with headphones.

Interesting, I'll have to check the HD6XX. I've no idea what drop.com is about, but they are listed as a pre-order? If I miss the 4 days left period what happens, do I need to wait for another run?

Also, I'm somewhat tired of the THR10X. It's fine as a practice amp, but it's been my only amp for several years, and I'm yet to hear anyone get (or dial in myself) a sound that'll even make me go "hey that's pretty good".

Of course, there's no guarantee I'll be able to get a decent sound with a vastly more complex device like the Stomp. But at least I've heard plenty of people on youtube dial in awesome sounds on it, so if I can't, it'd be entirely my own fault.



Also I really want to buy something new ._.

 

[coffeeflush]

Well the white limited edition on the HX Stomp is on Thomann for 450€ if you order it now. So you can save money there. Regarding headphones, avoid the 880. Both 770 and 990 are good, chose 770 for closed and 990 for open.
6XX is a pain to get in Europe, get the HD 560S instead. Similar but better. But again open back.

 

[ElysianGuitars]

I use my HX Stomp+headphones as a couch rig, use it to record song ideas and such, works great. I've got Reaper on my Macbook Pro, EZ Drummer 2, Amplitube 4, etc, and can do all sorts of fun stuff with all that.

 

[Xaios]

I'd recommend Sennheiser HD6XX from Drop.com over the Beyerdynamic. I own both and the DT-990 Pros I have have a lot of high end that sounds kinda nasty for guitar. The Sennheisers are more balanced.

I'd generally agree with this, but with the qualification that if you're ever going to do any mixing with these headphones, the Beyerdynamics are a better choice. They have a very revealing frequency response, and while their tonality lacks the warmth of Sennheisers, if there's a flaw in your mix, you WILL hear it through DT-990s. Especially clipping. Those suckers reveal clipping like you wouldn't believe.

 

[coffeeflush]

I'd generally agree with this, but with the qualification that if you're ever going to do any mixing with these headphones, the Beyerdynamics are a better choice. They have a very revealing frequency response, and while their tonality lacks the warmth of Sennheisers, if there's a flaw in your mix, you WILL hear it through DT-990s. Especially clipping. Those suckers reveal clipping like you wouldn't believe.

For this reason I recommended the Austrian audio, if you like a clear headphone for mixing, the X55 competes with the Audeze LCD. Far beyond the clarity of the Beyer.

 

[Crundles]

Interesting... main priority is a pleasant sound when playing by myself. To be absolutely honest, although I'll probably start recording immediately, mixing doesn't seem likely in the near future considering my current skillset.

Since I live in Europe, would you agree that HD 560S are a good choice? Thomann has them at 200 EUR, which is more or less the ceiling of what I'm comfortable spending on headphones.

Also damn, the white is out of stock but the red HX Stomp is 410 EUR, which is pretty cool as I was fine with spending nearly 600 of em.

 

[coffeeflush]

If Mixing is not your goal, all of the above are more than good enough for you.
The HD 560S has solid reviews across the board and comfortable for long use. Only negative in my book is that its open back.

 

[Crundles]

If there's one thing I learned during my master's in economics, it's that 3:30 AM is the optimal time for modeller purchases.

Thus, I went ahead and placed an order for the red Stomp.



Also I found several stores in my country that carry the HD 560S, so I've some time to think whether I want to cheap out on the most important part of a headphone rig.

Thanks for the information and advice, lads!

edit: Oh, and extra-special super-thanks to @coffeeflush, since if not for their post, I probably never would've known there's a significant discount on the colour-stomps!

 

[budda]

You say you wont be mixing, but as soon as you're adding a second track you're going to be mixing. It may be wise to have listening headphones and mixing headphones.

 

[Xaios]

It's been a while since I've worn Sennheisers and don't really recall how they feel, but I can say this about the DT-990s: they are comfortable to wear. That velvety cushion is just so nice.

 

[laxu]

Interesting, I'll have to check the HD6XX. I've no idea what drop.com is about, but they are listed as a pre-order? If I miss the 4 days left period what happens, do I need to wait for another run?

Also, I'm somewhat tired of the THR10X. It's fine as a practice amp, but it's been my only amp for several years, and I'm yet to hear anyone get (or dial in myself) a sound that'll even make me go "hey that's pretty good".

Of course, there's no guarantee I'll be able to get a decent sound with a vastly more complex device like the Stomp. But at least I've heard plenty of people on youtube dial in awesome sounds on it, so if I can't, it'd be entirely my own fault.



Also I really want to buy something new ._.

The HD 6XX is basically the HD 650 but with a nicer color and a better price due to volume discounts Drop gets. If they are on preorder then yeah, if you miss the window then most likely it will be unavailable for purchase for a while. With Black Friday sales it's certainly worth seeing if the HD 650 is available at good prices too.

I've never owned the THR10 amps but have been able to get tones I found satisfying out of them whenever I've tried them. I had the bigger THR100HD head for a while and that sounded really good too. Of course on the THR10 you are going to be limited by the fact that it's a small box with small speakers but for headphone use it's not going to perform all that different.

If you own an audio interface you could try the plugin route as well, there are great ones available nowadays. You could try Helix Native as it sounds identical to the hardware, the differences will come from your input/output devices (audio interface and speakers).

I love the Helix stuff, I think they are intuitive to use and very good sounding. At the moment they do have some things that are not great, namely the stock cab blocks take a lot of effort to dial a great sound and the basic reverbs (spring, room etc) are only ok. The 3.1 update coming next year hopefully improves on some of these things as they are minor flaws on an otherwise great series of devices. In the mean time you can just replace the cab blocks with your favorite 3rd party impulse responses. York Audio, ML Sound Labs and OwnHammer are good starting points.

 

[laxu]

I'd generally agree with this, but with the qualification that if you're ever going to do any mixing with these headphones, the Beyerdynamics are a better choice. They have a very revealing frequency response, and while their tonality lacks the warmth of Sennheisers, if there's a flaw in your mix, you WILL hear it through DT-990s. Especially clipping. Those suckers reveal clipping like you wouldn't believe.

Absolutely. That said, the DT-990s can also cause issues in mixes where you mix things too dull because there is a lot of high end emphasis on those with a dip in the mids. Sonarworks Reference 4 is a great software for fixing this and made a massive difference in their sound whereas on my HD6XX I can barely tell a difference. The following images are from Sonarworks' evaluations of each model.

It's been a while since I've worn Sennheisers and don't really recall how they feel, but I can say this about the DT-990s: they are comfortable to wear. That velvety cushion is just so nice.

They are very comfortable for sure. The HD6XX feel a bit tigher but I find them comfortable as well. That said my DT990 pads are very worn after having them for like 10 years and I have ordered new ones. The current pads have become kind of flat. You can and should handwash the pads occasionally.

 

[coffeeflush]

Beyer and Senn have both very different approaches to their headphones.
Beyers are definately more comfortable, the pad life and compatibility and modability is better.

Senns are usuually lighter, the peads have not as much of a shelf life, but the measurments are done with the pads and variation from headphone to headphone is low. Whereas in Beyers, the variations in two pairs of headphones of the same model is very high.

 

[Crundles]

I'll probably slap the Line6 Ownhammer pack from their marketplace as soon as the stomp gets here tbh. I keep hearing criticism towards the default cabs.

Regarding the headphones, considering comfort and an enjoyable (rather than 100% accurate) listening are a priority, is there any set closer to 100 EUR that will do the job? Or should I just stop being a cheap stingy miser, and get the good ones?

 

[coffeeflush]

You get awesome cabs for free in many packs. Try those before ordering anything.

Senn HD280 is a studio classic for monitoring. So is the Beyer 700. As is AKG 371.
My HD280 is going strong, 12 years now.

That said, the 200€ will work for mixing as well. So upto you.