headphones or speakers for mastering?

[Oldrottenhead]

hi, i tend to master my songs by listening via my headphones, end results sound cool on my mp3 player but not too hot via my pc's speaker system.
i have some powered speakers that i occasionally plug into the microbr  for playback, but the question is this, should i master using my headphones or by listening via powered speakers to get the best final mix of a song.

[97teledlx]

I would suggest NOT mastering your work with headphones as I have found that they tend to enhance the mix making it sound better than it really is.  I would suggest using your powered speakers. This may sound crazy, but the "cheapest" set that you can find should work best! Why? For the following reason:  If your work sounds good to great on "cheap" speakers,  better quality speakers should make your recordings final product sound even better.

I enrolled in a class that taught us how to record an acoustic guitar.  One of the main points of the class was "if you can get your recording to sound good on a "ghetto blaster" (portable BOOM Box) it will sound just as good or even better on your $$$$$$ home sound system.

I can recall (unfortunately,before I took the class mentioned above) spending 4 hours tweaking my boss GT-6 with headphones on to get my guitar tones as perfectly sounding as I could get them only to find later that night, my rehearsal performance sounded awful.  Fortunately, I had ample time to tweak them before our "LIVE" set.  My advice is to stick with the powered speakers, you and your ears will apprediate not wearing the headgear.

[Oldrottenhead]

thanks for that, i'm gonna have a go at remixing a couple of tunes on my micro to see if i can get em to sound better.
wot you say makes complete sense to me, i recall a documentary about les paul, he used to send a radio signal to his car mono radio  before he decided if it sounded right or not.
cheers

[Pedro]

This is a theme that as given so much books because of its complexity. I suggest you use both, the speakers and the headphones. And like 97teledlx said its best not to use the best ones you've got but also not the worst ones. The average quality speakers are fine, because they will not change the sound too much (bad speakers) and they don't change the sound too litle (good speakers). And by doing this you will be able to do a good master and fully compatible with most home speakers sets.

[Oldrottenhead]

well my powered speakers are probably just right cause they are about average quality.
cheers

[97teledlx]

I agree, average quality is sufficient. Don't forget to post your final work for us to hear. Thanks and good luck!!

[guitarhead]

Thanks for the tip, gonna do that on my next tune