"Michael had remarkably good hearing when I worked with him, all things considered, but he loved having his headphones painfully loud. If you have never worked in a recording studio, the reason singers and musicians use headphones is so they can hear the song, their voice, etc., but the microphone only hears their voice, or the instrument they are playing. It became a bit of a challenge for us, because Michael would crank his headphones louder and louder during a session, then he would call out, "Brad… my headphones don’t sound right… can I get another pair?" I would bring him another pair, only to discover he had blown the previous ones. Now, you can’t really tell Michael he needs to turn his headphones down, so the challenge was to find a set that would please his ears and be comfortable to wear, and be loud enough for his liking. 

We tried several models from AKG and Sennheiser, only to send them to the shop with smoke coming out of them after an MJ vocal session. Finally we discovered the solution: The Fostex T20. Michael tried them and reached for the volume control. Now, I like loud music, I really do – but the volume that Michael would listen to and sing along with on those T20’s was mindblowing! He loved them, and they became our must-have in every studio we worked in. 

So, if you want to listen to Michael’s music through the same headphones that he was listening to when he created it, skip the Beat’s By Dre and pick up a pair of Fostex T20’s. (They cost 1/3 as much!) You may not look like everyone else, but you’ll know the back-story – these were the headphones that Michael used). Michael always marched to his own drumbeat – shouldn’t you?” ~ Brad Sundberg