I need to start with a small preface, I love sound, I’m obsessed with it, and I listen to sound all day and all night on all different speakers and TV’s and car systems. Due to my audiophile nature it is very possible there are things that would bother me in a set of headphones that most people wouldn’t notice, or care about.
Testing Environment
These were tested with my friendly
Sony D-EJ2000 personal CD player, and an airhead amp (these require too much power to be run on a portable CD player without an amp).
The listening experience
I tested these with two CD’s. First: the, “Rent” soundtrack, one of my all time favorites, and second: Josh Groben’s CD, a new kid who sings English and Italian ballads and has easily one of the best male voices I’ve ever heard I my life. The notes he can sing and hold just blow me away, buy his CD if at all possible, you won’t regret it.
Sound Quality:
To most people, this is the most important element for obvious reasons. These headphones are great because they are solid across the spectrum, slightly heavier bass, slightly flighty highs, but no one area really stands out. Their run of the spectrum is very even.
The bass is very good. It’s incredibly consistent across the entire range of bass notes, no particular part of the bass is anymore overpowering then any other part. The deep bass is, just maybe, a tiny bit stronger then it should be, but hardly noticeable.
The mid range is extremely smooth. I always have trouble coming up with descriptive words to describe mid ranges that aren’t particularly special in any particular way, it just sounds exactly how it should, and that’s the highest compliment sound can get.
The highs are perhaps the weakest part of the system, but only because one part has to be the weakest, not because they’re noticeably bad. They are a little bit too high at times, on some really high notes I found myself wincing just a touch and reaching to turn the volume down a notch.
Perhaps the most impressive/important part of the sound can’t be found in the specific lows and highs, but in how it all comes together. The entire sound is very fluid and very smooth across the entire range, and this is really the most impressive thing about the sound.
Comfort:
The headphones are extremely comfortable. They feature large round velvet lined ear pads that are, for no reason I can figure, white. The padding on the headband is extremely thick and soft, and I wore these through nearly 3 hours of testing without any discomfort at any time. As a very nice touch the cups themselves are attached to the headband with metal joints, contributing greatly to their durability and flexibility on my head.
Other Notes:
These are open headphones, and leak about as much sound as the average open headphone.
They are single sided, which is nice, because it eliminates cord tangles and the like, and it terminates to a mini with a 1/4 inch adapter supplied.
As a purely cosmetic note, they do look a little bit silly because they are very large and very round, and the white looks strange for the padding, as usually padding is black.
Bottom Line:
**note, these are related to price, EG, it’s not sound quality related to the best sound in the world, it’s sound quality related to the other things in this price range.**
Sound Quality:B+
Portability: C+
Comfort: A
Goofy Lookin’ Tilt:C
Durability: A
Overall:B/B+
