For the past few years, I've been searching for some good closed monitor headphones. The most important things for me were to find headphones that were balanced and had low impedence. When I saw the German Maestro GMP 8.35 D Monitor (previously MB Quart). I decided to take a chance with them, since I already owned the MB Quart QP 250 and was very happy with them. The day I got the GMP 8.35 D...what a HUGE surprise!!! Monitor headphones, INDEED!! From the first moment that I plugged them into my soundcard, they just sounded perfectly balanced with a lot of power. The low is really warm and the bass is just enough to really pump the kick and the sub bass. And they do create the air of the sub feeling, which is really important to me as an electronic music producer. The highs are great. The percussion, snare, high hats, the whole drum section has such clear details with smooth highs, it really surprised me! Let's say it like this: they are more balanced than the K271, they are more bass controlled and with more open highs than the M 50 and they are not as aggressive as my previous Ultrasones, which I do love a lot. So, for me, this is the best combination for closed monitor headphones.
The sound stage of these headphones is not too big. It's somewhere between the RS1 and the K271. I would consider it to be more of a forward sound stage, especially compared to my K 702. And this was exactly what I needed; a closed studio monitor headphone that I could really monitor the early stages of my mixes with a lot of warm, tight bass. They are not super fast and not laid back. They're steady, along the lines of the AKG, especially when I need a lot of dynamic pressure. At 35 ohms, the can be considered field monitors for DJ's and professional use, as in movie production, tv, etc. They can also work as portable cans for mp3 players or directly from the computer soundcard, more like a multi purpose monitor headphones. They don't really need an amp, but to plug them into my soundcard, I can just hear everything more clearly and the frequencies are more extended, especially at 24 bit.
They are really, really strong headphones. As the company advertises, they are "unbreakable". They look like they would be sweaty headphones, but they are not. They become warm after 30-40 minutes, but I have had long sessions with these and my ears didn't get hot and sweaty, as with some other brands, which will go unnamed for now. And yes, the insulation is some of the best that I've experienced. With the volume at just at 50%, I couldn't hear anything from the person who was talking next to me. This is probably a result of the interesting construction of the pad.
Now, a few interesting things about these headphones. It was a little suspicious for me that they sounded so good, right out of the box, so I have been using them daily, and listening for subtle changes as a result of the burn in process, but NADA! They sound just as good today as they did 2 weeks ago and that just really surprised me, so I contacted the company and asked about the burn in time. And I also asked about the driver size. This is what Thomas, the representative of the company had to say about it:
"You should not expect any differences in sound while a longer using time because there are no parts in the headphones mounted where the material become smoother.
The headphone system hasn't any spider like an "normal" speaker where you note some changes after "Burn-In". The voice-coil (diameter 18mm) is mounted direct on the special formed cone with effective diameter of ~38mm. The cone is made of an special plastic-foil."
I was really curious about the FR, so he was kind enough to also send me the graph as well. The graph confirmed my 8.35 D Monitor sound perception.
So, yeah..."SERIOUS ABOUT AUDIO"...indeed, they are VERY serious about audio, as I would have expected from a German company
The sound stage of these headphones is not too big. It's somewhere between the RS1 and the K271. I would consider it to be more of a forward sound stage, especially compared to my K 702. And this was exactly what I needed; a closed studio monitor headphone that I could really monitor the early stages of my mixes with a lot of warm, tight bass. They are not super fast and not laid back. They're steady, along the lines of the AKG, especially when I need a lot of dynamic pressure. At 35 ohms, the can be considered field monitors for DJ's and professional use, as in movie production, tv, etc. They can also work as portable cans for mp3 players or directly from the computer soundcard, more like a multi purpose monitor headphones. They don't really need an amp, but to plug them into my soundcard, I can just hear everything more clearly and the frequencies are more extended, especially at 24 bit.
They are really, really strong headphones. As the company advertises, they are "unbreakable". They look like they would be sweaty headphones, but they are not. They become warm after 30-40 minutes, but I have had long sessions with these and my ears didn't get hot and sweaty, as with some other brands, which will go unnamed for now. And yes, the insulation is some of the best that I've experienced. With the volume at just at 50%, I couldn't hear anything from the person who was talking next to me. This is probably a result of the interesting construction of the pad.
Now, a few interesting things about these headphones. It was a little suspicious for me that they sounded so good, right out of the box, so I have been using them daily, and listening for subtle changes as a result of the burn in process, but NADA! They sound just as good today as they did 2 weeks ago and that just really surprised me, so I contacted the company and asked about the burn in time. And I also asked about the driver size. This is what Thomas, the representative of the company had to say about it:
"You should not expect any differences in sound while a longer using time because there are no parts in the headphones mounted where the material become smoother.
The headphone system hasn't any spider like an "normal" speaker where you note some changes after "Burn-In". The voice-coil (diameter 18mm) is mounted direct on the special formed cone with effective diameter of ~38mm. The cone is made of an special plastic-foil."
I was really curious about the FR, so he was kind enough to also send me the graph as well. The graph confirmed my 8.35 D Monitor sound perception.
So, yeah..."SERIOUS ABOUT AUDIO"...indeed, they are VERY serious about audio, as I would have expected from a German company
