This is the first pair of headphones by Xiaomi, who have previously gained their popularity with a series of pistons and their earbuds. They were announced in January, but only came out this April.
Those headphones were marketed as a custom-made gadget for the Xiaomi RedMi phone, but they did a pretty good job as headphones for my Mi 4 phone where I tested them. Designed as high-end phones for mobile devices, they will also do a great job as your regular headphones, for travel or even gaming.
Performance
The headphones are said to have a large beryllium diaphragm (25% larger than usual) and silver-plated wires for reduced impedance. However, as a non-techy audiophile, I did not notice any particular advantages of that. For me, it just does provide a great overall sound quality.
The open diaphragm results in a clearer sound with no echoes, giving it a more natural edge, whereas closed diaphragm headphones tend to sound a bit closed in. Even with high volume you are not bothered with any trembling or interference.
The sub-bass tend to be a bit weak, which is especially notable on lower quality recordings (or when it has been processed by your phone software). However, the mid-upper bass is more than decent, giving a full sound enough for every song. The treble is prominent, maybe a little crispy on the heights – again, especially visible on lesser quality recordings – but not to the point of being annoying.
Overall the headphones will give you nice listening experience without getting you tired or annoyed even after a few hours of music.
Look and feel
The headphones are black and gold, with leather finishing of the earmuffs and the arch. Although, the leather of the muffs is extremely soft and gentle, even though I got the headphones brand new, so you really don’t have this cold and stiff feeling as you might have with other leather muffs. It also has some kind of perforations, probably for better air flow to cool down your ears. There should have been a second pair of earmuffs, little larger ones that go over your ears, but my package came without those, so I cannot say much about those.
The headphones can be folded to fit into a neat little box that is perfect for travel. This feature actually had me a little worried, because I have had a lot of bad experiences with folding headphones, where your hair gets stuck in there and so on, but Xiaomi did a pretty neat job on this. When you open the headphones, they do a little ‘click’ and stay open, so you couldn’t even say that they can be folded, and you absolutely don’t feel any problems with them. I hope this doesn’t wear off after a while, but so far so good.
Comfort and use
As mentioned before, the earmuffs are made of soft leather, which feels very nice to your ears. There are tiny perforations for better air flow, although it can still get a little hot. They sit firm and nicely, so I didn’t have any problems with listening on the go (I didn’t try jogging, though). The cord was long enough to put my phone into my pants pocket without any problems.
The headphones also do a pretty decent job with cancelling the surrounding sounds. For instance, when I was driving with volume somewhere in the middle, I could hardly hear my car horn.
The cord has an integrated mike, but there is just one button, so no volume buttons. This will allow you to play/pause or answer your phone, but you’ll have to take your phone out to change the volume, which is pretty annoying.
Packaging
As always, I am very pleased with Xiaomi’s packaging. Everything arrives in a nice white box, which contains just this black case. There you will find your headphones, the cord (it can be disconnected, which is a great feature for foldable headphones), together with ad additional pair of earmuffs and two adapters: 3.5 mm to 6.3 mm and the aviation adapter.
Conclusion
To conclude, these are good quality headphones which will serve great as a headset for your mobile phone, but will also do the job as a travel hadphone or a second pair for an audiophile.
Those headphones were marketed as a custom-made gadget for the Xiaomi RedMi phone, but they did a pretty good job as headphones for my Mi 4 phone where I tested them. Designed as high-end phones for mobile devices, they will also do a great job as your regular headphones, for travel or even gaming.
Performance
The headphones are said to have a large beryllium diaphragm (25% larger than usual) and silver-plated wires for reduced impedance. However, as a non-techy audiophile, I did not notice any particular advantages of that. For me, it just does provide a great overall sound quality.
The open diaphragm results in a clearer sound with no echoes, giving it a more natural edge, whereas closed diaphragm headphones tend to sound a bit closed in. Even with high volume you are not bothered with any trembling or interference.
The sub-bass tend to be a bit weak, which is especially notable on lower quality recordings (or when it has been processed by your phone software). However, the mid-upper bass is more than decent, giving a full sound enough for every song. The treble is prominent, maybe a little crispy on the heights – again, especially visible on lesser quality recordings – but not to the point of being annoying.
Overall the headphones will give you nice listening experience without getting you tired or annoyed even after a few hours of music.
Look and feel
The headphones are black and gold, with leather finishing of the earmuffs and the arch. Although, the leather of the muffs is extremely soft and gentle, even though I got the headphones brand new, so you really don’t have this cold and stiff feeling as you might have with other leather muffs. It also has some kind of perforations, probably for better air flow to cool down your ears. There should have been a second pair of earmuffs, little larger ones that go over your ears, but my package came without those, so I cannot say much about those.
The headphones can be folded to fit into a neat little box that is perfect for travel. This feature actually had me a little worried, because I have had a lot of bad experiences with folding headphones, where your hair gets stuck in there and so on, but Xiaomi did a pretty neat job on this. When you open the headphones, they do a little ‘click’ and stay open, so you couldn’t even say that they can be folded, and you absolutely don’t feel any problems with them. I hope this doesn’t wear off after a while, but so far so good.
Comfort and use
As mentioned before, the earmuffs are made of soft leather, which feels very nice to your ears. There are tiny perforations for better air flow, although it can still get a little hot. They sit firm and nicely, so I didn’t have any problems with listening on the go (I didn’t try jogging, though). The cord was long enough to put my phone into my pants pocket without any problems.
The headphones also do a pretty decent job with cancelling the surrounding sounds. For instance, when I was driving with volume somewhere in the middle, I could hardly hear my car horn.
The cord has an integrated mike, but there is just one button, so no volume buttons. This will allow you to play/pause or answer your phone, but you’ll have to take your phone out to change the volume, which is pretty annoying.
Packaging
As always, I am very pleased with Xiaomi’s packaging. Everything arrives in a nice white box, which contains just this black case. There you will find your headphones, the cord (it can be disconnected, which is a great feature for foldable headphones), together with ad additional pair of earmuffs and two adapters: 3.5 mm to 6.3 mm and the aviation adapter.
Conclusion
To conclude, these are good quality headphones which will serve great as a headset for your mobile phone, but will also do the job as a travel hadphone or a second pair for an audiophile.
Here are 6 pictures from the very article you cite:
http://www.soomal.com/pic/20100050664.pic.htm
The picture you reference is one in which the Be coating was removed from the mylar base. Mention is made of the very thin, transparent remains.
1. I would not agree the sound is hideous; in fact, after 100s of hours of burn-in I feel the headphones sound fair enough at high listening levels
2. You state, "only coating it partially with beryllium instead of coating it uniformly'" uniformly means evenly, in other words no area more coated than another. I would submit that in all native pictures referenced herein, the coating is evenly distributed. You ask to shine light through - yep, they are certainly extremely translucent, but evenly so. Perhaps you desire a thicker coating? and feel they cheaped-out on this aspect? From what I have read, and I am certainly no expert, Be coating is typically very thin for many technical reasons. I would imagine there is an optimal thickness for acoustical purposes and it may not be that thicker is better. Listen, for all I know there is not one scintilla of Beryllium in these things!
Here is photo of my tear-down (as far as I am willing to go!)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F3gdNMOEmdd0w0STRucVJ0TXM/view?usp=sharing
In conclusion, my expectations were high and I was disappointed, but these are $80 cans and one could do worse. I see no reason to describe the sound as hideous or imply poor construction, personally. That's just my opinion and you are certainly entitled to yours.
I am in no way attempting to start a war here, but in the interest of fairness, I do not agree that "horrendous" and "muddy" are appropriate adjectives for these under $100 headphones.