Got my Pioneer HDJ500K, impression of it

Arriving half a week early, my Pioneer HDJ-500K's just arrived today. Not a very reviewed headphone is it?

The packaging is fairly nice, plastic, but not a clamshell package, it's an actual box.

The alternate language being French, to boot.

Aesthetically, they're quite pleasing in black and silver; they carry with them a modern, refined look. My friend digs the white ones, so he may be picking up a pair soon. Despite their larger-than-implied-size, they still fit quite well on my head.

The leather head cushion and earcups (they're too small to be called that really) were quite comfortable. It needs to be stretched out a bit to relieve some of that tightness, but that'll occur with gradual use. They're more like on-ear headphones rather than over-the-ear.

At 45 ohms impedance, even my older 1GB iShuffle can drive these headphones without a hitch. It's purple too. It's quite comical looking though, with it's massive, sturdy jack plugged into a tiny iPod Shuffle. The Jack is thicker than the iPod!

Anyways, immediately plugged into my Droid, listening to Mezzo Forte by Minori Chihara, the first thing that hit me was the bass. It felt somewhat boomy, cuing a reduction of bass in EQ. It also felt somewhat unclear, lacking a bit of detail.

The current equaliser settings I had active boosted the low end by a bit too much, despite a heavy lack of doing so; after some fiddling around with the EQ and bass boost settings, the impact was reduced somewhat. Bass does seem to resonate slightly.

Still more bass than I'm used to. But once the equaliser was in place, bass no longer felt muddy to any degree.

Bass became much clearer actually, affording some detail. It didn't feel like the farting bass you get with bass-heavy headphones. Perhaps dynamic range compression helps, perhaps it doesn't.

On classical tracks, such as THE UNIVERSE from Gundam Unicorn, the headphones delivered strings, harpsichord, and the piano quite well to paint an image of peaceful sanctuary. UNICORN brought with it powerful drums and drama, quite nearly placing me within the drama of the show itself, inside the cockpit of the RX-0.

For DJ headphones, the highs and mids didn't feel too lacking, despite a somewhat dismal frequency response graph. Looks good if I feel like using it for a gig.

Partly related to the treble boost I have. The clarity though, depends partly on the quality of the source.

Treble definitely wasn't lacking with the boost in place, and overall clarity was quite acceptable for headphones that are designed for 2 purposes, DJ'ing and everyday listening.

They're somewhat forgiving to sources, plugged into my friend's Macbook and listening to 128kbps mp3's(of rap...). But the difference in quality is noticeable when you jump from 128kbps mp3 to 320kbps mp3's, which were the best I had on hand. As far as sound stage goes, these felt like an improvement over my Backbeat 326's(still nice in their own respect), giving me more of a definite idea of where the singer and various instruments were in the music and widening the image. It may be logical though, being compared with IEM's.

Overall, quite a nice buy as an $85 piece from an authorized dealer. The white ones will run you $99 instead from an authorized dealer though, do note that. The magnesium core construct feels quite sturdy, despite the fragile outward appearance. The headband has the same feel as the back of my Droid, a nice, grippy ergonomic feel. The more I use it, the better it sounds. I'll update once I'm done burning it in, but for now, I'm a happy junior head-fier.

Not really, I put my hands over the cups and at a reasonable listening volume, they didn't really leak. I hard hard time picking up any leaking at my volume, had to get within an inch of it. At that distance, that's invading privacy . It can leak if you put it higher though; personally, I listen to my tunes on my Droid at the lowest volume. About 50-60dB. Isolation's pretty good on these beauts, and there's two tiny little...slits in the construction of the headband. I'm guessing they're just assembled in a way to allow some flexibility of the headband so it lasts longer. Oh and I turned off the EQ(heavy treble boost actually) and dynamic range compression to see if it made any difference, simple as unchecking a few boxes for me . Bit muddier in vocals and highs but still nice to listen to. I did note some hissing, but that was actually due to DSP manager. I guess that faint hissing is present even in non-blur based sound adjustments.

Simply put though, they're sounding better as I listen. Bass is nice and punchy too, none of that "cannon/earthquake/whatever-you-call-it" bass.

Another thing: I'm noticing an occasional screechy kind of noise, crackling when listening to some music on my HP pavilion laptop, through the headphones. No, it's not the beats line(I'll gladly throw one of those out a 3rd story window, nauseating to even look at). It's an older one, Altec Lansing speakers+IDT Audio with SRS surround. It's probably source, on other tracks it does perfectly fine.

I suppose they've been burnt in for the most part, so now I'll finish up my thoughts on these cans. Ok, they can be REALLY unforgiving sometimes of my source...I occasionally get this massive crackling noise, which is present on some lower quality music tracks stored on my Droid 2.

Occasionally, the mids and highs can feel slightly recessed, though it can be remedied quite well with a combination of EQ, dynamic range compression, and loudness compensation. All built into my Droid, thankfully. Soundstage...It's nothing to write home about at this point, though any track that relies on drums (or anything bassy) for drama/effect will sound quite nice.

The bass has this nice punch and an explosive boom sometimes, echoing into the distance, which I thoroughly enjoy on techno tracks. It still retains a fair degree of detail though, so that's a nice plus!  Definitely a good and nice looking choice for bassheads. Get them in white if you want some eye candy headphones.

If I had the money to pony up for an amp, I wouldn't hesitate, as it'd probably benefit quite well from it. They can be fairly draining for my device to drive in comparison to my 16ohm Altecs. These are 45 ohms in comparison, nearly triple the impedance.

As for toughness, I've accidentally SAT on them twice. Not a single sign of wear and tear even so, so they're fairly tough little cans. We'll see about this in a few months of being tossed into a backpack and taken out several hours later.

Update: Alright, the apparent fragile air of the headphones seems to be a moot point. I've tossed them into a sports bag, which had a notebook (ordinary paper notebook) and an HP touchpad crammed inside it. Few hours later, took it out, no damage done. At this point, I've listened to at least 100 hours of music through these, and they've really opened up from when I've gotten them. I'll admit, mids are still somewhat recessed, and highs may or may not be muffled depending on how you perceive them. But, they sound brilliant, even without EQ now. Bass is indeed as strong as it should be, but vocals and mids don't seem nearly as recessed as they were. They have a very fun, warm sound to them, despite a light veil over parts of the frequency. I wonder if that piece of cloth inside the earcups affects this; I may remove them to observe any difference. Obviously, if you're looking for something that reproduces very good treble/midrange, look at Grado. Pioneers are for DJing.

If you add in a light(healthy) treble and midrange boost, the headphones will immediately unveil trebles and vocals, making them quite a pleasure to listen to. If you can snag these for sub $80, go for it. At this point, I somewhat regret not going all out and getting the HDJ2000's but time will tell that.