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500+ Head-Fier
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- Jun 26, 2001
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Here is the promised round-up between Sennheiser HD 280 Pro (64 Ohms version) and Beyerdynamic DT 250-80.
I got the Senns last Friday at the Saturn electronics store in Berlin for about 100 USD, and the Beyers were my friend’s. I used to own DT 250 but sold them because I needed an amp upgrade (and the cash) and it felt I had too many phones at that time, so Iam more or less familiar with these. Well, enough intro.
Build quality, comfort, sensitivity etc.
I won’t be very long here. Both phones are very well built and will withstand some rough studio handling, despite their whole plastic build. It was recently discovered that DT 250s headband is actually made of metal and covered with plastic. I don’t know if this is the case with the Senns but the headband seems rigid enough anyway. Talking about headbands, mine HD280 came with a padding that only covers about half of the whole length of the headband. I’ve seen some pictures on the net where the 280s are shown with the padding covering the whole headband. Perhaps Sennheiser decided to spare some material. Anyway it doesn’t hurt the comfort since the headband touches the head only on the top of the head (which makes you look quite funny BTW).
Both phones have replaceble headband padding, earpads and cord. Don’t be fooled by the look of the HD 280, i.e. they don’t look like their cord is replacable, but it is. There is a detailed description in the manual how to do that and cords are available as spare parts. It is not easily detachable though. You have to open the left earpiece, the connector is inside.
Hd 280 Pro folds, basically the same way as Sony V6 and the others collapsable phones. The Beyers do not fold. Folding is an advantage IMO. Not only the phones get smaller but also the pressure is evenly distributed along the folded ball, which makes them tougher to break say in a stuffed bags. Also, HD 280s earpieces rotate full 90 degrees whereas Beyers do not-important for DJs. In a word, in terms of functionality the Senns are as good as a phone can be. Nothing is missing. DT250 on the other hand although well constructed don’t fold and don’t have rotating earpieces.
Comfort is very good with both. For my rather small ears both are clearly circum aural. The Beyers feel a bit more cosy due to their cloth pads. Sennheiser pads are made of vinyl However, you can easily swap the pads. Indeed Beyer pads fit the Senns perfectly. The only thing you have to do perhaps is to add a thin layer of foam or cloth to prevent the drivers, since DT 250 pads do not incorporate the protective layer. It is mounted in the earpiece separately (more about that later). It is also due to the pads perhaps that HD 280 offers excellent sound isolation, easily the best among every sealed can I’ve ever heard. It is comparable to EX70. Sennheiser claims up to 32 dB external sound attenuation and this may be true. Haven’t seen the figures for DT 250 but they are not nearly as good when it comes to isolation.
Both phones can be driven by portables. The Senns are rated at 64 ohms and 102 dB@1 mW. The Beyers are 80 ohms and, if I remember correctly something like 100 db sensitive. The Senns go notably louder as they should given their lower impedance and higher sensitivity. However, even my 5 mW MD could drive the Beyers louder than I’d like to listen to.
Sound
Here’s the most important part.
First, a word of advice. Do not listen, or at least do not judge the HD 280 straight out of the box. The sound is quite restrained and the highs are somewhat rough. I gave them about 35 hours of break in before I did the listening tests. For these, I used portable MD and CD players and the phone jack of Technics SL PG 504 which turned out to be very powerful. The sound signature of both phones was preserved regardless of the source however. I don’t have my amp with me at the moment, so I can post an update on how these sound amped later when I come back home.
If I have to sum up the sound of the Senns in a word, it could be precise. These phones best point is timing. Every note from the lowest bass to the uppermost treble starts and stops with a razor-sharp precision. In this respect HD 280 are up there with the best. There is plenty of fine details from top to bottom. The bass goes very deep. In fact these may have more low than midbass. Very tight and clear. It is very easy to follow bass guitar lines for instance. The midrange is smooth and articulate. Every layer of music or instrument is easily recognzible. Plenty of air and openess especially considering that these are closed. Vocals have a nice presence. Perhaps there is a very slight recession in the lower mids, which makes some low male voices lose a bit of weight, but I am not sure about that. Perhaps I got this impression after comparing to the DT 250s which have a lot of mids. The treble is crystal clear, without harshness. Even on sharply recorded material, such as Lambs Fear of Four these didn’t produce a single note of sibilance. The soundstage is quite OK for a closed phones. I didn’t have my DT 831 to compare (the later is my reference when it comes to soundstaging in a closed cans), but the sound is by no means closed.
In a word if you think about Sennheisers laid back sound forget about these. The sound is upfront and energetic with plenty of detail. There is a good balance too. I couldn’t find any frequency range too overemphasized or recessed. Sennheiser advertises them as having linear response and this is not far from truth.
Comparing to the DT 250, well these sound completely different. The Beyers are much warmer, to the point that they sound unresolved in an A/B comparison. The 250s treble is surely rolled off compared to the Senns. The midbass and lower midrange seem thicker. The Beyers do not show nearly as much detail. At one point both me and my friend (the Beyers owner) agreed that DT 250 sound as someone has put an extra piece of foam between the driver and the ear, which they did in fact. We than proceeded to remove the foam that covers the drivers. This made them more upfront and resolved, but still not as good as the Senns. In my view, the Senns are much better suited for recording purposes. You can never miss even the smallest mistake in a take. The Beyers simply hide too much information and for mixing the rolled off treble means that you can easily end up with overly bright mix. For listening to music it is perhaps up to personal tastes and sources. The Senns are on the analytical side whereas the Beyers are on the musical one. If your source is overly bright or you like warm sound, the Beyers may be better.
Conclusions
For me, personally, HD 280 are clearly better for any application. They are more practical (fold), block more noise and most of all sound better. Cleaner and more accurate. Especially as mixing and monitoring phones DT 250-80 are absolutely outclassed. On top of that the the Beyers are considerably more expensive. I wouldn’t hesitate to call them the best closed phones in the 100 USD range. I’ve auditioned V7506 only once or twice and purely from memory they sound closer to HD 280, the same upfront energetic sound, but not that refined and the mids are lacking somewhat. Mind that this is from memory, so correct me if I’m wrong.
As in every topic about HD 280 since Jan Meyers review I believe that Jan has received a bad pair or simply the phones weren’t broken in enough. Perhaps Jan should try them once again. I would have got them from him if he had them since I am in Germany now anyway.
I got the Senns last Friday at the Saturn electronics store in Berlin for about 100 USD, and the Beyers were my friend’s. I used to own DT 250 but sold them because I needed an amp upgrade (and the cash) and it felt I had too many phones at that time, so Iam more or less familiar with these. Well, enough intro.
Build quality, comfort, sensitivity etc.
I won’t be very long here. Both phones are very well built and will withstand some rough studio handling, despite their whole plastic build. It was recently discovered that DT 250s headband is actually made of metal and covered with plastic. I don’t know if this is the case with the Senns but the headband seems rigid enough anyway. Talking about headbands, mine HD280 came with a padding that only covers about half of the whole length of the headband. I’ve seen some pictures on the net where the 280s are shown with the padding covering the whole headband. Perhaps Sennheiser decided to spare some material. Anyway it doesn’t hurt the comfort since the headband touches the head only on the top of the head (which makes you look quite funny BTW).
Both phones have replaceble headband padding, earpads and cord. Don’t be fooled by the look of the HD 280, i.e. they don’t look like their cord is replacable, but it is. There is a detailed description in the manual how to do that and cords are available as spare parts. It is not easily detachable though. You have to open the left earpiece, the connector is inside.
Hd 280 Pro folds, basically the same way as Sony V6 and the others collapsable phones. The Beyers do not fold. Folding is an advantage IMO. Not only the phones get smaller but also the pressure is evenly distributed along the folded ball, which makes them tougher to break say in a stuffed bags. Also, HD 280s earpieces rotate full 90 degrees whereas Beyers do not-important for DJs. In a word, in terms of functionality the Senns are as good as a phone can be. Nothing is missing. DT250 on the other hand although well constructed don’t fold and don’t have rotating earpieces.
Comfort is very good with both. For my rather small ears both are clearly circum aural. The Beyers feel a bit more cosy due to their cloth pads. Sennheiser pads are made of vinyl However, you can easily swap the pads. Indeed Beyer pads fit the Senns perfectly. The only thing you have to do perhaps is to add a thin layer of foam or cloth to prevent the drivers, since DT 250 pads do not incorporate the protective layer. It is mounted in the earpiece separately (more about that later). It is also due to the pads perhaps that HD 280 offers excellent sound isolation, easily the best among every sealed can I’ve ever heard. It is comparable to EX70. Sennheiser claims up to 32 dB external sound attenuation and this may be true. Haven’t seen the figures for DT 250 but they are not nearly as good when it comes to isolation.
Both phones can be driven by portables. The Senns are rated at 64 ohms and 102 dB@1 mW. The Beyers are 80 ohms and, if I remember correctly something like 100 db sensitive. The Senns go notably louder as they should given their lower impedance and higher sensitivity. However, even my 5 mW MD could drive the Beyers louder than I’d like to listen to.
Sound
Here’s the most important part.
First, a word of advice. Do not listen, or at least do not judge the HD 280 straight out of the box. The sound is quite restrained and the highs are somewhat rough. I gave them about 35 hours of break in before I did the listening tests. For these, I used portable MD and CD players and the phone jack of Technics SL PG 504 which turned out to be very powerful. The sound signature of both phones was preserved regardless of the source however. I don’t have my amp with me at the moment, so I can post an update on how these sound amped later when I come back home.
If I have to sum up the sound of the Senns in a word, it could be precise. These phones best point is timing. Every note from the lowest bass to the uppermost treble starts and stops with a razor-sharp precision. In this respect HD 280 are up there with the best. There is plenty of fine details from top to bottom. The bass goes very deep. In fact these may have more low than midbass. Very tight and clear. It is very easy to follow bass guitar lines for instance. The midrange is smooth and articulate. Every layer of music or instrument is easily recognzible. Plenty of air and openess especially considering that these are closed. Vocals have a nice presence. Perhaps there is a very slight recession in the lower mids, which makes some low male voices lose a bit of weight, but I am not sure about that. Perhaps I got this impression after comparing to the DT 250s which have a lot of mids. The treble is crystal clear, without harshness. Even on sharply recorded material, such as Lambs Fear of Four these didn’t produce a single note of sibilance. The soundstage is quite OK for a closed phones. I didn’t have my DT 831 to compare (the later is my reference when it comes to soundstaging in a closed cans), but the sound is by no means closed.
In a word if you think about Sennheisers laid back sound forget about these. The sound is upfront and energetic with plenty of detail. There is a good balance too. I couldn’t find any frequency range too overemphasized or recessed. Sennheiser advertises them as having linear response and this is not far from truth.
Comparing to the DT 250, well these sound completely different. The Beyers are much warmer, to the point that they sound unresolved in an A/B comparison. The 250s treble is surely rolled off compared to the Senns. The midbass and lower midrange seem thicker. The Beyers do not show nearly as much detail. At one point both me and my friend (the Beyers owner) agreed that DT 250 sound as someone has put an extra piece of foam between the driver and the ear, which they did in fact. We than proceeded to remove the foam that covers the drivers. This made them more upfront and resolved, but still not as good as the Senns. In my view, the Senns are much better suited for recording purposes. You can never miss even the smallest mistake in a take. The Beyers simply hide too much information and for mixing the rolled off treble means that you can easily end up with overly bright mix. For listening to music it is perhaps up to personal tastes and sources. The Senns are on the analytical side whereas the Beyers are on the musical one. If your source is overly bright or you like warm sound, the Beyers may be better.
Conclusions
For me, personally, HD 280 are clearly better for any application. They are more practical (fold), block more noise and most of all sound better. Cleaner and more accurate. Especially as mixing and monitoring phones DT 250-80 are absolutely outclassed. On top of that the the Beyers are considerably more expensive. I wouldn’t hesitate to call them the best closed phones in the 100 USD range. I’ve auditioned V7506 only once or twice and purely from memory they sound closer to HD 280, the same upfront energetic sound, but not that refined and the mids are lacking somewhat. Mind that this is from memory, so correct me if I’m wrong.
As in every topic about HD 280 since Jan Meyers review I believe that Jan has received a bad pair or simply the phones weren’t broken in enough. Perhaps Jan should try them once again. I would have got them from him if he had them since I am in Germany now anyway.
