Beyerdynamic Headzone Pro - really that good?

[Logic108]

I've been interested in getting a set of Headzone Pro 5.1 monitoring phones since they came out. I make music and do some filmscoring for art and indie projects. I use Apple's Logic and Soundtrack Pro which have 5.1 monitoring output options.
I've emailed Beyer about whether there is anywhere in Finland to listen to the phones. So far I haven't received a reply from them so I'm asking the knowledgeable people here what they thing of the sound quality and soundfield imaging.
If the Headzone pro is as good as a domestic 5.1 speaker setup then I'd get them just because I long to produce music in surround sound. If they are lacking in any area I'd love to know that too. I know you can setup virtual 'monitoring rooms' with them, but can you do things like pans coming from the rear to the front/centre area? Could you pan a helicopter sound effect from rear to front so that it seemed like the helicopter was flying overhead? When listening to 5.1 material do you get this panning effect?
Also how is the amp that comes with the Headzone? Is it audiophike quality if listening to 2 channels.
I'd love to know how this system is.

 

[knopfy]

Hi

In fact, the Surround panning works very good, you really have the impression of a surround set around you (which you can define in position, Distance, room size, room ambiance). The headphone Amp is very high quality, ALPS potentiometer a.s.o.
In Finland, you can contact our Distributor SOUNDATA


Soundata Oy
Mikko Palomäki

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Hämeentie 153 C, 4.th floor
00560 Helsinki
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Telefon: +358 9 47693321
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mikko.palomaki[at]soundata.fi
www.soundata.fi

You can also find a small review here on head-fi from JensL

 

[shadesbass]

I tried a Headzone last week, and was impressed by the head-tracking feature. There is a slight latency when moving your head quickly, but in general it was excellent and a very enjoyable experience.
The surround downmixing is reasonably good, but it'll never be the same as a 5.1 speaker setup.

The integrated headphone amp is fine. Nothing amazing but it seems to pair nicely with the 250 ohm DT880's that I tried. There's no option to use a different headphone amp, as the integrated one also supplies power down the signal cable to the transmitter built into the headband (just like phantom power in pro-audio applications).

It seems that you can use the surround downmix feature without the headtracking feature, but not the other way around. I could be wrong though, as I didn't have a thorough play with all the options in the supplied software.

 

[Logic108]

Many thanks knopfy for the contact information. I'll phone them later today. I hope they have a Headzone that I can test. I'm really close to buying a set because my ambition for music is to create 3-D soundscapes and whilst I could do this with monitor speakers, my studio is very small and not properly soundproofed. I also like the idea of having a virtual monitor room for two channel mixes as well.
shadebass - why do you think the downmixing wouldn't work well? Is it because of the 'monitor room' setup and how that gets replicated through a Dolby system? I would encode the 5.1 mix into dolby through Apples compressor - and also have a two channel mix as well maybe. Logic Studio which has just come out has a lot of 5.1 mixing features including multi channel synths and reverbs. How is the sound quality? Were you impressed?

 

[shadesbass]

Like I said, the downmix sounds OK. Not amazing, but as well as can be expected over headphones I guess. It was set to use a default HRTF when I tried it, but I have a feeling it's possible to tweak it to suit your head better, which should improve the spatial experience.
It sounds like a Headzone would be perfect for your situation though - that's what Beyer designed it for after all.

The sound quality was good. I didn't listen for very long, but there was nothing unpleasant about the sound. I watched a bit of Men In Black II and I did feel more immersed in the movie than when it was bypassed. If I had a need for such a device then I would strongly consider buying one. However, the cost outweights my need at this time.

 

[Logic108]

shadesbass - yeah for my uses I think the Headzone Pro will be really good. The only downside I can see is that the unit has to be powered seperately and can't draw enough power from the firewire bus. This means that when monitoring and doing 5.1 monitoring outside one needs to be close to a power supply - but I guess it's not a big issue because there are power adapters and so on. Hmm yes I think I will go for the Headzone Pro. I can't see any similarly priced products on the market and I'm just dying to do proper 5.1 mixes and I'll be using the Headzone on a daily basis. Plus to upgrade my studio to accurate 5.1 monitoring would cost about 5,000 euros.

 

[shadesbass]

I think the version I tried also had multichannel analogue inputs as well, so it would need to get power from somewhere for those anyway.
I don't know the specs of the power supply that it uses, but it may be possible to use an additional FW/USB port to power it, if you really want to do so.

 

[knopfy]

Hi All

The Headzone can't be powered via USB Cables unfortunately. The built-in DSP and signal converters (who are really tricky because they have to fit different Firewire-bitrates a.s.o.) need more power than a USB Port or firewire can provide.

I Think you really want to do specifically what Headzone was designed for - 5.1 mixing in a standard, everytime the same mixing room which you can carry with you in a bag

Have Fun!