German Maestro Headsets reviewed
by eugenius
Hello!
A while ago I entered in the German Maestro Loaner program, courtesy of Thomas Philipp, Manager Professional Products & Quality Management at GMP.
I basically requested the best headset they could make from a sound quality standpoint (not knowing it costs 1500 euro - the GMH C 9.300D - it's a professional solution for radio stations, with multiple microphones etc).
Now, I didn't need the high quality studio microphones, I needed just a good condenser (my preference) microphone, optimized for voice and high noise environments.
From what I saw in their specs, the best driver they make is a 300 ohm one, with excellent specs, and it's used in the 9.300D and also in the top consumer headphones they make.
I wanted a headset with that driver or nothing ... so Thomas (thanks!) offered to build me a prototype with the body and microphone from the 9.400D (a pro headset with a 400 ohm driver, optimized for voice / field use) and the driver from the 9.300D.
And to think that until I requested the headset, the professional models weren't even included in the loaner program! I don't know if this kind of support is typical of German Maestro or just Thomas, but it was a very nice surprise!
Here's the prototype 9.300D:
I have to say something about German Maestro headset construction ... they are the most rugged headsets I've ever seen. The headband / microphone arm material is a kind of memory plastic type material, it bends when pushed and then comes back to the initial shape.
There's no chance you can break one of these monsters though normal use ... I saw a video of a German Maestro guy at a pro audio trade show: he twisted the headband in the worst way possible and the threw the headset on the floor and stepped on it without any damage.
The connectors are very rugged also, nice metal, gold-plated connectors. Look:
Anyway, after a break-in period, when I made up my mind about the prototype GMH C 9.300 D / 9.400 D hybrid, Thomas again surprised me by sending another headset: the GMH C 8.35D, a cheaper / lower end model. I didn't even request it, he just sent it to see what I thought about it. Here it is:
My setup (s):
My reference headsets are the Sennheiser HME 25-1 (balanced) and my reference headphones are the Grado HF-2 (balanced).
My sources were:
- TC Electronic Konnekt Live firewire soundcard - it has a very detail oriented sound, great soundstage, it's bass shy and has a pretty powerful (low quality) headphone amp that maintains the sound of the card.
- E-MU 0404 USB soundcard - it has a studio like sound, with a low power (low quality) headphone amplifier that's a little veiled. It's good for low-medium impedance high efficiency cheap headphones, it masks their defects but it takes away some of the music also.
My headphone amplifier is the CEC HD53N (balanced and single ended amplifier). It has plenty of power and can drive pretty much any headphone very well. It has a smooth sound, very transparent. It's much better balanced.
My sound bias:
I like an upfront, detailed sound and a bit of mid forwardness, I love bass resolution and hate sloppy bass and harshness. I don't like tubes (but I never listened to a really high end tube setup either).
My review style:
When I write a review, I focus on the problems I hear and I always compare to the the best I ever heard in my life, so it's almost always harsh judgement. Especially for headsets against full-size open headphones.
So, my review is more of a list of problem areas as I hear them. I don't believe we hear the same and if I start waxing lyrical about how the music made me feel, it would have no meaning to anybody but me.
I'm not the type that suffers from new toy syndrome, quite the opposite. I always start with zero expectations and a piece of gear has to force me to keep it almost against my will.
Initial impressions:
GMH C 9.300D prototype:
1. In the Konnekt Live headphone out (aaarrgh, harsh mids and strong boomy bass, What!) The HF2's sound smoother and they're a Grado. (Shocker!) Bass monster alert!
2. In the CEC (single ended): aaah, much better, this headphone is actually both darker than smoother than the the HF2 single ended. The bass is still sloppy but it has Excellent extension and kick. Slower and mellow sound, veiled!
I can't explain the large difference in sound I heard between the two, maybe it's a bad synnergy with the Konnekt headphone amp combined with it's high-ish output impedance (80 Ohm). That was my reaction, that's what I write.
GMH C 8.35D:
1. In the Konnekt Live: MUCH brighter, grainy compared to the 9.300D, sounds hi-fi not high-end.
2. In the CEC (single ended): it does not improve a lot like the 9.300D, but it gains bass control, it's smoother but still grainy in the large scheme of things and a little less bright, but still brighter than the HF2. The bass has less extension and quantity compared to the 9.300D, but it's a little faster.
After the break-in (of both my ears/brain and the headsets):
The 9.300D prototype has more bass control and sounds smoother. Not a huge difference, but noticeable in the midrange.
The 8.35D sounds basically the same as the first day. It has a studio monitor like sound.
These break-in results are just my 2c, I don't have another pair of each, to really compare!
Detailed impressions:
1. GMH C 9.300 D prototype:
It has very good bass quantity, but it's flabby for my Grado schooled taste.
Very good bass extension, strong 20Hz and acceptable to 15Hz even. The specs don't lie one bit, which is surprising considering I regard the frequency ranges declared by manufacturers as theoretical.
The HF2 bottoms out at 25Hz.
To tell you the truth, this headphone made one thing clear to me, bass extension is very important. Not that I didn't know, but some music just is a lot better if your headphone has low bass extension and level.
The midrange is very good, natural, not so immediate and clear as the HF2 but it has higher resolution and it's a little smoother.
The treble is attenuated, but you can still detect a upper midrange hardness under the veil. I'm tempted to blame my low end sources for that.
The longer you listen to headphones, the more you gravitate slowly towards the dark side, and this headphone isdark but detailed. It's like the HD650 in that regard.
The soundstage is unremarkable, after all it's a closed heaphone with a smallish resonance chamber and without soundstage tricks like angled drivers etc. There's no escaping the closed-in, sound of such a headphone. You hear the box. Overal, it's comparable to the HF2 single ended, a little better but the Grado is no soundstage champ. The HF2 when balanced, clearly surpasses it.
A very important criteria for me is the number of moments when your brain is fooled that there's a real sound coming from somewhere around you, and this headphone provides such moments, though less than what the HF2 provides.
2. GMH C 8.35D:
It's bass quantity is a little lower than the 9.300D but the bass is tighter, which is very important. It's less exteded, 20Hz is acceptable but not strong like in the 9.300D. Overall it wins on bass against the 9.300D.
They both lose badly at bass to the HF2 though - the Grado might have less extension and thump, but it's a lot tighter and some instruments with large resonant chambers, you just can't hear them properly without fast bass.
The midrange is ok, a little harsh, and it has a texture that lets you know always that there's a headphone there. No disappearing act and brain fooling for this headphone, not even once.
Treble: it's a bright headphone, in the vein of a studio monitor. It's not horrible but not what I call acceptable either. The HF2 has it's problems in the upper midrange / lower treble also, but the 8.35D is worse. It made me drop the treble 3dB in foobar.
The soundstage is like the 9.300d, small.
PADS:
The 9.300D prototype came with very comfortable velour pads, easy on the ears and with a very transparent driver cover, that basically lets all the sound of the driver to your ears. It's basically perfect.
The 8.35D came with pleather pads that have excellent passive noise attenuation by enveloping the ears tightly, and the driver cover is thick. However your ears will sweat. A lot!
I tried swapping the pads but it ended in disaster, the thick driver cover attenuated even more treble on the 9.300D and made them very unbalanced, and the velour pads made the 8.35D treble piercing.
Microphone:
Both headsets came with the same microphone, and it's basically perfect for voice. It's a condenser hypercardioid microphone, it needs phantom power and has a 20-20.000Hz frequency range.
The konnekt has very good microphone preamps and hardware DSP inside (reverb, compression and de-esser). I used the male vocal preset and a guy on skype told me I sound like a DJ on the radio.
You can talk without problems on skype in a loud room, with the TV on and multiple people having a heated discussion. The microphone has a pleasant, clear sound and did not need the de-esser on the konnekt even when I started ssss-ing loudly in it.
Conclusion:
I liked the 9.300D prototype and disliked the 8.35D. The 9.300D at 400 euro is a better value than the 250 euro 8.35D. Keep in mind that these are protoypes, they are not in the German Maestro product line!
I chose the HF2 as a benchmark in this review because it's a known quantity on head-fi. I have the Sennheiser HME25-1 also, but it's the model with a 30-16kHz frequency range, not the HD25-1 driver. It loses to the 9300D and wins against the 8.35D. And it has it's own advantages, mainly it's small, portable and very efficient, even the 600ohm one.
I am very curious about the 9.300D driver, I think it's world class. I'm tempted to get the best home headphone from German Maestro, the GMP 400 - it must be a really kick-ass headphone, maybe even worthy of being mentioned in the HD650 - K701 - DT880 holy German trinity.
After I get a high-end balanced source, which I'm still saving for, I'm going to try them.
Finally, I'd like to thank Thomas for the opportunity he gave me to hear these headsets, for his patience with me (I kept the headphones a long time) and for his friendly and relaxed style. And the nice free headphone jack.
by eugenius
Hello!
A while ago I entered in the German Maestro Loaner program, courtesy of Thomas Philipp, Manager Professional Products & Quality Management at GMP.
I basically requested the best headset they could make from a sound quality standpoint (not knowing it costs 1500 euro - the GMH C 9.300D - it's a professional solution for radio stations, with multiple microphones etc).
Now, I didn't need the high quality studio microphones, I needed just a good condenser (my preference) microphone, optimized for voice and high noise environments.
From what I saw in their specs, the best driver they make is a 300 ohm one, with excellent specs, and it's used in the 9.300D and also in the top consumer headphones they make.
I wanted a headset with that driver or nothing ... so Thomas (thanks!) offered to build me a prototype with the body and microphone from the 9.400D (a pro headset with a 400 ohm driver, optimized for voice / field use) and the driver from the 9.300D.
And to think that until I requested the headset, the professional models weren't even included in the loaner program! I don't know if this kind of support is typical of German Maestro or just Thomas, but it was a very nice surprise!
Here's the prototype 9.300D:
I have to say something about German Maestro headset construction ... they are the most rugged headsets I've ever seen. The headband / microphone arm material is a kind of memory plastic type material, it bends when pushed and then comes back to the initial shape.
There's no chance you can break one of these monsters though normal use ... I saw a video of a German Maestro guy at a pro audio trade show: he twisted the headband in the worst way possible and the threw the headset on the floor and stepped on it without any damage.
The connectors are very rugged also, nice metal, gold-plated connectors. Look:
Anyway, after a break-in period, when I made up my mind about the prototype GMH C 9.300 D / 9.400 D hybrid, Thomas again surprised me by sending another headset: the GMH C 8.35D, a cheaper / lower end model. I didn't even request it, he just sent it to see what I thought about it. Here it is:
My setup (s):
My reference headsets are the Sennheiser HME 25-1 (balanced) and my reference headphones are the Grado HF-2 (balanced).
My sources were:
- TC Electronic Konnekt Live firewire soundcard - it has a very detail oriented sound, great soundstage, it's bass shy and has a pretty powerful (low quality) headphone amp that maintains the sound of the card.
- E-MU 0404 USB soundcard - it has a studio like sound, with a low power (low quality) headphone amplifier that's a little veiled. It's good for low-medium impedance high efficiency cheap headphones, it masks their defects but it takes away some of the music also.
My headphone amplifier is the CEC HD53N (balanced and single ended amplifier). It has plenty of power and can drive pretty much any headphone very well. It has a smooth sound, very transparent. It's much better balanced.
My sound bias:
I like an upfront, detailed sound and a bit of mid forwardness, I love bass resolution and hate sloppy bass and harshness. I don't like tubes (but I never listened to a really high end tube setup either).
My review style:
When I write a review, I focus on the problems I hear and I always compare to the the best I ever heard in my life, so it's almost always harsh judgement. Especially for headsets against full-size open headphones.
So, my review is more of a list of problem areas as I hear them. I don't believe we hear the same and if I start waxing lyrical about how the music made me feel, it would have no meaning to anybody but me.
I'm not the type that suffers from new toy syndrome, quite the opposite. I always start with zero expectations and a piece of gear has to force me to keep it almost against my will.
Initial impressions:
GMH C 9.300D prototype:
1. In the Konnekt Live headphone out (aaarrgh, harsh mids and strong boomy bass, What!) The HF2's sound smoother and they're a Grado. (Shocker!) Bass monster alert!
2. In the CEC (single ended): aaah, much better, this headphone is actually both darker than smoother than the the HF2 single ended. The bass is still sloppy but it has Excellent extension and kick. Slower and mellow sound, veiled!
I can't explain the large difference in sound I heard between the two, maybe it's a bad synnergy with the Konnekt headphone amp combined with it's high-ish output impedance (80 Ohm). That was my reaction, that's what I write.
GMH C 8.35D:
1. In the Konnekt Live: MUCH brighter, grainy compared to the 9.300D, sounds hi-fi not high-end.
2. In the CEC (single ended): it does not improve a lot like the 9.300D, but it gains bass control, it's smoother but still grainy in the large scheme of things and a little less bright, but still brighter than the HF2. The bass has less extension and quantity compared to the 9.300D, but it's a little faster.
After the break-in (of both my ears/brain and the headsets):
The 9.300D prototype has more bass control and sounds smoother. Not a huge difference, but noticeable in the midrange.
The 8.35D sounds basically the same as the first day. It has a studio monitor like sound.
These break-in results are just my 2c, I don't have another pair of each, to really compare!
Detailed impressions:
1. GMH C 9.300 D prototype:
It has very good bass quantity, but it's flabby for my Grado schooled taste.
To tell you the truth, this headphone made one thing clear to me, bass extension is very important. Not that I didn't know, but some music just is a lot better if your headphone has low bass extension and level.
The midrange is very good, natural, not so immediate and clear as the HF2 but it has higher resolution and it's a little smoother.
The treble is attenuated, but you can still detect a upper midrange hardness under the veil. I'm tempted to blame my low end sources for that.
The longer you listen to headphones, the more you gravitate slowly towards the dark side, and this headphone isdark but detailed. It's like the HD650 in that regard.
The soundstage is unremarkable, after all it's a closed heaphone with a smallish resonance chamber and without soundstage tricks like angled drivers etc. There's no escaping the closed-in, sound of such a headphone. You hear the box. Overal, it's comparable to the HF2 single ended, a little better but the Grado is no soundstage champ. The HF2 when balanced, clearly surpasses it.
A very important criteria for me is the number of moments when your brain is fooled that there's a real sound coming from somewhere around you, and this headphone provides such moments, though less than what the HF2 provides.
2. GMH C 8.35D:
It's bass quantity is a little lower than the 9.300D but the bass is tighter, which is very important. It's less exteded, 20Hz is acceptable but not strong like in the 9.300D. Overall it wins on bass against the 9.300D.
They both lose badly at bass to the HF2 though - the Grado might have less extension and thump, but it's a lot tighter and some instruments with large resonant chambers, you just can't hear them properly without fast bass.
The midrange is ok, a little harsh, and it has a texture that lets you know always that there's a headphone there. No disappearing act and brain fooling for this headphone, not even once.
Treble: it's a bright headphone, in the vein of a studio monitor. It's not horrible but not what I call acceptable either. The HF2 has it's problems in the upper midrange / lower treble also, but the 8.35D is worse. It made me drop the treble 3dB in foobar.
The soundstage is like the 9.300d, small.
PADS:
The 9.300D prototype came with very comfortable velour pads, easy on the ears and with a very transparent driver cover, that basically lets all the sound of the driver to your ears. It's basically perfect.
The 8.35D came with pleather pads that have excellent passive noise attenuation by enveloping the ears tightly, and the driver cover is thick. However your ears will sweat. A lot!
I tried swapping the pads but it ended in disaster, the thick driver cover attenuated even more treble on the 9.300D and made them very unbalanced, and the velour pads made the 8.35D treble piercing.
Microphone:
Both headsets came with the same microphone, and it's basically perfect for voice. It's a condenser hypercardioid microphone, it needs phantom power and has a 20-20.000Hz frequency range.
The konnekt has very good microphone preamps and hardware DSP inside (reverb, compression and de-esser). I used the male vocal preset and a guy on skype told me I sound like a DJ on the radio.
You can talk without problems on skype in a loud room, with the TV on and multiple people having a heated discussion. The microphone has a pleasant, clear sound and did not need the de-esser on the konnekt even when I started ssss-ing loudly in it.
Conclusion:
I liked the 9.300D prototype and disliked the 8.35D. The 9.300D at 400 euro is a better value than the 250 euro 8.35D. Keep in mind that these are protoypes, they are not in the German Maestro product line!
I chose the HF2 as a benchmark in this review because it's a known quantity on head-fi. I have the Sennheiser HME25-1 also, but it's the model with a 30-16kHz frequency range, not the HD25-1 driver. It loses to the 9300D and wins against the 8.35D. And it has it's own advantages, mainly it's small, portable and very efficient, even the 600ohm one.
I am very curious about the 9.300D driver, I think it's world class. I'm tempted to get the best home headphone from German Maestro, the GMP 400 - it must be a really kick-ass headphone, maybe even worthy of being mentioned in the HD650 - K701 - DT880 holy German trinity.
Finally, I'd like to thank Thomas for the opportunity he gave me to hear these headsets, for his patience with me (I kept the headphones a long time) and for his friendly and relaxed style. And the nice free headphone jack.
