[nania]

Okay guys, I will try and make this review as complete and informative as I can with the hope that it will gain some respect and become the definitive reference for those looking for $50 sealed headphones. This may be my very first post here but I am known on other audio forums. No review is complete without a description of the equipment behind the headgear. As many of you know, headphones are designed to work with the mainstream of popular electronics so if a designer knows that his target audience is going to be buyers who will use their headphones on their walkman, discman, mp3 player, they will try and voice the drivers in those headphones to match up with the majority of the sources it will be plugged into to. I have divided this review in two parts. Part 1 will examine both headphones on a Sony "Psyc" walkman player and Part 2 will be performed on first rate hi-fi equipment.

Part I

Source: Sony CD Walkman D-EJ360, two sets of matched fresh batteries and a 54dB ambient listening environment.

Additional notes: Tests were performed on three consecutive days at about the same time in the day. The six recordings used were played in the same order on each day to avoid any possibility of dynamic contrasts in the selection coloring the opinions.

Recordings used:
Original CD/David Sanborn/Another World
Original CD/Deep Purple/Burn
CD Copy DAO/Alanis Morrisette/Jagged Little Pill
CD Copy SAO/Scott Joplin/Nonesuch Collection
CD MP3/Hi-Res/Good Charlotte
CD MP3/Lo-Res/Jimmy Eats World

Let me first say that none of these phones could make a credible soundstage and some could barely make music worth listening to. The first thing that comes across with these cans when you try them on is the fit and the isolation they provide. The HD212 provides the greatest isolation followed by the UR20 and last by a great margin is the HP170. The HP170 block out about as much outside noise as the HD497 open headphones but they don't leak nearly as much so you're not likely to bother any of your roommates with this headphone. This would indicate that they did an excellent job damping the internal resonances on these cans which is usually a good thing for sound reproduction. The HD212 leaks slightly more sound even though it was the quietest inside. Looking at each phone objectively without hearing them, the Sennheiser HD212 looks like a much better quality built headphone than the other two and it looks like it would still be around long after the other two are a nostalgic memory if you could bring yourself to use it at all. This headphone is just plain unlistenable without help. The bass is overwhelming and obese beyond recognition. On some of the tracks it couldn't be distinguished from the bass drum and that IS ugly. In addition, it washes over the midtones which seem to fade anyway and leaves a harsh sibilant treble as a thank you. Maybe guys who have managed to knock out the upper and lower octaves of their hearing can love this headphone on a low voltage portable source but I could barely get through the Part I test with it. Part 2 shows that a little equalization and a higher voltage source make life with this phone much much better so stay tuned.

The UR20 is Koss's sealed headphone solution. What can I say about this headphone except that it does the job. Its bass is flabby and attenuated which brings the midtones forward too much and makes everything in the 500-2000Hz range sound unnatural. This is actually entertaining on lots of electronically effected voices but not what I want in a headphone. The thing is quiet enough and sturdy enough to withstand a few dormroom semesters and at the price, it looks very good indeed.

The HP170 is the little headphone that could. It was designed for small sources and MP3's and it shows. It has so many things about it that can shorten its life but you'll enjoy it while you have it

The HP170 is the easy going cheap person with a heart of gold that makes every young mans life tolerable before settling down. It gives more than it should and asks for so little in return. What do I hate about it? The upper bass and lower mids fade and it can't handle busy music well. The long thin cord is prone to getting stepped and broken. The attenuating resistor and mono switch on the headphone is almost positively going to be a source of static and noise as it ages. It won't tolerate being handled roughly without breaking apart but at this price and for this purpose, I'm with this headphone.

Part 2 will introduce the Grey Rollins mini XA headphone amp, Scott Nixon modded DVE-620 player as well as a Behringer equalizer.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally posted by nania The HP170 is the little headphone that could. It was designed for small sources and MP3's and it shows. It has so many things about it that can shorten its life but you'll enjoy it while you have it The HP170 is the easy going cheap person with a heart of gold that makes every young mans life tolerable before settling down. It gives more than it should and asks for so little in return.

Nice!

Not sure if the 170's were made for MP3's or NICAM TV broadcasts

, but either way they put out.

And welcome to Head-Fi, in this case, can't say sorry about your wallet.

 

[el_diablo007]

in my experience....the UR20's treble is simply unbearable!

 

[kcits]

great review!

your findings match up pretty much exactly with what i heard when i had the hp170s and the 212pros (haven't heard the UR20.)

 

[nania]

el_diablo007

I never said the UR20 was sweet on top but with the source and recordings I used it was certainly less offensive than the HD212 and considering that most college buying clubs price it in the $15 range, I felt guilty about picking on it. For me the real offense was its upper midrage coloration which makes even acoustic music sound electronic. Do you remember any of the details that led to your impression? I've found that what you listen to and where you listen to it usually makes the difference of opinion reconcilable.

blessingx, kcits

Thanks for the feedback

 

[el_diablo007]

Quote:

Originally posted by nania el_diablo007 I never said the UR20 was sweet on top but with the source and recordings I used it was certainly less offensive than the HD212 and considering that most college buying clubs price it in the $15 range, I felt guilty about picking on it. For me the real offense was its upper midrage coloration which makes even acoustic music sound electronic. Do you remember any of the details that led to your impression? I've found that what you listen to and where you listen to it usually makes the difference of opinion reconcilable. blessingx, kcits Thanks for the feedback

Hi there, I haven't actually heard any of the other 'phones so I really can't comment on them. I heard the UR20's while at a local music store sampling some music, and I think i might've been too focused on the painful treble than anything else lol

The rest of your impressions were about on track though, very bloated bass and felt tank-ish like my V6's.

 

[Davie]

Quote:

Originally posted by nania This headphone is just plain unlistenable without help. The bass is overwhelming and obese beyond recognition. On some of the tracks it couldn't be distinguished from the bass drum and that IS ugly. In addition, it washes over the midtones which seem to fade anyway and leaves a harsh sibilant treble as a thank you. Maybe guys who have managed to knock out the upper and lower octaves of their hearing can love this headphone on a low voltage portable source but I could barely get through the Part I test with it. Part 2 shows that a little equalization and a higher voltage source make life with this phone much much better so stay tuned.

Well put. I've tried tweaking the 212s with a stronger amp and a tone button (i.e., bass down to minimum) and it helps alot. Hardly seems worth the trouble, though.

The HP170s are the best bang for the buck. For decent isolation and sound at a reasonable price, the Audio Technica M30 is OK. As far as I can tell, the best inexpensive closed headphone at this point is the portable-sized Sennheiser PX200.

 

[nania]

Davie

I tried to get a PX200 and a UR29 to throw into this mix but couldn't get them here all at once. I will eventually get to audition them but it would have been nice to see them up against their predecessors. The Koss is supposed to be a completely different design so I really do want to check it out.

One thing about the PX200 that would cause a problem in a comparison is the 4' cable. You would need to put a 6' extension on it to maintain ceteris parabus

 

[nania]

The last time we looked at these headphones we used a common portable source. Now we up the game and use the best source I could get my hands on. The player is a modified Sampo DVE-620. It uses the same decoder but the power supply and clock are modified and so is its grounding scheme. To give an idea of how much better this sounds over the original I will quote my friend Danny who owns the same player in its original state. “It’s like somebody anchored the amps to the floor and put them on a bigger stage. Everything seems firmer and bigger.” The mini AX headphone amp is a derivative of the venerable Pass Labs AX and uses the super symmetry “X” noise cancelling circuit. This amp is the best headphone amp I have heard to this date and makes me feel like I’m at the recording studio listening to the tape as it’s being mastered. I can’t wait for the next NY area meet to share it with others who have had audiophile listening experience. The only nitpicks that can be made with this discrete chip Class A amp is the size and expense of making one, the heat that they generate and the possible lack of high frequency extension. I don’t hear it but others who have compared it to other chip amps and tube amps say it’s slightly rolled off on top. The Behringer equalizer is the older model 2496 and learning the software that drives it really pays dividends. You have so much control over every frequency that I doubt any headphone can escape improvement with it. It should be noted that the “pseudo balanced” mini AX amp was the only headphone amp that I could think of that would use the required balanced connectors of the 2496. Now to the good stuff.

I used the same listening scheme reported in part one and the ambient noise was about the same or slightly lower but never varied more than 3dB from the earlier reported levels. Plugging in the HD212 without any equalization showed a great improvement in the bass but the mid band cavity described earlier was still there and so was the bass hump but at least now the bass didn’t sound like a drum and vice versa. The treble was still bright but not as assaulting as it was with the portable source. All in all much better but the best was yet to come. Using the Behringer to fill out the middle I began to note the emergence of a soundstage and the trebles which were aggressive earlier fell in place and created a greater coherency in the music. When I got to taming the bass hump and the made a few more slight tweaks to the upper frequencies I stopped thinking and just listened. Nice, really, really nice. A real soundstage, fuzzy but believable. Dynamics were a little sluggish but the Bass moved air like you were there and now it was even a little tuneful! I listened twice and thought that I could live with this setup. The phones are comfortable and the isolation is something that is underrated in the listening experience for this native New Yorker.

The Koss UR20 also underwent a noticeable improvement but I could never get it to sound as good as the HD212. Even when you flattened out the low frequencies, the bass never got tuneful, it always kept the thuddy quality. Like the HD212, the soundstage emerged when the midrange levels were brought in line but the upper frequencies still bit you, and not in any cute and playful way. I found myself trying to tweak them down but as I did, I would lose detail. I just could not find a happy middle ground. The original character of this phone was too strong to be corrected so I just gave up after a while. Did the sound improve without equalization? I would have to say no. It actually sounded better in part one and the headphone amp only served to highlight its deficiencies. Just for the hell of it, I plugged into an old JVC receiver and they became less offensive than what they sounded like on the mini AX. I guess this headphone was made for bad sources?

The first thing you notice when you plug the HP170 into the mini AX is the power. The mini AX is capable of lots of current and these low impedence phones like it. If I could make an analogy to room listening, it’s like when you go from an amp that can’t handle low impedence speakers to one that can. Everything tightens up and the speaker feels like it’s being gripped by the music signal instead of being slapped around. Those of you who have read my posts on other forums know what I’m describing. These phones needed very little tweaking so the Behringer had little to improve. The thing that was interesting was how easy it was to move the instrument positions on the soundstage using the Behringer on these phones. The dynamics on these cans are superior to the HD212s but after equalization, I would have to say they didn’t sound as good overall. They are more exciting but less refined. I think the deciding factor was the isolation. The HD212s just sounded richer. I wish I had been able to get a UR29 and PX200 to compare to the three I had but this was the best I could do. Hope it was helpful.