I picked up a pair of the Reflex for 49 bux as I had a store credit at Urban Outfitters, I thought what the hell. I am listening to them as I type and am pleasantly surprised. Bear with me as this is my first review.
- Drive type = Diaphram
- Driver size = 40mm
- Frequency Response = 20Hz - 20KHz
- Impedence = 32± 15% @ 1KHz
- Sound Pressure Level = 97± 3dB @ 1KHz
- THD = Max 5%
- Number of Drivers = 2
- Number of microphones = 1
The packaging is clean and minimalist, which I like. Inside the headphones are nestled in a piece of dense foam and held in place with twist ties. There is an instruction manual and that's it, no bags, no extra cords, just the headphones. Nice.
Once out of the box the headphones are sleek looking, the inside of the headband is covered in the same soft, plush material that covers the pads. The outside of the headband is covered in a matte vinyl. The cups slide up and down in slots in the band and should accommodate most head sizes. Clamping force is a bit tight, but not unreasonable. The soft cups make up for it.The mesh covering the drivers on my black pair is lime green, which really jumps out at you when compared to the black of the rest of the phone. The cable terminates out of the left cup, and is quite thick with a rubber coating. The gold plated 1/8" jack is at a 90 degree, some may prefer this, some may not. I prefer a straight plug, but I digress. Enough with esthetics, on to the sound.
I always try out my new headphones with my eyepod first, them run them off my Fiio E11. I feel doing this gives me a baseline; if the phones sound decent out of the eyepod alone they will probably sound better or will be better controlled with my amp. The Reflex's are advertised as "Made for iPod" and at 32 ohms they should be easy to drive. They are easy to drive and sound decent out of an eyepod. I put them through the usual paces with some Pink Floyd, old Metallica, NIN for some bass, Slayer, Tom Waits. Although I had to have the volume at 90% on my eyepod they sounded pretty decent. The highs were a bit bright, the mids were fairly forward, a touch recessed but there none the less, the bass was tight if a little light. All in all these phones sounded really good for the money. So I thought they would probably sound even better with a little more juice. Yep I was right. The Fiio brought out the mids even more, highs were better but could get a little out of hand if things got too busy, never sibilant or harsh though. The bass came out of hiding with the amp, not sub bass, but good mid bass and filled out the bottom end and tightened things up a lot.
Overall I must say to my ears these phones are fun, they like energetic music, guitars especially. Gradoesque? Perhaps. It's been a while since I listened to a set of Grados. The Reflexes can be a bit fatiguing given their forward nature but all in all a pretty decent phone for the money.
Hope that helps if anyone was curious. Sorry if my 'review' was too long, too short, not technical enough. I will get better at this as we go along.
Cheers,
Dan
