PhoxHound
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2008
- Posts
- 161
- Likes
- 0
So today I decided to take my dad's Sennheiser HD25-SP for a test drive since I've nothing better to do.
http://www.dvwarehouse.com/images_4p...ser-hd25sp.jpg
The HD25-SP are closed, supraaural phones. The earpads are a soft and cushy leatherette material that makes the phones pretty comfy to wear. However, the headband "padding" is a strip of rather hard foam which doesn't feel great, especially combined with the pretty strong head clamp these guys have. Overall comfort is decent.
Isolation is pretty good. The aforementioned head clamp may not be very comfortable, but that combined with the squishy earpads forms a good seal that attenuates plenty of background noise. Even with no music playing, my normally pretty loud computer was totally inaudible. Build quality seems good, the headband is pretty thin but there are plenty of metal parts.
Now, the most important thing: the sound.
Frederic Chopin - Opus 28 number 15, Prelude in D-flat Major (Raindrop)
This piece is a piano solo, and as such features mostly midrange. The upfront presentation of these phones makes the piece sound nice since it's rather quiet on its own. At the same time, however, when the piece crescendos into the louder middle section, the presentation becomes rather harsh. I intentionally used the lowest quality recording of this piece that I have (ironically my favorite one) to see if it was at all "prettied up". In a sense, it was. The up-frontness made it sound quite a bit better.
Pendulum - Another Planet
Things to downhill from here. This song starts out with a drum lick solo, and thus it is immediately noticeable how harsh the highs are in these phones. The response seems rather sluggish with the quick-paced DnB sound of this track, and the harsh, grainy texture up top really doesn't make it any better. The much louder mids on this piece sound rather muddy and veiled, but the worst part is yet to come. The bass. Ouch. They start off good, with a really low reaching bass extension that truly hits the very bottom of the spectrum. The impact is also quite nice, though that would stem from their closed nature. The overall quality, however, is very poor. Boomy, slow, and very obviously enhanced bass makes the lower registers sound like a big brown smear across the song. It also makes it hard to pay attention to the already unclear mids. Very poor performance on this song.
Rammstein - Mein Teil
Only been listening to these phones for around 20 minutes and the fatigue is coming on. On hard rock/industrial music, particularly the loud kind (like Rammstein), these things can really hurt the ears. The undetailed and muddy mids blend together to create a blast of noise every time the guitar comes to the forefront. Vocals are surprisingly not that bad. A tad grainy, but quite tolerable compared to the guitars. The highs once again are recessed, and the drum line that I so dearly love in this song is hard to hear over the vocals (which are supposed to be rather whispery).
They Might Be Giants - The Mesopotamians
These phones actually do pretty decent on this song. As mentioned before, they're pretty good on vocals, which are the focus of this song all the way through. Still, the whole package lacks detail and has a veiled, muddy sound to it. But on a softer, alternative track like this the harshness doesn't really come through, making it tolerable to listen. When the bridge section (featuring guitar melody) comes in, however, things change for the worse. Interestingly, the tight, simple bass line seems un-bloated and rather pleasant in this song, even if still blown a bit out of proportion.
What's the verdict?
If these cost $50 US, they'd be pretty good phones. But for a price of $130, you can do so, so much better. Just about anything in the price range (except Bose Triports, which my dad has also >.>) will be better. The harshness combined with up-front presentation and a pretty narrow soundstage make for a pretty fatiguing headphone that isn't even really fun to listen to. Unless you can get them super cheap, go for something else.
Image credit: DV Warehouse - refurbished & used mac computers, professional video editing equipment, used apple computer parts.
http://www.dvwarehouse.com/images_4p...ser-hd25sp.jpg
The HD25-SP are closed, supraaural phones. The earpads are a soft and cushy leatherette material that makes the phones pretty comfy to wear. However, the headband "padding" is a strip of rather hard foam which doesn't feel great, especially combined with the pretty strong head clamp these guys have. Overall comfort is decent.
Isolation is pretty good. The aforementioned head clamp may not be very comfortable, but that combined with the squishy earpads forms a good seal that attenuates plenty of background noise. Even with no music playing, my normally pretty loud computer was totally inaudible. Build quality seems good, the headband is pretty thin but there are plenty of metal parts.
Now, the most important thing: the sound.
Frederic Chopin - Opus 28 number 15, Prelude in D-flat Major (Raindrop)
This piece is a piano solo, and as such features mostly midrange. The upfront presentation of these phones makes the piece sound nice since it's rather quiet on its own. At the same time, however, when the piece crescendos into the louder middle section, the presentation becomes rather harsh. I intentionally used the lowest quality recording of this piece that I have (ironically my favorite one) to see if it was at all "prettied up". In a sense, it was. The up-frontness made it sound quite a bit better.
Pendulum - Another Planet
Things to downhill from here. This song starts out with a drum lick solo, and thus it is immediately noticeable how harsh the highs are in these phones. The response seems rather sluggish with the quick-paced DnB sound of this track, and the harsh, grainy texture up top really doesn't make it any better. The much louder mids on this piece sound rather muddy and veiled, but the worst part is yet to come. The bass. Ouch. They start off good, with a really low reaching bass extension that truly hits the very bottom of the spectrum. The impact is also quite nice, though that would stem from their closed nature. The overall quality, however, is very poor. Boomy, slow, and very obviously enhanced bass makes the lower registers sound like a big brown smear across the song. It also makes it hard to pay attention to the already unclear mids. Very poor performance on this song.
Rammstein - Mein Teil
Only been listening to these phones for around 20 minutes and the fatigue is coming on. On hard rock/industrial music, particularly the loud kind (like Rammstein), these things can really hurt the ears. The undetailed and muddy mids blend together to create a blast of noise every time the guitar comes to the forefront. Vocals are surprisingly not that bad. A tad grainy, but quite tolerable compared to the guitars. The highs once again are recessed, and the drum line that I so dearly love in this song is hard to hear over the vocals (which are supposed to be rather whispery).
They Might Be Giants - The Mesopotamians
These phones actually do pretty decent on this song. As mentioned before, they're pretty good on vocals, which are the focus of this song all the way through. Still, the whole package lacks detail and has a veiled, muddy sound to it. But on a softer, alternative track like this the harshness doesn't really come through, making it tolerable to listen. When the bridge section (featuring guitar melody) comes in, however, things change for the worse. Interestingly, the tight, simple bass line seems un-bloated and rather pleasant in this song, even if still blown a bit out of proportion.
What's the verdict?
If these cost $50 US, they'd be pretty good phones. But for a price of $130, you can do so, so much better. Just about anything in the price range (except Bose Triports, which my dad has also >.>) will be better. The harshness combined with up-front presentation and a pretty narrow soundstage make for a pretty fatiguing headphone that isn't even really fun to listen to. Unless you can get them super cheap, go for something else.
Image credit: DV Warehouse - refurbished & used mac computers, professional video editing equipment, used apple computer parts.
