Mr.Roboto
New Head-Fier
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- Oct 18, 2008
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So I had a chance to test out these headphones out over the weekend, and here are just some quick impressions. I'm not going to make too much of an effort (especially considering the nonexistent response to my last super-detailed review). Well, onto the review. I'll start with the ones I didn't like very much.
Sennheiser HD280: Comfort is subjective. That being said I found these terribly uncomfortable after a few minutes, but they do isolate quite a bit of noise on the upside. Unfortunately, I didn't like the sound at all either. Not particularly detailed, a bit "dull," and with some pretty bad vocals. Considering headroom's fabulous recommendation of these, I'll assume that my test unit is an exception (it was rather beat up), but the clamped REALLY hard regardless.
Sennheiser HD212 Pro: Nothing terribly wrong with these, I actually liked them more than the HD280s. However, they were still a bit uncomfortable, only being lower end, theres no adjustment options to speak of. The accentuated bass didnt bother me at first, but with quite a few songs, it drowns out the vocals, or at least becomes very distracting. I'd imaging they would be great for gaming or movies with lots of explosions though.
Sennheiser PX200: These seem very much hated here. I didn't think they were that bad when I was testing them, as I had just come off the previous two, but they I put on the HD555's and realized how muffled and closed and unlively these were.
Sennheiser HD555: These are the best of the bunch. They reproduced everything I threw at them very well and didn't even leak much noise for open headphones - 5-15% at 3ft, and mostly under 10%. If anything, these have the sound signature I'm most used to from my RS130s and Sony clip ons. My only disappointment stems from the fact that they didn't blow me away. A/Bing with the RS130s (wireless) showed that they were definitely better, without the static and more rich and detailed. However, its just they they weren't considerably better, at least to my ears. Liked the pads a lot though.
Sennheiser PCX250: These pretty much share the same body as the PX200s, meaning that they're tiny with tiny on-ear cups. Quality was good in the usage of metal, but they reminded me a bit of the aiwas the came with a tape recorder many years ago. The first song I listened to blew me away completely, but more testing showed that it was good with some songs and not very good with others, so performance varied. Also, the noise canceling was great but had a strange habit of removing the vocals, some instruments, and even all sound from particular songs. Very odd. In terms of cancellation performance, it removed much of the sound from speakers and TVs, but not from talking.
Denon NC732K: I didn't really compare these against the PCX250s much, so no head to head there. It also did the strange removal of sound thing, but its performance was less variable, if not actually better. I spent much time trying to get a comfortable fit, as for some reason, it was the most comfortable thing I had ever worn for my right ear, but not very good for my left ear. But that's more of a personal issue.
Well here we are. Most of these are actually very respectable headphones, I suppose I was just expecting more. And I had originally expected to be testing the HD650, HD600, and HD595, so maybe I was in a bad mood.
Cheers.
Sennheiser HD280: Comfort is subjective. That being said I found these terribly uncomfortable after a few minutes, but they do isolate quite a bit of noise on the upside. Unfortunately, I didn't like the sound at all either. Not particularly detailed, a bit "dull," and with some pretty bad vocals. Considering headroom's fabulous recommendation of these, I'll assume that my test unit is an exception (it was rather beat up), but the clamped REALLY hard regardless.
Sennheiser HD212 Pro: Nothing terribly wrong with these, I actually liked them more than the HD280s. However, they were still a bit uncomfortable, only being lower end, theres no adjustment options to speak of. The accentuated bass didnt bother me at first, but with quite a few songs, it drowns out the vocals, or at least becomes very distracting. I'd imaging they would be great for gaming or movies with lots of explosions though.
Sennheiser PX200: These seem very much hated here. I didn't think they were that bad when I was testing them, as I had just come off the previous two, but they I put on the HD555's and realized how muffled and closed and unlively these were.
Sennheiser HD555: These are the best of the bunch. They reproduced everything I threw at them very well and didn't even leak much noise for open headphones - 5-15% at 3ft, and mostly under 10%. If anything, these have the sound signature I'm most used to from my RS130s and Sony clip ons. My only disappointment stems from the fact that they didn't blow me away. A/Bing with the RS130s (wireless) showed that they were definitely better, without the static and more rich and detailed. However, its just they they weren't considerably better, at least to my ears. Liked the pads a lot though.
Sennheiser PCX250: These pretty much share the same body as the PX200s, meaning that they're tiny with tiny on-ear cups. Quality was good in the usage of metal, but they reminded me a bit of the aiwas the came with a tape recorder many years ago. The first song I listened to blew me away completely, but more testing showed that it was good with some songs and not very good with others, so performance varied. Also, the noise canceling was great but had a strange habit of removing the vocals, some instruments, and even all sound from particular songs. Very odd. In terms of cancellation performance, it removed much of the sound from speakers and TVs, but not from talking.
Denon NC732K: I didn't really compare these against the PCX250s much, so no head to head there. It also did the strange removal of sound thing, but its performance was less variable, if not actually better. I spent much time trying to get a comfortable fit, as for some reason, it was the most comfortable thing I had ever worn for my right ear, but not very good for my left ear. But that's more of a personal issue.
Well here we are. Most of these are actually very respectable headphones, I suppose I was just expecting more. And I had originally expected to be testing the HD650, HD600, and HD595, so maybe I was in a bad mood.
Cheers.
