List Price: $379.00
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- Supraaural, lightweight and robust design, ideal for studio applications, with 80 ohm drivers
- Tesla Technology with high efficiency and low levels of distortion
- Excellent ambient noise reduction
- Flexible split headband with 90-degree swiveling ear cups and comfortable, replaceable soft-skin ear pads
- Includes carrying case, and single-sided cable with gold-plated stereo jack plug and 1/4-"adapter
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I've been in the market for a good portable headphone for quite a while now. With every portable I've tried I've felt that I was making some sort of compromise in regards to sound for the convenience of a small and compact headphone. While the 1350s can't compete with the higher end full-sized headphones out there, they come closer than anything I've tried. And the fact that they manage to do so in a such a compact and elegant way makes them all the more impressive to me.PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES:
First and foremost, these feel look and feel like high quality headphones. The metal constructions gives them a nice weight (while not being overly heavy) in the hand and the feel of something that's going to last a lifetime. They come with a two-year warranty and I've heard good things thus far about their customer service should you need it. The small earcups are one of the very few things not made of metal, but they don't feel cheap in any way. It's a nice hard and durable plastic with what feels like brushed metal endcaps on the sides. The height adjustments for the earcups work well and have a nice solid click with each level of adjustment.
The split headband is one of my favorite features as it allows you to adjust the pressure of the clamping force. I open mine about 30 degrees and find that it's the perfect balance between keeping the headphones solidly on my head and not killing my ears with excessive clamping force. Other notable features in terms of usability are the flat-folding AND rotating earcups. They fold flat which makes them easy to wear around the neck and also allows them to become more compact for travel. Both earcups also swivel in both directions (forward and backward), which is nice if you're listening to music but need to hear something that someone is saying. You simply rotate the earcup off one of your ears (up to 90 degrees)and can hear whatever is going on around you. If these features aren't clear, then you can easily find a video review by Jude at head-fi.org that demonstrates both of these features very clearly.
The only issue I have had so far is that I find the exposed cables connecting the earcups to the headband to be a tad too long. When I put the headphones on my head I often have to kind of push the cables out of the way. It's a small issue, but worth mentioning, I think. The cable itself is rather thin, but I don't think durability will be an issue with normal use. Unfortunately, you can hear some noise on occasion when the cord rubs against clothing or bumps into something, but it's minimal and hasn't been annoying enough to cause any real issues during normal use.
COMFORT:
I've never tried an on-ear headphone that didn't hurt my ears. The 1350s are no exception. That said, they seem to be getting more comfortable each time I wear them as the pads soften up a little and conform to the shape of my ears. I can easily wear them for an hour or longer with no major discomfort, and I'm optimistic that they will continue to improve with time. To compare them to two other major players in the portable market, I'd say they are slightly more comfortable than the Vmoda M80s and slightly less comfortable than the Sennheiser HD25s. There has been a lot of talk about the 1350s from people saying these are finicky in terms of getting a good seal on your ears, but I haven't had that problem. One bit of advice is to wear them slightly further back on your ears than you would normally think is correct. Once you get that seal, these become like little suction cups on your ears. Which leads me to my next point...
ISOLATION:
Simply the best noise isolation I've ever heard from an on-ear headphone. Keep in mind that these are not noise-cancelling headphones. They block out sound passively by forming a good seal between the earpads and your ears. I'm listening to them as I write this review, and I can't hear any keyboard clicks at all, which is saying something since I use one of those super-noisy mechanical (clicky) keyboards that you can hear from across the house. My wife is watching TV in the room, and I don't have the slightest idea what is on without looking at it. I can't wait to get these on an airplane or train to see how they perform in those environments.
SOUND:
I don't claim to be an expert on describing sound, so please keep that in mind. I can offer some general observations, though, based on my experience with other portables (M80 and HD25) and full-sized headphones (DT880, SRH940, and many others).
Overall, I'd classify these as mostly neutral sounding. The sound is very clean and distortion-free...refined, I'd say. They aren't as dark as the M80s and not as bright as the HD25s. They're somewhere in between, which is exactly what I was looking for. On the M80s, I felt that the overall sound was good, but that the treble was just a tad too soft. On the HD25s, I thought the treble was just a touch too bright and the bass was just a tad too loose. The 1350s don't have any of these issues to my ears.
Bass Surprisingly good from such a small headphone. The bass isn't going to kick like it does on bass-heavy headphones or even the M80 for that matter. That said, it's obviously present and never lost in the overall sound. What I notice the most is how low the bass seems to extend. Bottomless would be a good word to use. It has a decent punch when the song demands it and is well behaved when it needs to be. I wouldn't recommend these headphones for people who listen mostly to house music or hip-hop, but otherwise I think the bass will please most people out there.
Mids Very present. Perhaps slightly forward, but not enough to be overwhelming. Vocals sound close and engaging. These headphones grabbed me immediately when a Norah Jones track popped up for the first time. Some people have called the mids on these a little dry, but I haven't had an issue in that regard.
Treble Present enough to be engaging, but never sibilant or fatiguing. Guitars sound good. If you listen to jazz, then I think you'll love the sound of trumpets on these headphones. It has the right amount of brightness and bite to it without making your ears bleed.
I find these headphones to be solid with most genres. Jazz especially shines and may be their biggest strength, but I find them acceptable for pretty much anything that I've thrown at it.
Soundstage is obviously not a strength of these headphones due to their closed nature and small size. That said, I don't find it lacking at all compared to other headphones in the same class. I've used them for a couple of movies and an episode of The Walking Dead so far and have been perfectly satisfied with their performance. Their clarity and low-distortion makes them great for dialogue and helps them to excel with movies and podcasts. I still prefer a nice open-back full-sized headphone for what they add in soundstage, but I can use these guys without feeling like I'm missing out on anything substantial.
AMPING: These are easily driven and work great out of a portable device. You can get plenty of volume and most of what I like about the sound remains intact. That said, they also scale up quite nicely. When amped, the bass gains a little extra punch and the sound becomes more engaging. Also note that these headphones require good source material to sound good. You wouldn't want to use these to listen to low-level mp3s that you've downloaded or to listen to low-quality streaming music. Their ability to portray detail means that you will hear everything in the recording that may happen to be present. If you listen to a poorly recorded (or compressed) song, then that's exactly what you're going to hear out of the 1350s. Feed them high-quality music, however, and the sound will be divine. I use high-quality mp3s on the road and nothing but flac when I'm at home and have been very pleased thus far.
EXTRAS:
The DT1350s come with a very nice and compact traveling case that makes them ideal for going back and forth to work with me every day. They come with a 1/4" adapter which I use when listening via my Audinst HUD-mx1 dac/amp. They also come with an airline adapter which I haven't had a chance to test out yet.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, I highly recommend you give these a shot. Other than a few very small quibbles with the cable, I can't imagine a portable headphone doing as much as right as the 1350s manage to do. I finally have a small and portable headphone that travels well without making any major compromises in terms of sound. Worth every penny of the $300 and maybe even a little more.My needs:
I need a high sound quality portable headphone for regular long distance air travel. The headphone should be : 1) light and comfortable (-overall weightwise and on/around the ear type), 2) fairly robust in build quality, 3) foldable in some way to enable easy carry on in a handgrip, 4) closed-type but open sounding as much as possible with a moderate soundstage, 5) have good sound insulation (to not disturb fellow passengers) and low leakage, 6) not be ostentatious or hip like Dr. Beats (whose sonic signatures are anyway not suited for jazz/classical).
Coming from unportable Hifiman HE-6 top-of-the-line full cup headphones (with generous much bigger drivers that make for spacious sound), I would like as close a sound as possible in a lower grade closed portable! I am used to Hifiman RE-262 IEMs for travel great but feeling like a change.
My Music Preference:
Jazz (vocal and all instruments, trio/band formats) as well as classical. I would like abit more bass for a portable than with an audiophile grade headphone, to partly compensate for external noise when listening to jazz, but more neutral sound for classical.
From a portable, I would like a strong mid range performance for those jazz vocals but adequate detail at high end and reasonable bass definition.
Overall I think my sound signature preference is a more intimate narrower soundstage than Sennheisers (which I am well familiar with and like separately).
The Options:
I narrowed my preferences to Audio Technical ATH-ESW9 (42 mm driver) at $199 Amazon, and Beyerdynamic DT 1350 at $299 Amazon as these were the closest recommended portables I could target with many discerning followers of both. (I've used portable Sennheiser PX 100 and 200 long ago but AT and BD are both way better and more expensive).
++++The following are only my personal views intended to help someone in my predicament in choosing between these two closest fought headphones!...++++
The Boxed Packages:
BD (Beyerdynamic) has a much more professional packaging, outside and inside. The white cardbox box is a solid protective box whereas the AT is a thinner "less serious" more flimsy packaging. The BD contains a very nice slim firm and protective black headphone carrying case, moulded to fit the cans with cups flattened. It has inner pockets for 2 handy extra plugs (one for airline entertainment systems aka Emirates and a big phono adapter, nice touch). The AT has no extras, and comes with a black leatherette-rubbery pouch sack which provides virtually no protection and this for a headphone that is more fragile than the BD.
BD is the clear winner here in carry-ability albeit at $100 more (which I would pay for).
The Headphones:
Subjectively, the AT are clearly larger cups (2.6 inches diameter, roughly as measured on the outside) and basically the cushions rest on my outer ear tips and lobes. The BD being smaller (2.2 inches) rest on the ear itself more more comfy for me.
AT is shallower in depth if you exclude padding width whereas the BD is more cuppy and deeper. Both phones can swivel the cup on your head to listen to someone talk to you etc.
AT seems a little lighter and the lambskin padding is softer whereas BD has a firmer padding and is better in feel (other reviewers say the sealing property is key to the sound quality and bass though I feel the bass is perhaps deeper on AT). I clearly prefer BD padding of the two, AT being a bit too spongy.
AT is a more wood and plastics device (the reddish wood is a dull red matt and not as shiny as I had seen in some photos), whereas the BD is a more solid hard plastic-type casing and metal finish: of the two BD clearly looks the more professional sturdy solidly built headphone it is stolidly German after all! The AT is definitely the more brittle of the two headphones and needs to be more carefully handled in transit.
The headphone specs can be found on line, suffice to say they seem generally quite close in most respects to me. Range is a little higher on the AT technically ( 5-35,000 viz BD 530,000 Hz). Impedance on AT is 42 ohms, BD 80 ohms for those so concerned. Power handling on AT is 1000mW whereas on BD it is 100mW...Output sound handling is 103dB for AT and 129dB for BD.
Some say the sound of the cables rustling on clothing is a distraction on the BD (its closed hard plastic cups do resonate sound inside your ears) and I would be sympathetic to this, but not perhaps a deal breaker.
Headband: AT has a light plastic mould cum soft leather head padding whereas the BD has a tough steely double band and a spongy padding right at the top. Herein lies a notable difference: the BD can be configured to grip your head much better to give an even better clamp whereas the AT is a light comfy slip over with little ear pressure. I was struck by the difference on actually handling the two. BD makes for a much snugger fit on my large head.
Cables: AT has cables on both cups ending in a slim 3.5 mm plug, whereas BD has wires from the Left side cup and ends in a beefy 3.5 mm plug which may in a confined player or ear socket bump against another wire eg line out etc. (probably does not affect most people). The BD also has two bits of cable popping up at the top of each can and this may be abit of an unnecessary protrusion for travellers (apt to snag on something) but no big deal.
The Sound !:
Here's the tricky bit. Overall, the AT sounds a warmer, distinctly mellower, more easy going, laid back headphone with a clearly wider soundstage more in the direction of say HE-6 or any big sounding phone. The bass is decent and seems to have more depth/presence on jazz recordings I tried out viz BD. Vocals are more generous and intimate on the AT, whereas on the BD vocals are seemingly more constrained in the overall width of delivery this is not to say BD is disappointing in any way but again sounds a bit more conical or directional rather than "all present".
The BD has a distinctly enclosed sound print, almost a conical sound but I feel it is more clinically colder and more accurate. Bass on BD is good but seems to be more measured and controlled whereas on AT it is reassuringly enveloping around your ear. Musical details are notably better (-not that AT is inferior) on the BD but soundstage is definitely better on the 42mm AT! I find myself turning the volume up on the BD for a "fuller" sound whereas the AT simply yields a larger sound print with instruments better laid out around around you.
On classical music, I prefer the BD signature for clarity and detail; on the AT is a warmer mellower "easy listening" sound.
Caveat: I listened to each headphone about 5 hours so the break in time is arguably insufficient. However, I did read reviews that contradicted how much break-in time these portables actually needed. Some said none it does not matter either way, some talked of 20 hours +. I presume these portables don't need (or react dramatically) to much break-in time. I can't vouch for how different each brand might sound down the road!
The Decision!:
I find it very difficult to choose! I would probably choose the BD overall for my needs as a frequent flyer as the isolation properties on the BD are definitely much better than the AT and I don't wish to disturb fellow passengers. The clarity of sound inside an aircraft is likely to be much better too from the closed BD cups. The added travel pack and plugs are useful extras and the AT would have closed the gap more had it been more featured here!
That said, my son and I both prefer the warmer sound of the AT! I think the differences in sound signature are such that I will keep both.
In looks both are good looking (read serious looking and not trendy bassheads aka Beat, no disrespect intended!). The AT looks the more conservative and elegant phone but the wood finish of its cups does look slightly un-woodish and slight mock woodish (perhaps the luster is not deep-red enough). The BD is all Germanic and clearly steely serious.
I used a flac tracks and Hifiman HM-801, the best portable by far, for my comparison (with a balanced sound card port, as well as testing the headphones from the normal headphone out socket (wider soundstage)). While I enjoy an RE-262 IEM for the last year, both these portable cans offer a welcome change in sound print over my IEM.
I give the BD a good 4.5 star rating without hesitation, maybe even 5 star.This is definitely an audiophile level headphone. Everything from the top to the bottom is extremely detailed. The bass is subterranean low and there is no distortion at all with the bass tests I've done. These Tesla drivers are amazing!!! The mid-range is magical and the high notes are very clean. There is also no piercing treble glare associated with most headphones and symbols really shine. These headphones reveal just like my B&W 800 series Nautilus speakers, which is an accomplishment because those speakers are world renowned by audio industry experts and consumers alike.
For these headphones to not be active noise cancelling, they really isolate you from noise extremely well, but without the audible background noise that all active noise cancelling headphones have. They also don't leak sound out of the drivers. I don't know how they did this, but this is a plus especially with people recording in a studio.
BTW They don't sound good right out of the box. Just like my B&W 800's, they need to be broken in. After about 20 hours they really started to perform at very high levels. Amp or no amp, these cans can really sing!If you're in the market for small on-ear phones, these would be hard to beat. I did an a/b comparison with some older cans. The Inception blu-ray was staggering on these little wonders. The bass is alive and deep. The highs are also well defined. I had the B&W P5's for awhile, but they were too laid back (or warm) for my taste (loved the fit and finish though). The DT1350's nailed it. The comfort aspect takes some getting used to, but it's not a major problem. There's a bit of microphonic cord noise (to be expected on cans like these). I'm quite pleased with these phones. They are a nice occasional alternative to my DT990's.
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