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The Bowers & Wilkins P5 ($299.99) is a sealed, ear-pad headphone/headset designed for listening and phone use out and about in the city. It’s also designed for people who like quality kit. Paradoxically oozing and understating luxury simultaneously, the P5 is both a comfortable companion and a stylish adornment as it brings you music and phone conversation.

Styling and Build
While I’m not an upscale urbanite, I am an old school geek that appreciates the smell of an MGB GT or the heft of a tactical flashlight. Man, I think B…

“A closed-back design with rigid metal faceplates and sealed ear-pads ensure that all the detail and dynamic range of your music is kept intact, while preserving just enough ambient sound to give you a sense of place. Perfect for listening to music on the go.”

Sealed ear-pad headphones often have a tough time providing isolation and good bass response due to the usually poor seal on the folds and ridges of the outer ear. I was surprised to see the simple approach of soft…

Frequency Response

Significant variability in both bass and treble response is evident in the raw data measurements in the bottom half of the chart above. Spatially averaged and HRTF compensated frequency response in the upper traces show the P5 has a nearly flat response well into the lower bass registers. B&Ws claim of 10Hz response at the low end is not an exaggeration, and…

When I first saw the Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Solo ($199 MSRP) I thought they might be the most beautiful headphones I’d ever seen. The fit and finish is stellar; the styling superb; they fold beautifully; the cable is pure sex; they’re comfortable … the Solos are just gorgeous. At the time I thought, “These may be the headphone of the year!”

Except for one little thing …

To My Ears They Sound Wretched!
Seriously … what are Monster and Dr. Dre thinking?

The Beats by Dr. Dre Solo is a bass heavy headphone. I…

Back before the Sennheiser HD 800 broke the $1000 high-end headphone barrier and started a flurry of ground-breaking new reference cans, there were three staples for enthusiast searching for great sound: the Sennheiser HD 650 ($649.95 MSRP); the AKG K701 (now reincarnated as the Quincy Jones Q701; $399 MSRP); and the Beyerdynamic DT 880 ($313.95 MSRP). All three, in my mind, remain good value when properly chosen for your listening tastes. (HD 650 – warm and smooth, though somewhat lacking in detail; AKG K701 – articulate, but slightly…

It is the ratio of the output impedance of the amp to the load impedance of the headphones that results in the “damping factor” of the system. Damping factor is the load impedance divided by the source impedance. As a rule of thumb, a damping factor of 10 or more is desirable for the source to be able to drive the load with authority. For example, if the amp has an output impedance of 10 ohms, you want the headphones to be at least 100 ohms or more in order for…

Great guitar amplifiers are great because they produce a lot of distortion. I wonder what a great guitar amp maker thinks a headphone should sound like?

Well, here’s our chance … I guess. The Marshall Major ($99) is a mid-size, earpad, sealed headphone, but is actually made by Zound Industries of Sweden. Yes, this is another lifestyle headphone from the makers of Urbanears. I have no idea how much input Marshall had in the design and approval, but let’s give the Major a chance. Throw the drum-kit in the back of the Econoline and…

Whenever I can, I spend time on the back of this beast: a 2005 Yamaha FJR 1300 super sport touring bike. This baby eats continents. I once left Bozeman, Montana in the morning and slept in a cornfield in Iowa that night. I really dig long-distance travel --- the gradual and ever-changing scenery, weather, and geology punctuated with little towns and churches is mesmerizing. Nonetheless, I need my tunes to complete the experience, and it took me a good long while to find just the right headphones to accompany me on my journeys.

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Yes, historic. The Beyerdynamic DT 48 model has been in continuous production in a variety of forms since 1937. That's pretty historic ... I can't even remotely think of another headphone like that.

Let's take a look ...

Intended Application
The Beyerdynamic DT 48 E ($529 MSRP) is a full-size, sealed headphone intended for use as a monitor headphone in pro-audio studio and location applications. These cans are designed to take the rigors of the road, and they certainly will. There are two impedance variants of this…

Sound Quality
Ahhh ... I'm afraid this is where the DT 48 E stumbles a good bit. I hear a significant lack of weight in the bass; and some missing information up top. The low frequency sibilance seemed recessed, and higher frequency components of those sounds were accentuated yealding a more piercing chirp than would be natural. These are clearly a mid-range heavy headphone, but I feel like the sound of the cans is solid and predictable. They do strike me as a headphone one could get used to even though they are colored. Many pro recordings done in the field are for speech purposes…