zoogelsnof's Full Review: Beyerdynamic DT 231 Consumer Headphones
Testing Environment
Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen Extra MP3 player. I’ve decided, for the sake of objectivity, to standardize my testing library, so from here on out all headphones will be tested with the same music. A bunch of random R.E.M. songs, my, “drum mix” which is a CD full of awesome drum stuff from Roots to Cirque Du Soleil and random African tribal music, and the soundtrack to the musical’s, “Wicked” and, “Avenue Q.”
Sound QualityOr: some of the best sub-100 cans you can buy.
There is a rule that closed headphones do not sound good at the lower end of the price spectrum (and make no mistake if you are uninitiated in the world of headphones, $60 is cheap for, “real” headphones) but Beyer-Dynamic has, consistently, every time, blown me away with the quality of their closed headphones from the highest level, most expensive down to the their cheapest closed headphones: The DT-231.
Bass
I was blown away by the quality of the bass in these headphones. It’s certainly not the best bass out there or anything silly like that, but for the price range it’s amazing. It lacks a little bit in the real, “deep” bass, but frankly there isn’t a single pair of headphones under $100 that does have that ultimate-deep bass sound.
Mids
The middle does what so few headphones manage to do: sound about how they should. In no way do they stick out, or make you think twice, or go, “man, that sounds a little funny,” I honestly never heard the mids, I just heard the music. I suppose, if I wanted to be insanely picky, I would say they were a touch faint…but that’s just whining because I’m a reviewer, so I feel compelled to find something to complain about.
Highs
There is another rule in headphones, cheap headphones reproduce high notes very poorly. This is another rule that Beyer has decided they would like to break, and they do. Usually there is a harsh sound in the high end spectrum of cheap headphones, and it’s simply not there with these. There are times you’re reminded that they’re headphones, but most of the time the high notes sound pretty good.
Comfort
These fit well, and are reasonably comfortable. They use a plastic design with velour ear cushions that are a little bit smaller than those of full-sized headphones. They do have the one feature I despise most in headphones though, the ever evil auto adjusting headband. I just don’t like it, I prefer to adjust my headphones myself! But if you can deal with that minor inconvenience you should be alright. They also have single-side cord construction which is a very nice feature in headphones this cheap, and keeps you from getting your wires all tangled up.
Overall
(Note, as always, this is related to price, so it’s not the sound related to the best sound in the world, but sound related to other headphones that cost around $60.)
Sound: A
Comfort: B
Durability: B+/A-
Warrenty:A+
Overall: A/A-
Beyer provides a lifetime warranty for all the headphones it sells, no matter what you do, if they break, they’ll fix em. (I once sat on my DT-250’s and they fixed them for free.)
Rugged and modular construction for easy servicing : Straight detachable cable (3 m) with 1/4 stereo jack : Closed Operating Principle : 30 - 20,000 H...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
you only knew how bad most sealed headphones are, you'd really be amazed at how Beyerdynamic consistently delivers good ones. You'd also be blown away...More at eBay
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