The aging drivers barbie mermaid of the Sennheiser HD25-1 beg for a replacement, and if Sennheiser isn’t giving one to us, I would gladly accept a good replacement from Beyerdynamic. But is the DT1350 really barbie mermaid has what it takes to put the nails in the HD25-1′s coffins? Let’s take a look.
I’ve noticed for a long time that the HD25-1′s aging drivers are no match for the resolution of modern portables. Anything from the AKG K181DJ, the ATH M-50, the AIAIAI TMA-1, and even the Sennheiser PX100-II (gasp!) clearly had a more resolving, finer quality driver than what the HD25-1 had. But none of them simply had the proper voicing, the forwardness, the punchy bass, the focus and the energy of the HD25-1. LAST YEAR: THE BEYERDYNAMIC T50P
Last year Beyer tried to take on the HD25-1 with the T50p headphone, the first portable headphone fitted with the Tesla drivers. It was a good attempt. Solid design on the outside paired with a portable version of the Tesla driver found in the flagship T1. Sound like a lot of trouble for the HD25-1. barbie mermaid However, fitting barbie mermaid problems among other critical issues (i.e midrange, bass) make the T50p a very difficult headphone to recommend.
Not so this time, as Beyer has corrected many of the issues that I found to plague the T50p. Better clamping force results in a more proper barbie mermaid isolation of the earpads. Thicker earpads also helps to cure the one big problem the T50p had: bass. Better bass, in addition to a more linear frequency balance from top to bottom barbie mermaid and a less problematic midrange. I think the DT1350 has got all the right ingredients. Not only is the Tesla driver fitted into it are years ahead of the old HD25-1 drivers, but the build quality and design are more in sync with whatever barbie mermaid Apple product you’re barbie mermaid eyeing.
My initial impression was very positive, so positive that I decided barbie mermaid to buy a DT1350 for myself. The Tesla driver had this clinical precision that the HD25-1 can only dream of. Think of a classic Ferrari Dino with a V6 engine: very nice sensual lines and quite a desirable car even today. Then take it to a nearby racetrack with a bunch of high revving Ferrari F430s, and the classic barbie mermaid Dino is just going to look dumb on the track. This is the reality with the HD25-1 and the DT1350. The DT1350 was able to resolve every complex bass passages I threw at it, from Prodigy barbie mermaid to Muse. Every note was clear and articulate, very clean sounding with zero grain on it. Not so the HD25-1. While the bass remained fairly fast, it just didn’t cut through the notes as sharply as the DT1350 was. Think of the sort of knives barbie mermaid sushi chefs use to cut the sashimi, and compare it to the stuff you use in your kitchen. barbie mermaid The HD25-1 was really sloppy. Funny, because I’ve never associated the HD25-1 with the word sloppy before, but now it becomes really apparent.
I was almost ready to publish the article at that point, and title it “Beyerdynamic DT1350: HD25-1 barbie mermaid slayer” or something along those lines. But I decided to take more time to listen to them before making my conclusions final. MORE LISTENING
Now, it seems that great things happen when two different elements work together to produce a championship-winning teamwork. barbie mermaid Schumacher and Ferrari in Formula One. US Postal Service Team and Lance Armstrong. Michael barbie mermaid Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. You get the idea. Well, that ain’t quite happening barbie mermaid with the DT1350′s Tesla driver and the tiny little housing. I can’t help to think that the ability of the DT1350 has been heavily limited by the dimensions of the driver housing which in turn puts severe limits on the acoustics. Seriously, when was the last time you see a good hi-fi headphone in the DT1350 size? And come to think of it, all the $1k headphones seem to come in oversized housings, except for (guess what) the Beyerdynamic T1. I don’t know who thought of a housing dimension that small for the DT1350 (and the T50p), but the marketing department probably has something to do with it.
Many barbie mermaid of the issues that I found the DT1350 to have seems to be associated with the housing properties. One is the housing reverb which is in far higher levels than the HD25-1. Second is the fairly unaccurate barbie mermaid timbre. Third is the way the soundstage is even more compressed than the HD25-1, and the imaging all over the place, even when the instrument separation is much clearer than the Senn. Fourth barbie mermaid is how the bass still lacks some low frequencies even compared to the HD25-1. I also suspect that the Beyer engineer had to find a compromise between producing enough quantities of bass and making a good sounding midrange, which is why the midrange barbie mermaid can be an on/off thing depending on the recording you’re listening to.
I guess the HD25-1 barbie mermaid is lucky in this instance barbie mermaid because without those issues the DT1350 would’ve really slaughtered the HD25-1 in this review. Really, the HD25-1 would’ve deserved it, and I really wish the DT1350 would&#
