Beyer T50P review

[Wmcmanus]

I've often promised to write reviews, but have never followed through. This, then, represents my first-ever attempt to write a full review of an audio product.

Setup: I'm at Todd's in Three Forks MT. The T50's are plugged into an awesome system consisting of a Meridian G08.2 CD player, APEX Peak and Volcano headphone amp and power supply, with Cardas Golden Reference cables.

Summary: Worst headphones ever. Really bad. Nothing good at all, and I really tried to like something, anything, about them. Shrill, hollow, muffled, tinny sounding like you have pillows over your ears. Thing is, this particular pair is well broken in with over 100 hours on them. They just plain suck. I would take any $10 pair of Koss headphones over them. Todd concurs and adds that he would take a buffalo fart over them. Simply horrible. Oh, and the headband looks like it was made from a tin radiator hose clamp. On the plus side, they are light weight and they fit Ok, not that I'd imagine anyone would actually want to be listening to them.

Just for the record: The system is not at fault. Many other headphones, including the PS-1000, HD800, T1 and HF-2's, sound fantastic on the same system. It boggles my mind that Beyer had the nerve to release this product and ask $299 for it.

[skullguise]

Summary only, no details? Must be the cables.....

Actually, thanks for the notes, not wholly surprised, though.

[Beefy]

Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Nebby]

[/insert needs more burn-in comment here]

[spritzer]

Needs more Jena wiring...

[The Monkey]

I don't understand why more reviews aren't like this.

[GPH]

You need a Schiit Asgard and a LCD-2 to optimize the T50P to their full potential. [/kwkarth]

[aardvark baguette]

insert Labowski opinion reference here

[Nebby]

burnt in Jena wiring, you mean. at least 10,000 years.

Just think, by the time it's burned in you get free green coloring for free!

[atothex]

So do these actually have a cult following similar to the legendary dt48s?

[K_19]

So do these actually have a cult following similar to the legendary dt48s?

Nah, no KBI equivalent for it yet from what I've seen.

[Nebby]

So do these actually have a cult following similar to the legendary dt48s?

Doesn't seem to be. I need to listen to the dt48's myself, the cult following is just ridiculous.

[jpelg]

Plainsong seems to like hers alot, particualrly after 175 hours.

[zippy2001]

Great review, I wish there were more reviews like this.

[Wmcmanus]

Plainsong seems to like hers alot, particualrly after 175 hours.

Wow. I guess you'll just have to hear them for yourself one day, just like anything. But I can't imagine break in doing much for them.

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Doesn't seem to be. I need to listen to the dt48's myself, the cult following is just ridiculous.

The measurements that Beyer ships with the DT48 shows a reasonably flat FR curve at 110db. I don't think I want to hear any can that loud though. But if it's that good at reasonable levels, the cult of the DT48 might be onto something.

[mypasswordis]

Are you sure you're looking at the right graph? That's not anywhere near flat. And I'm betting there is a ridiculous amount of smoothing going on.

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

It looked like it went between 110-112 db from 20hz to 2khz. Not flat enough?

Are you sure you're looking at the right graph? That's not anywhere near flat. And I'm betting there is a ridiculous amount of smoothing going on.

[nikongod]

Are you sure you're looking at the right graph? That's not anywhere near flat. And I'm betting there is a ridiculous amount of smoothing going on.

Beyer dosn't guarantee that the FR is flat, they guarantee that the unit you get matches that response curve +/-1db. They have the rare quality of consistency. Although that was the tag-line for some old yellow-water "beer" company I cant remember the name of, any of the mega-brewery's could say the same thing. They make beer that tastes EXACTLY the same year after year after year. Its not very good, but it is always the same.

Beyer is on to something with this. Every pair of DT48 measures the same, with some variance between models. because of that they are very useful for controlled testing.

Edited:

I probably should have quoted defectiveAudioComponent, mneh

Edited August 22, 2010 by nikongod

[mypasswordis]

Yup, you probably should have. I'm not interested in the headphone equivalent of piss water beer.

[atothex]

The dt48s are absolutely atrocious. And now I know that they're very consistently atrocious.

[Wmcmanus]

The dt48s are absolutely atrocious. And now I know that they're very consistently atrocious.

Nowhere near as bad as the T50P. Not even in the same league of badness. At least there are some positive things to say about the DT48's. They're uhhhhh, fast and detailed, I guess, in a painful kind of way.

[mulveling]

Well I had no interest in them before, but now I kinda almost want to hear them out of morbid curiosity

[Torpedo]

Nowhere near as bad as the T50P. Not even in the same league of badness. At least there are some positive things to say about the DT48's. They're uhhhhh, fast and detailed, I guess, in a painful kind of way.

Maybe you wouldn't recall, but once you called me a jerk at HF for saying that some guy there, raving madly about the DT-48, then selling them, was a disgusting thing to do hahahaha. I think you purchased those DT-48, now I know your opinion

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

I lost interest in the DT48 after encountering this free-field measurement of the DT48 vs Stax Lambda.

(A measurement where you first hear a sound from a speaker, and then adjust the sound in your headphones to what you think is the same level.)

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