Saturday, November 22, 2014

Sennheiser HD 360 Pro Headphone Review

Aloha!

I have used Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones for the past few years, and they are really very wonderful. But, I recently had the opportunity to try out a pair of HD 360 Pro cans, and if you know anything about their products, as the model number becomes higher, generally the phones become more wonderful (and expensive). Well these buck that convention, as you can buy them for much less than the HD 280 Pro, and they are a good set of cans for the bucks.

The HD 360 Pro is a bit of an odd duck, as they are marketed as professional monitoring headphones, but they are slightly smaller than full-size and they fold up fairly compactly. This means that they are great for guys who are on the road and do not want to put up with the discomfort of in-ear monitors or crummy sounding noise cancelling headphones. Plus they kick the living crap out of Beats while looking relatively normal.

Physically, they are similar in size to the PX 360, so they are a smaller pair of around-the-ear closed-back phones that will work if you do not have big ears. They weigh in at around ½ pound, and they have nicely padded leatherette earpads, that appear to be replaceable. If you have small to mid-size ears, they are comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time but not so loose that they slip off. They include a non-replaceable cord that is almost 10 feet long and an adapter so they can be plugged into ¼-inch or 1/8-inch jacks. As I said earlier they fold up, and the end product is fairly flat and compact. A nice zippered carry case is included.

I tested these headphones with a variety of audio sources, including my home stereo, my iPods and iPad and directly from my laptop. I played the music with and without headphone amplifiers (solid state and tube type), and with my usual assortment of music. This includes mostly rock and blues, with a little country, classical and show tunes thrown in for good measure.

And these headphones perform very well. They are very sensitive and crisp with no distortion at all normal volume levels. The highs are clear, and do not seem to have any unnatural elements to it. The mid ranges are definitely boosted, mostly in the upper mids. This is not distracting, and I like the effect for rock and blues music. The bass is crisp and powerful, but is still well-balanced with the mids and highs.

In the real world, they sound great and provide perfect isolation (and no leakage) on airplanes and when working in crowded and/or noisy rooms. For my purposes, this more than makes up for any sound imperfections that come about from having closed-back cans. I like them a lot, and used them regularly until the cable pulled out of my wife’s headphones, so these are now in her care. There is no substitute for a good pair of headphones.

And these are good headphones that you can buy for a song. The list price on the Sennheiser HD 360 Pro headphones is $149.95, but you can buy them all day long on the internet for 60 bucks. These are a heck of a deal at that price, and if you are looking for a new pair of pretty nice headphones, start checking around online and buy them!

Mahalo!

5 comments:

  1. hd 360 pro headband material that the padding is enclosed in has begun cracking (not the plastic or steel parts).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Monster has managed to combine style with functionality in the jbl headphones. So often manufacturers sacrifice one for the other, but not here. Not only do they look good, but the sound quality is good too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You made some decent points there. I looked on the net for that problem and discovered most people will go coupled with using your web site. studio headphones

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have this headphones for 8 years.Recomend for evyryvone.This is perfekt for me.Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great info! I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have. black pods pro review

    ReplyDelete