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Beyerdynamic DTX 350p review: An impressive-sounding on-ear headphone for less than $75
If you're shopping for a comfortable, excellent sounding on-ear headphone that costs less than $100, the Beyerdynamic DTX 350 p delivers.
David Carnoy
Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Steve Guttenberg
Ex-movie theater projectionist Steve Guttenberg has also worked as a high-end audio salesman, and as a record producer. Steve currently reviews audio products for CNET and works as a freelance writer for Stereophile.
Beyerdynamic is better known for making high-end and pro monitor headphones. Lately, however, it's been rolling out affordable models, including the DTX 350 p, that are aimed at a mainstream audience.
Beyerdynamic DTX 350p
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Available in black or white, the DTX 350 p, which retails for about $70 online (£35 UK and can be found online in Australia for around AU$125), is designed in Germany but made in China, and cosmetically speaking, it's pretty ho-hum with a mostly plastic construction. On the plus side, for a lightweight 4.6-ounce headphone, it does seem reasonably sturdy and more importantly, is comfortable for an on-ear model with nice, soft leatherette earpads. It offers a snug fit with decent noise isolation -- it leaks a little sound at higher volumes -- but doesn't clamp down on your ears too firmly.
A small, rectangular pouch is included, and with a little effort, the headphones fold up to fit inside it (the pouch looks like something you'd store sunglasses in, not headphones).
This closed-back, 32-ohm design features 34mm drivers and the headphone is geared for mobile use. Unfortunately, the flat cable lacks an inline remote/microphone, and the cable isn't user-replaceable. But those are our only real gripes with the product.
Performance
As we said, sound quality is excellent and you'll be hard-pressed to find anything that beats it at this price point. It works well with a variety of music and while there's definitely some bass push, it's not overpowering.
Both Steve and I (David) came away from our tests impressed. Steve thought the richly balanced, taut bass and clear midrange were excellent for the price, and stereo imaging was spacious for an on-ear model.
The DTX 350 p headphones have more bass weight and low-end oomph than the slightly more expensive Sony MDR-V6 or MDR 7506 . The two Sonys are brighter, but less clear than the DTX 350 p. Steve's a big fan of the Sonys, but he said he enjoyed the DTX 350 p with more recordings, maybe because the Sonys are less tolerant of harsh-sounding recordings.
We also pitted DTX 350 p against the highly rated Audio-Technica ATH-M50x , which costs around twice as much and is an over-the-ear headphone. The M50x's bass was better-defined and went a bit deeper, while the midrange and treble were more transparent. That said, the DTX 350 p put up a good fight and the two aren't far apart in sound balance, resolution and imaging. Because of its smaller size, the DTX 350 p is more travel-friendly, but the Audio-Technica is sturdier.
Conclusion
Beyerdynamic is going to be releasing other affordable on-ear models in 2015 and we look forward to comparing them to this headphone. But for now the DTX350p is a good deal and easily recommendable, so long as you can do without the integrated microphone for making cell-phone calls.