Jaben Network - Malaysia: November 2012

Courtesy from: http://www.springheadphone.com/2012/11/beyerdynamic-custom-one-pro-you-will.html

So, everyone is going for “customization” in these days, multiple colors to interchangeable headband, padding, sound etc… to make dull and boring headphones into colorful and fantasy design, make them become a fashion accessories instead of pure music enjoyment equipment. Heavily affected by beats by dre, most of the giants in the industry have paid more attention into this direction, and created products catering towards this market.

And here goes the smart of Beyerdynamic, combine all the above features and put into one headphone named “Custom One Pro”. How is the performance? Will it just be another accessories jizz? Let see ourselves shall we?

The special points of Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro I found.
* 4 Levers Bass interchangeable
*4 Levers open/close interchangeable
*Changeable headband
*Changeable design plate
*3 Default design of the overall color tone
*Detachable cable for higher quality cable upgrade
*Light weight, yes they are lighter than any same size beyer headphone in the market
*Comfortable wear, great isolation and not clampy
*Rugged design (As always from Beyerdynamic)
*Hand crafted in German, yes they are handcrafted despite price at USD199
*16 Ohms, they are easy to drive by mobile devices without amplifier
*And off course, it is the most stylish designed headphone in Beyer line

There are few features I found out seem pretty valid, there is people who successfully plug in an in-line mic cable and use it as phone call answering.
I did brought over to a sound engineer for fun, he likes it a lot and mentioned how this headphone can help in his production, mainly due to it has the flat professional sound signature for mixing and bass heavy consumer sound for monitor, both features in one headphone, perfect in every way. This applicable if you using them for professional usage.

Packaging/ Accessories/ Build quality/ Fitting
Yes, horrible is a word I can use continuously in Beyerdynamic, without a doubt, they embrace this idea in all of their packaging, however this time they did some improvements. As you can see, there are much more “trendy” design on the box, at the front side you can see the whole design of Custom one pro, turn around on the back you can see a cool looking guy wearing the headphone. It is the first time beyerdynamic used “somebody” on their packaging, miracle indeed!

The front actually presented in 2 layers, flip out the first layer you can straight visualize the custom one pro specifications and feature, And you get more information on both sides.

Accessories? There is no carry case inside, however with previous experience with DT770pro, it didn’t shock me for the price point they charge. A 3.5mm to 6.3mm stereo jack convertor, Allen key for the plate screws, and a paper cut headphone stand. Woaw, frankly that is first time I’m shock on Beyerdynamic packaging beside their flagship T1.

The headphone only come with the default plate, I tried to get plates with different design, so far Jaben told me it is heavily out of stock, and they are sourcing some printing machine to customize our own design on blank plates. Well I have my “SpringBiscuit” design readied waiting to rock and roll, it is great as I won’t crash design with other users, and it is quite an identity product for everyone, if you like cool and customization in the first place.

*Sound Slider for both side, 4 Levels of setting

*Changeable Headband

*Detachable Cable

*Changeable Faceplate (Default Plate)

As we know on German excellent engineer crafting system, no doubt Beyerdynamic still continue focus on build quality in 88 years. Custom One Pro followed the design of their DT series, which result in great durability on overall daily usage, you can see metal construction in several places and unflappable joints ready to take some beats. Surprisingly, this headphone actually weight lighter than their DTs , it feels very light and not pressurize on top of your head. Fitting is amazing, the fitting not so emphasize in clamping force, in the result of solid wearing experience without pain around your ears. Soft and comfortable pleather ear pads really do provide a great isolation from outer ambience and noise, i did a testing with my friend, I can barely spot any sound leakage despite he is a loud listener.

*Middle of the box

*Back of the box

Sound Presentation

It has 4 types of sound, be frank is it just the bass different? Hell no, Bass is just one part of the changes, you can spot the changes of:

*Bass impact, speed, quantity, roll off
*Airy, close box
*Forward, laidback, wide
*Detail, accuracy
*Flat, dynamic
*grainy, tight

these are what I found when you play around with the sound slider, pretty impressive right? These signature are decide what a good headphone would be, and by playing the sound slider mechanism, technically you are alter the signature of the headphone, to suit whatever sound you threw inside, it is freakishly versatile in my understanding, I’m still busy experiencing what is the flaws of the headphone design, especially the sound slider.

It will be Ipod > Custom one pro, to keep the review as neutral as possible.

I tried with different types of music genre, across from jazz, country to club music, most of them fit pretty well in my opinion, the best I conclude will be on Fast, bassy and light vocal music.

With the 4 settings adjustable, there is no fixed signature for Custom one pro, however I do spot the beyerdynamic house signature in some setting, neutral and balance performance, it is more lean towards dt770pro signature. The biggest improvement on the slider off course will be on Bass in the first place, I found out the number 2 and 3 settings will be the best for overall music enjoyment with minimum roll off on treble extension. If you are a total bass head, number 4 provides the tremendous amount of bass extent, with +20db it pushes in the mid low and low with huge noticeable EQ, to me it sounded too over on my personal preference, but it does really suitable for club, trance and dub step.
With stronger bass adjusted, it adds in the airyness for each spectrum, make overall performance slight laidback and grainy on upper mid and treble. Without a doubt beyerdynamic does design for this purpose in their first plan.
Metal such as Iron maiden works great with Custom one pro, it has the aggressive and fast to make everything sounded correct in this genre, you get nice speed and tight instrument impact to suit the synergy of the music.
I switched to number 1 and 2 for classical and jazzy music, however it is slightly flat for the music presentation, less dynamic for low end, moderate high roll off on treble when you switch to 4, so if you are finding perfect point for this genre of music, you might need to sacrifice some sections to fully enjoy it.
R&B, techno, Trance and Pop music in this headphone is amazing, with the tilt V Shape EQ if you switched to number 3 & 4 bass setting, speed and bass impact really does excel in this genre of music, you definitely wouldn’t go wrong in this. Mid low rumbling is strong and tremendous amount of bass punches really make you feel rock in the night.

Soundstage is average in this headphone, it is not designed to follow the concept of DT880 or T1 wide staging effect. Treble, mid and bass presented in a linear straight line, less layering than expected, you get a much balance overall frequencies synchronize with correct setting put on.

So…
Setting Number 1 and 2 are more on flat, linear and balance signature, it is clean and detail, great on mid and high, suitable for slow song, acoustic and vocal with its tight presentation.
Setting Number 3 and 4 are more on bass, laid back and roll off on treble, it has more airy and open staging, boosted mid low and low bass, suitable for bassy and main stream music.

Final Verdict:

It is a fun headphone, great for outlook customization and sound tuning, it helps to save up some extra money when you are tired on same headphone design or sounding, Custom One pro eliminate this problem.
For USD199 with the combination of great street style and sound, definitely one of my top recommendations, although it still kept on Beyerdynamic tradition design, but the interchangeable headband and housing plate really drive me on.
This time, beyerdynamic formulate this headphone to cater more on latest music trend, instead of their tradition audiophile sense of music, they are designing their product toward mass market, sound tuning technology really helps in fulfill with huge and wide genre music collections.