$2700 for Headphones? Yes, Indeed!
Beyerdynamic’s Headzone Surround Sound Home is a product out of reach for most consumers- pricey enough to deserve an article away from all of the other audio equipment we’ve looked at recently.
First question- what do you get for your hard-earned cash? Well, you get some of the best-sounding surround sound headphones on the market. Instead of using quite so many speakers, beyerdynamic using head tracking and complicated algorithms (their words) to deliver the goods. You’ll need to setup the base station, and then bars on the top of the headphones will actually track your head’s tilts, turns, and shifts.
It’s convincing for the most part- the sound doesn’t feel quite as large or varied as a true 5.1 system would though, and costs almost as much. True, the controls are easier, and the system does handle inputs quite well- but the headphones are a tad on the heavy side for long-term listening. The Headzone’s are quite sturdy, as is the cabling and base station, and with decent design. One other downside though is the lack of HDMI- optical/SPDIF is supported, as is co-axial. Dolby Digital and DTS are supported, but there is no THX certification.
It’s kind of fun to play with the system, and see how different rooms affect the sound. And, just so you know, Amazon lists the item for about half of the list price, making it not-quite-so-unreasonable. Overall, we imagine that the Headzone and its patented tracking system might make a sound designer very happy- but might not be the right choice for most other folks. Available primarily online.
