Review: beyerdynamic Amiron Home Headphones

This is round three of our stories centered around some of the latest headphones to come from the company beyerdynamic (made in Germany). Previously, we have covered their T51i on-ear model and their Custom One Pro Plus over-ear model. Now, we take a look at their Amiron Home headphones, one of their entry points for their audiophile selection.

Now, this one is completely different from the other two we have covered, in both design and performance. The target audience is the audiophile community, thus you are supposed to be able to hook these up to something nice to drive them with and just lose track of time as you get lost within your music library. So we created the perfect opportunity to do so, and this is what we found.

Starting with the design, these headphones are surrounded with a very fine velvet-like microfibre cushioning, both all around your ears as well as the headband. The muffs swivel up and down but not to the sides, however they do flex a bit to compensate. They really do offer a level of physical comfort once you have broken them in.

There is a two-tone color theme as it features a blend of mostly blacks with accent silvers throughout. The backs of each muff have a grill-like design to them, which allows air to pass through (these are open-back headphones), with the beyerdynamic logo going across the center.

A stereo cable plugs into each muff (3.5mm jack into each) and terminates into a single 3.5mm aux jack at the end. A 1/4-inch adapter is provided in case you are using them with an appropriate amp or AVR. The adapter easily screws onto the 3.5mm jack for a nice secure fit.

The cable provided, gives you nearly ten feet of length to play with, allowing you to easily find comfort in where you prefer to sit, stand or lay. There is also little to no cable-noise that passes to the ears from the cable rubbing against clothes and objects.

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They are not that heavy for their size. They are a little on the bulky side, which is to be expected. However, they do not weigh as much as they look like they would. This helps to add to the comfort while wearing them.

Performance wise, it is important to note that we came into this one with high expectations. Both due to the product description and the price. We were hoping for something on the level of a high end Senn, maybe even B&W. However, we were surprised to not find this.

The headphones in general sound really nice, with a heavy focus on the mids and highs. In fact, the highs are super crisp. This creates for wonderful detail in instruments like the picking of a guitar. Vocals are amazing as well. Because of this, we found ourselves listening to a lot of acoustic recordings that were really well mixed and no less than FLAC quality.

One drawback however, is that the highs are a bit bright and exhausting, similar to Klipsch Tractrix horns. We couldn’t find ourselves spending too much time with them because of this.

The mid to mid-low range seems to feature a flat response (nice) and the lows are soft and distant at times, similar in ways to their T51i on-ear headphones. So you do get a certain level of bass. It is just that they leave you wanting more at times, if you are listening to anything beyond acoustic. Classic rock for example, or any form of music that relies on lower frequencies, just doesn’t deliver the way it should. It seems like you would benefit from having multiple headset laying around to switch back and forth between, depending on what you are listening to. Now, if you have a budget like some of us, that may not be an issue. However, most most consumers are looking for one amazing pair to rule them all (and this would be considered an investment for them).

As mentioned before, they are an open-back design. This means you would do best leaving these at home, as people around you can hear what you are listening to. The purpose of this, is that is expands on your listening stage, allowing for a more open experience.  This also means that you will easily be able to hear some of the noises around you as well, as there is little to no outside noise isolation. So it is best to make use of them in a nice quiet environment where you can relax.

Really, to sum things up, they felt (or sounded) like an over-ear open-back version of the T51i headphones. More volume, a larger range (5Hz – 40kHz vs 10Hz – 23kHz) and a larger sound stage.

At first, we thought we were missing something. Our initial tests made use of a Dragonfly USB DAC. We pretty much got the above results. So we moved on to use larger sources, such as Yamaha’s RX-A3060 AVR in Pure Direct mode (an amazing AVR). We also tested them against portable and standing headphone amplifiers, like OPPO’s HA-2 portable DAC/amp and HIFIMAN’s EF2C. The results were mostly the same, no matter what we tried.

What you get inside the box is simple. You get the headphones, the cable, and the travel case. There is only the one above mentioned cable, so you won’t be using these to take calls on a mobile device. Of course, these were not made for taking calls anyway. The travel case is quite large and bulky in all dimensions. So if you were to take them while traveling, you might find yourself skipping the case if you have a small carry-on (simply tossing the headphones by themselves, within some soft clothes). It is nice though, and would provide a lot of protection for the headphones. Inside the case is a small pouch to store the 1/4-inch adapter (or whatever else that’s small enough to fit) in. It can be removed from or repositioned within the case however you’d like, as it is simply held into place via velcro.

Our Conclusion

Beyerdynamic’s Amiron Home headphones are quite accurate and crisp on the mids and highs. This can really bring a song to life, depending on what you are listening to. You’d want to pair these with a good amp to non-compressed or at least lossless quality sources. However, they are a bit exhausting in the highs (bright and overpowering at times) and the mid-lows and below leave something to hunger for. They don’t seem like they have much warmth to them, despite what you drive them with. Acoustic, classical and vocal tracks all really pop with the Amirons. They are nice headphones, but for the price tag, we feel they could be better.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

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Specifications:

• Transducer type: dynamic
• Operating principle: open
• Frequency response: 5 – 40,000 Hz
• Impedance: 250 ohms
• Nominal SPL: 102 dB (1 mW / 500 Hz)
• THD: < 005%
• Nominal power handling capacity: 200 mW
• Max SPL:  125 dB (200 mW / 500 Hz)
• Sound coupling to the ear: circumaural
• Cable: 3 m, double-sided, detachable
• Connector:  gold-plated mini stereojack (3.5 mm) & 1/4″ adapter (635 mm)
• Weight without cable: 340 g
• Accessory: travel case

Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.