Sennheiser HD 280 Reviews
These are quite old, but, for the sake of archiving, let’s review these so-called “professional” DJ headphones by Sennheiser. First off, these are closed, circumaural, and are designed for monitoring—which means the frequency response should be as flat as possible. It has up to 32 decibels of attenuation, which is part of its selling point for use by DJs. They are loud, and that’s a straight fact. So now let’s re-live some of the good reviews we’ve accumulated from users throughout the years.
“The sound from these phones is excellent. The standard criteria are there. The signal is very clean, thanks in part to the oxygen free copper cabling used. Bass is controlled and precise so a timpani doesn’t sound muffled. Higher frequencies do not hiss and the phones are able to drive high frequency sounds and pull out details lost by consumer grade headphones. Soundstage is fairly narrow as some have said, but much better than consumer sets that sound like the sound source is inside your head. Of course, a DSP solution for soundstage expansion could help if someone didn’t like the soundstage.”
“After burning these puppies in for 24 hours, the audio quality truly impresses with details I’ve never noticed before in my Definitive Technology and Aperion Audio home theater/stereo systems. Initially I thought the bass was a “little” lacking, but the cans have developed a fuller, richer sound with burn-in. I’m tempted to buy a second pair so I don’t have to carry mine from home to work all the time.”
“Rock/punk is hit or miss on these phones. The Ramones’ “Road To Ruin” sounded excellent, especially with the bass cranked way up on my receiver. The Ramones have never sounded better to me, but, strangely, The Damned’s Damned Damned Damned album, which is classic British punk, didn’t sound so hot. It’s as though these phones were too polite for these guys. Magazine’s “Secondhand Daylight” also didn’t sound so hot on the 280s. The recording sounded too analytical as though the phones were dissecting the music. All the instruments were very well articulated, but this made the music sound deconstructed. The instruments somehow didn’t cohere. In short, some rock has never sounded better to me than on these phones, but some just falls flat.”
One major issue that we did not compile from said reviews is comfort. Take our word for it, they are tight and tiring. “Clasp of death” is just what it is. If you have a fairly small head you would probably survive long use with these, but other than that you will definitely notice them always, which takes away from the whole listening experience or professional work you are trying to accomplish with them. Other than that, if you can live with that, especially now that these are being sold way low from when it was released, then these are really bang for the buck.








