Sennheiser HD203 Closed-back Headphones

[The Teej]

First of all, a little disclaimer. This is my first proper review of a product (outside of "these are good"), but I hope to get the point across in my review nonetheless.

So, lately I've been looking to get myself a pair of decent headphones without spending loads of money on one. A bit of a challenge, especially as I really love my music and can't stand to be disappointed when I get myself a lame pair of any sort of earphones, headphones or speaker system. After going on a bit of a trek around the internet, I saw a pair of headphones called the Sennheiser HD203s. All of my earphones have been Sennheiser so far and I've become (dare I say it) a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Sennheiser goods - although that's only due to having an impressive track record with all their products I've bought. Their high audio quality and awesome build quality haven't left me disappointed yet. So, after searching out a couple of reviews and people singing the praises of the HD203s, I took the plunge and shoved down the money for a pair. As headphones are non refundable due to hygiene reasons in pretty much every store these days taking a leap of faith on 'phones is always daunting. Thankfully, as you'll find out in the review, this was most definitely not money wasted.

The HD203s from a packaging standpoint come in heat-sealed packaging - a slight annoyance as I have to bust out a pair of scissors for headphones I just want to get hold of right now, but that's a tad silly complaint I guess. However once you've opened up your prize you'll be very happy to find out these headphones with the 3 meters worth of OFC (Oxygen Free Copper) 3.5mm jack cable, and a 3.5mm to 1/4" (6.35mm) jack adapter for those wanting to use these for professional DJ or PA equipment (which is definitely a viable option with these headphones). The cable itself isn't overly thick and appears to only be shielded once, but to play the devil's advocate, for the price range these headphones are at, double or triple shielding probably isn't a priority for you. The adapter is all silver plated, which is a nice touch and change from the much cheaper silver plated tipped adapters.

The headphones are all plastic, however a definitely sturdy and rigid plastic, and would definitely require effort to break - although I don't intend on finding out their threshold on purpose! They don't look cheap either, which even when paying for cheap headphones you don't want, so you still get a touch of class without having to pay a premium for it. Classy.

Moving on to the audio quality of these headphones, I'm going to do a bold move and open up with a criticism, but I'll explain why in a second. From an extremely critical and audiophillic standpoint, the lows can feel ever so slightly muddy, but this is a petty criticism for a pair of cans that stilll do a great job of discerning the differences between low, mids and highs, and arguably the half-steps between them. I opened up with a criticism, as to get it out of the way, because just like my fellow reviewers of the HD203s, I have a laundry list of praises to sing for them. Following on from the lows, the mids on them are really impressive, and the highs are great too and are definitely distinctive from the mids. I haven't burnt them in yet so my opinion on them may improve as time goes on. They sit quite comfortable around the head and the ears, although I can imagine after a few hours I'd need to take them off, but I don't intend on using them for many hours at a time. The bass on them is also crisp and very muddy at all (although to say there's no muddiness would be lying).

The best thing about these cans is that if you've got CD quality tracks (i.e. 1440kbps) you'll get to appreciate the higher quality, but if you've only for 192kbps or 320kbps tracks (like Spotify has), then while obviously the quality isn't as high, they won't severely punish the tracks' overall lower quality and you'll still appreciate the song for what it is, and still get all the little nuances in songs you'll get in higher quality audio, that you wouldn't normally hear in other headphones. I haven't unfortunately got any FLAC or WAV quality tracks to really push the boundaries of these headphones, but I'll be on the search for these soon and will gladly report back with results soon enough.

I've tried these with classical and metal music so far, and they've both worked wonders for me. I played a track from The Last Samurai soundtrack, called "Red Warrior", it's the piece of music that gets used when Algren and Katsumoto lead the Samurai to war near the end of the movie. It's a favourite piece I've heard a fair few times, on all different headphones and speakers, and these headphones managed to do the job of making the song come alive and let me experience this song for the first time all over again.

I also used the song "Self Vs. Self" by Pendulum feat. In Flames as a guinea pig, with great results. I got heavy bass, which while empowered the song didn't overlap the lyrics which sounded clear in their own right. The bass was ever so slightly muddy, and could be higher, but you'd be pushing yourself into the ?80+ territory to get a discernible higher difference, I can imagine, and the bass still does a fantastic job nevertheless.

To really push the vocal side of things, I decided to use Paramore's Decode as a guinea pig. The song as a whole sounded great, with the lyrics extremely clear, with the highest notes only really attempting to exploit the weakness of these cans - but still enough to give you a couple of goosebumps if you really get into the song. I used this as a guinea pig as songs with heavy use of drums can often drown out even the best of lyrics - thankfully this wasn't the case at all and I was very pleased with the results. I also tried a similar test with Within Temptation's "What Have You Done" and the same results, and in some cases actually got even better results.

Overall, these headphones are simply outstanding, especially for the price. I managed to get the HD203s on staff discount, so I snagged them for only ?30, although given that I now know how great these headphones are, I'd gladly pay the full RRP of ?40 for these if I had to do it again. If you've been unsure on what set of headphones to buy, and are looking for high quality but without the harsh price tag, then go grab this pair. I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Overall, I'd easily recommend these pair of headphones to anyone after high quality on a budget, and I'd argue these are contenders for some headphones in the ?60 range - and only really lose the battle in the ?70 range, by which point other headphones are targeting a higher-end market anyway. If you've got money to spend and are unsure on what headphones to get (as I have been), but don't want to spend a ton of money on a singular pair, then go for these. I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.

If anyone would like pictures, feel free to ask and I shall gladly take some.