Taking into account the fact that is an on-the-ear, ultra-portable headphone, the Beyerdynamic DT 1350 is an incredibly impressive headphone.

This headphone is something of an oddity.  On one end, it’s ultra portable.  It folds down to neatly fit inside an included soft case.  When you are ready to use it again, the wire-like headbands can be widened or slimmed down to maximize comfort.  The cups swivel.  It’s mostly aluminum, with some plastic and leather (pleather?) thrown in.  There is also one of those flight adapters if you fly a lot.  It’s good stuff.

On the other hand, it comes with a 1/4” adapter, it has a nominal impedance of 80 ohms, and it’s frequency range of 5-30,000 hertz is no joke.  So is it portable, or professional?

Listening to these headphones on mobile device (in this case an iPhone 4s) isn’t amazing, but it’s not unbearable, either. Performance definitely improves with an amp, but that improvement is mostly in the low end. Upper mids and highs will sound about the same with or without the extra power. That being said, to get that bassy sound I’ve come to associate with Beyerdynamic, I would definitely invest in a decent amp. And for those who plan on traveling with these headphones, please please please consider an amp. Without one, they are bound to come off as muddled, with little definition or space. The good news is, even a cheap amp ($49) can make a noticeable difference.

Of course, these headphones aren’t going to be for everyone.  In fact, you might have a hard time figuring out just who the heck these headphones are aimed at.  Audio professionals who travel a lot, or like to travel light – or travelers who just want a high-end headphone they can hook up to an amp if it suits their fancy – are the prime suspects here.

In all, it’s a badass little headphone with some fantastic noise once you feed it enough juice.  Otherwise, you could consider the low-impedance T 51 i or T 51 p headphones – both of which would be more suited for mobile listening right out of the box without sacrificing overall audio quality.

Check out all the options at our Beyerdynamic collections