Every manufacturer of great headphones inevitably releases an inexpensive model that absolutely sucks, designed to sell on the brand name alone.  So when I came across the Beyerdynamic DTX 350 p, I wondered just how well they could do a cheap, budget-minded $69 headphone.

Beyerdynamic DTX 350 p:  Surprisingly Decent Cheap Headphone

Let’s be clear about the DTX 350 p:  there are a lot of things that it isn’t.  It isn’t over the ear, it isn’t endowed with an interchangeable cord, and it isn’t turning any heads with it’s design or construction.

But despite all this, the sound is still articulate, with plenty of space somehow crammed into these miniscule headphones.  There’s some bass, but it isn’t overpowering – truly a breath of fresh air when compared to other manufacturers’ budget ventures.

Mids and highs are relatively crisp.  They are not muddled in the way you would assume them to be.  Instead, things sound much as they should, though the bass may bleed into the lower mids at times.

The headphone specifications list a frequency range from 20-20000 hz.  Not bad considering the price.  Making it noticeably close to the ATH-M30x in terms of frequency range and sound.  However, the DTX 350 p excels with a lower nominal impedance and a greater sense of portability.

Build construction, as mentioned above, is cheap.  Scrooge McDuck cheap.  This thing seems like it’s one pull away from snapping in half.  But most of this may just be due to the fact that I’ve gotten used to reviewing Beyerdynamic’s premium headphones with mostly-metal construction.  The good news with the DTX 350 p, though, is that they are ultra-portable.  You can easily fold them down to about half of their actual size, and I could fit them into my back pants pocket with ease.

So there is that.

Another boon to these headphones:  comfort.  They seem to just float on my ears.  Soft padding on the ear cups helps here, as do the swiveling design of the cups, allowing for a more fine-tuned fit.  Overall, they offer a slim profile when worn, allowing you to avoid the bulky look of other headphones.

In general, how do they stack up against other headphones in this price range?  The sound is a little dynamic, a little spacey.  You can hear things pretty much the way they should be heard, but with a little added bass.  So maybe think of these as the M50x of $69 headphones.  They won’t be quite as flat as something like the M30x, but they won’t need an amplifier, either.  Compared to more bass-y models in Audio Technica’s lineup, they sound much, much better.  The same could be said when comparing the DTX 350 p to similarly-priced Sony models:  this headphone still sounds more boss.

In general, you might be hard pressed to find a more portable and better-sounding device in the $69 price range.  And if you weren’t, let us know.

Check out the Beyerdynamic DTX 350 p in our Web Store.