ArcticSound P281 headphones
Friday, 08 July 2011
Quite typical of consumer headphones these days, the P281s are made of a fairly thick grey plastic. The phones themselves are cupped with soft black cushions and they swivel for a comfortable fit, although I found my ears touched the fabric over the speakers at the tops, which bothered my after a while. They would need to be bigger for everyone’s ears to fit right inside them. The cups fold inwards for storage and portability, as befits ‘DJ’ headphones.
The cable is curled to concertina – that’s not so common.
Warm sound
There must be something about the cushions over your ears or something, or speakers a few millimetres from your ear canals rather than jammed into them, for the ArcticSound P281 headphones give a lovely warm rendition of the bass in The Suit (PIL). It doesn’t quite have the heft of Apple’s In Ear Speakers but it’s acceptable. Mid-tones and trebles are also well reproduced, with all the little extra sounds in the track clearly audible, and quite precise, although not quite as clear as Arctic’s E361-BM earbuds I reviewed a short time ago.
With Anner Bylsma’s cello, definition was again clear and the strings definitely benefited from the warm bass reproduction, while still leaving the detail perceptible. Back off the volume and it sounds lush again. This could sound like distortion with a real thrashing – but you’d have to be deaf in the first place to subject yourself to this kind of punishment.
Cap’n Beefheart’s Tropical Hotdog Night also sounds good, although I also noticed a trend to harshness when the volume was pushed to nearly-uncomfortably level. I had to push my Sennheisers much harder than this (really ouch!) to get anything like the same thing.
To be fair to the P281s, the same trend wasn’t present in the better (256kbps) version – that held it’s detail (focus on the xylophone) and colouring from low to ouch.
Zoe Keating’s Walking Man sounds simply sublime through these. It’s the perfect match. The difference between these and my venerable Mission speakers (through an Alesis audio interface and a Rotel amp) was … not much, with the Missions adding a little breath to the bottom end and the P281s sounding a bit more focused, as you’d expect from relative proximities of speakers to ears etc.
Alanis got to her taut vocals and bopping and popping bass in fine style (You Oughta Know), and you should hear her vocals spread out as the double tracking comes in after the first phrase. Also, the drums in the middle ‘woo woo bit’ (well, that’s what I call ’em) sound really tight and processed through these, something I hadn’t noticed before.
It’s the same in the 256bps version, so it must be there. The bass takes on a slight reedyness in the better bit-depth track – I like the detail I’m picking up, and if you don’t hear new things even after repeated listenings, your music isn’t worth listening too.
Also, in this version, when it ‘ends’ (it has an added, angsty vocal bit additional to the general version, if you wait) you can even hear the bass players fingers catching the round-wound strings as s/he lets them go, Impressive.
In my reference tried and trusty Sennheiser ExpressionLine HD 320s, there’s a little more ‘boof’ to the bass end in the percussion, and the stage sounds a bit deeper.
I’d like to hear the ArcticSound P301s as they got form 12Hz to 24KHz – I imagine the staging and depth perception would increase accordingly.
Conclusion — all in all, the P281s make a fine second set of ’phones for out in the street, for example. (Actual DJ headphones would nee to be more durable.)
What’s great — warm bass despite limited range; good sound detail in a comfortable fit
What’s not — I’d prefer metal in the construction of the headband, as I’m not convinced these will be all that durable.
Needs — someone looking for a good all round, not too expensive headphone with great detail for the price.
3/5
What — ArcticSound P281 headphones, RRP? (US$26.46 online, so currently about NZ$32 plus shipping from the Arctic site).
System — Frequency response 20Hz-20KHz; Sensitivity: 109 dB/mW; Impedance: 32 Ohm; Driver diameter: 50mm; Output power: 50mW; Gold-plated 3.5mm plug plus 6.3mm adapter; Cable: ≥2.5m (extended length); Weight: 317grams
Available from … (does anyone in New Zealand stock these?)
