Manufacurers website: www.sennheiser.co.uk
Price: £34.00 (inc V.A.T & P&P) from www.askdirect.co.uk

Claimed Features:
Closed, supra-aural, dynamic hi-fi stereo headphones
Good attenuation of ambient noise
Specially designed damping perforation ensures powerful bass response
Lightweight diaphragm material with "turbine" embossing for extremely low bass
3m detachable highly conductive OFC copper cable (with 3.5 mm mini-stereo connector)
Replaceable leatherette ear pads
2-year guarantee

After my last Plantronics Audio.90 headset broke, I set out to find myself another headset or pair of headphones. I mainly used them for gaming and listening to music during the later hours of the evening as using speakers at that time can be a nuisence to others. I decided that sound quality had to be an upmost feature of them, so set myself a budget of £40 on some nice headphones. And decided not to get a microphone inclusive headset, because I really didn't use the microphone very much before, and it simply added to the weight and size of the kit resting on your head.

By chance, a friend recomended me some headphones which he had just purchased, these being the Sennheiser HD212PRO DJ headphones. DJ headphones?! I hear you cry. Well yes, these were originally designed for DJ's and music proffesionals, but this simply means that the sound quality should be of a higher standard than normal 'everyday use' headphones, which is a good thing :)

They come in this clear plastic container which holds the headphones very securely in place, and presents them very well. But you don't care about that! Lets take a look inside.

This picture tells alot about the quality and styling of these headphones. Sennheiser certainly havn't cut any corners on build quality, nor in the looks department, as the simple and functional design keeps a clean and smart appearance. Also being a 'matt' silver colour really tries to stand out and be noticed, instead of the ussual black and un-attractive headphones we are all too used to. For those of you lucky enough to have an aluminium case, these headphones would compliment it nicely in terms of styling and colour.

Here we can see the 'leatherette' earpads, which i find very comfortable resting on the ears. Unlike some that tend to stick and grip slightly, which can be annoying. The shape of these cans is also very well thought out, as from my 'testing' I have found that it will comfortably fit a number of different shaped ears. Being full-ear cans these headphones block out a large percentage of ambient (and some not-so-ambient) backround noise, including such things as system fans and some street traffic.

After testing out these headphones on a number of different scenarios on my pc, I can safely say that the sound quality is by far the best sound quality I have heard on headphones. It is fantastic for music, films (although only 2 channel), and definatly gaming. It has an impressive bass response, that gives you a more imersive and realistic experiance than other headphones I have tried, especially scenes of explosions and bass-heavy events. For a comparison I plugged in my old Plantronics Audio.90 headset into my front speaker output of my soundcard, and the sennheiser's into the rear out. I then listened to a scene from the dvd 'Saving Private Ryan', alternating between headphones, and can honestly say that the sound quality is considerably clearer on the sennheiser's. The difference between high frequencies and low frequencies is also more defined and seperate, as opposed to the Plantronics which tend to be more mid-range.

Now onto my first complaint with this product, although some people may question the basis of this complain, it is totally personal prefferencial and some may find it an advatage, rather than a complaint. However it is this: at three meters, the cable is simply too long!! Yes I know that these are designed for DJ's and the like, but when I plug these into my pc, the cable droops down and on the floor, and regulary gets run over by the wheels of my office chair. To combat this problem I used extreme cunning (and some cable ties).

I simply doubled up the wire a few times, to make the cable just over one meter long, which is much more convenient for me, as I have routed my soundcard speaker jack to the front of my dragon case.

Another impressive attention-to-detail on these headphones that you do not see on others is that the cans have seperate cable jacks, so you can plug in one, two or none of the headphone speakers. This might be useful if you wanted to move your headphones without having to reach around the back of your pc to unplug them. Also this means that if your cable is damaged, it is simply a matter of ordering a replacement cable, instead of it rendering your headphones completely useless. Which brings us to my next encounter with these headphones.

The wire cover has been pulled back from the left can plug, exposing some wires and making it considerably less resistant to tugs and pulls, meaning that it could be pulled out completely very easily. However the sound is still perfect, and this did happen around 3 months after I purchased them, so I'm hoping the guarantee should cover a replacement cable, however i'm sure it won't be too expensive if I have to purchase one myself.

Conclusions..
To conclude, I found it very difficult to fault these headphones, the build quality and looks are excellant, not to mention the awesome sound quality (my primary requirement) and mean bass. At £34 I thought they were good value for money, and is well worth the extra few pounds that you may not normally pay for gaming / music headphones. The length of the cable complaint should not be taken too seriosly, as they were designed for DJ use, and can be easily overcome by various ways, plus some may find having an extra long cable a real advantage.
Great Product!

9/10

Technical Data:
Nominal impedance 32 ohms
Weight (without cable) approx. 130 g
THD < 0.2 %
Sound pressure level (1 kHz, 1 Vrms) 112 dB
Frequency response 12 – 19,000 Hz