the t.bone HD 990D

I own an electric drumkit and I wanted to practice without hearing the constant rubberpad noise. I figured that one of these noisecancelling headphones would be the solution to that. I knew that the Vic Firth headphones were really popular among drummers so I looked up some reviews. People were saying the soundquality wasn't great, but it wasn't noticeable because it was meant for drumming purposes anyway. Those Vic Firth headphones were a bit pricey for my taste, but found this t.bone version a lot more appealing, especially for the price.

When the headphones arrived I was aware that the soundquality would not be the standard that I was used to, but when I tried them, I constantly was trying to 'fix' the sound by twisting and adjusting the plug thinking it wasn't making contact properly, because it sounded like that. Later I found out that this was just the poor soundquality of the headphones. I knew the quality would be below my standards, but this was quite shocking to me. I don't know wether the actual Vic Firth ones are better, but these ones didn't live up to my expectations. On the contrary, the isolation is not that bad.

Ich habe den Kopfhörer zum Schlagzeugspielen gekauft als Backup und für Schüler*innen. Dafür ist er nicht geeignet, er schließt nicht richtig ab und dämmt dementsprechend schlecht. Der Sound ist nicht gut, wenig detailreich, für Backing Track und Click okay, für alles andere wahrscheinlich supoptimal. Das Spiralkabel finde ich auch nervig, da es sehr schwer ist. Bei mir ist an dem Kopfhörer zudem binnen kürzester Zeit das Plastikteil, mit dem die eine Ohrmuschel befestigt war, gebrochen, sodass man ihn eigentlich kaum mehr benutzen konnte ohne sich an dem hervorstehenden Draht weh zu tun.

Alles in allem würde ich vom Kauf abraten.

First of all: The sound quality is very poor so these headphones are not suitable for mixing or enjoying your favourite album.

They do cancel out sound leakage pretty good though so it would be easy to think they should be great for monitoring when recording. Well, there's a slight problem or two. First, they have a very closed/boxy feel so many musicians tend to lift one of the earpads slightly away from the ear when using them. This will obviously increase the bleed. Secondly, and worse, there's something making a squeaking noise when you move your head. It seems to be caused by the cable connection and the plastic ear pads. So for recording quiet stuff like vocals and acoustic instruments they are not suitable. This problem was not present when the headphones were brand new but started to occur after a relatively short period of use.

The only use I've found for these headphone is monitoring when recording noisy instruments like drums and electric guitars. For this kind of work they are great! They are very efficient so they perform ok with cheap headphone amps. The build quality is also pretty good so they can take a bit of beating which is a big plus for a studio on a budget.