I use a pair of Sennheiser HD212 's I bought years ago, with USB Yeti Blue mic.
The good.
Hugely long cord, 10' to be exact.
Replaceable cord.
Replaceable leatherette cups.
Good sound reproduction, large on bass.
Deep powerful bass.
Closed design keeps it quiet for others, and blocks noise. (I also take hem with me when I travel, helps on airplanes)
Low power to drive, relative to buds and other headphones I have used.
The bad
Hugely long cord, you will run over it and you will get it tangled.
Tight on the head until they break in, and then rewrapping the cord around the bad makes them tight again.
No venting means you can get sweaty ears on long trips, or during long gaming sessions.
A bit of EQ tuning to prevent hearing fatigue is needed.
To reach full performance a lot of power is required.
Silver paint chips off plastic band easily.
No pressure adjustment.
Headsize adjustment is cheap feeling.
Overall
I like them, the have taken quite a beating on many trips, stuffed in my bag, worn on roadtrips, plane rides, and long gaming sessions.
If they would have included a 5' cord or even a 3' to trade out i would have paid the extra $10 for it.
Cord isolation isn't as much of an issue with these as the band rubbing against things and making noise.
The cord has endured much more abuse than I thought possible, I have ran over it hundreds of times with the wheels on my office chair, tangled it up, wrapped it up and it still works flawlessly.
You can EQ out the overabundance they built in of bass and have a great sounding set of phones, or if you are in the mood and have the power you can almost deafen yourself with these.
I would buy them again if given the chance. 8/10
Yeti Blue mic
The Good
Settings, settings, settings!!! For the price it is hard to beat, mulch-capsule control with a onboard switch.
Pickup, it picks up EVERYTHING, and it is amazingly crisp. I have been gaming and had the kids come in and try to sneak up on me, I heard their footsteps and them giggling clearly.
Headphone amp built in, and running off USB power it has more than enough to make you cry for mercy.
Its DAC/ADC can convert stereo at 24 bit depth.
No drivers are needed, it is supported as plug and play on Windows and Mac.
Direct mic input mixed in the audio stream, so what you hear is what you get.
The Bad
Its big.
Its heavy.
No pop guard or even a attempt at one built in.
The connectors are on the bottom and have no strain relief or any other form of dampening cord noise.
The base while sturdy and stylish provides a direct noise path for any vibrations, no real isolation for the mic itself.
No auto-leveling for inputs, you need to be sure that what you are playing or doing won't peak the capabilities of your mic or recording software, or else you need to re-record.
Overall
I give it a 9/10
Great value for the money, and many of the limitations can be overcome with a few good items added to your cart, or some ingenuity. A friend who does production recommended a wooden needle point hoop with pantyhose over it, and you can add fiberfill to dampen noise even more.
- Mini-review
