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The PSB M4U headphone arrives, designed by musician Paul Barton
The headphone was fine-tuned by musician and acoustic designer Paul Barton and is made with a polycarbonate structure. According to the company, it is the first headphone in the world to support Room Feel technology, which transmits a sense of spatiality to the listener that is usually only found with acoustic speakers.
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I have read it and I have many doubts... First of all, 399 euros with all those accessories is definitely too little for professional headphones; I don't think one can expect much from the technical data (spectrum in Hz, distortion, etc.). Furthermore, I believe that the "room feel" is simply due to the fact that the earcups are placed further from the ears than usual, judging by the thickness of the shells. It looks like a Bose-style item (for the headphones, I mean, which aren't the top tier but appeal with design and comfort). I would pass on this...
Member
You confirm some strong suspicions
However, the fact remains that it is a novelty from a technological point of view.
Member
Well... The point is that, in my opinion, a headphone is a headphone. The idea could theoretically make sense if it were aimed at replacing flat speakers for mixing, but this is quite another kind of listening product. In short, I think it costs too much on one hand and I suspect it offers too little to be anything else. Those who want to listen to music on headphones don't do it as a fallback compared to normal speakers, whereas I think the item remains useless for those looking for a serious alternative to mixing speakers. At these prices, you can buy professional Sennheiser headphones with excellent performance (at least as monitors) and without "living room" frills.
Member
I agree with Croma's opinion, it is neither one thing nor the other
Administrator
Same here. If you mix in headphones, it comes out wrong. End of story. There are also software programs that simulate monitor speakers with headphones. The mixes come out a little better, but when you then go to listen to them on a reference system, you realize they are wrong. The problem is that it's not enough to just move the speakers one or two centimeters away from your ears. A mixing room takes into account a ton of variables. First of all, it must be measured with tools such as SMAART, for example. You try to understand where it is deficient in frequencies and where instead it clusters frequencies, and these two different things must be treated with sound-absorbing panels or Schroeder diffusers. Then the positioning of the speakers must be millimeter-perfect in both distance and angle. And obviously, the speakers must be of excellent quality; they must not be deceptive. In short, if a pair of mixing monitor speakers for a good studio from Genelec costs 30,000 euros, there is a reason. If only a 400 euro pair of headphones would solve the problem!
