Pioneer DJ HDJ-X7 Head Phones Demo Review Part Two

0:00 Yeah, but the speaker's sound is being picked up from the m

Alright, so let's imagine you haven't got any speakers, you've got a set of headphones, you've got your DJ kit, you love music and you don't really want to annoy the neighbours, which is probably why you haven't got any speakers. Anyway, recently I gave a short demo of the HDJ-X7 headphones from Pioneer. Now of course, I can open the box, I can give you a little bit of spec, but what I can't do is sort of a demo because you can't hear them. It's a bit like having a new set of speakers and playing them and going, listen to these. Well, yeah, but the speaker's sound is being picked up from the mic which is then transferred to a laptop which is then uploaded to the web which is then brought to your ears by your laptop or whatever you're listening to. So you're never going to get the true sound. But what I can do with this demo...

All you have to do is play through the headphones. Now, if I turn the volume up here on... By the way, the track I'm using is Eddie Adam Moore, Reaching. So press play. It's from Karmic Power Records. Thank you very much to Karmic Power Records for letting me use their music and there will be a link in the description, okay? Alright, so that's through that speaker over there. There. Now I'm going to turn that down. I'm going to turn the master volume down and here are the HDJ-X7 from Pioneer. So, if you want to know a little bit more about these, go and check out the video I did a few days ago. Now something that every single headphone manufacturer should do, especially DJ ones from now on, anyone who doesn't do it is a bit of a numpty.

2:56 These headphones will handle 3,500 milliwatts

Make sure you have a metal rim all the way around the top there because one of the worst things in the world is to put your headphones on, accidentally pull them apart a little bit too much and they go crack. Any headphone companies that don't do that, for the sake of a few dollars or pounds, euros or shekels, do yourself a favour and put a metal strap around the top. End of. Pioneer have done that because it's... Now you're hearing the headphones. Now, these headphones... Let me just pause that. These headphones will handle 3,500 milliwatts. Now, that sounds very impressive, and it is for headphones. But if you had 3,000 milliwatt, 3,500 milliwatts on your big PA system, that would be absolutely crap because it's 3,500 watts, which isn't a lot for a big PA.

But for headphones, that's great. There are headphones out there known as reference headphones. A lot of manufacturers will make them high-end headphones that cost an extortionate amount of money and they're great for production. And the idea behind those is you don't have them loud. It's a very low volume. Sometimes you get them like 1000, 1200, 1500 milliwatts. And they're really meant for quality and clarity of sound at low volumes, whereas DJ headphones you do need that extra bump, that extra push. Now not only that, if you think about it, let's imagine now, here's a good analogy for you. I'm stood in a bedroom and above me I've got maybe, I don't know, two and a half foot before my head hits the ceiling. Now this is a bloody good analogy.

5:23 What's that space doing?

Now, if I was to jump up and down, like this, my head still can't hit, because I'm not very clever at jumping up and down, still can't hit the ceiling. So how does this work with those sets of headphones there? Let me explain. So let's imagine that the peak power of my trying to jump... No, no, actually, no, the peak power, get this analogy right, is the ceiling. So right at the top there, that's 3,500 milliwatts. Right at the top. Now let's imagine my head height is the optimum audio that I would need for my ears to listen to the volume of the sound coming through the headphones over the outside ambient sound like the main PA so I can hear what I'm monitoring. And not have to turn it up anymore for fear of busting my ears. Well, that's that area there. That's as far as I need to go. But what that means is you've got all this space up here. What's that space doing? I mean, it's, you know, what's that bit doing? So let's imagine the ceiling is 3,500 milliwatts and the top of my head, let's say, is 2,000 milliwatts. So in other words, three and a half watts up there.

And two watts here, which means we've got one and a half watts doing absolutely bugger all. Well that's what we want. That's known in the trade as headroom, which means that the headphones aren't working too hard. You've got that extra one and a half watts that's not doing anything, sort of, and it means that you've got a better clarity and quality sound. Sound that sounds as it should, instead of this really horrible vibrating distorted sound where the diaphragms, in here 50mm diaphragms, aren't like rattling like mad going, stop me, even this sound is too much, I can't handle it. No, anyway, so that's what you don't want. So, ideally, okay, what you do need is good headroom. So, let's play again. See? Now, that's headphones! I'm at max volume on my headphones. If I put those over my ears now, it would destroy them. But what I'm not hearing is a distorted sound. Listen. And look.

I'm not in the red. Okay, let me take the camera off. This is headphones. This is crazy. There. Okay? That's headphones. It's not distorted. Alright? So that's my point exactly. So what we have here is we have a set of headphones that you can turn up. And you don't get a distorted sound, which means that if I turn them up even more and more and more, eventually I probably would get a distorted sound. But I don't want that because I need that extra little cushion area as my headroom. Now I hope that makes sense. Alright, so in a way, honestly I've been thinking about this for a while. How on earth do I give a demo of these headphones to show that they sound good and they work? There it is. There's your answer. Now, the second part of this video is me falling asleep. Only joking. It's me picking my nose. No. It's talking about the overall, not so much construction, but parts of the headphones. Now, for example, the earpieces and the top that goes over your head. Now, come on. Alright?

8:52 It's going to wear, you're going to have wear and tear

It's going to wear, you're going to have wear and tear. Alright, now these cushion areas, yes, they're probably going to fall apart over time. You know, this is going to flake over time. I mean, that's to be expected. So anyone out there who's bought a set of these or similar headphones go, oh bloody hell, that falls apart and it all crumbles away and all the plastic falls apart. It's like, well hello, let me ask you a question. When you wash your hair, do you wash your hair with... Pioneer did. They put a bag inside the box. Now I wonder why they did that. Is it... For a hat, no. Is it maybe to take with you in case you need to go to the toilet very quickly? No. They, well the bags there are actually to put your headphones in, you see. So again, if you think about it, after a gig, put your headphones in the bag and then they're going to last a little bit longer again. So it's up to you how the headphones are after about a year.

Of course, depending on how you use them. But again, this is part of your job. So don't expect something like this to look like this on day one and after 50 or 60 gigs, 20 or 30 live events and the kids playing around with them, and it's your own fault if you don't put them out the way, them to be looking like that in say a year's time because they probably won't. So look after your kit and your kit will look after you. Okay, so the HDJ-X7s from Pioneer, this is the second video on them. So far so good, practice and enjoy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.