NAD Viso HP50 Review

Without a doubt, some of the most hyped up headphones under $300 have been NAD Viso HP50. Tyll from Innerfidelity has these on his Wall of Fame as well as multiple users raving about how great the sound quality is. I bought them for a mobile headphone setup to use at work while away from my main rig, a set of HD 800s with Anax Mod, and an Oppo HA-1. They have been my go to headphone for a majority of my day as I love to listen to music at my desk job all summer. Overall I used them around 4 or 5 hours per day, Monday through Friday, for the past three months. As such I think they deserver a good review since I'm certain other people would be considering the NAD Viso HP50 as their mobile headphone of choice.

Overview:
These headphones sound impressively good for a closed back headphone, block a decent amount of noise, but are rather uncomfortable, and have a poorly designed headband.

Packaging:
The box these came in was pretty nice. It had a front flap with a clear plastic sheet behind it letting you look at the headphones. To get the headphones themselves out, the packaging slides out elegently, kind of like a desk drawer. Beside the headphones, you get a leather traveling case, two cables (one with a mic, and one without), a quarter inch jack adapter, and an airplane adapter. Overall a nicely packaged headphone, you can certainly reuse the box for other things so don't just throw it away. My only qualm is that the packaging can deform the headband from an "ideal fit" shape. (Discussed in the Comfort section)

Build Quality:
Grabbing the headphones to put them on your head, your hands clasp around the high gloss plastic ear cups. Bringing the headphones in for a closer look, you will notice a L/R to indicate channels, engraved on the aluminum hinges directly above. As your hands follow the headband line, you can feel the properly sized leather padding around a metallic yet bendable headband. As you twist and pull the ear cups apart, the band has an elastic pull back to it's original position, kind of neat. Your hands pull the ear cups apart and place the phones on your head. The elasticity in the headband pulls the ear cups back together as the leather pads engulf your ears. Overall a decently built headphone. Nice materials are used, but the ear cups themselves leave some to be desired. The plastic design is rather unimaginative, the high gloss can look a little tacky and is very prone to finger prints.

Comfort:
The headphones need some muscle to create a good fit, the leather pads are too thin and compress, combine that with the plastic driver shield doming outwards toward the ear and you get a rather uncomfortable headphone.

Headband
The headband on my pair did not match the curvature of my head or probably anyone unless you have a cone shaped head. The band had most of it's curve in the center point, creating a triangle of sorts with the ear cups. This in turn caused the ear cups to be angled wrong so that the bottom of the ear cups would not seal with the bottom of your ear no matter how much you pressed them. It also encouraged excessive headband sizing to get the ear cups to be angled correctly. I had to apply excessive force to bend the headband into a human head shape.

The top of the headband needs to be more flat so the drivers push into your ears and create a good seal. The drivers need to be angled slightly so the bottom of the cups can form a V shape of sorts to properly follow your upper jaw line. I managed to get this shape by forcing the headband to wrap around once, and held it in that shape multiple times. After this, the headband had a flatter top, and it migrated the curvature towards the ends, near the cups and caused them to press uniformly into your head.

Ear cups
The leather pads are far too thin. The pads are comfortable, but they sometimes over compress and you can feel the hard plastic shielding the driver pushing up against your ear. There is some minor padding between the hard plastic layer, but it is simply not enough. The plastic itself is not flat, but domes outward towards your ear which can be uncomfortable at times if you don't position the headphones just right.

Bending the headband into the right shape caused my to use excessive force on a brand new $300 headphone in order to get a good fit. This caused me to snap something, not sure what but the right ear cup hinge feels different than the left. I blame the packaging for bending the headband into this shape.

One last thing, the ear cups come with a headphone jack on either side. This is extremely useful in my experience. I can plug the cable into the left cup when listening out of my laptop with it's audio jack on the left side, and I can plug the cable into the right cup when I use my phone and have it to the right of me. The cable is very much out of the way and I like that quite a bit.

Sound Quality:
So we finally get to the part that most people care about. Yeah these headphones sound pretty damn good for a closed back headphone.


[ Frequency Response from Innerfidelity ]

The treble is detailed but not too harsh. The mids are fairly neutral, and the bass has a good thump to it, although it can be a little bloomy and muddy. Sound coming out from my iPhone was pretty decent, and the tonal neutrality rivaled that of my HD 800s. However these do not image or allow instrument separation anywhere near the level of the HD 800s (not really a fair comparison by any mean, but gotta see how far they deviate from "ideal")

Treble:
These have enough sparkle in them to sort of make out some micro detail but can sound unnatural at times. Not sure where the peak is but the treble can be muddied by an unevenness of sorts. However this is really good treble for a closed back headphone. Clearly a good amount of work has been done to get these to sound like this.

Mids:
Impressively neutral mids, maybe a slight hint of warmness. You can sort of make out the different voices making up a chorus, and can make out the nylon string guitar sound signature in some classical pieces.

Bass:
Hefty thumps if sealed properly. Boring and scratchy sounding otherwise. The bass is certainly present and not overdone, but definitely suffers from some muddy-ness that closed back headphones can be known for.

Imaging and depth:
It's alright, nothing to brag about. Sound can be a little closed and in the head but again, it's pretty decent for a closed back headphone. Stereo pan effects come out well, and drum pieces can be heard from left to right, but the field is too small for it to be any impressive. Sure it can be accurate but with a small sound stage, how can you tell otherwise?

Noise Reduction:
Pretty good! People can sound muffled and most repetitive noise like fans or hums are attenuated and easily ignored. I cannot stand active sound canceling so these are a great alternative for me. I can easily focus on my work and my music even with multiple people talking around me. Of course you can hear your name called if you need to, but I think most people would like that.


[ Isolation Plot from Innerfidelity ]

Overall Value
For $300 I think these are pretty decent closed back headphones. They certainly meet the mark in terms of sound quality, and noise reduction, but fall a little short in comfort and overall design. If you already have a neutral headphone my recommendation would be to try something else, maybe a little more uneven and "fun" sounding. These remind me too much of my HD 800 but without all the finesse that comes with it. However if you don't own any other neutral headphones these could be worth it for you if you want to put up with some strong arming the headband to get it to fit your head correctly.

 

You probably are going to have trouble with HP50 then. They were marginally better than FSP for me and I have an average head.

 

My 67mm ears did not fit inside the cups. From my HF cup size thread:

NAD Viso HP-50 cups measure Top to Bottom = 65mm and left to right = 38mm

 

yup ruler and mirror are two of my favorite scientific tools

 

Shipsupt,

I signed up to deliver you this message.
If the value of money means anything to you, I would not recommend the HP50.
The market has recently exploded for obvious reasons, and there are a lot of models being released with fantastic drivers, but really poor design decisions.
The HP50 is an archetype of this. It will not have a long-term resale value, because of how fragile they are.
On top of that, they are really not comfortable, and with the headband, I can't imagine any way of fixing it other than surgically removing the drivers and transplanting them into an entirely new design. When the kick to change headphone's comes in, I find i'm willing to cut the virtue of comfort for sound quality, until I actually own the headphones.
These aren't Grado ears bad, where it may work for some heads.
Furthermore, some of the hinges are very weak.

If you want a replacement to the Denon 700,000, i'd look into the Fostex TH600/900 combo.
In my experience, it is very difficult to forge a balanced, comfortable, isolating closed principle, over the ear headphone with a dynamic driver.
The old Denon's/Fostex dynamics do it at the cost of a design that leaks sound. From recent history, ortho drivers seem to have an easier time with a closed circumaural chamber. This is regarding the PM3 and T50RP mods.
Some closed on-ears also perform better, like a modded HD25 or the Beyerdynamic's 1350?; however, this comes at a cost of comfort and Beyerdynamic's quality control, driver matching, durability malarkey.

In purchasing closed headphone's, I had to come to a decision that it would not achieve the same satisfaction as open headphones without tossing out comfort/durability,less isolation, more money, or compromising sound quality, (or some DIY). Open headphones do it better for cheaper.

...They do sound good though - like a speaker setup.

 

I had these for about 6 months - the headband just got to me after some time. I've been spoiled on earcup and pad size as well and these didn't do me any favors - just too small (though they were large enough for my ears).

They were the best sounding closed headphone I had listened to before modding a pair of T50RPs (MKII).
I always wanted to just pull the drivers out and put them in something else - or at least try to replace the headband somehow.
I'm sure the drivers wouldn't sound quite as good in a different enclosure though...

 

I own these and use them as my portable/transportable headphones. They are so light and padded I don't see how so many people report comfort issues, but maybe I just have the right head shape for them. They do make you look a bit dorky when wearing them due to the weird squarish headband.

To me they have the best tonal balance of any headphone I've heard in their class. Particularly in the bass, most others are either too thin on bass (B&O H6, AKG K-something) or too boomy (momentum/momentum2, B&W P7). The HP50 has enough bass to give proper weight to the music without being boomy or overpowering.

I haven't heard the PM-3 though, been wondering if I should upgrade to those.

 

I have these and have loved their sound for some time now however their comfort was just not good enough to wear for any extended period for me. I recently purchased some brainwavz replacement memory foam cushions both angled and not and the angled ones have made these headphones the perfect portables for me.

 

I have both of these and for me the angled pads are the only ones big enough. They are definitely a bit softer but mostly there is just more material there. They do make the headphones a much less compact package but for me it is the only way I can wear them for more than 15 min.

http://www.amazon.com/Brainwavz-Ang...qid=1444541537&sr=8-4&keywords=brainwavz+pads

http://www.amazon.com/Brainwavz-Rep...qid=1444541537&sr=8-1&keywords=brainwavz+pads

 

Anyone had a chance to compare the HP50 with the Oppo PM3? I have a pair of the PM3s and I think they're nearly perfect except for the soundstage, which is quite small. I was wondering if the HP50's soundstage is any better since their signatures are in the same ballpark.

btw, to those wishing you could transplant the drivers into a different headphone, you could try the PSB m4u1 since they have identical drivers in a different housing.

 

I did recently try both PM-3 and HP50 side by side with MSR-7 in a shop but with my own reference desktop chain and Clip+ and my own music.
PM-3 had little less air. Soundstage of the HP50 is a little larger, but not better defined than PM-3's.
It's hard to critique PM-3's tonal balance, its very nice. Hard to say that about HP50 or MSR-7.
To my ears sound quality wise: PM-3 = MSR-7 >> HP50 for various reasons through my ref chain.
From Clip+ differences were smaller.
PM-3 was also more comfy on my head.
FWiW HP50 don't scale much with better chain while PM-3 does and MSR-7 even more so. Suffice to say I came away with MSR-7.

 

After having tried many different earpads for these headphones that will give me more space I think I have settled on these as the best version both for sound quality and comfort. I can post some measurements comparing the different ones I have tried soon.

 

Alright here are some measurements of the brainwavz pads that I have tried on the HP50.
Blue = Stock
Pink = Memory Foam


Blue = Stock
Red = Angled Memory Foam


Blue = Stock
Orange = Velour


Blue = Stock
Green = Hybrid


And for some different points of comparison
Orange = Velour
Geen = Hybrid

Interestingly despite measuring very similar I do hear an increase in bass definition with the Hybrid pads also they provide more isolation.

My three picks
Blue = Stock
Pink = Memory Foam
Green = Hybrid

Ultimately the stock pads are too thin for me leaving the best options as Memory Foam or Hybrid.

 

Thanks for the measurements @logscool! I like the sound of these headphones a lot but they failed to sit on my head comfortably and, as mentioned by @George Mhmmm, didn't seal below my ears. I tried swapping out the stock for pads for the Brainwavz memory foam pads; I found the timbre of the Nad's changed in a way I didn't particularly like. The treble sounded a bit glarey and a certain naturalness was lost. With the stock pads I would have considered them as good as any sub $400 headphone. It's a shame, they could be great.

 

Yes I do know what you mean. Honestly it's been quite a while since I really listened to the stock pads much but I do remember preferring their sound. I feel that the velour and hybrid pads do a good job of keeping the sound rather smooth, unfortunately it is at the expense of some bass.

 

I tried a pair of HP50's at my local store. They sound very good, surprisingly neutral. But there's something I just hate about them - that square headband! I believe NAD thinks people are going to wear that thing out in public, no way. With the surgence of good quality & stylish portable 'phones, these just don't cut it.

On the same trip I tried the Focal Spirit Classics. They weren't nearly as flat or punchy in the mids, too scooped & nice sounding in comparison. Eventually I bought a pair of Focal Spirit Pros, which I find quite similar to HP50's, both have a very neutral signature, esp. having a closed design. All of these fit my big melon very nicely. The Focals can surely be problematic for people who have big ears / hate having them squashed even the least bit by the pads. FSP's have a strong clamp, but the pads are thick - a couple hours of listening on-the-go haven't been a problem for me.

Spirit Pro is now my closed reference, a good counterpoint for HD600's (or LCD-2's) when mixing. If you live in the EU-area, they can be found for very nice prices too. Mine cost about 200 euros.

 

I agree the square headband not only doesn't look good but also isn't the most comfortable design ever. Quite frankly though I don't mind the looks of my headphones too much.

@Zed Bopp Would you mind measuring the pad depth on the FSP's? How do they compare in depth to your momentums?