Soundmagic HP 151

Got these a while ago in my what seems by now, a neverending journey for the best affordable over ear closed headphone. This one seemed to check all boxes pretty well and is reasonably priced in EU (149 Euros, comes with 2 cables and a neat case). Since there aren't many reviews of this one, I thought, why not give my detailed impressions? Here goes nothing!

Build
I will start with this, because boy is it s***. The plastic is cheap, the pleather is cheap and the swivel mechanism (which appereantly also breaks after some time) is cheap. It also squeeks when moving it around or folding it. When trying to swap pads, I realized the baffle plastic has a very rough finish to it, reminiscent of a 20 Euro Phillips headphone I have. There's a piece of foam glued (ew gross!) with double sided tape to the front of the baffle, covering the driver. The plastic is also finished in a way that it becomes a crazy fingerprint magnet. If I touch the cups, it always leaves a mark. Online it definitely looks much better than in person. Overall, this gives the impression of a cliché, bottom of the barrell, chi-fi build quality a la Hifiman.

Here's a pic of the baffle after removing the pads:
https://imgur.com/a/sXewPBQ

Here's how the driver looks like after removing the foam that covers it:
https://imgur.com/a/dS4EDYs

All that plastic you are seeing there, trust me, it looks and feels worse in person.

Comfort
Actually it's not bad at all. The cheapo build makes it lightweight, the clamp is rather loose and the pads are soft foam (no memory foam though). The only real issue is that the pads are shallow, so you'll be touching that foam glued to the baffles. Well actually, not quite, because the pads are attached to a thin layer of poliester, but still, your ears are gonna feel that foam.

Isolation
The clamp is loose, but the pads are pleather (super cheap thin pleather), so it's average. The DT770 32Ohms, isolates much more and so does the M50x. It's not too bad, you'll be fine.

SOUND!
Okay so finally something positive, it's pretty dang good for 149 Euros. I like these more than any other ones I have tried in this price range (M50x, M40x, DT770 32 and 80Ohms, K371).

Bass
The bass goes no problem all the way down to 20Hz, althought there's a very slight roll-off starting at 30Hz. It's very deep and does have texture to it. This doesn't sound one note and rumbles quite well. It's only slightly (say 2db-3db) elevated above the midrange, elevation which starts at around 100Hz. Compared to the DT770, the bass lacks some detail, it's not as well defined as those, but it does get extremely close. I would say compared to the DT770, there's some boominess going on, but really not too much. I appreciate that, unlike the Beyers, this is relatively flat in comparision to the rest of the FR.

Talking about the bass, I saw a graph online for these from "Reference Analyzer Pro" which suggests a massive boost in the bass and not the 2-3db I mentioned. I am actually gettting that 6db boost that graph suggests too, but only if I press the pads firmly against my head. I suppose this is what they did there as well. In reality, the pads have a loose clamp and which keeps the bass under control. The bass is really good stuff on these in terms of quantity, neutrality and extension. I love it!

Mids
Not too cold, not too warm, seem to be well integrated with the bass and don't sound behind the rest of the FR. There's one annoyance though and it's that the upper midrange is subdued, somewhere at around 3KHz or maybe 4KHz, so voices can lack a little bit of presence. There is also some minor sibilance going on, but it's really not too bad. In comparision, the DT770 80Ohms had massive sibilance.

Treble
Elevated, but I am not hearing any annoying peaks. Seems like they took the treble from 5KHZ, elevated it 3-5db above the rest of the FR and managed to keep it peak free. It's relatively flat, just elevated as a whole. Actually it reminds me of the KSC75 in the sense that it's bright, but remains realistic. This is much better than the DT770, with its massive headache inducing peak. The extension is only okay though as this seems to roll off quickly somewhere at 15KHz. Another headphone, the K371 from AKG, is leagues above these in this sense, as those just go on and on in the treble extension department.

Soundstage and Imaging
So these got a lot of hype around Head-Fi for having a wide stage, similar to the DT770 and it's true, it's really wide, but presented in such a bizzare way, it makes it hard to explain. Basically, it's only a hair wider than the DT770, but sounds very diffused. The Beyers have a more compact width to them, but are extremely well defined and hit a clear wall. These on the other hand, seem to go on forever in the left and right direction, but it's like, the further away the sounds move from you, the lower and lower does the volume get. In one word, it sounds extremely diffused and may appear smaller because of this than the Beyers at first listen.

The sound is projected only to the left and right sides, there's no depth to this headphone at all. The imaging is precise, but only within these left and right spaces.

To illustrate all of this a bit better, I went the extra mile and made this comparison between a few headphones I owned that have proper soundstage to them:

https://imgur.com/a/ZTRluEc

The above pic illustrates the soundtstage and imaging of this headphone really well. Honestly, I think the Beyer is significantly better overall in this area. It's not quite as wide, but very well defined and has good imaging to it. The SoundMagic is just kinda loose and flabby in its presentation of the soundscape.

TLDR: slightly V shaped FR with a mild bass boost and bright, but peak free treble. Upper midrange is subdued. Soundstage and imaging are weird as all heck and the build is cheap.

 

This picture is very funny and jives with my experience with the HD650. If you value soundstage accuracy you should look into closed planars, a well-tuned T50RP can present a quite homogeneous soundscape in my experience.