Sennheiser HD 25 Headphones Review

The Sennheiser HD 25 headphones are lightweight on-ear headphones with closed backs. The housing and headband are plasticky with exposed, detachable cabling that runs through the right ear cup and along the headband to the left ear cup. They have faux-leather padding along the headband and ear pads—which you can replace. Otherwise, these are minimalist in design. One of their most unique features is the headband, which can split for greater fit adjustments. One of the few pops of color is the red cable to differentiate the right ear cup at a glance. You can flip the left ear cup forward or backward. Our unit is 'Black,' and other colors include 'Blue,' and the limited edition 'White.'

The Sennheiser HD 25 provide good comfort. They're very lightweight compared to other headphones popular with DJs and enthusiasts, and they don't clamp particularly hard, either. For on-ear headphones, they also feel comfortable for long stretches (even if you wear glasses), and despite the visually sparse padding along the headband, they don't add much pressure to the top of your head. You can also split the headband to distribute their weight better. Splitting the headband allows the headphones to stay in place better if you flip the ear cup and accommodate various head sizes. However, if you do wear glasses, flipping the ear cup forward can bump into your glasses. The downside of the headphones is that they warm up quickly, and on-ear headphones, by design, can only feel so comfortable because they apply pressure to your ears.

The Sennheiser HD 25 are middling headphones for portability. They're not particularly large, but they don't collapse down to a smaller footprint, and the ear cups can't rotate flat either. However, their narrow, straight cable and lightweight frame aren't bulky, but they definitely take up space in a bag. Because they don't get more compact, their portability is on par with collapsible over-ears like the Audio-Technica ATH-M50x.

These headphones have alright build quality. While the lightweight frame and replaceable parts are positive build choices for the very practical design, they're also very plasticky, besides the metal hinge to pivot the left ear cup. The exposed cabling is useful for replacing the cable if the day comes that it breaks, but it also makes it more vulnerable to damage than if it were sealed into the housing. Our unit arrived out of the box with some slightly loose padding on the headband where it's glued to the headband's plastic. For slightly better build quality in a set of on-ears, the AIAIAI TMA-2 DJ feel more solid and are easier to repair and replace parts. However, you might miss the padded headband on the Sennheiser cans.

These headphones have good stability. Unlike most headphones, the headband splits so you can dial in not only their weight distribution but also create essentially a second point of contact for the headband to grip on your head. This accommodates different hairstyles and head shapes. You can keep them on with small movements and bobs. They can come loose and fall off if you get into your music and headbang. In all, that's normal for on-ear headphones.

• Sennheiser HD 25 headphones
• TRS audio cable (x1)
• 1/8" to 1/4" adapter

The Sennheiser HD 25 are tuned with exaggerated bass and low-mids with a blast of treble. You can use them for casual listening, and they work well for dance music, hip-hop, electro, and other bassy music genres, though they don't add a lot of deep bass rumble. The significant bump in the high bass through the low mids emphasizes the punch and boom of bass guitar notes struck and can sound slightly muddy with complicated song mixes. Vocals come across as relatively well-balanced through the rest of the mid-range and into the low-treble region. However, the exaggerated bass can push leads and vocals somewhat to the back of the mix. A significant dip in the mid-treble de-emphasizes detail in cymbal hits and other sibilants like S and T sounds, too. Meanwhile, a big spike in the higher registers adds air to harmonics.

The tuning makes sense for DJs, considering that hearing bass and rhythm are key to synchronizing tracks, as are vocals. With the peak halfway through the mid-treble, you won't miss out on any high-pitched subtleties that can inform tracking decisions, but it can sound piercing.

These headphones are sensitive, which makes them capable of getting loud, and if connected to a low noise source, they don't add any noise to your audio. However, due to their sensitivity, they will noticeably amplify any noise in the signal chain if it's already present. If you don't see yourself needing the sensitivity and want a more standard sensitivity and impedance in DJ-style headphones, you can also check out the Pioneer DJ HDJ-CUE1BT Wireless.

These headphones have good frequency response consistency. They can exhibit consistent results with careful placement. However, on-ears can be slightly finicky compared to over-ears because they don't rest the ear pads around your ear, which is a smoother surface on virtually everyone, rather than the contours of an ear.

You'll want to pay attention when you put them on so that bass and treble parts don't vary between wears. In this regard, the ear cup, which you can pivot forward or backward to free your ear, can allow you to hear the room or someone who needs to chat in the middle of your DJ set without fully removing the headphones. This is convenient, but it can mitigate some instances where you'd have to remove the headphones and possibly hear an inconsistent frequency response between wears.

The bass target compliance is okay. A sizeable exaggeration that peaks in the high-bass region yields punchy low-end. Particularly, the attack of bass instruments like kick drums and plucked bass strings has prominent boom. These don't sound overly rumbly with sub-bass parts like deep bass synth lines, though. For following a song's beat, the high-bass emphasis is useful.

These have very good mid-range target compliance. A bump in the low mids that continues from the bass can make busy songs with a lot of bass and mid-range parts sound slightly bloated, but it also thickens bass harmonics, which you may prefer. Throughout the rest of the mids, the sound is quite balanced, meaning that apart from the effects of bass exaggeration, which can overwhelm how well you can hear voices, guitars, and synth pads, it sounds fairly clear.

The treble target compliance is satisfactory. For about two-thirds of the low-treble region, the frequency response follows a flat tuning and sounds like the highest notes of a guitar come across as balanced. However, the dip through the low-treble and the mid-treble dulls the articulation and detail of vocals, for instance. The rest of the mid-treble has a prominent peak that can cause early fatigue with its piercing exaggeration of harmonics. However, that can also lend airiness to the top end of your audio, which you may enjoy.

The peaks and dips performance is good, so the headphones control their sound profile well for the most part. There are small dips and bumps, but they're relatively minor through the bass and mids. A dip in the low treble warms up sibilant sounds like S and T. Meanwhile, a significant peak in the treble lends a somewhat piercing exaggeration to other high-pitched sibilants, harmonics, and attack on percussion, which can prematurely cause your ears fatigue.

The headphones have very good imaging performance. This indicates that the quality control and ergonomics are very good, which aligns with other Sennheiser products we've reviewed. While there's some group delay, it's in sub-bass frequencies that you can't hear. There's a slight phase mismatch through the high-bass and mids, but it's not noticeable with real-life content and doesn't impact the overall listening experience.

These headphones have a poor soundstage overall. Most closed-back headphones, by design, have this trait, and these are slightly spacious (but not especially) for the type of headphones. Sounds feel like they're inside your head, as opposed to spread around your head, as with open-back headphones.

These headphones perform with reasonable amounts of weighted harmonic distortion. Most of the distortion resides in the low bass with a peak in the mid-treble that corresponds with the dip in the frequency response. The distortion predictably gets worse at high volumes, but you won't hear it unless you listen in a quiet room with extremely keen ears to audio with a ton of deep bass content. Because these headphones are sensitive, they noticeably amplify the noise floor of whatever they're connected to, so they can sound noisy if the source is noisy, but this isn't the same as harmonic distortion.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Sennheiser HD 25 have poor noise isolation. On-ear designs generally struggle with passive isolation because they essentially make do with clamping force and muffling materials to seal in your ears, unlike in-ear headphones that fully seal your canal and over-ears that seal around the whole ear. These headphones reduce the loudness of high-pitched sounds, like clinking glasses and some ambient chatter in the mids. As with most passive headphones, they don't suppress bassy sounds whatsoever.

For instance, if you're a DJ, you'll still hear the thump and rumble of what you're playing in the room's speakers. While not the healthiest solution for your hearing, the headphones can get loud to combat poor isolation.

In common scenarios, their noise isolation is poor. Bright sounds like shrieking bus brakes and clatter in the office kitchen are muffled to a degree. However, lower-pitched sounds, like the low ambient din of an airplane cabin, remain untouched by the headphones' passive isolation.

The leakage performance is acceptable overall. A rather large section of high-mids and treble escapes, so folks nearby can hear the treble content of your music, including bright lead instruments, vocals, and cymbals if you're at the office. The sound is thin and bright without significant bass content.

How well others can hear your audio depends on your environment and how loud you set the volume. If you're a DJ, it won't matter because the room will be far louder than anything leaking from your headphones.

The headphones have incredible wired connectivity. You get a single 1/8" TRS cable. It fits into the headband, connects to the ear cups, and hangs down along the right side of the headphones. You can replace the cable if it ever breaks because it's detachable. However, you may have to hunt down the same cable from Sennheiser because it's an uncommon connection. Also in the box is a 1/4" male to 1/8" female adapter.

You can connect the headphones to your PC. The generous cable length won’t hamper your ability to plug into a PC tower on the floor, either. Given that these headphones have a 70-ohm impedance, you can drive them without an amp.

These headphones can connect to your PlayStation's controller via an analog connection but only support audio. If you want to talk with friends, you'll need a separate microphone or a gaming headset.

Plugging in the cable to your Xbox controller for audio-only works fine with these headphones. However, you'll need a separate microphone if you want to speak with your friends while gaming.