Pioneer HDJ-500T

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Caractéristiques
Headphone Type	On-ear
Frequency Response	5 Hz - 28 kHz
Speaker	Dynamic transducer, closed
Impedance	45 ohms
Sensitivity	110 dB SPL
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Cable Length	3 m
Weight	195g g
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Tristan François
Translator: Sam McGeever
Test date: August 17, 2011

Isolation

When you're DJing, there's normally plenty of noise. Even without going behind the decks of an Ibiza superclub, DJs nearly always have to put up with a lot of background noise. Given that they use their headphones to line up the next track, then it's absolutely to have enough isolation to keep that noise out.

Without isolation, it's almost impossible to beat-match two separate tracks or start the next tune exactly where you want to.

And there's no magic formula for isolating headphones: you need a totally closed external shell, that's well insulated and which grips the side of your head properly (which is the problem here). Given that many users prefer to use just one ear, pushing the other back out of the back or flipping it over, the isolation still won't be perfect.

That makes it even more essential for the isolation on the remaining ear to be perfect. And the better the isolation, the less temptation for the user to turn up the headphone volume to a dangerous level to cover up the background noise.

Pioneer has a historic association with professional DJs, so launching a range of headphones to go alongside its decks was a perfectly logical step. Part of that collection is the very well-regarded HDJ-1000, as well as its younger brother, the HDJ-500T, which we're testing today.

Design: slippery when dry

The HDJ-500's mix of aluminium and matte black plastic looks great ... from a distance, anyway. Up close and personal though, the aluminium is very nice indeed, but the black plastic really isn't great. At least the whole thing is put together properly, and left us in no doubt that these headphones will stay the course.

If we're convinced they'll stay in one piece, we're less certain about how to keep them one place. The ear pads are made of solid foam lined with a leather-effect plastic, which makes a nice seal with your ear and doesn't get too warm. The headband, however, doesn't offer much grip and all that's needed to send the HDJ-500s flying is a small shake of the head. If you're planning on headbanging, you'd better invest in some more robust headphones ...

The HDJ-500Ts come with two separate cables: one spiral cable is designed for use with decks, while the second includes a mic and is designed for use with your mobile.

Audio Quality: muffled bass

DJs aren't necessarily looking for accurate sound reproduction across the whole spectrum at all costs, and that's just as well for the HDJ-500s, which instead produce a sound largely dominated by bass.

From the bass up to the mid-range, everything is heavily reinforced, more than is necessary in many cases. Not only is the rest of the spectrum totally drowned out, but the sound of the bass lingers. The whole thing could do with being a lot sharper and could certainly make beat-matching a tricky business in some cases.

Elsewhere, the mid-range is relatively well-covered, but there's a big gap in the treble, which is almost totally absent. At least it won't do your ears any harm ...

The closed construction makes it hard to capture a wide soundscape, so while traditional recordings sound squashed, it's less problematic when mixing electronic music.

The HDJ-500 headphones have a rather unusual design and make a sound to match, but they're probably a good first step for budding DJs. That said, we still much prefer their big brother, the HDJ-1000s.

Test Results

These graphs are the raw output from our audio testing equipment and need a little bit of background before you can understand them. There's more information in our article Step Into The Sound Studio, which explains our audio reviews.