Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (2nd Generation) Headphones Review

The Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (2nd Generation) are large with closed-backs. They use a mixture of aluminum yokes and plastic with ample cushioning, looking like a cross between the audio-only Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X and Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO, but with a mic. You can remove and replace the velour earpads, and the headband's padding is held with hook-and-loop, which won't catch your hair.

There's a gooseneck mic connected to the left ear cup with some manufacturer's restrictions regarding how you adjust it. You can only bend it towards your mouth. You'll use its revolving hinge to move the entire microphone, which connects to the ear cup. These are wired headphones, and the detachable cable runs from the left ear cup with a three-button in-line remote. They only have a single colorway, 'Black.'

These headphones feel good to wear. They have plenty of cushioning along the headband and cozy velour ear pads. You can also easily replace them. They distribute their average weight well, but if you have an average or larger head, you'll feel the clamping force more than people with smaller heads. The ear cups swivel up and down slightly to adjust the pressure and seal evenly, but the larger you set the fit, the more focused the clamping force becomes. For instance, if you have a medium-sized head, you can wear glasses without experiencing much pressure.

The controls are decent. You get a three-button in-line remote. There's a readily accessible mute indicated by a red line, and these are passive headphones, so you won't hear any announcement that your mic is muted. The controls include the basic suite of pause/play, track skipping, and answering and ending calls. It's clicky, so you can sense when commands register, and the volume knob has a maximum setting to monitor how high your volume is set. There's a quirk that when the mic is muted, you can only pause/play media, and it will also lower the volume (whether you want that or not).

Mic mute:

• Slide up and down: Mutes and unmutes the mic.

Volume wheel:

• Scroll up or down: Raises or lowers the volume.

Multi-function button:

• Single click: Pause/pause, answer/end call.
• Double click: Skip to next track.
• Triple click: Skip to previous track.

The Beyerdynamic MMX 300 2nd Gen are inadequate for portability. That makes sense, given that wired headphones for gaming typically don't travel far. Still, they take up considerable space wherever you stash them because they don't collapse down or have ear cups that fold flat. They have a case, which makes it less stressful to pop them in a bag, but they certainly take up a lot of real estate in any bag, too.

They have a great case. It's a rather large semi-hardshell with a molded interior to accommodate the headphones, and it zips open with a good amount of padding. A small pocket, affixed with a hook-and-loop backing, can hold one spare cable. Although the pocket is small, you can move it around the interior of the case, which is interesting but not especially helpful. You can see in the interior view that it's about as small as the manufacturer can make the case considering the dimensions of the headphones. It'll offer protection from drops and bumps, but the fabric-covered exterior won't fully ward off water spills.

The Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (2nd Generation) have good build quality. You can remove and adjust the faux leather padding on the headband connected via hook-and-loop and the velour earpads. The metal yokes and hinges feel solid and don't creak. Both cables are functional and pose no issues.

The only point of concern is that the manufacturer warns you not to bend the gooseneck mic up or down. However, you can bend it towards your mouth. Otherwise, any position adjustments ought to be made where the mic's swiveling hinge connects to the ear cup's housing, which moves the entire mic. During an intense game, a user may absentmindedly bend the gooseneck and cause damage.

The Beyerdynamic MMX 300 2nd Generation are decently stable. They shift with small movements and come loose with dynamic head shakes. Nevertheless, for their usage—gaming—they're totally fine, barring an at-home Dance Dance Revolution session.

• Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (2nd Generation)
• Quick Start Guide
• 1/8" TRRRS to 1/8" TRRS cable (for tablets, smartphones, and laptops)
• 1/8" TRRRS to computer audio mic Y-splitter 1/8" TRS (PC cable)
• 1/4" to 1/8" adapter
• Hard case
• Warranty paper

Their sound profile is fairly excited sounding. These have extra doses of bass to add rumble to explosions and thuds to footsteps in games. The mids are relatively flat for reasonably accurate speech and soundtracks. Through the midrange, they sound natural, so spoken voices, lead parts of soundtracks, and sound effects playback without exaggerations. Details in the high registers of voices are gently recessed due to the de-emphasized low treble. Lastly, a prominent peak in the mid-treble causes sibilants like S and T sounds and splashy cymbals to sound shrill and piercing. Depending on your preferences, this sound can cause early fatigue during long sessions.

These have decent frequency response consistency. For the most part, the midrange and treble sound very consistent between wears. However, they're fussy and inconsistent about fit placement when it comes to predictable bass output. You can experience a drop in bass delivery if you have long hair or glasses that break the headphones' seal. People with larger heads tend to get more consistent frequency response results, and that's likely related to the greater clamping force the headphones apply. You'll want to take the time to ensure they sit right because otherwise, you can end up with the bass sounding too loud or too quiet relative to the rest of the sound.

These headphones have superb bass target compliance. They supply a good amount of thump and body for most people. You'll have no trouble hearing the rumbles of explosions going off or distant thuds and footsteps in your games. It's elevated in the high bass, which can sound somewhat bloated to some people, but it feels more immersive to others.

These headphones have fantastic mid-range target compliance. The lower mids are very neutral, with a touch of under-emphasis towards the high mids. This means, for the most part, your friends in voice chat sound basically like themselves, and in-game characters do as well, but vocals can sound very slightly recessed.

The headphones have disappointing treble target compliance. Under-emphasis in the low and mid-treble ranges slightly veil details of vocal articulation. Meanwhile, significant peaks in the mid-treble produce overly bright and shrill cymbal harmonics and vocal harmonics, which can fatigue your ears.

These headphones have adequate peaks and dips performance, meaning they control their own sound profile somewhat. Besides a narrow dip and low peak in the bass, adding extra body to the bass, the frequency response is fairly flat from the bass into the low-treble region, which encompasses most music. The mids are natural sounding with minor dips and peaks. However, the treble sees several large peaks and dips. The large dip dulls details, while a big peak in the mid-treble causes sibilants like S and T sounds and harmonics in cymbals to reproduce with shrillness, fatiguing your ears.

The overall imaging performance is excellent. This is in keeping with other products we've tested from this manufacturer, indicating good ergonomics and quality control. Most group delay and phase of the bass, mids, and treble are well below the audibility threshold with generally well-matched L/R drivers. However, the peak in the mid-bass phase response is audible as a low rattle in both drivers when sweeping through the frequencies, but it's difficult to detect when listening to your usual media. Keep in mind these results can vary between units.

These headphones have a fair passive soundstage. With closed-back models, you can generally expect that audio will seem like it's coming from inside your head and close to you. This is unlike open-back headphones, like the Beyerdynamic DT 900 PRO X, which sound more spacious, wide, and open. Still, these interact with your outer ears, lending a degree of localization, which is useful for hearing where footsteps are coming from during a game. The sound just won't be very open.

These headphones have good weight harmonic distortion performance. They exhibit roughly the same weighted harmonic through the bass up to the mid-treble range, with a drop-off in the mid-treble. These fall well below the threshold of audibility, and your audio will sound clean without audible distortion or interference.

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

These headphones have poor noise isolation. It's not unusual that passive headphones like these don't suppress environmental noise as well as headphones with active noise cancellation. Even so, these hush the high-pitched whine of computer fans and reduce ambient chatter somewhat.

In common scenarios, the headphones' noise isolation is poor. Their passive isolation mainly blocks out high-pitched noises and quiets office chatter a bit but doesn't block out the rumble of bus engines.

These have middling leakage performance. The sound that escapes your headphones is loud enough that others can hear your audio at home if they're nearby. The bulk of the mids and highs leak evenly with a bit of bass, so the audio content sounds somewhat full, with voices, cymbals, and most lead instruments bleeding into the room the loudest. This all depends on how loud your environment's ambient noise is and how high you set your volume.

The Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (2nd Generation) has a great microphone. It captures your voice with a good amount of body and simultaneously doesn't sound bloated. This is unlike some headset mics, which commonly cut low frequencies to remedy overly boomy-sounding mics but end up sounding thin. In contrast, this mic's midrange sounds true-to-life too. While some sibilance (on S and T) is audible at the top end, it doesn't sound distracting. Higher register speaking voices can encounter some loss of harmonic detail, but it won't interfere with your understandability.

The mic's noise handling performance is good. While some background noise remains present, your voice sits forward in the mix. The mic significantly reduces constant and droning kinds of noise compared to speech, but it's still audible in the background. At no point does the noise overwhelm your speech, but irregular sounds can still get loud and compete with your voice.

These have outstanding connectivity. You get two cables, one for use with laptops, tablets, and smartphones (if your phone still has a headphone jack) and a second cable for connecting to your PC with a Y-splitter. These each have in-line remotes with controls, plus there's an adapter when you need an analog connection with a larger 1/4" TRS jack.

You can use these headphones via analog for full audio and microphone support with your PC.

Connecting the headphones' analog jack to the PlayStation controller supplies you with full audio and microphone compatibility.

You can gain full microphone and audio support by plugging the headset's jack into your Xbox controller.