Testing Adam Audio's H200 headphones - A Canny Move by Adam

Presentation

Specifications

The H200 is a circumaural, closed-back headphone with a dynamic transducer. The transducer size is 40 mm (1.7 inches).

The specifications announced by the manufacturer are as follows:

Impedance: 32 ohms

Frequency Response: 2 Hz – 23.5 kHz

The headphones are made mainly of plastic, with metal stirrups. They seem robust and well-built, and although sturdy, they’re still flexible. That’s useful because the H200 do not fold.

The 3m-long cable terminates at one end with a 3.5 mm TRS jack connector (with screw-on adapter to 1/4-inch) and at the other with a 1.75 mm TRS jack for connection to the headset. It can be connected to the right or left ear, depending on the user’s ergonomic needs — a feature we appreciate. This connection is secured by a small spring-loaded “stud.” This is our favorite securing system: solid, but less firm than the bayonet, and which protects the helmet in the event of the cable being ripped off.

Two other cables are available separately from Adam Audio, a 1.5 m (5-foot) coiled cable (extendable to 3 m/9.8 foot) and a short straight cable (1.2 m/3.9 foot).

The cable is quite flexible, so it tangles a little more easily than a larger-diameter cable.

We also found that it was sometimes difficult to orientate the mini-jack correctly when you wanted to connect the cable to the headphones: it enters at a very specific angle, and you often find yourself having to move it around a bit until you’ve found the right angle for insertion. We found it even harder to insert it when the headphones were already around the neck or on the head: every time we tried to change the cable connection side, we had to remove the headset.

Demountable?

Yes, almost completely.

The pad is first removed as follows: 

The listening stand is covered on the outside with a thick layer of anthracite felt. On each side of the felt, there are four screws: 

Once these have been removed, you can easily disengage the bracket from the earcup, avoiding pulling too hard on the cables: 

We discovered that the transducer is hidden behind a plastic cover which is itself firmly glued. There’s nothing you can do on that side without using a solvent. On the other hand, that gives you easy access to the cables and connectors (soldered onto a small printed circuit board):

We should add that the ear and headband pads are designed to be replaceable, and can be ordered from Adam Audio:

Comfort

They’re pretty comfortable, thanks in part to the padding on the earcups. The “memory foam” type material of the pads adequately compensates for the tightness, which is, however, quite substantial. The helmet is not very heavy (250 g) and the headband is well cushioned. Another pair of fabric-covered ear cushions is also available from Adam Audio, but we didn’t receive one for this test.

Isolation

The closed headphone design really does its job of eliminating outside sounds — the isolation is excellent. The perimeter of the ears are well enclosed. 

Transport

Thanks to their light helmet, they’re easy to carry around, but beware: because they don’t fold they take up more space. On the other hand, the protective bag supplied by Adam Audio is beautifully made, thick, with a nice, velvety lining inside. 

Benchmark

Here, then, is our protocol of objective measurements, conducted by ourselves to complement the subjective listening. With the invaluable help of our EARS tester from MiniDSP, we are pleased to be able to provide you with frequency response and distortion curves, carried out in our workshop.

Frequency response: 

Note:

• a gradual rise from 20 Hz to 200 Hz
• a significant accentuation at 300 Hz
• a second accentuation between 2 and 4 kHz
• a marked dip at 5–6 kHz
• another dip at 12 kHz
• No stall at the top of the spectrum

We also noticed that the transducers were very well matched to within 2 dB (at worst), and within 0.5 dB most of the time.

With the plug-in, you do get distinct curves (I zoomed in on the vertical axis to distinguish them better): 

Precisely, we see: 

1. In bypass mode (red)
2. In “Pure” mode, without level compensation (dark green)
3. In “Pure” mode with “Safe” compensation (orange, lowest on the whole spectrum)
4. In “UNR” mode, without level compensation (light green, with the lower midrange recessed and the treble forward)
5. In “Pure” and “Soft Cloth” mode, without level compensation (just to try it out, even though we didn’t have the adapted pads) – (blue, where we see a strong increase in the low and midrange, but a slight retreat of the treble – we imagine that with the adapted pads this should give something close to curve 2)

Distortion:

The measured distortion is less than 0.2% from 200 Hz to 20 kHz. Below 200 Hz, THD rises progressively to almost 5 dB at 20 Hz, with a fairly strong presence of the odd harmonic (3rd harmonic), sometimes stronger than the second, particularly in the bass and between 1 and 2 kHz. We’ll see what happens when we listen to them, but a priori, the results here are “average” for the headphones’ price range and, therefore, quite acceptable.

Listening

We listened with the plug-in, and “Leatherette” (faux leather) mode and with the voicing “Pure.” Sometimes, in our notes, we make a reflection as to the result with voicing “UNR, ” or with outsourcing, when it seemed relevant.

Richard Hawley – “Don’t Get Hung Up In Your Soul” (Truelove’s Gutter)

An acoustic ballad, with lots of reverb and a significant difference in dynamics between the voice and guitar. These dynamics are well relayed, and the headphones immediately display one of their great qualities: their detailed character in the treble and midrange. The bass is a little recessed, which is just right for this track, where the bass can sometimes become mushy when overemphasized. The “UNR” setting brings out the bass, particularly emphasizing its attacks and resonance, but we found it less convincing and realistic than the “Pure” setting. On the other hand, we’re unconvinced by the result of the “externalization” option on the first part of the track: just a voice and a guitar with crossfeed, it almost gives the impression of sliding towards mono. We’ll come back to this option later because, as you’ll see, we found the result more or less successful, depending on the track.

Sun Kil Moon – “Butch Lullabye” (Common As Light And Love…)

On the intro, you should hear both the low notes, the mid-range harmonics added by the distortion, and the slightly pricked attack of the notes while separating well the bass drum, which sounds quite dry and mid-rangey. This is all very well, even if the headphones struggle a little on the lowest notes (the timbre of the keyboard is lost a little on these notes, as are the details). Apart from that, there’s nothing to complain about: the reproduction is detailed and precise without going overboard, so it’s not too tiring for the ears. On this kind of mix, which is not very wide to begin with, we notice that the “externalization” effect works well, emphasizing just enough of the center of the mix, without masking the elements mixed more strongly to the left or right.

Massive Attack – “Teardrop” (Mezzanine)

This track features many extremely low frequencies, but that should never obscure the many details in the upper midrange and treble. This track shows just how important the externalization setting is. The right-left mixing effect produces a result that is far less “separated” than listening through headphones, but also masks part of the mix’s width (this is particularly obvious on the piano, whose score is minimal, but which takes up a lot of space in the panning). Apart from this remark, here too we find the result very convincing: it’s detailed without tiring the ear, and without overplaying the “magnifying glass” effect in the highs or high mids. Bass is present but not intrusive.

Charlie Mingus – “Solo Dancer” (The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady)

Here’s a piece with lots of horns playing in similar ranges: it’s very cluttered and the aim is to try and discern the timbres. The H200 does this well, and the bass trombone can even be heard quite well, without the midrange instruments being “eaten up” by an excess of bass. On the other hand, here again, the “UNR” rendering is unsuitable, giving too much bass and above all, too much midrange. We do, however, appreciate the effect of the left-right blending option, with a mix that gains in coherence when listened to without losing its width.

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Edgar Varèse – “Ionisation” (New York Philharmonic, dir. Pierre Boulez)

Here, we seek to judge the stereo image and the tracking of the hall’s natural reverberation, which plays on the impression of space. Listening takes place between 0 h 30 and 1 h 15 min. Here, the “externalization” option is useless, and rather detrimental, as the width of the orchestra, the placement of the instruments in the room, and the acoustics of the venue are all lost. It’s better to dispense with it and enjoy, in “Pure” mode, a very good rendering of timbres and dynamics, particularly in the midrange and treble. The treble is present, but not fatiguing, even after an hour of listening. On the other hand, the H200 squeezes a little tightly and keeps our ears warm, and we appreciate clearing our heads a little at the end of the listening session.

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