Zebronics Audiophile 5000 headphones

We have received headphone for reviewing after a long time. (It’s been busy with all the fancy TVs and swanky home theaters.) Our good old private audio listening device was ignored, and now it’s time to give full attention to a nice new headset model by Zebronics. It’s called the Audiophile 5000. With a name like that we expect some nice juice from these cans.

Design
This is a low-priced budget model, but I must say it doesn’t look like one. Clad in a glossy black headband which has a good quality leatherette wrapped foam on its underside, this one looks almost svelte. It’s lightweight though which is a good thing for ergonomics and comfort, but the headband extensions are a little plasticky. The earcups have an aluminum plate embedded on its outer side, displaying the logo in a cursive font. The aluminum surface accenting is strewn at important points of the body, giving a nice aesthetic appeal. The leatherette and foam on the earcups seems of decent quality, but these always suffer due to wear and tear.

Specs and features
The impedance is 32 ohms, which is normal for usage with regular MP3 players and amps/cards. Size of the transducer is 40 mm in diameter, while sensitivity is 105 dBSPL at 1 kHz. The latter is a decently healthy rating, the headphone should not have any problem in going loud. Frequency response is rated at 20 Hz – 20 kHz. Cable length is long enough, at 2.5 m, with two 1/8 inch (3.5mm) jacks for connection to soundcards. The mic has a frequency response rated as 30-16,000 Hz.

Performance
We plugged the piece into our HTPC soundcard, and first put on just pure test tones. Our first test was to see how low the sound can go, and it does. Not as low as 20 Hz as mentioned, rather it’s audible till 35 Hz, after which it tapers. Our continuous sine sweep also exposed a couple of spiky chinks at the higher mids and high frequencies. Then on we had fun with our scores of MP3s, playing the likes of Radiohead, Tribal tech, 50 cent etc. For music this headphone is not really so apt, as the frequency balance is spiky at the highs.

We switched to what this headphone is really meant for, gaming, online gaming rather, and movies. Here we had more fun, the mic works very well. We recorded a bit of voice and analysed it. The output is satisfyingly clear for headset standards. Low bass is present, but timing is not the best. And finally, as for overall loudness, we have no complaints. The Audiophile has a healthy max, a level that is enough to engage the player deeply without getting affected by outside noise.


Conclusion
For a mere 500 bucks, the performance is good. The sound is clean at higher levels, and movies and game's sound nice. It looks good too, does not look tacky at all. Music listening is out of the question though, the frequency balance is not something to sing about.