Over the ear headphones have seemingly become popular again. Not a day goes past without me seeing some kid in a tracksuit and a huge pair of white headphones costing hundreds sat on top of his head.
I haven’t really bought into either the over ear headphone market or the top end rather expensive headphone market. I’ve stuck to my trusty Sennheiser in ear type headphones and I’ve been happy.
When Logic 3 asked if we wanted to try out their limited edition Ferrari headphones I thought this was my way to try out a kind of headphone that had previously eluded me.
Spec wise they are so beyond anything I’ve tried out before.
- Type: Active Noise Cancelling (ANC)
- Apple Three-Button Mic Remote
- Detachable Cable
- Driver Size: 40mm
- Speaker Impedance: 32 Ohms
- Frequency Response: 20-20,000Hz
- Distortion THD: 1.5% at 1KHz 1mW
- Speaker Sensitivity: 110dB at 1Khz 1mW
- Cables: 3.5mm to 3.5 and Apple Mic Cable
- Cable Material: Woven Fabric
- Accessories: 6.3mm Adaptor, Airplane Adaptor
- Carry Case
Design
The headphones arrived in a rather large box and I wasn’t really sure what they had sent. Within that large box came a nice solid black cardboard box and even this box had a premium feel to it, bearing the Ferrari logo proudly on the front. Inside that was a carbon fibre style carry case and inside that lay the headphones and some cables.
With the headphones come a variety of different cables, you get 3 different 3.5mm Male-Male cables. One for iOS devices, one for Windows Phone and Android devices and one for any old device you want. Basically the iOS cable has three buttons allowing you to change the volume or skip a track, the Windows Phone/Android one has one button allowing you to answer/end calls as it has a microphone built in and the basic one has no buttons. Each of the cables are encased in a mesh material which seems to help with not getting tangled. In the box you also get a set of batteries.
A set of batteries? Yes a set of batteries, these are to power the ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) and without the batteries the headphones don’t work. They switch on and off via a small switch on the right ear. Also in the box you get a larger headphone jack adapter and an airplane seat headphone adapter.
The headphones themselves are really nice looking and also really nice to just touch. The leather on the headband and on the earmuffs is really quite pleasant, so prepare for some leather stroking before you get down to listening to music. The muffs are really quite big and should cover your ear entirely which adds to the sound proofing effect you get with ANC turned on. The rest of the headphone is a mix of metal, plastic and the Ferrari logo on each ear.
I did expect the branding to be in your face and a bit garish, but in real life they look really good and the branding isn’t that obvious. In passing you wouldn’t really realise. The whole look and feel is of a really premium quality yet it is understated as well. The whole build feels really solid and sturdy, you can tell that these headphones will last you for a good many years.
Here are a whole load of pictures I took of the headphones and the accessories.
In Use
The headphones once set up and powered on sounded great. Throughout the day I will listen to the radio, a range of music throughout the day and maybe some podcasts at night. It excelled at all of these tasks, with only a few little niggles that might annoy you if you’re a little obsessive about your audio quality.
Good Points
- Great sound quality overall
- Handles bass well once boosted via EQ
- ANC blocks a wide range of background noise
- Premium looks might turn some heads
- Range of cables in the box
Bad Points
- Very faint back ground hiss when ANC is turned on
- ANC doesn’t totally block background noise i.e
- Made my ears sweaty after a lengthy session
- No Bluetooth
Bass response for me is something that is essential in a set of headphones. I tried these headphones on a range of different devices and the ones without some sort of Graphic Equalizer I quickly ditched. I got better sound quality by boosting the low end a bit, once done the sound was great and they handled whatever I threw at them.
The headphones handled whatever volume of music I threw at them, with no distortion of bass. The large 40mm drivers handled loud volumes well.
The background noise cancellation feature is really useful. Coupled with the big ear muffs you really get immersed in whatever you are listening to. I couldn’t hear people in the same room talking, shouting however I could hear through the headphones.
The fact that the headphones don’t work at all without being turned on may be a concern to long haul travellers, they may need to keep some batteries in their bag just in case.
Conclusion
Overall the headphones are a great set of cans. With a bit of fiddling they offer some great quality and the Noise Cancellation would be really useful on a bus, train or plane. As regards the price there are two ways of looking at it. Firstly if you are after a decent pair of premium headphones then these should certainly be on your short list. The second way of looking at it is that yes there may be cheaper cans on the market some with more features such as Bluetooth they probably won’t look, feel or sound as good.
If you fancy a pair you can get them here on the Logic 3 store or here at Selfridges for about £299.
About James Pearce
I spend most of the day telling people to turn stuff off and back on again. Inbetween doing that I post news and reviews over here.
I am about to embark on a Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT self imposed restriction for a few months. Keep your eyes on the site for updates.
