German Maestro GMP 8.35 D Headphone Review

[amirm]

This is a review, listening test, EQ and detailed measurements of the German Maestro GMP 8.35 D Headphone. It was sent to me by the company and sells for US $245.

As you see the headphone looks somewhat industrial and seems to be built to be durable. It came with another set of pads but I chose to test the defaults as you see. The cups are a bit small for me so the fit was not very comfortable. A detachable 3.5mm connector/cable carries the signal to it and two different lengths are provided.

I had not heard for the company before when they reached out to me. But they explained their long history including at some point being MB Quart.

German Maestro GMP 8.35 D Headphone Measurements
The ribbed section of the headphone covers an adjustment for the headphone band. Alas, no matter what I did, I could not improve the bass frequency response:

I checked and found one other measurement online showing similar bass droop so I think this what the headphone is going to deliver. Some kind of cancellation exists around 4.2 kHz causing that trough. The combination I am afraid is going to take the life out of the incoming signal. We could of course EQ:

Alas, distortion is high in both areas, making application of EQ costly:

Group delay reflects the same:

My fixture for measuring impedance has broken. Company specifies 32 ohm.

Sensitivity is well above average so driving them should not be difficult at all:

German Maestro GMP 8.35 D Listening Tests and EQ
As expected, the sound was quite dull on my reference tracks, causing me to immediately resort to EQ:

The large boost for bass requires a lot of headroom so best watch out for that or you will digitally clip. With EQ, created by eye, the sound became more lively but still not what I would like to listen to.

Conclusions
When the company reached out to me, I explained that I like to see Harman-like headphone response and not achieving that would result in rather negative review. To their credit the company insisted that I measure and test them anyway. Sadly my prediction has come true with a headphone response that is just not very hi-fi in my book. Company positions the headphone for professional use so maybe someone in that domain likes this kind of response.

They have managed to build a durable headphone from what I can tell. So if someone wants to not worry about stepping on a headphone and breaking it, then there is some value here.

As much as I appreciate the company sending me the German Maestro GMP 8.35 D, I can't recommend it.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

 

[Talisman]

At least they're cheap... so I imagine someone might be interested. I'll move on to the next one.

Thanks for the review

 

[Matt_Holland]

Thanks Amir.

Company states on their website:

Acoustically the GMP 8.35 D Monitor amazes users with its dynamic bass response and overall transparency in the midrange and high frequency section. The headphone's low-impedance and highly sensitive drivers are able to adapt the widest range of equipment - whether on a mixing table or on portable devices. And of course the GMP 8.35 D Monitor features the same technical design standard of series 8.000 headphones - as a long term durability is granted. Against his countermodel - GMP 8.35 D Monitor - this model has a 1.4m detachable cable which is connected with the headphone by a 3.5mm jack socket.

Specifics

• Frequency Response: 20 - 27.000 Hz
• Nominal Impedance: 35 Ohm
• Acoustical Principle: closed
• Ear Pads: synthetic leather, circumaural (41-6086)
• Average pressure on the ear: ~ 5,5 N
• Weight without cable: 250g
• Connector: gold plated stereo--jack 3,5mm
• yarn braided cable 1,4m

Based on their description and what we see from the measurements I would say they failed on the bass performance, and to some extent on transparency in high frequencies.

For Hifi use, these look poor. For professional use they look decent mechanically but the poor bass response will surely be an issue.

Voted poor because of the huge number of better options out there.

 

[ocinn]

At least they're cheap... so I imagine someone might be interested. I'll move on to the next one.

Thanks for the review

Cheap? Not really. At least - they are certainly not a good value.

I mean I’d take Sony mdr7506 over these (especially with bass port and dynamat mods) for 38% of the price. And those are famously the cockroach of headphones and are essentially un-killable besides the earpad faux leather flaking off. So that alone invalidates the durability benefit argument here

K371 are $50 cheaper. And you can find used DCA Aeon X/RT for similar pricing to these. Both of which smoke this

 

[Nango]

The will last decades.

 

[capslock]

Never heard of them. Maybe these headphones sound better when used in the bathtub? https://www.german-maestro.de/Deutsch/shop/marine-audio/

 

[Emulator II]

Never heard of them. Maybe these headphones sound better when used in the bathtub? https://www.german-maestro.de/Deutsch/shop/marine-audio/

German Maestro emerged from the traditional German brand MB Quart, which originally manufactured microphones and later expanded into loudspeakers and headphones. I have owned a pair of "Quart Phone 90 X" headphones for over 30 years and they still work.
In terms of external design, they are identical to the German Maestro GMP400. I cannot say whether there have been any changes to the internal construction over the last 30 to 40 years.

https://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/MB_Quart
https://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/German_Maestro

 

[martin900]

Unusable with this bass droop and mess in high range.
Even more shocking is the fact they are not planars, which would partially excuse the lack of low end, but normal dynamic drivers!

 

[gzost]

Due to their close to indestructible build these were used by a large German electronics & music store chain for listening stations. I have a used pair with the shower hose like extra durable sheath for the (fixed) cable they used there. The original earpads were shot and I currently have some AKG K240 Pads on them. I don’t think I ever gave them more thank a cursory listen when I bought them as decoration and going back to them now they are indeed not just bass light but lacking in fundamental tones, making them lack warmth and solidity. There does not see a 4 kHz cancellation though as clarity is excellent. I may just try some pad rolling.

 

[Matt_Holland]

Unusable with this bass droop and mess in high range.
Even more shocking is the fact they are not planars, which would partially excuse the lack of low end, but normal dynamic drivers!

They’re designed to be rugged and used by multiple different users, e.g. studios, broadcast, DJs. A planar driver would not suit their intended use. That doesn’t excuse their lack of bass, though.

I wonder if the manufacturer will comment here seeing as they were clearly very keen for Amir to publish the measurements.

 

[Huang Jerry]

For $45 maybe. $245 absoltely not.

 

[remedy8]

Their main use case is general public use in places like music stores or broadcast. The main goal was to make them indestructible and fairly easy to maintain (including cleaning), rather than focusing on flawless audio reproduction. In this regard, they hold up well - they are a popular solution among stores all over Europe and can withstand very harsh treatment for many years (in my local music store they have three pairs and all of them still work after more than 10 years of everyday public use).
So no, these are not regular headphones for casual music enjoyment.

 

[KSTR]

Those are ideal sounding and very rugged phones for monitoring, when playing live in a recording studio, as a musician. You definitely don't want too much bass, let alone sub-bass, in such a situation, and you also don't want ear-piercing 4kHz power.

 

[sssn]

I'm German and didn't know the company existed anymore. Their headphones have been around for a long time and their open GMP 400 did have a small, but dedicated fanbase back in the early-mid 2010s. But that was a time when the "triumvirate headphones" (AKG K701, Sennheiser HD600, Beyerdynamic DT 880) were considered close to flagship status.

And I can confirm that the here tested GMP 8.35 have been used for electronic stores, museums etc.

 

[Kremmen]

The will last decades.

Because they won't get much use probably!

 

[kemmler3D]

At least they're cheap... so I imagine someone might be interested. I'll move on to the next one.

Thanks for the review

Maybe I'm out of touch but I still consider $245 to be kind of a lot of money for a headphone. Or at least not "cheap". You can get 10 pairs of TE Gates for that money and have some left over for extra ear tips!

The comments mentioning they are used for listening stations and such make sense, for that I think they're a little better than you would expect.

 

[phoenixsong]

These used to be really highly regarded/recommended on the forums until around 10 years back

 

[lc6]

I have a general question, inspired by the measurements in this review:
With almost all headphones measured by ASR, there are large (~15-20 dB) and seemingly random dips / cancellations in their frequency response vs. the reference curve, typically above 3 kHz. While I understand that some of them are a result of reflections from the test fixture, this brings about the issue of using even high-quality headphones for auditory tests based on frequency sweeps, the types you find on YouTube. For example, I have two different headphones from a reputable manufacturer, both specified to reproduce sound above 20 kHz, and using the same test the difference in the high frequency cutoff is as large as 2 kHz, which could be a result of such dips around the true cutoff frequency.

On the other hand, decent loudspeakers typically have a variation of +/-2 dB or less on the upper frequency response. So, should only speakers be used in such tests, even though the tests almost always recommend using headphones instead of speakers (presumably, to remove the room response effects)?

For reference, see the table in the Normal Hearing Range by Age (General Guidelines) section here.

 

[Robbo99999]

Well, I don't know if there's much to say about this headphone, it's pretty bad!

 

[solderdude]

Jives with the measurements from @listener650
Well .. above 200Hz it does. Roll-off starts below 100Hz on the copy below (BK5128)
Likely a seal issue (pads not being totally flat or having wrinkles and leaking a bit)
Good to have more info on this model by measurements on another fixture.

I think I'll pass on this one, probably quite usable as a monitor for singers in studios if isolation is up to snuff.
tight bass and no excessive brightness so usable at higher SPL which can easily be achieved (unusually sensitive for around-ear).

NOT intended for music enjoyment but purpose built monitor for professional environment.
Horses for courses.