Look & Feel
The Samson SR850 headphones has a professional look throughout from the top headband to the plush ear cups to the minimal branding on the side. It’s also a nice touch to have the headphone impedance in clear view on the headphones themselves. The real star of the show here is the ear cups. The ear cups are soft but still a little firm so they don’t sink too far ensuring that my ears never touched the speakers at no point during its use. The ear cups combined with the comfortable head band makes the SR850 a headphone you can use for hours with no problems. I even went as far as to leave my VMODA’s at home and take these to work for casual listening for a week.
The self-adjusting head band on the SR850s work with very little effort and fit well. I truly prefer this over the usual method of adjusting each ear cup one by one. It’s just one less thing to fool with when you’re trying to get to work. The cable is VERY long and thick to give you assurance that it won’t be breaking easily anytime soon. Unfortunately, the cable cannot be disconnected and for price, that’s perfectly acceptable.
Specs
Open-Ear
50mm Driver
10Hz-30Khz frequency response
32ohm impendance
Experience
The SR850 headphones are my first pair of studio monitors and I went in not knowing what exactly to expect. After listening to several different genres of music which also included a Metallica album that was compressed in FLAC, I was truly impressed with these headphones. The very 1st thing I noticed was how heavy the bass was through my VMODA’s. I said, in my review of them that they are headphones for bass heads but I never owned any other pair of pro headphones to compare them to till now. The SR850s strive in audio accuracy and clarity.
These headphones are semi-open which means there’s no active noise canceling. If you crank these everyone will hear you but there was no distortion in the audio at high volumes (like my DAC at 100% volume). The semi-open nature of the headphone is what creates an amazing audio experience when listen to songs that have an orchestra or just a lot of instruments playing at once.
CONS
If there was a con to be had, the ear cups are not replaceable but I can’t think of a single reason why you would want to. Also, the cable is not detachable and with all that being said, none of that matters. Why? The headphones cost ~$50. Yeah, at that price range for the awesome sound quality you get out of these monitors, you really can’t complain.
CONCLUSION
The Samson SR850 headphones are now permanently on my desk as my desktop headphones and preferred headphones of choice for video editing and listening to my music on desktop. Even if these headphones were a little more expensive, the sound quality and comfort would justify the price.
