The company, whose product will be discussed today, is far from a beginner in the world of headphones, although usually its name is slightly lost against the background of more famous manufacturers. Nevertheless, German Maestro have their own, very good line of models, and today I will tell about their average (approximately) model GMP 250.
The history of the company is quite typical for the market of headphones, I will not even carefully retell it. They started the German Maestro as a company Mikrofon Bau - the manufacturer of microphones, headphones and headsets for the giants of the time such as Telefunken and Grundig. Then followed a series of ups and downs, mergers and acquisitions, quarrels of the founders and sections of the company. Finally, in 2008, when the company's employees found money to buy assets from investors and restarted production under the brand name MAESTRO. At the moment the company produces headphones, headsets, solutions for home, automotive and marine audio.
Her headphones have proven to be a good value for money. Closed GMP-250, which is devoted to this review, for 8300 rubles (at the time of the release of the review), and this is the case when the price deserves the epithet "honest".
Specifications
- Acoustic design: closed
- Emitter: dynamic
- Impedance: 100Ω
- Frequency range: 12 Hz - 20,400 Hz
- Total harmonic distortion: 0.09% @ 1 mW, 1 kHz
- Sound pressure level: 92 dB @ 1 mW, 1 kHz
- Rated power: 100 mW
- Clamping force: 3 N
- Weight without cable: 220 g
- Plug: 3.5 mm TRS
- Cable: non-replaceable, twisted, from 1.5 to 3 m
Packing and delivery kit
Actually, boxing in this model is the easiest one can imagine - ordinary cardboard with simple polygraphy. Inside there is a triangular cardboard insert, fixing the headphones. In addition to the GMP 250 itself, only the screw-in adapter for the 6.3 mm connector and the instruction with the guarantor are included.
I would call this approach Spartan, on the one hand, like nothing more in the kit and do not, on the other - no luxury for you such as velvet lodges and bags for storage.
Design and Convenience
Lapidary approach to design continues in the headphones themselves. The company is known in the music lovers circles for the strength of its products. 250-ki, of course, are not older models capable of surviving a nuclear explosion and the subsequent 150 years of devastation, but they all make it clear that they will serve for a long time, even despite the fact that there is absolutely no metal in the design.
Yes, you did not think, this model is made entirely of plastic, and plastic without any frills such as soft touch or gloss. The same, a little rough gray-black acrylonitrile-butadiene styrene (ABS-plastic), the type from which the children were so fond of making toys in the USSR, accustoming the future builders of communism to the dominant color of their future.
But what is not good for children, in headphones is quite appropriate. The material of the GMP 250 is very practical, they look normal, do not collect fingerprints, easily rub off from any contaminants. I will quote what they say about ABS in Wikipedia:
- Increased impact resistance and elasticity
- Nontoxicity under normal conditions
- Durability in the absence of direct sunlight and ultraviolet
- Resistance to alkalis and detergents
- Moisture resistance, oil resistance, acid resistance
- Heat resistance 103 ° C
- A wide range of operating temperatures (-40 ° C to + 90 ° C)
The headphones turned out to be very light, and it obviously goes to them in a plus, on their head they practically are not felt. Also, for the convenience of wearing, the developers did not begin to make the clamp strong, so that the headphones are not fixed super-reliable. In normal use, this affects only the sound insulation (it is a bit short of what you expect from a closed model), but if you shake your head strongly, the GMP 250 can fly off.
Adjustment of the size is carried out by moving the headband strip up and down the arc that connects the cups, the design is rather unusual, but quite workable. The earrings are made of an overtly synthetic imitation leather, but the German Maestro offers replaceable options from other materials.
The GMP 250 uses a proprietary cup suspension, it is not fixed rigidly with the headband and can freely move in a suspension with 6 degrees of freedom.
The cable is not replaceable, but its thickness clearly does not make it worry about its reliability, it will survive even the attempt to dry linen on it. Part of the cable is made in the form of a twisted spiral, so that if necessary, it can stretch to a length of up to 3 meters.
In general, the GMP 250 is a triumph of practicality, wherever it does not go to the detriment of strength and durability. Of the design flaws can be noted the tendency of the headphones to squeak when worn.
Sound
The following equipment was used for listening:
- Apple MacBook Pro Retina 2013 as a source
- Yulong DA8 and Accurate Audio V800 as DACs
- Yulong A28 in Accurate Audio V200 Amplifier Role
- Fidelia as a player
- High Definition Records in Lossless-formats (Dr. Chesky The Ultimate Headphone Demonstration Disc and others)
Before listening to the headphones were warmed for 72 hours.
The German Maestro uniquely has its own vision of the sound, under which they "sharpen" their headphones, and it consists in that the feed must be primarily detailed. Do not be an exception and GMP 250, combining a good for its category resolution with a light sound.
The bass is good in speed and processing, it has even a good depth, but here is a quantitative LF slightly less than average. I think this is a deliberate decision, as the company on its website addresses these headphones primarily to musicians for whom the main interest is the midrange. Despite the quantitative drawback, the quality of the bass is quite good, it is well textured, sparse and almost does not merge into a heap even on very fast parts.
The midrange is the main advantage of the model, it is brought to the fore and appears before the listener in all its glory, filled with air and transparency. The detailing of the "middle" neatly balances between the musicality of the filing and the razor-sharp analyticity, offering the best of both options. Despite the closed design, 250-ki are not bad at building an imaginary scene in width, although the depth is slightly less than average. Emotionality and the transfer of character tools are very good.
The HF is a little bright, so I would advise to use these headphones to select an amplifier that corrects the HF feed, about this just below. In general, the resolution of HF is very good, in my hearing there is practically no "flowability" arising from the fact that the headphones do not win back this range in speed, draining the HF in a monotonous rustle.
Compatibility
The case where the headphones should be selected path, which will emphasize their strengths and will hide the flaws. Fortunately, the solution here is very obvious. Since the impedance of this model is 100Ω, the tube amplifier without output transformers is almost ideal for them. Of course, 250Ω and above for similar amplifiers will be even better, but the same Darkvoice 336 after a small modification turns just an excellent option for this model. Of the players best of all with them showed, of course, L5Pro from Luxury & Precision.
Genre model gravitates to those styles in which you do not need to crush the listener with a bass wave, and the main part of the information is concentrated on the mid-range. Vocals, chamber classics, all kinds of jazz, classical rock in these headphones are very, very good. With heavy metal everything is more complicated, I can not say that they play it badly, but there is some specificity in the pitch, so I would not recommend taking them without listening. With electronic music, too, would not advise these headphones, electronics just do not need this resolution, it crumbles to pieces, losing melody.
To record headphones are very critical, somewhere on 8 on a 10-point scale, poor HF and other flaws information here will appear in full growth.
Traditionally - a few examples.
Nazareth - Bad Bad Boy. Something in the presentation of these headphones suits great to such music, they are just doing a wonderful imaginary scene, taking the drums back, the vocalist forward, and leaving the rest of the instruments in the middle, which adds melodies of realism and drive.
The Prodigy - Breathe. That rare case where electronic music sounds in these headphones is interesting. The bass is not crushing, but well-designed, and the volume of the MF feed allows you to enjoy everything that Liam Howlett put into this track.
Bijelo Dugme - Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu. The band, in which Goran Bregovic played, could not help creating masterpiece music, naturally, and the title track of their second album could not be bad. In fact, their texts have become for me the first touch to the Serbian language (or, more correctly, to call it Yugoslavian?). The special magic of the language (I recommend reading the translation of the lyrics), the unexpected melodic solutions transmitted by the GMP 250 to the fullest - all this makes the track very interesting for lovers of good rock.
conclusions
The case when the headphones can not be called universal. Does it make them worse? I would not say. Narrow specialization allows you to achieve better results in your niche, in this case it's mid-range and vocals. Here these headphones know little equal. If you prefer these genres and look for reliable headphones for them in a limited budget, the GMP 250 is exactly what you need.
The article is based on materials .
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