Behringer BDJ 1000

Low price does not equal cheap! These ear-enclosing already convince haptically: Both the ear cups and the ear hooks look like they’re made from more than one piece. This is thanks to the combination of two colours, starting with a black earpiece with the striking silver Behringer logo, framed by silver rings fixed to the inside. A black ring encircles the ear cups, punctuated by a contrasting silver-grey bar with discreetly branded with the Behringer logo.

The sturdy plastic construction weighs in at a hefty 385 grams, but still feels light compared to other circumaural DJ headphones. Reason: Since the long and very durable spiral cable, which is guided on the left side and can be extended to up to four (!) meters, is not interchangeable, it is included in the weight specification, which is not the case with other models with removable cables. Wearing comfort is significantly enhanced by the padding, which is very soft on the very large, round non-exchangeable, synthetic leather covered ear pads, as well as on the temple. However, its narrow foam strip literally touches the head.

A perfect fit on the ears is ensured by two twelve-stage extendable and lockable headband extensions, and an ear cup suspension that can be rotated horizontally through 180 degrees. Thanks to the ball hinge between suspension and band, the cups can be folded into the band to protect them and save space, but they can also be rotated in the vertical axis by 90 degrees for one-sided monitoring.

The wearing comfort

The weight of these headphones is not noticeable when they are in use, but you can feel the firm pressure of the headband, which is well countered by the luxurious padding and the way that the headband barely touches the top of your head. Although the drivers measure a whopping 57 millimetres, the oval opening is quite small in relation to their ratio. Even my rather small ears felt slightly cramped and surrounded by the edge of the padding. This gives confident support when you’re wearing them, but if you have larger ears, the cups, which are actually designed as ear-enclosing, will only sit on top.

The flexible hinges, including the adjustable and reliably locking headband extensions, can also be adapted to small head sizes so that the BDJ 1000 stay in place even during vigorous head movements. To listen with a single ear cup, either hold the headphones with a cup against your ear or put the headphones on and clamp a cup behind one ear. Despite slightly twisting the headband, the headphones remain in position even when the head is moved quite vigorously.

The specs

Behringer advertises the BDJ 1000 as having a frequency response of 10 to 30,000 Hertz, but talks of a transmission range of 20 to 20,000 Hertz in the specs. This quite high sensitivity of 105 decibels (on average) seems to compensate for the impedance of 60 ohms (on average), which is quite high in contrast to other DJ headphones. Information on the maximum power handling capacity is not found in the description.

Sound

For a more objective sound test, I compare the BDJ 1000 with the Sennheiser HD 25.

The fact that the closed BDJ 1000 are mainly recommended for use in the DJ booth is primarily confirmed by their volume, which is even higher than that of the HD 25. It sounds powerful and voluminous. Under almost painfully turned up levels, its dynamic drivers do not distort even with transients of any frequency. The tight fit of the ear cups also helps with shielding when pre-listening in the DJ Booth.

I can attest that these headphones have a clear bass, whose deepest nuances, for example in the intro of Daft Punks funky “Lose Yourself To Dance”, are crisp and not spongy. At higher frequencies, the track creates a warm background without masking them. These headphones sympathise with both organic and electronic productions. Röyksopp’s “Sombre Detune” sounds homogeneous and transparent with its rich bass-line and midrange parts. In contrast, in both Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” and Moderat’s “Let In The Light” the mids are somewhat annoying, something which is confirmed by direct listening comparisons with the HD 25. The middle frequency range tends to cloud the sound image somewhat at the expense of detail and naturalness. While this is a disadvantage for pleasurable listening, it turns out to be an advantage when listening in the DJ booth due to gains in the subjective volume.