Beyerdynamic MMX 100

Who is the Beyerdynamic MMX 100 aimed at?

If you’re looking for a gaming headset that doesn’t require much effort and that is ready to use right away, you will find exactly what you’re looking for with these headphones. Using an analogue mini-jack cable, the MMX 100 can take on anything with a corresponding output: PCs, Macs, game consoles, tablets or smartphones. Thanks to the good-sounding microphone and relatively low weight of 296 grams, it also makes a good impression for use in your work from home office during long calls. But where there is a lot of light, there is also shadow. More on that later.

Design and wearing comfort

The Beyerdynamic MMX 100 are closed over-ear headphones with dynamic drivers. Available in black or light grey, these headphones feature a detachable gooseneck microphone and come with two cables: A 120 cm five-pin to four-pin mini-jack cable and a 200 cm five-pin to 2 x three-pin mini-jack cable for PC sound cards with separate microphone and headphone jacks. Both are sheathed in fabric, but grip noise or rubbing against clothing is detected by the large plastic ear cups.

In typical Beyerdynamic fashion, the MMX 100 are solidly made, with much of the material used being plastic. The headband cushion made of memory foam is covered with artificial leather and firmly connected to the headband. The headband houses the aluminium suspension, which is somewhat stiff and allows the size to be adjusted in eleven ratchet steps. The ear cups, whose pads are also filled with memory foam and covered with imitation leather, hang from this. Unfortunately, the replaceable ear pads (diameter approx. 6 cm) made for sweaty ears after a few hours and pressing – albeit firmly – on the cups causes the air underneath to escape with a loud squeal.

The Beyerdynamic MMX 100 has two controls located on the left ear cup. A small button mutes the microphone and the small wheel next to it takes care of the volume. However, this volume control is our biggest point of criticism: the volume does not change linearly, it remains almost the same over a wide control range, only to increase rather abruptly over the last few millimetres. This makes fine adjustment of the volume almost impossible.

That’s it for the control and adjustment options. And this headset offers neither RGB lighting nor software connectivity.

Sound

At first, we were amazed at how unexcited the Beyerdynamic MMX 100 was when it comes to the bass range. For a gaming headset, we would definitely have expected more thump! While it does reproduce sub-bass tracks, its transmission range starts at an extremely low 5 Hz, this often seems a bit too restrained. In gaming, this means that deep rumbling, engine noises or explosions do not overpower the midrange. Thus, we had no trouble understanding and distinguishing dialogue or sounds in either “Horizon Zero Dawn” or “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”. Speech always remained intelligible, even if there was a tendency toward hiss.

Together with the tweeter range, the mids provide very good precision: for a pure stereo headset, we never had trouble localising movements and sounds of the opponents on the virtual sound stage. Even game scenes in which the action is extremely hectic don’t throw the MMX 100 off its stride.

Microphone

I was very satisfied with the microphone quality: Equipped with a 9.9 mm capsule and cardioid pick-up pattern, my voice sounded quite natural, and keyboard noise was only perceptible very quietly in the background. Our test recordings revealed the high sensitivity of the microphone: Positioned too close to the mouth, my voice quickly caused clipping.