Beyerdynamic Verio 200

The new open-ear headphones from Beyerdynamic have been named Verio 200, and they promise an ergonomic, lightweight fit and excellent sound while simultaneously providing transparency with environmental sounds. Two microphones with Qualcomm’s cVc algorithms (clear voice capture) aim to ensure good speech intelligibility for the person on the other end of the line and with IP54 certification (protection against splashes of water and sweat), you can even make work calls while jogging (apparently there are some people who actually do this).

Technology of the Beyerdynamic Verio 200

In terms of technical specifications, the Verio 200 are up to date: they reproduce a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, transmit via Bluetooth 5.3 and offer the audio codecs aptX Adaptive, AAC and SBC. Multipoint, which allows you to connect to two devices simultaneously, is also supported.

Exterior features

The Verio 200 is available in three colour variants: Black, Cream and Sport. The latter is largely the same as the black version – apart from some orange trim on the earpiece. All three variants come with a handy case where the headphones can be conveniently stored during charging and transportation. As the headphones are placed next to each other, the case is around ten centimetres wide and seven centimetres long (with a height of approx. 2.5cm), making it significantly larger than the typical “egg-shaped” cases that accompany many in-ears. This feels good because you get a real case to hold in your hand that – thanks to the non-slip surface finish – won’t slip out of your hands even if you have sweaty fingers when working out in the gym.

The case, which is supplied with power via USB-C, has enough battery capacity for just over three full charges. The Verio 200 can provide around eight hours of runtime from a single charge. However, some of the competition can achieve double that or more. If you need to go fast, ten minutes in the case is enough to fill the headphones’ power storage units for an hour.

We tested the cream-coloured version and found the design to have a certain elegance. The case and earpieces gave an impression of really high quality and also looked presentable in the office or during video conferences.

Comfort and operation of the Beyerdynamic Verio 200

The Beyerdynamic Verio 200 are easy to put on: They are placed over the ear with a soft silicone band, with a pendulum-shaped part behind the ear and the speaker unit placed over the ear canal. The fit was relatively comfortable and much less tight than, for example, the OneOdio OpenRock, meaning that the Verio 200 can be worn for a very long period of time (for example in the office). This means they can be a little more wobbly than headphones that are more fixed in your ears. However, I was able to complete a lap of jogging without the headphones falling out while I was running.

One thing that did prove to be tricky was the very sensitive touch control on the back of the speaker pods. When adjusting the earpieces, even brief mistakes often led to unwanted triggering of the playback function. In general, I found the touch commands very learning-intensive, as the complexity of gestures extended to triple pressing. In particular, the function for changing the volume (a short tap on either the left or right, followed by a long press) was not very easy to do when jogging, and there was no option to change this in the app.

App control

Beyerdynamic is currently delivering their latest control app (V 1.0), which can be used to reliably control a large number of functions of these headphones. These include the length of time before automatic switch-off, the assignment of touch commands to functions and – most importantly – a 5-band equaliser (64 Hz, 250 Hz, 1,000 Hz, 4,000 Hz, 8,000 Hz), which allows any number of storable user pre-sets in addition to four factory pre-sets. The bands and the level range (+/- 6 dB) are generally well chosen to effectively bring out the sound. However, changes are only applied once the memory function has been activated, which makes it unnecessarily difficult to set up your personal ideal sound. I also got the impression that the amplification in the lower three bands did not really correspond to six decibels. Of course, this may also have to do with the physical limits of the headphones.

How good does the Beyerdynamic Verio 200 sound?

Open-ear headphones must, of course, be approached with the proper expectations: Anyone expecting the same directness and bass performance from the airy sound transmission via the ear canal as with in-ears will be disappointed. Open-ears sound much more subtle – especially in the bass – and they are less direct than in-ears that have an airtight coupling between the eardrum and the membrane.

The Verio 200 still sounded pretty decent, especially in direct comparison to other open-ear headphones. By design, the sound takes place primarily in the high-mids and highs and then drops off a little towards the bottom, and this doesn’t have to be unpleasant for unobtrusive music listening. If you reduce the range around 8,000 Hz in the equaliser a little, you can also take away the slight sharpness that the Verios have in the highs (see screenshot above).

You can make phone calls in quite decent quality thanks to the clear mid-range reproduction and the active support of the Qualcomm CVC algorithms. However, you should not turn up the volume on the other end too loudly, as there will be slight crosstalk from the earphones into the microphones, and the caller on the other end of the line will perceive an echo.

Conclusion

With the Verio 200, Beyerdynamic has brought a well-designed and appealingly styled open-ear headphone to the open-ear market, and – especially in the subtle cream version – they are not unpleasantly conspicuous in an office environment. These headphones sit airily on your ears and, as expected, allow you to “listen in” to your surroundings, which is an advantage both when jogging on mixed-use paths and in the office.

For spectacle wearers, open-ears are, of course, always an additional “burden” on the back of the ear in addition to the temples of your glasses. Depending on your spectacle frames, this can be a tight fit, and the glasses rest on top of the earpiece. But life’s like that!

The sound focuses more on the higher frequencies and not so much on the bass range, but this is due to the principle of air transmission. Fans of the “club in your ear” sound will probably not be happy with these headphones. However, the Verio 200 do a good job when used for listening to discreet background music.

The battery life of eight hours was sufficient, but some competitors have power for twice as long. All these things considered, the purchase price, which is currently around two hundred euros, is also at the upper end of what we’d consider to be a reasonable price/performance ratio.