GermanMAESTRO is not exactly a well known brand when it comes to consumer headphones, but with just a few seconds listening to the 8.35D I must say this is a huge shame! In the professional sector GM are better known, you might have come across them connected to a listening pod in a music store. I took the below image in a small record shop, but I've seen them in several London stores.
The GMP 8.35D model featured in the rest of these photos has some red 'JFB' accents. This colour scheme will set you back an extra £10 - think AKG Q701 without such a massive premium. Here's how the Brighton based DJ got his name on these headphones... The UK distributor for GermanMAESTRO met JFB on a "Fake Britain" program. Impressed by JFB's skills the distributor curiously asked him what headphones he used to mix his tracks, JFB explained that since his DJing headphone usually survive about a month, before falling apart, he mostly fell back on to the iPod earbuds. Utterly shocked by this the distributor let him try the GermanMAESTRO 8.35D. He was so impressed by the sound and indestructibility that he appeared in a video using the headphones. GermanMAESTRO made this one-off 8.35D as a surprise gift for JFB, after he had been using the headphones for a little while it was suggested that they should be released as a 'special edition'.
Since all of these GermanMAESTRO headphones mentioned above are mechanically the same, this review's conclusions can refer to them all. The only thing to note here is, that the material in the pads can have quite an effect on the presentation, so if you do find some in a music shops somewhere bare in mind that the bass and isolation can alter slightly for that reason.
So my first impression of the 8.35D's sound was a very good one, sorry for the early spoiler but these things are worth shouting about. The first thing to strike me was a sense of openness, especially good for a closed headphone, but there was also an amazing sense of tightness to the sound, great pace and energy. The detail is nicely rendered - it's edgy, with a little smoothness. Realistic and highly enjoyable. There's big potential from high quality amplification, although it doesn't sound half bad using a cheap portable source, so it's transparent, but also friendly. There is also good detail to be found throughout the frequency range (FR) without issue. Treble is not too harsh, but sparkles greatly. Bass is not lacking in body or kick, neither is it flabby or soft, this was a very nice balance and suited almost any genre. .
Speaking of FR the presentation is a very nice balance that should suit a lot of people and this is one reason why it's often chosen in music shops. Technically it's pretty close to some reference headphones, this shows in the frequency graph, but there is a rich body and smooth nature to the bass which is hard not to like and that's something you often don't get from a reference signature, I will go over this in more detail during the comparisons section.
The upper midrange of the 8.35D is a little forward around 8-10khz. This could make them sound a touch bright at times for some people (depending on music and amplification). This is not really a criticism though, since it's an aspect commonly found in reference headphone, at least ones with dynamic drivers. On paper the 8.35D's looks like it could be a little too harsh in the upper midrange, but in actual testing it didn't sound as harsh as certain studio headphones (which a lot of people, including myself, really love), so again I'm not calling this out as a negative aspect.
Isolation here is good and sound leakage even better. After ruggedness, I can see the isolation being the next biggest reason for shops choosing these as a demo unit. Unfortunately. due to the good isolation, the soundstage is not the 8.35D's best strength. It's not bad as such, just that I've heard better from closed headphones, even ones that isolate this well.
Connecting the 8.35D to either the Galaxy phone or iPhone gave very respectable sound quality and no issues with volume whatsoever. The anti-fashion like design and heavy spring-like coiled cable is not very friendly for this kind of pairing, but if that's all you have with you then who cares about such petty issues?
Larger amps, like a home cinema receiver, will increase the quality of the sound a little, but the big benefits come from dedicated stereo DAC and/or headphone amplifier. I found the Arcam rPAC to add a nice body to the music as well as a little edge to the detail, this was a very nice step up and one I highly recommend. The Audiolab M-DAC also took the 8.35D to a nice place, but price and value wise much harder to recommend just for this headphone. Much better still was connecting the RCA outputs of the M-DAC to a dedicated headphone amp, in my case the Shonyun SH-301. I really need some more dedicated headphone amps to play with, but damn this sounded good!
I want to try something new here and show some frequency graphs for a few of the headphones as well as talk about how they compare. Now these things can be difficult to get useful info from, but the basics are that they should be fairly flat up to 10khz, after that they all get a bit messy. Bass is under 250hz, midrange is from there up to about 6,000hz and everything above that is treble (this is rough). If you've not seen these graphs before I must point out that this information shouldn't be followed too closely, it's not an exact science (a completely flat response is not necessarily best). There is a line of theoretical perfection (Golden Ears), but it's not quite flat and you might personally find it boring. Make sense? If not please ignore the graphy bits. Anyway, here is the FR graph for the 8.35D:
Here are some individual music tracks and how I felt the 8.35D coped with them. Most were listened to in lossless format through a USB DAC, all of them were also tested on Spotify, which is compressed at 320kbps.
- ill.gates 'The Ill.Methodology': "TriLLogy" - This track is dealt with so nicely on the 8.35D - fast, punchy and dynamic. The soundstage is good, I've heard better from closed headphones, but these do isolate very well.
- Melody Gardot, Ken Pendergast 'My One And Only Thrill': "Les Etoiles" - This track has some beautiful female vocals and it shows that the 8.35D has a nice presence and detail in the midrange, making this a highly enjoyable song.
- JFB: "The Guild Master" - I couldn't do this section without mentioning a track by the man himself. I love how this one goes from orchestra to Electronic so well. The dynamics of the 8.35D do a tremendous job with the excitement on this track. Plenty of powerful and deep bass when it's needed, great instrument separation and plenty of speed. I can see why he likes these headphones so much.
- Jesper Kyd - 'Borderlands 2': "Glacial" - The fast paced, dynamic sound of the 8.35D is highly enjoyable with these modern scores. The good impact and detailed bass does wonders and the upper ranges sparkle very well. The only slight negative is that it can feel a little closed initially.
- Andy McKee 'Art Of Motion': "Drifting" - This toe tapping, musical guitar track is extremely natural sounding and enjoyable through these headphones. The great bass and neutral response is fully utilised to bring the most out of this track.
The build quality of the 8.35D is described as 'unbreakable'. I dare say that if you really try, you could probably break them, although I haven't tried, there does seem to be a truth to this statement. I hope you can appreciate the military analogy here, but if the V-Moda M-100 is American Colt M16, then the 8.35D is a Russian AK-47. They're a simple, well thought out design, rough round the edges, but will survive being taken to hell and back and remain fully functional. I would happily put the 8.35D through more abuse than the M-100, but maybe that's just because the latter looks better.
The material for the headphone is almost entirely plastic and unfortunately this does make it look and feel rather cheap. I suspect that there is actually more rubber and foam here than metal and most of that metal is probably in that large adaptor.
COMFORT
The 8.35D is not very heavy, although the cable feels like it weighs as much as the headphones themselves. The cups are huge (on the outside), but the space inside is only marginally more than an on-ear, a lot of the padding will contact with your ear, which is not very spongy. The clamping force is high and with the hard material and padding of the cups I wouldn't recommend these for glasses wearers. Despite all these flaws I did find it possible to get decent comfort for about 30-45 minutes.
The headband is even harder than the cups, the only saving grace here is that the high clamping force allows you to keep the pressure of the headband away from your head.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The 'GermanMAESTRO GMP 8.35D JFB' has some rather plain styling, a questionable cable and average comfort, but they are neigh on indestructible and the sound quality is pretty spectacular! Described as a 'monitor' headphone it makes a great studio headphone for professionals, but it's musicality means that almost anyone will find happiness in it's sound. It sound good from pretty much any device, but if you can plug it into some high end amplification it really shines! If you can live with the initial caveats and £150 is your limit then I highly recommend the 8.35D. Whether £10 extra for the JFB version is your thing or not I will leave up to you.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Desktop PC, Dell Vosto Laptop, iPhone4, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Fostex HP-P1, Fostex HP-A3, Arcam rPAC, Audiolab M-DAC, Beyerdynamic DT880 600 Ohm, Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro Limited Edition 32 Ohm, Denon AH-D7000, Mad Dog (Fostex T50rp mod)
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