Sennheiser HD 228 Headphones

We put claims of “Explosive Bass” to the test

The first thing you notice about Sennheiser’s newest range of portable headphones is just how light they are. At only 224g, the HD 228s certainly won’t give you neck strain on even the longest journeys and the comfort factor rises even higher when you put them on. Sennheiser has advertised the 228’s ear pads as “extra soft”, which might sound like marketingese but is actually nothing of the sort. The padding is easily soft enough to give the Andrex puppy a good run for its money, making these some of the comfiest headphones we’ve ever worn. Unlike some similarly-priced cans, these ones manage to sit in position just fine without ever resorting to vicelike levels of grip.

They look pretty swell too, considering that a set will cost you less than £35. The feel is solid and ergonomic, with the tiniest concession to ostentatiousness coming in the form of the standard ultra-shiny Sennheiser logo on the earphones’ backings. We’ll forgive that, though, because the earphones do exactly what they’re meant to, which is reduce outside noise. Even with nothing playing, slipping the 228s onto your bonce results in a surprisingly notable reduction in background chatter, which we really appreciated. Sennheiser’s promotional materials for the series stress their bass delivery – more on which later – but with one of the loudest train journeys in the UK to contend with on a daily basis we loved being able to slip the cans on and listen to an audiobook or acoustic performance without missing a word or note.

But who spends all their time listening to audiobooks and wussrock? When a product features the phrase “Explosive Bass” on its packaging, we take that as a challenge. So we set about pumping some of our most obnoxiously bassy tunes through the 228s to see what would happen.

Sadly, sparks did not fly, exploding headphones failed to materialise, and all in all the Sennheisers coped with everything we threw at them with style and grace. MSTRKRFT’s gnarly bass-driven The Looks was first to fall, the 228s having no problems at all with its meaty synths and deep drums. Tiga’s Pleasure from the Bass was no obstacle either, and the 228s great separation meant it was easy to spot just how tight the low end was. In both cases the trebles really sang too, and we were starting to believe Sennheiser’s marketing about “High-performance neodymium magnets guaranteeing a crystal-clear stereo sound”.

But we wouldn’t be so easily defeated. Surely no headphones in this price range could handle Justice’s mighty electro bass anthem Phantom. Wrong again. The 228s reproduced one of the baddest kick drums in dance music with flair – again, the separation really shone while never sacrificing warmth.

With the score standing at Geeks: 0, Sennheiser: 3, it was time to turn to the dark side. Work, by Ciara and Missy Elliott, is a sound engineer’s nightmare. Detuned 808 drums jostling for space with growly synth bass makes the track a real mess to listen to on cheap in-ear phones; how would the 228s respond? Well, at the risk of sounding a bit predictable, they did just fine. We’ve got no idea what high performance neodymium magnets are, but they sure help tunes sound great.

By this point we were utterly defeated, so we slipped on a few less taxing tracks just to relax a bit. The Decemberists Hazards of Love sounded gorgeous, with Colin Meloy’s vocals in particular lent a lovely intimacy by the Sennheisers. The band’s multi-instrument setup was reproduced with stunning clarity too. We finished with a slice of ‘70s pomp courtesy of Boston’s More Than a Feeling, which, in retrospect, we should have started with. Quite honestly, Tom Scholz’s anthem has never sounded so good. Details we’d never noticed before rang clear in our ears, from fretboard slides to intricacies in the drum patterns that we’d somehow missed in hundreds of previous listens. Above anything else, this song was the decider for us.

The 228s are a magnificent bit of audio kit, proving that Sennheiser remains unmatched in the field of headphone technology. Detailed, powerful and clear, you really won’t find a better option at this price anywhere else.