The closed-back design keeps out unwanted outside noise whilst simultaneously reducing the likelihood of spill, and the lightweight construction and comfortable padding lets you wear them for long periods without ear fatigue.
Although they’re perfectly adequate for this, there are better solutions out there specifically designed for this purpose, with shorter, less cumbersome cables, foldable designs and a more ‘smiley curve’ response tailored for general mobile listening.ĭo they make good studio headphones, however? Well yes, for the money you can afford to have multiple pairs just lying around waiting to be plugged in and abused by visiting artists. With long cables, you either love them or hate them - in the studio they’re pretty useful, giving you room to move around with your instrument without unplugging, but if you use headphones a lot while out and about, you may find the length a bit awkward and annoying.ĭue to this, we probably wouldn’t make the 206 our first choice for simply listening to music on the go. While it’s true that it has a penchant for becoming tangled, the extra length can be a bonus when tracking with guitars or an electronic drum set, for example. The cable length has remained at 3m, which some might argue is overlong. The stereo soundstage is nice and wide, and there’s plenty of detail present throughout the frequency range. The upper-mid region seems to have been tamed, and appears creamier and not as brash-sounding as the 201’s. For a start, the bass response has been tweaked, with everything sounding a lot punchier and more present in the 100-200Hz range. The 206’s make the 201’s seem rather boxy-sounding by comparison, highlighting the earlier model’s not-so-prominent bottom end and over-emphasised upper mids, both of which shortcomings the 206 looks to address.