Looking for affordable monitoring headphones ("cans") for studio tracking, I compared Superlux HD660, Superlux HD665, t.bone HD 990D, Vic Firth SiH2 and Beyerdynamic DT-770M to each other and to my DT-770 pro 80. I know, not a really fair reference, but my idea was to seek for a series of cans that would not cost more, preferably less than my DT-770 and still would have proper, useful sound quality. From the models selected, you can guess that acoustic isolation was also a desirable feature, to prevent the sound from the cans bleeding into e.g. a singer's mic and thus saving me time cleaning up tracks from this bleed. That is why I also searched among headphones dedicated to drummers. I will review all of the models mentioned, each in their own product page. Here we go for the Vic Firth SiH2.
Before I could even listen to it's sound, I had trouble unfolding it open and adjust it to fit to my head. The relatively thin metal wire that connects the ear shells to the head strap to me has a tendency to get worn out and over bent soon. Having succeeded to put the cans on my head, the shells felt a little small to be "over ear", they rather tended to be "on ear", and the padding was so thin that I felt the foam on the driver touch the skin of my ear. Acoustic isolation t.m.o. was not better than my DT-770 pro or good old Sennheiser HD 250 linear II. And then it's sound: very dull in all ranges of the spectrum, as if I was lying on my bed and listening to a speaker under my pillow! Definitely not my choice!
