Gadgetory

I'm David karna a executive editor cnet.com and I'm here to give you a tour of another headphone this one a higher-end over-the-ear model that delivers first-class sound the English company PSP is primarily known for its speakers but last year it introduced its first ever headphone the active noise-cancelling m4 u2 which was hailed by many critics including CNET as one of the world's best noise cancelling models now PSPs put out the m4 u1 a less expensive non noise cancelling version of the same headphone as another winner particularly if you like very accurate clean sounding headphones that don't over accentuate the bass in fact I'm calling these the beats for audiophiles because well they look a little like Beats headphones but they have a neutral sound profile yes they have a more oval shape and the red finish is more of a burgundy but they do share the same shiny polycarbonate plastic folding headband at 12 ounces they're not light but they do seem fairly durable and fold up into a protective travel case as part of the package you get 2 5 foot long cables ones plain and the other has an inline remote with microphone for making cell phone calls while we tend to prefer shorter 4 foot cables one of the pluses of this headphones design is that you can plug either cable into the left or right ear cup you can also plug another set of headphones into the open jack and have two people listen to the same music or movie at the same time and props to PSP for throwing in a spare set of ear pads that's an extra we'd like to see more headphone manufacturers include especially at this $300 price point as for performance this is a remarkably clear sounding headphone the clarity isn't the result of boosted treble or mid-range frequencies no the m4 u1 just sounds neutral and doesn't over emphasize bass while we like this headphones clarity it's worth noting that if you listen to a lot of low bitrate mp3s or streaming audio the n4u ones clear presentation might not be desirable that said with better recordings to appreciate just how good these headphones are as noted this is first and foremost an audio phile headphone it was designed to be as neutral sounding as possible so bass lovers might not be satisfied with its low-end prowess it's also fairly comfortable to wear for hours at a time but other competitors such as the Sony mdr-1r are more comfortable you're trying to decide between this model and the active noise-cancelling m4u - it really comes down to where you listen to your music and if it's important for you to have noise cancelling headphones to muffle ambient noise most active noise-cancelling headphones don't sound as good as their passive counterparts and that's the case here - the m4 u1 sounds slightly better than the - and around $300 audiophiles who value sound quality over everything else it's hard to beat for the price I'm David Carr know and that's the PSB m for you one headphone thanks for watching