ESI eXtra 10

Sound is great, ergonomy could be better

The sound quality is great. But the headphone design could use a vertical tilt option for the speakers, to better fit different head sizes. Because my head size is a little smaller, I had to unscrew, move and screw back the side knob sliders.

Good price / value ratio.

"Promised" software is only the useless basic version.

Otherwise I'm satisfied with performance.

Awesome Mixing Headphones

AB tested with Beyer DT 770 250 Ohm, both straight out of the box.

ESI clearly won soundwise (quality and volume), which is amazing, without even using the included software. Really clear highs, well-defined bottom, clear stereo image, pleasant sonic experiance all in all. (don't knowif it's gotta to do with semi-open vs closed type, but the results were there).

Really comfortable, lightweight, with good head adjustment.

The adjust-to-your-head feature is accompliced with an elastic string (in a akg k72 sorta way), which remains to be seen how well it reacts with time, but can't seem to find an easy way to change it if it breaks. Works well right now. Contruction and cable is a bit flimsy, not super high-end, gets the job done tho.

Software seems usefull, did not have a chance to mix with them yet, but simulates different rooms-listening conditions pretty well. Wish it was able to incorporate to the system sound (think of Sonarworks), which does not, at least did not find out how yet. You have to drag things inside the app to listen to them.

Wish there were some ESI closed type model as well, would love using them for tracking. Made me interested in the whole range of products by this Co.

Again, the sound is PHENOMENAL!!! A little better hardware quallity and app incorporation to the system would easily sell the product for double the price.

Better than excpected (considering the price)

The headphones include a free (older) version of dSoniq Realphones which works surprisingly well. A little problem with the software registration was solved by ESI immediately (in fact, they've always been very responsive and quick).

The phones are confortable enough in order to wear them for some hours, and while there are more comfortable ones out there, in this price range they are on top of the list.

My only gripe is that you can't detach the cable from the phones, and I'm not sure how long the cable will last. It doesn't appear to be extremely cheap but it's not Sennheiser quality either.

All in all, if you want to dip into headphone simulation software with a dedicated matching pair of cans, I can highly recommend this product.