Baseball lends itself very well to collectibles. Whether the objects are baseball cards, caps, game-used bats or neon bar signs, Brewers fans have a plethora of merchandise available from MLB featuring Brewers players or logos. I tend to gravitate to baseball caps (I have probably ten different Brewers hats) along with other various tokens, like pins. Recently my collection extended to what may be a trophy of extreme Brewers nerd-dom: Brewers headphones. The headphones are produced by BiGR Audio and retail for $99. That’s a lot to pay for headphones, but for big music fans or those who want to ‘rep’ the Brewers in every possible way, these are pretty darn delightful.
Amazingly, headphones have been around for over 100 years. These headphones come in a slick bamboo box, which is a convenient and protected place to store them. The box resembles an attractive cigar box with a Brewers logo and the image of a baseball diamond on the hinged cover, laser engraved. With most headphones you just get a plastic shell in the packaging, so it’s pretty neat to have a permanent box to store the headphones, or I suppose you could store something else in there as well. The headphones look really awesome. They have wooden earcups that feature two different Brewers logos, also laser engraved. The whole mechanism of the headphones is very adjustable; the earcups swivel and you can bend and lengthen everything very easily. They pack up well for travel. The top band of the headphones features a leather-bound connector with the MLB logo on it. You can also unplug the cords from the earcups, which is nice, and plug the cords into either earcup, allowing for a rotation of the two logos.
For $50 more you can get the super-robust version of the Brewers headphones, which actually look quite a bit different and are nearly twice as heavy. The more-expensive version has some additional features, but aesthetically, I like the version I have due to the wooden aspects of the construction and the headphones feel very light on one’s head. I’d been using Sony stereo studio-type headphones prior to acquiring these Brewers ones, and the earcups on those were comfortable but overly big so that my ears were swallowed up in them (what are called circumaural headphones, apparently). These are just right so that the earcups nearly encompass the ears but aren’t ridiculously large.
One drawback to the smaller earcups on these headphones, however, is that they aren’t the quietest headphones in the world. BiGR Audio notes that the ‘natural wood earcups…reach excellent noise-cancelling levels’, and while I agree that they block the heck out of outside noise, they create plenty of noise for those around you if you’re listening to something at an appropriate (read: loud) volume. Whether the headphones provide active and passive or just passive noise cancellation, I’m not sure, though I’m guessing it’s the latter due to the absence of a rechargeable battery component. The headset is very comfortable, though, and these are the kind of headphones that are great for going out and about and sporting publicly due to their dynamic and lightweight design. And, of course, they’ve got the Brewers logos, so if you have a pair of these headphones it’s likely you’ll want people to see them. I’ve already received several compliments on my pair.
Anyway, the sound on these is remarkably good, and seems to have improved after the first use. Apparently, headphones, like other mechanical devices, or like a baseball glove, take some breaking in for best results. Some folks call it ‘burning in’. In terms of the specifications, they are:
Frequency Response: 18Hz – 20KHz
Driver Size: 40mm
Sensitivity: 112+/_-3dB
Impedance: 32ohms
Recommended Power: 10mW
Cable Length: 1.2m
Weight (no cable): 130g
Plug: 3.5mm gold plated
From what I can understand by handy-dandy guides, these specs are very solid. The cable length is appropriate for portable, iPhone/iPod-type of use. But it is kind of short.
Overall, these headphones are pretty fantastic. If you spend a lot of time with headphones because you’re a big music buff (and perhaps an introvert or frequent traveler) and also want to rock your favorite MLB team’s logo while you’re at it, these are perfect. At first, I listened to some audio via an Internet video and that was pretty blah and ordinary. However, when I cranked it up a bit and listened to some MC5, Manic Street Preachers and the Blues Breakers album by John Mayall with Eric Clapton, the power and clarity of the headphones came through. They are a bit spendy, but presumably they’ll last for a while. BiGR Audio offers support for customer issues, and while the headphones themselves appear to be made in China, BiGR is a California company. If you’re in the market for a new pair of headphones, Brewers fans, this might be the ticket.
