| Category | Value | Rating |
| Features | 20% |  |
| Usability | 25% | |
| Sound | 25% |  |
| Documentation & Support | 10% | |
| Price | 20% |  |
| OVERALL RATING = 3.1 stars (out of 4) 3.6 stars or better: Outstanding, WIHO Award 3 stars or better: Worth considering 2 stars or better: Suited to specific needs 1 star or less: Not recommended |
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Headphone and speaker reviews can be challenging to say the least given the subjective nature of listening. We’ve used many different studio headphones over the years and recognize the fact that one set of cans just can’t be all things to all people. Headphones that excel at tracking may not be as good for mixing, and great mixing headphones may not be as good for your casual music listening.
Mixing on headphones is particularly challenging because—particularly with closed-back designs like these—you eliminate the room sound and any natural ambience that impacts that way you hear sound. But if you’re like most mix engineers, you probably utilize some combination of monitors and headphones to sift through your tracking and mixing details: listening to your long reverb tails, checking phase alignment of physical microphones, and simply making sure your mix translates to other listening environments. And for recording, you may need good headphones for your artists to track with, where comfort and bleed might be your overriding concerns.
Having recently reviewed some fabulous Focal studio speakers (check out the Shape 65 and Sub One speakers here), we were eager to check out the new Lensys Professional headphones, a closed-back design built for the studio, though in what capacity was yet to be determined.
From the moment you place the sumptuously cushioned and moderately heavy headphones on your head, you can feel the quality that has been poured into the design. The Lensys Professional headphones deliver big, rich sound, but not without some caveats. While we see plenty of applications for these wonderful headphones in tracking and reviewing the low-end of your mixes, they aren’t a one-for-all solution.
Features
The Lensys Professional headphones are circum-aural in design, with deep, one-inch thick, oval shaped, memory foam earpads that cradle your ears.
The large, 40mm, aluminum/magnesium drivers are M-shaped, a proprietary design borrowed from Focal studio monitor speaker drivers. Frequency response is 5Hz – 22kHz, and impedance is 26 ohms. These robust headphones weigh 306 g (0.67 lb).
The headphones include two detachable 1/8” cables: (1) four-foot straight and (1) ten-foot coiled cable, along with a gold, quarter-inch, screw-on, cable adapter. A compact carry case is also included.
Usability
The rugged design with a padded headband doesn’t have a flimsy, flip-the-speaker over design and thus are easily worn in an instant. They are heavy, but not so heavy as to be noticeable uncomfortable from the weight, and are easily adjusted to fit
The impedance is 26ohms, which played nicely with everything from studio audio interface headphone outputs to dedicated headphone amps to laptop headphone jacks.
We were concerned that the memory foam ear pads might become a bit warm over time with extended use but they remained cool over extended listening sessions, though the shape felt a bit snug around our ears over time. The weight of the headphones was a bit noticeable, but not enough to make us grow tired of them on its own.
There was a noticeable amount of bleed from the headphones at volume such that we would opt not to use them for tracking a drum kit with sensitive overhead mics, but their low-end response would make them a fabulous choice for tracking other bass-heavy instruments like electric and upright bass, or cello.
Sound
Sometimes it’s an easy love ‘em or hate ‘em thing with headphones, but the Lensys headphones are more of an acquired taste that isn’t suitable for all. There is no mistaking the quality that went into building these headphones, and our initial reaction upon first listen was impressive, with a mighty presence to the sound. But careful, extended review found that the sound has a very bass-forward response that we found problematic for mixing.
Our testing included tracking a live rock band, reviewing mix decisions, and listening to a lot of established recordings from artists across a broad spectrum of rock and pop including (to name a few): Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson, Devin Townsend, Dream Theater, Katy Perry, Owl City, Queen, Toto, R.E.M., and more.
If you’re evaluating microphone placement decisions on a drum kit, the Lensys headphones provide extremely rich information that you’ll appreciate. We have never heard as much definition in the decay of a kick drum from other headphones. But once placed in the context of a dense rock mix, the low end was a bit “woofy” with the low end masking some of the lower mids and mids, and on occasion providing an unpleasant feeling akin to a compressor overly pumping the kick drum. The low frequency information definitely made for bass-forward listening, sometimes at the expense of other instrumentation like acoustic guitars and keyboards.
We also found the high end to be slightly lacking compared to other studio headphones in our collection. The difference was noticeable in the reverbs, ambience, and overall open-ness of many recordings, where there simply wasn’t as much “air up there” when compared against headphones that had a 30kHz top end.
The Lensys Professional headphones were wonderful for tracking keyboards, guitars, and bass, and spot-checking the low-end details in our sessions, but we have to pass on these for mixing work and critical music review (or recreational listening). Although the Lensys headphones wrap you in a very full sound, the headphones are noticeably fatiguing, where the strong low-end presence coupled with the weight of the headphones combined to make the listening experience relatively unpleasant over extended listening.
Documentation and Product Support
As usual, Focal did an excellent job providing documentation for their head-worn speakers. The documentation includes information for product care as well as breaking them before critical listening.
Price
The Focal Lensys Professional headphones sell for $699. The build quality is fabulous, but given the caveats we experienced, we find them to be a bit on the pricier side for headphones we wouldn’t choose to mix with.
Contact Information
Focal
www.focal.com
