After reviewing quite a number of Beyerdynamic products, I thought I knew what to expect when the Custom One Pro was presented to me. Then I realized something was different with the Custom One Pro. Without any hesitation, I took it for a spin for two weeks(!) and tested how it is (hint : amazing!).
The box is huge – actually just adequately huge enough to package all the necessary things inside of this box. 
Here is everything inside of it – a dedicated cable (more on that later), a screw-in 3.5mm to 6.5mm audio jack adapter, the headphone itself and a triangular shaped carboard thing – inside the cardboard is where all the manuals are.
Oh yes – there’s also an Allen’s key (hexagonal screwdriver) on the flaps. More on this later too.
[nextpage title=”CUSTOM design”]What does the word CUSTOM really mean though? Does it just mean that the headphone is customizable?
These were the questions I had even I first saw the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro.
There are a total of 5 different things that you can customize – the sound, the design and ring, cables, headband cushion, and ear cups. I’d really like to change the colour of it though, but then again you’ll have to buy the entire headphone again just to change the colour of the frame.
Beyerdynamic offers a huge selection of design plates for you to choose over at their site – you can even go full American on it and get the aluminium plated Stars And Stripes design, or go somewhere more vintage with a brown leatherette cover. They do have snake and stingray covers too though, but I have no idea where they get those material from. Also, that’s where the Allen’s key come by.
If the covers aren’t enough for you, maybe get a coiled cable since it’s a shame that Beyerdynamic never included a coiled cable in the box itself, and that’s a big disappointment for me. Though the cable has a notch to lock it on the headphone itself.
Maybe even get an entirely white headphone with black accents – just get a white ring and a white headband to go alongside with the black Custom One Pro, then get a light grey cover.
I love the customization options offered by Beyerdynamic – it’s something like none other, since Beyerdynamic does have their own dedicated store for the Custom One Pro’s customizations.
However, the saddest part is when I tell you that the Malaysian market wouldn’t enjoy the customizations to its full potential. Jaben does sell the original straight cable but not the coiled one, and another cable with a microphone built into it. To get anything else, you’ll have to order it from their website.
The shipping fee however is pure insanity. They don’t even ship to Malaysia, so I selected Singapore and see how that goes.
So yeah, Malaysians aren’t going to enjoy the customizability to its full potential without paying a lot more than we already have. 🙁
UPDATE : I guess Beyerdynamic heard our cries and is now offering their full range of Custom One accessories right here in Malaysia itself! Shipping fees are at a flat rate of RM6 for West Malaysia and RM10 for East Malaysia! Visit this site for full details and the entire catalogue!
Rejoice!
[nextpage title=”Performance”]Since you can’t custom that much physical customizability, we sure can still enjoy its sound quality and customizability.
When it comes to performance, I use back my usual playlist and my usual devices test audio products, but this time however I am only going to test it with a few distinct songs, as it will be quite time consuming if I am to listen the same songs over and over again for all the 4 available modes – I’ll just call them 0% bass, 25% bass, 75% bass, and full 100% bass.
It’s weird that Beyerdynamic made the bass sliders independent of each other. I mean, you can set the left side to have higher bass than the right – that is, if you know that your ear’s bass sensitivity aren’t that equal. The sliders do make a large difference in the low frequency sound range with even the change in one level, especially when listening to bass-heavy music.
While listening to the orchestral Skyliner by BBC Big Band, the bass strings can be changed to a subtle bass feel to fairly noticeable bass by just sliding from 0% to 75% of bass. While listening to Rosen aus dem Suden, op. 388 by Strauss, the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro has proven that its soundstage is great, but however also proven that the sound slider doesn’t change anything else other than the level of bass – which I personally think anyone who got this headphone will set it to about 75% bass as their default. I mean, no bass? Really?
Then it hit me -the Custom One Pro was created with bass lovers in mind. I tested with some electronic music and some other songs with a bass beat in it. I’m very amazed that the Custom One Pro had its ear cups vibrating when listening to Adventure Time by Rogue at the slider set to 100% bass – but that’s really too much bass, so 75% is more than enough already. And yet this is the song that I would really love to get some more bass on other audio products I reviewed previously.
Shoot Him Down! by Alice Francis was a great song with heavy bass beat, which I found that 25% bass is pretty much sufficient as the bass is really just too heavy when it goes towards the 75% mark. Yes, the bass is very punchy and tight, but somehow I just couldn’t help myself to tune the bass lower, as the bass beat was just annoying at that point.
So the performance comes down to this – the soundstage is great, but changing the sound slider will only change the amount of bass and nothing else. I sort of expected the soundstage will at least be perceptually larger if the bass is tuned down, but to my disappointment, it does not. The bass however does thump all the way even at 75% bass, and it definitely shines brighter at low frequency sounds. Cable friction does not make any sound at all, so that’s great. Other than that, noise isolation can cut about half of the outside noise away, which is very good for passive noise isolation.
You even get 4 different low-frequency responses too!
With impedance at only 16 Ohms, it’s mean for low-powered device such as your phones – and from my tests, it does rock my world through my OnePlus One.
[nextpage title=”Comfort”]The Custom One Pro is somewhat lighter than other products – twisting and turning head mildly vigorously does not affect the grip of the headphone on your head, and definitely still doesn’t leave gaps for outside noise to seep in.
The headband has adequate amount of good quality cushions that has the entire lightweight headphone sitting on my head for hours without complaining at all, while the ear cups leave a large gap for the ear pinna to breathe and not to have my elf-like ears scratch the padding.
Since the Custom One Pro is catered for mobile with its low impedance, I am disappointed by not having the ear cups foldable so they can sit on my shoulders comfortably.
Beyerdynamic did include some nice tactile bumps to tell left from right, though you can probably feel the positions of the sound slider to know which is left and right anyway.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]
For the price of RM799, it’s not too bad. Given the customizability however, it’s not really suitable for Malaysians who seek to get one and get custom plates as the shipping fee is just plain ridiculously high. Beyerdynamic Malaysia is offering all of their Custom One accessories for a much lower price! Visit this site to get what you want! I am however a tad disappointed that it includes a straight cable and not a coiled cable. Build quality however is amazingly solid, so it’ll go through vigorous daily activities without problems, other than lack of rotating earcups.
The Custom One Pro is made to cater for bass-lovers, and even electronic music lovers like me had to tune the bass lower as it’s just too heavy at maximum, but you can always change the bass level on the fly with the sliders for each ear.
Would I recommend this? Yes. Absolutely. Try it for yourself extensively over at Jaben, and then try to tell if that’s what you seek, and tune the bass level accordingly. It’s a great piece of headphone and it isn’t priced ridiculously high either.
Thanks to Jaben for this review! Check out their product page here now!
Also, Jaben is making an offer right now – One Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro with a Hippo Cricri Portable Amplifier and another Hippo Case Large for just RM899 -you save 29%! Check out this offer here right now!
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
