Status Audio CB-1 Closed Back Studio Monitor Headphones

Alright, so let me tell you a couple things. I like Status Audio, I got some of the HD One headphones a while ago, and was blown away by the quality for the price. Same goes for these... And then some. These are the Status Audio CB-1 Headphones. Right out of the Amazon shipping box, you see the awesome packaging that Status Audio boxed this gift from the heavens inside. Flip it open, and you see the headphones in all their glory. They're amazing, hard to find words to describe them. They're incredible. These awesome over-ear cups, the padded head strap, it's more than comfortable. It's an experience, and one that I would happily keep having, and I'll keep these headphones, might even get more. Sound, they've got that too. Sound great to me, get plenty loud, and they're built for amps and computers. Phones don't really provide enough power to get them really workin well, but that's alright. Two cords, one straight, one coiled, and I've got to say, the locking cable into the headphones, super fan of that. As well as the screw-on 1/4" attachment. So many good things in these headphones, and for $80? Yeah, I'll do that any day. I got these headphones before jumping on a plane, and while there's not active noise cancelling, they do a decent job of passive noise cancelling. Of course, if you crank the volume up, then you won't hear much of anything else, but if you're not inclined to do something like that, then you might be able to hear when someone is trying to get your attention. Not a big deal, for this price range of under $100, it's something I can live without. Are you thinking of getting these headphones? Are you someone with ears? Do you want a pair of headphones that will forever change the way you look at headphones? Have you ever thought, 'wow, maybe if companies didn't spend so much money on advertising, and just put out a good product, would it be cheaper'? If you've ever thought anything like that, then get these headphones. If you've never thought something like that, then ask those questions and get these headphones. I just don't know why they aren't already in your cart.

I came to these after having used 2 gaming headsets (G430, then Arctis 3). Both of them had issues with the cable connections that led me to buy the next pair (no soldering skills here...). Average use for these 2 previous headsets was 2 years with extended game times. On average 3 hours a day during the week and maybe some 6-7 hours on weekend days... wife permitting. For gaming? Really? HECK YEAH! In comparison, the CB-1 has an outstanding sound signature by comparison to my 2 previous headsets mentioned above. Though they were not top end hardware, they were no slouches either and are among the most commonly used headsets these days. The best part? THIS COMPARISON WITH THE CB-1 WAS RIGHT OUT OF THE CB-1 BOX WHICH CAME IN LAST NIGHT! Everything sounds crisp and detailed with good positioning sound stage which is a must in any game. I played an "older" game (SWTOR) which I consider not to be at the same audio level as newer games of today. Wonder how Wildlands will sound? Hmmm... The CB-1 admittedly does not have a mic but there are enough options to help out out there that this should not be a concern. What about music though? Well... I have a few IEM's against which I made my comparison and WOW! I am hearing details like never before. I even have IEM's that I consider "borderline audiophile" IEM's (I am no sound expert so I don't feel I need the expert hardware). I am now hearing details I hadn't heard before without having to spend a ton of money, which was the best part for me. Spent less than some of the IEM's I have (sigh). These 'phones are pocket-friendly and audio-engaging. Build quality? Light. Comfortable. Slight head pressure but they are still new. I assume they will loosen up with time but I don't mind the pressure. It is just enough to insure a full closure of the pads onto my head even when wearing my glasses (which are not pushed into my head with these stock pads). I will say though... they do feel a bit on the "fragile" side but I am guessing that's part of the formula to get them to be so light and comfortable. Just make sure you treat them with a loving hand, don't throw them around or into a back pack (not travel-friendly IMO) and you should be OK. Is there a need to change the pads? Not IMO. The pads, even though not of memory foam, are amazingly accommodating and make a good closure for an enjoyable listening session. If you can find replacement pads of your liking and want to spend the cash... do it. You can always come back to the stock pads. Just think of how you will cope with the guilt feeling of having spent cash unnecessarily ;-p . Speaking of time... I believe these 'phones will physically loosen up over time as I already mentioned above. I also know that the drivers will also loosen up as well so the best sound is still yet to come! Remember, I only got them last night! But, should something happen to these 'phones the price point is such that replacing them (if not by warranty) will not be a hard thing to do. These are pocket-friendly after all. I wouldn't have minded to pay full MSRP on them. Hope this has helped any of you wondering if it's worth making the plunge into buying these. If you are not an audiophile and cam keep good care of your things... just do it. You will not regret it. EDIT: Some spelling...

I will start by saying I am NOT an audiophile; I just like nice sounding headphones. My "collection" of cans and earbuds consist of V-Moda M100, V-Voda Crossfade LP, Apple Airpods, Bose QuietComfort 20. I like earbuds for my daily commute (NYC subway) and nice over ear headphones for home TV media and PC media and gaming. Recently, I wanted another cheaper pari for my PC as backup to my M100's and I thought the CB-1's may fit the bill. Wow, they are great. Keep in mind that these are great FOR THE PRICE. They sound fantastic. Not like my V-Moda's but great nonetheless. Bass is punchy (not muddy) and the highs are pronounced. I really enjoy the sound. Not too much of anything and just right. Great sounding monitors. They do NOT cancel out sound very well. My V-Moda's create a much better seal around my ear. I believe that because the CB-1's have such a thick cusion around the ear, it allows more sound to travel in. However, because of the thickness, these are very comfortable. My gripe with these is the quality. I knew that they are cheap but wow, these are cheap feeling. Plastic for everything. I feel that if I drop them once or twist them just slightly, that they will break. I am not confident tha these will last more than 6-12 months, but for sixty bucks I am okay with that. Additionally, the pleather around the headband is so thin. A tiny scrape of anything would quickly tear this fake leather; and then peeling would start. I am extremely careful with these and hang them up after every use. These would not be good for travel or everyday use (like my trusty M100's). I cannot stress the importance of the price. I would not pay anymore than sixty for these. Anything higher and you should look elsewhere. I also would strongly suggest these be used very delicately and hang or put away when not in use to prolong the life. Otherwise, at sixty buxks, these are a no brainer. I would absolutely recommend.

Status Audio CB1 From the moment you open the package this product is an aesthetic delight. The box is beautiful, thoughtful and sophisticated. The headphones are even better. The is a thin line between clean, simple design and blah. These headphones are solidly on the clean, simple beauty side. Sound is very subjective, so I have to tell you a little about my hearing, my other headphones and the music I like before you can track my opinions. My other headphones are awful. I have a gift of expensive Bluetooth, noise canceling headphones. To me, they sound like listening in a tunnel -- a narrow, dark, damp tunnel. The other pair is a consumer pair I bought in desperation in an airport when I had lost my ear buds. To borrow from Gertrude Stein, "There is no there, there." When I listen to one of the HD frequency sweeps available on line, these headphones outperform my own actual hearing range. Briefly from 20 to 30 hertz I hear nothing. From 35 to 45, I know something is happening, but I am reluctant to call it hearing. From 50 through 10K, I think I hear well. From above 10K to 12K I am back in the something happening, but it wouldn't be right to call it hearing. Above 12K -- alas gone. So music. I have a modest low end DAC that allows me to hear Ultra HD on Amazon Music. I don't yet have a headphone amp. My musical choices are all over the place. Mostly I prefer older stuff, I have listened to for years. For most listening, I prefer female vocalist with great voices -- Nora Jones, China Forbes, Linda Ronstadt,... Although, I have heard my Nora Jones albums hundreds of times, with the Status Audio CB1 headphones, it was like a new experience. The richness and clarity were outstanding. This held up for all vocals. Even the Pointer Sister sound better. Hans Zimmer often uses large, ok giant, sound stages for some of his work. The opening (2049) for Bladerunner 2049 has a thrilling vast sound stage with these headphones. The Status Audio CB1 make me wish for more than 5 starts. An additional delight is the affordable price.

Sooo just to start i've been working professionally in the music industry for over a decade. I wanted some extra Headphones for my talents tracking vocals at my home studio. I have a couple pairs of audio technica M50x but i wanted some Cheaper yet quality pairs of headphones to have my talents use. Alright with that said lets talk about these bad boys. ***This review is only after a few days of testing.*** 1. It's Build is quite sturdy and it has some weight to it surprisingly Premium feel. 2. You get two Chords a long one that will serve well for recording situations a couple meters long (I wish it was a tag longer but no complaints). There is also a Shorter Swivel Cable. I won't go into to much details with the nitty gritty minor quirks overall good here. 3. it Lets just jump into the quality , it sound pretty good ssurprised little of course don't expect these to sound like a 100 dollar plus headphone BUT! they do sound pretty good . Nice clear sound in the frequency spectrum nice replication of lows etc. 'its a bit shallow of a sound when doing stereo work you may run into some problems here all in all they it does a magnificent job for the price. 4. finally Comfort , it's i personally tested it for an hour or two but i 've had a couple 8 hour plus sessions with different artists thus far and they have no problem with it from my just feeling it on my ears for a while it's not the softest but again i got no complaints so it does the job well. 5. Noice Cancellation for this is passive of course i got this for tracking vocals so spill is a no no for me. i don't particularly care to cancel out outside noises but it does a great job at that as i've had to tell the artistes to take off their headset sometimes while i was speaking and on the contrast it will also keep sound in quite nicely. Final takes great headphones for the price. if it lasts long will definitely be buying some more of them i hope this was helpful.

So I bought these after MUCH deliberation and reading tons and tons of reviews on less expensive options to Audio Technica ATH-M50’s. I have listened to those many times, and they are stunning headphones. They sound better than most headphones under $300-500! But they do cost $130-170 (depending on the color, and I wanted the white ones), but for how little I use over the ear headphones, it just isn’t worth it for me. Maybe at some point in the future I’ll treat myself. And since I don’t listen to closed ear/over the ear headphones very often, I kept telling myself, it’s just not worth the money when I rarely will use these headphones. The only headphones I use regularly are my IEM’s at the gym. So I went about trying to find a less expensive alternative that sounded almost as good, but less expensive. Something in the $50-99 range. And after going back and forth on a bunch of options that always had at least one problem, I settled on these Status Audio CB-1’s. The reviews all sounded so great and they look great, and the price is great. But I should have known, that 99% of time in life, you get what you pay for, and that is exactly what happened here. Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t horrible headphones, but the list of things wrong with them for what they cost, and what they CLAIM to be, is just too long. Many many reviews and the company themselves and online reviews from electronic companies claim they sound almost or as good as the vaunted gold std ATH-M50’s. They claim that they isolate sound well. They claim, that even though the bass isn’t super deep and rich like the ATH-M50’s, that it’s still very good. And they claim many many more things. And yet, none of those reviews or claims are correct. I don’t think 99% of the people that own these and have given them a glowing 5 star review here on Amazon have listened to actual really good headphones. Because if they did, they would never make such audacious claims! I think the 5 star glowing reviews are from people that have only listened to garbage headphones and the std apple iphone headphones that come with their phone. These are not 5 star amazing headphones by any stretch of the imagination! They are decent. They sound clean and clear. They are a step up from cheap garbage bottom of the barrel headphones, but nothing else. They are weak in the mid bass and bass frequencies, they are weak in overall volume (I had to have my computer, iphone, ipod, whatever) cranked all the way to max, just to get a good listening volume. It’s impossible to get these really loud, because they can’t get there. The mids and highs are good but nothing sparkling. And the overall sound is just alright, nothing mind blowing or special. The soundstage is nothing special and most of the instruments sound as one. They also leak sound pretty bad. My gf could hear what I was listening to even at moderate volumes from about 10’ away. So for an over the ear headphone that isn’t supposed to be heard by others very easily, that also isn’t good. The positives are small. They look great. I LOVE the simple non branded look. That look is really cool and anything that has small or no logo design is really cool and an A plus in my opinion. The design itself is also good overall and looks great! The earphones fit over your ear really well and the padding is great! The headband is good for a plastic band, and has only moderate plastic squeaking. The cans fold up nicely and the two cord options are great. Also love the heavy duty looking gold plated jack. Also, the price is good, but they need to advertise these things much differently as it is very misleading. These are NOT on par with any headphones in the 100ish or more region. These are headphones for someone looking to upgrade from cheap garbage headphones. That’s it. Most of these reviews are just so far off of reality. These do not sound anything like good $99+ headphones. I have listened to, or owned in the past over 15+ over the ear headphones that cost anywhere from $80-499, and these don’t sound as good as any one of those headphones. I guess my beef with these is not the product itself, but the hype and the reviews. These are great for someone looking to upgrade from cheap garbage headphones. If you’ve never experienced headphones other than your cheap apple earbuds or some other cheap sounding headphone, then by all means, at around $50, these are GREAT for you. But Status Audio needs to turn their “look how awesome I am” horn down, and these reviewers need to listen to high quality headphones before making comparisons to real audiophile grade products, as it is very misleading! Just get the ATH M-50s’ and save yourself the trouble.

Disregard my previous reviews. I think I just needed more time to get used to these. I'm coming from using open headphones and IEMs for the past 10 years. Haven't had a pair of closed studio monitors since I was a kid. Now that I've had some time to re-rip much of my music library into flac, and I'm going through it, listening with these things... Yeah. They're good. -Very balanced sound signature, maybe not 100% perfect but for the money, pretty darn close. I would classify it as 'slightly warm neutral' or 'fun neutral'. It's very neutral though, and the bass extends very deep. -Very detailed, more detailed than any headphones I've owned thus far. -Good positional audio. The soundstage is surprisingly decent for closed cans. -Great imaging. -Bass is tactile while also tight. Great sub bass extension. Doesn't muddy the mids. -I love the single detachable cable! Any TRS can substitute the ones they provide. If you want to use a V-Moda BoomPro for gaming with this, you can. -The Now, I have two caveats. 1 - With an amp, they are vastly better than without. These respond very well to amplification. One major issue is that these bring out the flaws in any bad recording, and those can become quite un-fun to listen to. An amp smooths things over a bit. Not just that, these are very sensitive to different DACs. On my laptop's TRS they're a bit boomy. On my phone's TRS they're a bit sibilant. With my FiiO amp, they sound great. So... I think people getting these who want maximum enjoyment out of them should be prepared to drop some change on an amp of some kind if they don't have one and they have no good DACs on any of their devices. An amp makes the experience consistent across all devices. 2 - I cannot discern whether the pads are removable or not. I thought they were initially until I made an effort to take them off. Now I'm not so sure, and I'm too scared to try further. Fortunately they're comfy as it is. Another note: these are the same as the Somic V1s. Status Audio seem to be a distributor for Somic, rather than an actual unique hardware company. You can look up the Somic reviews. The V1s got some praise on Head Fi. In general, they're great headphones. Status Audio, from what I've seen, is a much more reliable distributor than Somic, and I'd recommend getting these that way. People keep getting smashed boxes or headphones with a broken channel when they try to go through Somic for them. Status seem to be doing better quality control with the stuff going out, and I think that's what the price difference is mainly paying for. Nothing fun about getting new headphones only to realize you have to return them and wait another month.

I'm very much satisfied with these headphones and they impressed me. I paid $79.00 for these headphones. Let me give you some more details on these cans. First off, I'm a music producer, a mixing engineer, recording engineer, mastering engineer, and a songwriter myself. I do the whole works in the studio that I built myself, and I work with quite a few different clients. When it comes to hardware and equipment, I don't buy the most expensive gear, only because you don't need to, to achieve the best results. It's all in how you research and review the gear to determine its quality. I don't buy the cheapest gear either. I know better than that. So here's what I like about the headphones: - Durability. The headband can be bent pretty far and show no signs of breaking or cracking. The can padding seems well stitched, and the 3.5mm input jack with the twist lock is a nice feature. You don't have to worry about internal wiring issues inside the headphones. - Very Comfortable! Some headphones become uncomfortable after wearing them for a short period of time. I myself along with my clients love the comfort of these headphones. The cushioning on both the headband and the cans themselves is well padded. You almost forget you're wearing them! - Isolation Factor. This factor was one of the biggest reasons for me considering a good set of closed back headphones. I didn't want any leakage from the headphones bleeding into the microphone during vocal recordings. I was impressed with these! No leakage into the mic, even at high volume levels while the vocalist is doing an intimate, close micing recording! (though with a trained ear, you could hear the song faintly playing through them if you were in the same room sitting close to the person wearing them, but if the mic doesn't pick it up, it doesn't matter.) - Sound quality. These headphones have a flat frequency response, which is exactly what I was looking for! The frequency response matches my JBL studio monitor speakers almost exactly, which is very helpful and desirable. Also, the clarity and detail is very distinct, and the low end sounds crisp, rich and balanced with the mids and highs. I'm impressed with the playback quality. - My buddy has a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M40x headphones (and they do sound good, but don’t have a flat frequency response, and weak low end), and he wishes he had these Status Audio CB-1. We’ve also compared the Status Audio CB-1 to Vic Firth Stereo Isolation Headphones (Which are the best for isolation, but tend to break. Not very durable. Must take special care with them. Ok sound quality) and Sony MDR7506 Pro Large Diaphragm Headphones (Which are ok at isolation with little leakage, better than Vic Firth at sound quality and durability). Overall, the Status Audio CB-1 Closed Back headphones are better. - Cables included. I love the fact Status Audio included a coiled cable, a straight cable, and a 1/4" jack adaptor. The cables appear to be good quality, and none are faulty. The jacks are gold plated, which offers the best signal processing and durability. There are springs behind the jacks to help prevent strain on the cords themselves. The cables were a bonus feature that made me lean towards these. I only have one concern, and that's how well the actual foam/cushioning inside the can padding will hold up. If they start to scrunch up over periodic use, it may become an issue either with the isolation factor or the comfort factor. But so far, they seem like they retain their full shape. I recommended these to a few of my music enthusiasts. Unfortunately, these headphones are temporarily unavailable on Amazon right now. I'm hoping Status Audio will continue to sell these. With as good reviews that it had on Amazon, I would think it would be an unwise business decision to discontinue them. I would definitely like to buy another pair of these headphones! Make it available again!