Bring The Noise: Hammer time with PSB M4U 2

“WHAT THE HELL!!!!!” I belted out loud while projecting them from my head to the floor beneath me. This is the first time I tossed on the PSB M4U 2. I did not pay any attention the volume on my media player. Crap those thing are loud.

So begins the adventure with PSB.

I had the pleasure of toying with these beasts of a headphone for a couple weeks. So let me tell you what you would be getting in to with them.

As you noticed from above they kind of scared the crap out me a bit the first time. As a warning to all prolific users of headphone (of any kind) please check volume before playing Metallica trapped under ice.

Design

The PSB M4U 2 come in 2 colors Black and White. Size wise they are pretty big and do holster some weight. “AND THE HEADPHONES IN THE BLACK CORNER WEIGHING IN AT 0.8LBS M4U 2!!!!!” and the crowd goes wild…. Oh ya back to the review. Part of this weight is because of the batteries for the noise cancelation. In the bottom of the very comfy and cushiony Leatherette ear cups are a 3.5mm input for the headphone cable. So you can have it come down either side of your head. These cans have a beautiful Polycarbonate gloss finish headband.

The collapsible ear cups are supported very well with a metal hinge. Strong like bull.

So in short might be heavy but well-built design and comfortable for normal time use.

Sound Quality

Like before let’s get the tech specs out of the way so we can talk about the most important part of this review.

Max. Sound pressure level @ 102db
Impedance 32ohms
Total harmonic distortion <0.5% with ANC on
0.25% with ANC off

I love headphones. Simply because there is nothing to get in the way of sound. It is you and your music. This delicious package of audio did not hit everything I want in a headphone but what it did hit was amazing.

Here are a few songs and how they handled.

#1 Good bye horses by Q Lazarus – When Q is singing she has a very low tone so the PSB held her notes in almost audio perfection.
#2 Burning down the house by Tom Jones and The Cardigans – I love Tom Jones he has a great voice with a killing range and the lead sing from the Cardigans has such a soft steady tone. Sadly the PSB did not represent Tom Jones range that great but kept pumpin hard with instrumental components.
#3 Trapped under ice by Metallica – This great metal band is one of the most talented musically based metal band ever. What I mean is the have rhythm in their music, not just smashing the crap out there instruments to make loud and completely useless noise. With this the PSB did well and really capturing the experience of the music.

The next area we are going over is the PSB Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). There are 3 settings on here Active, ANC, and Passive.
When testing the ANC I was very impressed. Normally I have notice when activating noise cancellation the music is affected. The PSB holds it all together pretty good. The Active mode just gave it good old kick in the pants and AMPED it to the next level. But Most impressive is that is has a passive mode and yes your volume drops the richness stays on strong.

Final thoughts
A little clunky but manageable some great sound as long as it is mostly mids and lows (way more highs then a beats by dre though)
I would definitely buy these cans. They wouldn’t be my #1 headphone but defiantly in my top 5. So if you are looking for a great way to spend $399.99 besides donating it to me cause I do these Reviews for free.

BUY THESE HEADPHONES