The Lowdown
Here at Digital DJ Tips, we like stuff that can be used in more than one way. Headphones that can be used for DJing and when you’re out and about tick that box for us – and when they do it as stylishly as these do, there’s really not much to dislike.
If you are looking for the best, but don’t want a big, cliched pair of chunky DJ phones, and particularly if you want just the one pair that you can use for all your monitoring needs, these have the looks, longevity and sound quality to tick your boxes.
Video Review
First Impressions / Setting up
They’re lovely. They’re full sized but not too big, thanks to the slim metal earcup couplings and just-big-enough casing around the 50mm drivers. The elongated hexagonal design brings to mind Aviators and 50s America, while still possessing something contemporary, and the leather they’ve used in both the earcups and the headband design is of the highest quality. My favourite touch is that the cables, both wired within the units themselves and the detachable cables that come with them, are fabric rather than plastic covered; you feel plastic covered cables just wouldn’t cut it! The LP2s come in a moulded hard case that’s equally cool, containing two cables (an iPhone remote cable and a normal version – no coiled cable for DJing though), plus two gunmetal replacement plate shields for the earcups, a fixing kit for those (screws / Allen key), a cleaning cloth, a little instruction book and an 1/8″ to 1/4″ adaptor.
In Use
Firstly they’re really comfortable. They sit nicely over the ears, and the leather and padding are soft. They look nice and slimline when on, too; a factor of their slight design. This means you won’t look a fool wearing them out and about. The detachable cables have no “twist to lock” function, but the plug fits quite tightly, so unless you thrash your head around a lot when listening to music, or like to run through bushes with your headphones on or something equally extreme, you’re not likely to accidentally yank the cable free from the earcup.
The earcups don’t move much. Most DJ headphones have a lot of movement in the earcups, but these have maybe a 30 degree up/down movement in them, and no front/back movement at all. If you habitually monitor with one earcup turned 90 or 180 degrees in one direction or another, they won’t suit you. But if like me you tend to physically hold one earcup on one of your ears when beatmixing, you won’t worry; because they’re not very big, it’s easy enough to tuck the other earcup out of the way. Alternatively, if you tend to tuck the unneeded earcup a bit further back on your head when Djing, they’re fine. Also due to their slimline proportions, they sit nicely round your neck when you’re between mixes. If they were any bigger this wouldn’t be the case. I had no complaints at all about the sound quality, or the isolation – two important things for DJs, of course. Sound-wise they had deep bass, nice stereo staging, and a comfortable tail-off as you reached the top end, with everything present but nothing too dominating. They’d be great for long-term listening, but th good level of isolation (due to those soft pads) means they’re equally well suited sound-wise for DJing.
Conclusion
These are clearly a boutique item, reflected in the price, accessories and ethos. For instance, if you break them, you can send them to V-Moda and they’ll send you a 50% off voucher for your next purchase, so once you’ve bought one pair, you’re always going to get replacement pairs at half price.
Because they’re very lightly branded (there’s a subtle V-Moda on the headband that I didn’t even notice at first), they’re ripe for customisation, and the enclosed gunmetal replacement earcup shields are begging for you to paint on your own logo or other custom design. Here at Digital DJ Tips, we like stuff that can be used in more than one way. Headphones that can be used for DJing and when you’re out and about tick that box for us – and when they do it as stylishly as these do, there’s really not much to dislike. If you are looking for the best, but don’t want a big, cliched pair of chunky DJ phones, and particularly if you want just the one pair that you can use for all your monitoring needs, these have the looks, longevity and sound quality to tick your boxes. If only they’d included a coiled cable for DJ use (preferred by many DJs, including me), they’d have been pretty much perfect. But as they are, they’re close enough.
