Great-sounding, Solid Workhorse for DJs

These have been my DJ headphones for going on four years now. They have lasted through many parties and harsh conditions and have never let me down yet. They go very loud without any distortion or losing audio quality. Actually, I usually find myself turning down the monitoring levels from people before me using the run of the mill Sony 'phones.

I have to admit, I don't like any of the Sony headphones very much. They just don't sound right to me, distort even at medium input levels, and they're ugly. And now everyone you see has them .. the big horrid mushy silver things on their head (when I got these Pioneers, Sony was still making the gold 900-series). Sennheisers are just too expensive and difficult to find anyone who sells the good model HD-25. Technics headphones seemed too heavy, small and brittle (everyone I know who has those Technics has since had problems with the swivels breaking). So my quest to find something with great sound that was less than $350 CDN lead me to these.

I can do without the foam shoulder pad and belt clip provided in the box, but the swivel-action earpieces are great for flexibility when monitoring either one-ear or on your shoulder. The cord is coiled so you don't step on it when searching through your record bag, and has a swivel attachment so the cable doesn't get bent or yanked out of the socket - on the down side, this cable is not easily replaceable to the best of my knowledge. One of the coolest features is they let you switch them to mono mode to make sure you're not missing anything when you are only using one ear to cue up, match and mix in the next track (Pioneer had this feature before any of the copycats like Stanton).

Obviously these headphones have been completely built for DJs. The sound might sound a bit too dry and flat when listening at home, but you will love them for it when you get into a party atmosphere. They let you hear all the parts of the music without drowning your ears in bass or treble. When worn for long periods of time (over 2 hours) they can become uncomfortable due to the weight and medium-sized ear pieces which are slightly larger than Sennheiser and slightly smaller than Sony, and I find that the mid-range response tires my ears out so I opt to do most of my home listening with my Grado 'phones.

Summing up, if you're looking for DJ headphones and want some kit that is less expensive than and on-par quality wise with Sony or Sennheiser and performs perfectly in party environments then take a serious look at these Pioneer 5000s.