I don’t see many posts on here about the Beyerdynamic TYGR 300R, so figured I would discuss my impressions.
My current gear and equipment after months of testing multiple headphones, amps, and dacs is the Hifiman Sundara, Topping E30, JDS Labs Atom Amp, and now the Beyerdynamic TYGR 300R’s.
The reason for my purchase of the 300R was specifically for gaming as they are easy enough to drive off of an xbox controller (Although I now have my Xbox series X setup with my DAC/AMP at my desktop, I wanted something easy enough to drive when I use it on a TV as well.) and excellent imaging. The Sundara has excellent imaging for music, but in games, it’s not great for precise directional cue’s with competitive FPS (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare). To my great surprise, with a bit of EQ, they are excellent for Music as well for the price.
I won’t go into much detail on the physical design as it’s the same as all the Beyerdynamic DT770,880, and 990 series. They are very comfortable, light weight, well built, and suffer from one single annoyance… non-detachable cable. With that said, the cable quality is excellent and the TYGR 300r’s cable is a moderate length at 1.6 meters and is excellent for desktop/gaming use.
Now, for the sound, I’ll break it into two parts, one for gaming, the other for music.
First, it should be known that the drivers are modified DT 990’s with dampening in the highs and at 32 ohms.
For gaming, I am pulling audio using a HDMI Splitter that gives me an TOSLINK connection to the E30 DAC then going through the JDS Labs ATOM amp. The sound quality doing this is much better than the output from the controller and really makes these headphones shine.
Imaging for gaming: Superb. I have not heard any other headphone at this price point with such incredible imaging. Directional ques in COD: MW are pinpoint and you can rely on them to know exactly where an enemy is coming from. COD has great sound quality and a massive emphasis on footsteps.
Soundstage: Sound stage is moderate on these headphones, it’s more than enough to enjoy gaming, but a very large sound stage can be distracting and make positional cues difficult to assess. It’s not nearly as small as the HD 6XX series, I would put it on par with the HD 560s.
Bass: For gaming, the bass is good, not great. There is a sub-bass roll off with an elevated bass (100-300 hz or so) which makes explosions and effects in games impactful and exciting, however, it’s not nearly as messy as the Fidelio X2HR and does not hinder imaging or directional cues.
Mids: Mids are decent, they are recessed without EQ and the bass hump does bleed a bit into the mids, but in gaming, this is less important as the elevated bass gives you a nice experience within the game and the treble rises nicely to maintain detail and clarity.
Treble: The treble is surprisingly good on these. It’s not sibilant (not to me) which is awesome considering beyerdynamics reputation of being spicy in the treble on most their headphones, it’s not the smoothest treble ever but a lot of detail comes through and it helps balance out the extra bass to ensure the bass does not make the headphone sound to recessed. This was an issue I had with the SHP9600, the treble was dampened so much that they sounded muddy and missing the entire high end. For gaming this makes gun shots and foot steps really stand out, paired with the excellent imaging it makes these headphones the best I’ve tried for gaming at $200 and below.
For music: When listening to music, EQ is a huge improvement in my opinion and makes them excellent. With EQ I bring the 200-300 hz range down quite a bit while elevating the sub-bass at 50 hz and below, then bring the mids up slightly and the treble spike at 5500 hz down a hair. These minor tweaks really bring the headphone to life.
Sound stage: As mentioned above, it’s an OK sound stage, not quite as large as the Sundara (which isn’t super wide anyways), but more more so than the HD 6XX line, it’s about on part with the soundstage on the HD 560s.
Detail retrieval: Very good for a $200 (I picked them up for $169 when they had the Holiday Sale) and being a dynamic driver. Of all the dynamic driver headphones I’ve tested in the $200 and below range, they are the best I’ve tried for detail retrieval and slightly outshine the HD 560s in my opinion.
Imaging: Excellent for music as well, listening to tracks from Yosi Horikawa is really impressive on these as you can hear small changes in positioning of the different sounds and noises.
Resolve and Speed: For a dynamic driver sub $200, it’s excellent. Now, compared with the Hifiman Sundara, this is probably where they separate the most. The Sundara’s resolve and speed is just sooo good. I enjoy a wide range of music and for heavy metal with heavily distorted guitars, you can really tell how fast and resolving a driver is as the heavy distortion with a great headphone and source will have a lot of detail and layers that you don’t get from lower quality or slower drivers. Tool’s song “Pneuma” is a great test for this. The TYGR 300R performs well and out beats any other dynamic driver I have tested in this price range, but it still is no match for the incredible sound the Sundara produces of the guitars for this track.
Timbre: This is one area where I think the 300R outperforms the Sundara. Vocal timbre is very natural and life-like on the TYGR where the Sundara can sometimes sound a bit metallic/over detailed with vocalists.
Bass: This is probably my least favorite part of the headphone without tuning, the bass/midbass bloat does bleed into the lower mids. This was very obvious in the song “Anyone” by Justin Bieber. This song has a background melody that bleeds heavily into the mids without EQ. When I add EQ by dropping the 200-300 hz range down a bit and bringing the sub-bass up, it cleans it up a ton while still having a nice bass impact and presence. The bass is not nearly as fast or clean as the Sundara, but is still good compared to most other dynamic drivers in this price range.
Mids: The mids without EQ are a bit withdrawn and recessed, which is unfortunate as the detail and timbre in the mids is great. once you EQ the bass, you can bring the mids around 2500 hz up a very slight amount and it helps bring them to the front. These sound great for vocals. Will it outclass the HD 6xx or 58x at this price point? No. But it does do vocals very well and they are very natural sounding compared to most other headphones I’ve heard at this price point.
Treble: The treble is good, it’s not perfectly smooth, but not sibilant either. It’s elevated enough to shine through with detail and sparkle which makes cymbals sound crisp, clear, and realistic. I did add a bit of EQ to bring the 5500 hz spike down a bit, but with the 2500 hz EQ edition, it puts it in line with the treble and sounds good.
Driveability: These are low impedance at 32 ohms, but are not particularly sensitive. They are about the same drivability as the HD 560s was and most sources should have no problem driving them. With that said, some weaker sources may struggle when using a negative pre-amp to account for EQ adjustments.
Overall: At $200, these compete directly with the HD 560s in my opinion, if I had to choose between the two, I would probably choose the TYGR 300R over the 560s for a few reasons. First, imaging is a step above on the TYGR, resolve and detail retrieval I found to be a bit better with the 300R as well. The tonality without EQ of the 560s was better in my opinion, especially the bass, but with EQ, the 300R is pretty close.
For anyone who is looking for an awesome headphone to use with Gaming, movies, and music at the $200 price point or below, The TYGR 300R should def be on the top of your list.
Disclaimer: I paid for these out my own pocket and have no affiliation with Beyerdynamic or any other headphone company. I do not make any money from doing this, it’s simply me wanting to share my experiences with these headphones.
