Beyerdynamic Soul Byrd Review – Sleeping Beauty
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Beyerdynamic Soul Byrd is a discontinued budget dynamic-driver earphone with a mainstream V-shaped tuning and middling technicalities that excels by its form factor – and lives up when amped. A great example of how an underdog can get a lot of attention. You can still get its successor, the Blue Byrd ANC (2nd gen.).
Beyerdynamic are a company out of Heidelberg, Germany. They were founded in 1920 in Berlin by Eugen Beyer, producing mainly headphones and microphones. Together with Sennheiser, they currently hold the German flag in these categories high up.
The Beyerdynamic DT 48 were the world’s first dynamic headphones, introduced in 1937 and produced in various evolutions until 2013. The DT 100, introduced in the 1960s, are still the industry’s standard headphones for studio monitoring. You can see it on the heads of BBC radio DJs since then.
Today, Beyerdynamic are known for their DT 770 and DT 990 headphones. On the earphone side, Beyerdynamic produced only a handful models, the $1000 Xelento being their most famous. In the budget category, the company offered the Byron and Soul Byrd.
I purchased the Soul Byrd in 2020 on sale (I paid $58.53 CAD; regular $110 CAD). It was a purchase “for the team” after somebody had recommended them in our Facebook group.
The Soul Byrd are haptically nothing special. The cable is not detachable, they don’t have fancy faceplates or anything, the material is cheapish plastic. Alone the carrying case is great as it is flat like a pancake with a nice orang lining. Very handy.
In terms of technical capabilities, the Soul Byrd plays at the bottom of its category: detail retrieval is meh, it lacks punch, is hard to drive at 18 ohm impedance and 103 dB sensitivity, and micro detail is not there at all. It could have more life. So why bother?
Sonically, the Soul Byrd has excellent timbre, so typical for German headphones, and a middle-of-the road V-shape. And adding a reasonably potent source as little powerful as the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt or Red unleashes its spirit…at least to some extent.
So why is this risky dinky little iem one of my most used over more than three years? It is the comfort and fit: I use it in bed. The little earpieces with the proprietary earplugs are our genius for this purpose. I can lie on the side with these, the earpieces don’t stick out but sit flush in the ear. This also works under bike helmets but I would not recommend it for safety reasons.
Back to my bed: I listen to live talk radio but also to music files…and for long periods of time. The Soul Byrd are so comfy both physically and sonically.
| SPECIFICATIONS Beyerdynamic Soul Byrd Transducer Type: dynamic Impedance: 18 Ω Sensitivity: 103 dB SPL(1mW/500Hz) Frequency range: 10 – 25000 Hz Cable/Connector: fixed and generic, 3.5 mm plug Tested at: $60 CAD…discontinued, replaced by wireless version Product page: Beyerdynamic |
You have to give it to the Germans since Bach and Beethoven that they know what sounds natural. The Soul Byrd may not be the last word in sophistication, but they are highly pragmatic. On top of all this, the Soul Byrd feature a three-button control with microphone for phone calls. A set of proprietary tips in 5 sizes is included.
You won’t find anything like the Soul Byrd…which have now been replaced by the Blue Byrd ANC (2nd generation).
Until next time…keep on listening!
