beyerdynamic MMX 300 Review

The MMX 300 finished just behind the Cloud Stinger. It is less comfortable and less convenient to use, but it has better audio quality.

Performance Comparison

To score and rank these products, we first had to determine which ones even had the potential to be crowned the best gaming headset. We did this by looking at as many other reviews and user experiences we could find, then picked the top models to purchase and test each of those headsets head-to-head. Our testing process is divided up into four weighted rating metrics, with the beyerdynamic's results below.

Comfort

Responsible for the largest chunk of the overall score at 40%, being comfortable is the most important characteristic for these products. We scored each product on the opinions of a panel of testers that wore each of these headsets for a full day if they weren't overly uncomfortable. Unfortunately, our group of users wasn't too enamored with the beyerdynamic, earning it a 5 out of 10 for its lackluster results.

This headset has absolutely giant ear cups, so there weren't any issues with it cramping your ears, but it tended to squeeze the majority of our testers' heads in an uncomfortable way.

This meant that the bulk of them called it quits wearing these headsets after 3 or 4 hours, deeming it way too unpleasant to continue wearing. Only one of our testers was fine wearing them for a full day.

The headband on the MMX 300 is padded and covered with leatherette. Surprisingly, it doesn't feel incredibly tight when you first put it on, especially with the main complaint with this product being that it over-squeezes your head.

It has semi-firm padding in the ear cups, covered in velvet, but this wasn't enough to abate the excessive pressure. However, we did find that the velvet ear cups are quite nice, even though they tended to get a little sweaty when playing in warmer rooms.

Audio

The MMX 300 redeemed itself in our sound quality test, which is worth 30% of the total score, earning an 8 out of 10 for its stellar performance. We looked at how both voice and music sounded through the beyerdynamic, as well as how easily you could identify the origin of a sound and how it did in a suite of dedicated audio benchmarking tests.

This headset does an excellent job of playing back other players' voices, recreating them as if they were sitting across from you in the same room. It is always crystal-clear and easily understandable — on par with the best headsets that we have seen.

It did equally well when listening to music or the soundtrack from a game, delivering exceptionally well-balanced sound, again matching the performance of the other top products. The beyerdynamic continued its dominance in our benchmarking tests, delivering booming bass with only a tiny amount of parasitic buzz in our bass quality test and having well-matched drivers all the way through the frequency spectrum in our diver matching test.

Moving on to how it dealt with position, the beyerdynamic again did very well, as expected at this point. It delivered an almost perfect performance in our binaural benchmarking test but did a little worse with our in-game testing. Our testers were able to correctly identify the location of in-game sounds about half the time, whether it was quiet footsteps or approaching aircraft.

We also liked that the MMX 300 filters out undesirable background noise, like people talking or a fan running, reducing it by about 40% for voices and about 15% or so for white noise.

Microphone

Moving on to the microphone test, the beyerdynamic again did very well, matching its score in the sound tests with another 8 out of 10 — tying for the top spot overall. This headset does a fantastic job picking up your voice, with some of the people we played with always being the most excited when we used this headset. Your voice comes across very clear and close to real life, with the only slight distortion being a minimal lowering of your voice. There were also some tiny amounts of fuzz and feedback. However, these were only minimal issues and we were blown away in our sibilant sound and hard "t" tests — much better than the majority of the headsets we tested.

This product also does extraordinarily well at filtering out background noises if someone wasn't talking, totally filtering out the sounds of typing and extremely reducing the noises of a fan running or if you were eating. Unfortunately, it does an almost too good job at picking up voice, picking up every side conversation around you, even if it is happening 10- 15 ft. away.

Ease of Use

For our last set of test, we looked at how much work it is to use each headset on a daily basis and if there are any particularly annoying attributes. The MMX 300 did fairly well, earning a 5 out of 10 for its middle-of-the-road performance in these tests, which account for the residual 10% of the total score.

This model has inline controls, allowing you to adjust the volume and mute the mic without using your keyboard, as well as a few other buttons for media control, accepting calls, and temporarily muting the mic.

However, the cord is a bit on the short side, restricting your motion and the switch to mute the mic can't easily be hit quickly.

The cable is detachable — and replaceable — but there is no way to activate a mic sidetone or detach the mic.

Value

The beyerdynamic is a terrible value, scoring below a handful of headsets that cost hundreds of dollars less.

Conclusion