Pro-Ject Hear-It 1

Pro-Ject Audio Systems is best known as a leading manufacturer of affordable audiophile turntables, but now -- with the $129 Hear It One -- the company has entered the headphone market. You'd expect, then, to get an affordable audiophile headphone -- and you mostly do. But while the company's debut model sounds decent and is comfortably lightweight, the headphone space has become extremely competitive, and the Hear It One design doesn't do quite enough to distinguish itself to measure up to its $129 price tag.

Design and features
The Hear It One may be classified as a full-size, over-the-ear headphone, but its ear cups are smaller than the ones on the Audio Technica ATH-M50s. If you have big ears the Hear It One's oval-shaped pads won't completely cover your ears. The headphone is unusually light, just 6.5 ounces, but its moderately high ear pad pressure made for a fairly uncomfortable fit after a few hours of use, and the faux leather pads might make your ears sweat in warm weather. The closed-back design does a fair job hushing environmental noise, and people nearby won't hear much sound "leaking" from the Hear It Ones. The mix of faux leather, gloss black plastic, and real aluminum caps on the ear cups is attractive, but the Hear It One looks like a near twin of the $30 Incipio f38 and the $70 Fischer Audio FA-004 v2 headphones. (Note: The Hear It One does weigh more than the Incipio f38 -- 0.42 pounds vs. 0.36 -- so it's quite possible that the Hear It One has higher-grade drivers and other components).

The Hear It One looks very similar to a couple of other headphones that cost less.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Like those two phones the Hear It One's ear cups slide up and down over steel wires that exit a plastic housing to compensate for different sized/shaped heads, but a gentle twist of the cups revealed some play, and that didn't inspire confidence for the headphone's long-term durability. Then again, the headphone comes with a two-year parts and labor warranty, and that's double the coverage of most headphones in the Hear It One's price range. It features 38mm drivers, which have a rated impedance of 32 ohms. It's an efficient design, so the Hear It One can play nice and loud with an iPod or phone.

The earcups are nicely padded.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Some of the Hear It One's design choices are out of step with the competition, starting with the fact that the headphone has a permanently attached, fabric-covered cable, terminated with an all-metal 3.5mm plug. The 42-inch long high-purity oxygen-free copper cable feels a little stiff and has a tendency to kink. We consider the non user-replaceable cable a major design flaw, because when the cable or connector fails, the headphone will have to be returned for service (the two-year warranty might come in handy at that point). That's why most competing headphones have user-replaceable cables. Worse yet, the Hear It One's cable doesn't have a mic or phone remote controls.

Accessories include a 6.3mm gold-plated adapter plug and a very basic soft carry bag. However, the Hear It One doesn't fold flat, so it's not as travel-friendly as we'd like.

The carrying bag is very basic.