Booming In Your Ear

Reloop have been around for a while, and have been slowly and surely building up a reputation for quality DJing gear at extremely good prices. Covering every aspect of the market from CD decks to controllers, they are now paying attention to the humble headphones, and have come up with a new product, the RHP-20, that rivals Pioneer’s HDJ2000 for looks and functions.

The RHP-20 headphones are Reloop’s new top-level product for DJs, and mean business. To be honest, their previous range weren’t that inspiring; they lacked the cool of the RHP-20s. Too much plastic, and the sound quality wasn’t amazing. This has now been addressed, as the new model is made from lightweight aluminium, whilst the headband is made from a nice rubber material. The build makes the ’phones very sturdy and sure, but also very light on the head, which is a bonus for DJs wearing them for a long time. The ear cups have that memory foam, faux leather feel to them, and sit nicely on the ears. All in all, a very good start.

The RHP-20s are designed for professional DJ use, and so have to stand up to the demands of many DJing environments. This is capably taken care of. To start with, they’re loud — this is good, as there are times when phones don’t quite cut it in the booth, as they are just not booming enough. The downside to loud ’phones is they tend to distort or break up when they are pushed to the limit. Not so with Reloop’s offering — the sound remained stable, even at high output levels. Word of warning: whilst the RHP-20s can go loud, it’s not advisable to listen to music on full levels for long periods of time, as those ears will bear the brunt and the damage caused could be career ending. Overall, the sound on the ’phones is nice — quite a juicy bottom-end, clear mids and clean tops. A good sound balance.

The audio is quite coloured to offer a rich and wholesome sound, but this isn’t a problem, especially when using them for DJing duties. Just be careful if and when using them in the studio for recording or producing, as it could make mixes sound wrong — the end result is quite deceiving. This goes for all headphones, and not just the RHP-20s. DJmag tested various styles of electronic dance music through them and they responded fantastically, especially with bass-heavy genres like dubstep and bass. This is partly due to the wide frequency range found in the RHP-20s — 3Hz to 30Khz. Without getting too technical, the human ear operates in a frequency range of 20Hz to 20Khz: headphones that have lower and higher numbers respectively usually relate to headphones that sound more dynamic. Bearing in mind that the human ear can’t pick up these extra frequencies, there is a school of thought that it is psychoacoustic and users still get the benefits of these extended frequency ranges due to the magical science of sound messing with the mind. If nothing more, at the lower bass frequency levels, users will definitely feel the vibrations of the bass in the ear cups.

Looks are everything these days in DJ culture and the RHP-20s look the part but also function well. The sturdy fold and swivel mechanism allows for easy one-ear listening, as the user can push the cups up into a natural feeling position that sits well on the head. The cord is removable and replaceable — a must for all modern DJing ’phones, and there is also a handy carry bag to protect them during travel and storage.

DJmag would quite happily put these ’phones on our Christmas wish lists, as they come in for around £100 — not outrageous by any means, especially considering the quality that the RHP-20s represent. Reloop have a stellar pair of headphones in the RHP-20s and DJmag hopes this new direction will be replicated in future models to come.