Gaming Headsets Don’t Get Much Better Than The Beyerdynamic MMX 300 Pro
There are a bevy of great wireless gaming headsets on the market, many of which pack several key features that we’ve come to expect. High-end wired headphones, however – the kind from companies like Sennheiser or Audio Technica that audiophiles gravitate towards – tend to focus on the things that matter most in the audio experience: comfort and sound quality. Beyerdynamic is in the conversation as well, and with its new MMX 300 Pro, you get a wired headset with that audiophile-level of sound quality, paired with impressive clarity from its built-in microphone.
At a regular price of $300 USD, it’s a tough pitch considering that even the best wireless gaming headsets can be found for lower. But at the high-end where studio-grade audio quality is achievable, the MMX 300 Pro shows why good audio is worth investing in.
The MMX 300 Pro is built on a metal frame with leather-like padding wrapped around the headband for comfort – the padding buckles onto the headset so you can remove it, although there wouldn’t be any reason to do so unless you want to customize or replace it. Each earcup extends out to accommodate bigger heads and voluminous hair as most headphones or headsets would. The frame itself is flexible and can twist or contort without feeling like it’s going to snap or get damaged, so you get the impression of durability right off the bat.
What makes the MMX 300 Pro comfortable to wear for long sessions is the densely padded earcups with their velvety velour upholstery. Velour is my favorite material for earcups on headphones and headsets, and these strike a wonderful balance between comfort, breathability, and sound isolation. Although the headset has a slightly tight clamp to it, I never felt like there was too much pressure even after two or three hours of wearing them. And over the course of a week of using them daily, they started to break in and feel even easier to wear.
This isn’t a flashy headset; Beyerdynamic puts out the type of headsets that are no-nonsense, so you’ll see only a bit of branding along the side of what’s an otherwise fairly discreet-looking product. One thing to note here is that the microphone on the left earcup is not detachable – it can rotate nearly 360-degrees around to get it out of your face, and the gooseneck-style mic arm flexes into place so you can lock it into any position you need, but if you want the MMX 300 Pro to look like just a pair of headphones, well, sorry.
The MMX 300 Pro is a slim package; you get the headset, a 3.5mm dongle to unify the audio and microphone jacks (handy for consoles), and a pop filter for the mic – that’s it. Along the detachable 8.2-foot cable is the microphone mute toggle and volume control wheel (which acts independently of the device it’s connected to).
Since this is a wired analog headset, there are no onboard features like active noise canceling, built-in microphone feedback, or swappable EQ presets via software. This headset is tuned a specific way, so if you want to pair it with an amplifier or DAC, you can definitely get a more custom audio profile, but those are factors outside of the headset itself.
However, there’s a comfort in knowing that what you hear is what you get – especially when the MMX 300 Pro delivers some of the best audio I’ve experienced from a closed-back gaming headset. That’s because of Beyerdynamic’s “Stellar.45” audio drivers, which are also found on the professional-grade DT 700 Pro X and DT 900 Pro X headphones.
The MMX 300 Pro has the best sound quality I’ve experienced when compared to your typical gaming headset. By using the same tech found in its high-end headphones, Beyerdynamic stakes its claim on uncompromising audio, and that’s the hope considering the price tag.
As with other audio gear, I played ranked matches of Counter-Strike 2 and cleared several raid instances in Final Fantasy XIV, in addition to using the MMX 300 Pro as my daily headphones for music – the results were fantastic. Everything sounds full and bold due to its strong bass that doesn’t get distorted at loud volumes. Yet it remains balanced so as to not drown out other frequencies, so the clarity of mids and vocals are still highlighted. And with highs that tend to be ear-piercing at loud volumes on lower-end headsets, the MMX 300 Pro handled them wonderfully, letting me enjoy the details in the sound design of the games I played.
In Counter-Strike 2, gunshots and explosions didn’t sound distorted and had a punchy edge to them. But what’s most important in a game like this is positional audio. This being a closed back headset, you tend to lose some of the spatial audio advantages of open-back headphones or a gaming headset with audio profiles specifically designed to tease out certain types of sounds or simulate distance. For gameplay in particular though, I still wouldn’t say I was at a disadvantage or advantage compared to other high-end headsets I’ve used. Even without special gaming features, the clarity and detail was enough for me to anticipate enemies around corners and figure out their actions to inform my decisions in a match. So to be clear, the MMX 300 Pro is no slouch here, which is expected from a headset of this caliber.
For Final Fantasy XIV, the new Dawntrail raid series introduced several incredible new songs, so I was happy to play with the sound at full blast. As I’ve said in the past, with all the sound effects of spells and attacks going off simultaneously in a party of eight players, FFXIV can be very busy sonically. However, it was nice to hear everything in full detail without any particular frequency sounding crunchy and still have the soundtrack playing in all its glory.
Some budget headsets are able to get away from their limitations with software-side solutions, but this can sometimes sound artificial. Audio gear in this range, on the other hand, doesn’t suffer from that problem, which is why I tend to gravitate towards headphones from companies like Beyerdynamic. I use the Sennheiser HD 599 as my everyday headphones, but the bolder bass of the MMX 300 Pro actually has me a bit bummed to go back to old faithful (I still love my Sennheisers, though). So, as someone who cares a lot about sound in the gaming experience, the MMX 300 Pro represents the kind of audio experience I believe is worth paying for.
To my surprise, it’s the microphone that justifies the price. I’m using an Elgato Wave 3 as my external microphone at the moment and will continue to do so. But if I had to rely on the MMX 300 Pro’s built-in mic, I wouldn’t be mad – in fact, I’d be pretty happy. I recorded my voice through Audacity and compared the two side-by-side, and the mic on the MMX 300 Pro rivals mid-range standalone mics. It has clarity worthy of streaming, podcasting, or just recording your voice for content creation. Even just hopping into Discord with friends, they were surprised to hear I was using a headset mic. Compared to the Elgato Wave 3, the headset mic is a bit muffled and still has some popping when pronouncing P’s (even with the pop filter), but the overall quality is very impressive. Simply put, the MMX 300 Pro has the best built-in headset microphone I’ve used thus far.
One caveat to consider, however, is that since this is a closed-back headset, it’s tough to hear yourself talk if you don’t have a way to monitor the microphone feed. With open-back headphones, this isn’t much of an issue, and good headsets like the recent Turtle Beach Stealth 600 and Atlas Air I reviewed recently offer sidetone.