Maxell MXH-DD600 Dual Dynamic Earphones Review

Maxell is a brand that you would probably associate with cassette tapes, or floppy disks and CDs, or batteries. Not a lot of people know that they’ve been making headphones since 2005. Today, I encountered my first dual dynamic earphones which is getting more popular these days along with hybrids.

The Maxell MXH-DD600 canal earphones possess two dynamic type drivers, a 6mm at the front to handle the mid/high frequency, and an 8mm dynamic driver placed at the back position for a solid, and powerful low frequency band. It’s a pretty new audio technology for consumer headphones and promises to deliver better range than your typical single-driver cans.

Packaging-wise, Maxell went with an ordinary look so nothing special around here. Inside the box you’ll get the earphones and additional silicon tips for you to play with. A letdown in that department.

The MXH-DD600 has a long cone-shaped high modulus aluminum body that houses the dual dynamic drivers for each earpiece. This type of casing reduces acoustic vibration but is bigger than your typical earphone, the sacrifice you have to make for having two drivers in one. In fact, I find it looking rather silly having a horn-shaped thing sticking it out of your ears.

This earphones use a flat cable with an angled tip. It’s purely made for listening as there are no built-in mic component on the cable nor any form of remote control for your music.

So anyway, that’s all I can say about the design. It’s time for the performance. First time I put these on, I really am not impressed since it sounded like your typical headphones in the Php2k range. Thought it needed a bit of burn in to hear its true signature so that’s what I did. After about 5 hours worth of burn-in, lo and behold, huge improvements.

Admittedly, I really don’t know what to expect from a dual dynamic driver earphones but I guess it’s a good thing that it was like listening to a single driver earphone, but with more power and distinguishable details especially between the mids/highs and the lows. Soundstage is not the deepest I’ve heard on an IEM although I don’t mind it that much since we’re getting better frequency clarity here.

Here’s what I noticed trying it out on different tunes. With Lumineer’s Ho Hey, I like the distinct separation between the treble and the guitar against the claps, shouts, and drums, without drowning out one another. Like the vocals is surrounded by people doing the shouts and claps. With Trey Songz’s 2 Reasons, the bass was more pronounced for this song, powerful without sounding muffled and didn’t blend with the vocals. Party tunes like Scream & Shout by Will.I.Am was really fun, everything screams power but retaining a nice balance throughout the song. On Golden Cage by TWBA, I’m not surprised with how smooth the bass guitar was played out on this one, you can just visualize the plucking going on with this song. Nice.

Overall, I love the experience I got from the Maxell MXH-DD600. I find it really exceling in tunes that focus on the treble giving you clear and vibrant vocals. It can give power to the bass when the song calls for it but won’t overdo it, giving you enough to tap your feet with. Priced at just Php4,499, you’re getting some really, really good sounding earphones here”¦ if you don’t mind its looks that is.