Pioneer SE-A1000

Summary

The Pioneer SE-A1000 headphones are on-ear headphones intended for use in a home theater setup. To help facilitate such an environment, the A1000s come with a very durable cord that’s almost 20 feet in length (6 meters). The cord itself is wrapped in a fiber knit, which should protect it from getting stepped on, rolled over, or from other dangers that come from sprawling across a living room floor. Also, the A1000s come with a 1/4-inch plug, which should help them fit into higher-end setups.

Frequency Response (7.93)

As you can see in the graph to the right, both the left and right channels perform within the limits, for the most part. There seems to be a very small bass boost, as those frequencies are emphasized ever-so-slightly more than the middle tones. The curves are a bit sharp throughout, but until the first big spike in the high-end, these spikes only represent a handful of decibels — nothing you’d notice. The bit spike in the high half of the graph is a bit more substantial, spanning about eight decibels, but it’s still nothing that would ruin a listening experience. After the limits drop off, the graph gets a bit erratic and the decibel level assigned to those frequencies drops off considerably. This area to the right of the limits isn’t the most accurate line, which is partially why our limits stop before the end of the graph. It is, however, valuable in that it depicts a general trend: high pitches tend to be underemphasized. Overall, however, these headphones do a great job.

Distortion (2.75)

The biggest problem we found with distortion was with some bass frequencies. The graph starts out at almost 2% (3% is a noticeable level), but once the distortion leveled off it stayed very minimal for the rest of the graph. Towards the high mid-range, the right channel peeked up slightly, but it wasn’t much. Overall, these headphones performed well; it was just the poor bass response that really killed its score.

Tracking (6.54)

These headphones showcase fairly stable tracking for the low and middle frequencies, albeit a few decibels too loud in the left ear. Toward the higher end, the line gets a bit more erratic. The difference here isn’t very dramatic, however; it might sound like a cymbal keeps moving two feet to the left every once in a while. Beyond the 10 kHz mark we don’t score, but we leave it on the graph to show a general trend. In this case, the sound seems to jump very dramatically from left to right.

Maximum Usable Volume (7.71)

We were able to squeeze out about 110.39 dBSPL (sound presure level) from the Pioneer SE-A1000s before we reached that magic 3 percent distortion figure. This is about 10 decibels short of what we’d prefer to see, but then again, once you get above 120 dBSPL, you run the risk of damaging your hearing. The A1000s and their 110 dBSPL level should be fine for most users, or those who like their headphones to limit their risk of hearing loss.

Isolation (0.53)

These headphones aren’t the best at blocking out external noise. We typically find low isolation scores in headphones with cloth-covered padding, because cloth doesn’t form a good seal against skin. Poor seals allow more external sound to shimmy into your ear canal. As such, most low frequency sounds are getting through unhindered. The only sounds that these headphones block out are higher-end ones, and only about 18 decibels worth. These headphones should be great for allowing ambient sounds in, but not so good if you plan on walking down a busy street with your media player.

Leakage (2.02)

As we said in isolation, cloth padding does not make for a good seal with your head. As such, a great deal of your music is going to spill out and onto the world around you. If you were listening to music at a normal 78 dBSPL, someone next to you on the bus would probably be able to hear every note. If you like your music louder, then your sphere of annoyance will only grow.

These headphones actually manage to do worse than the open-backed headphones we’ve tested, like the Grado SR60 or Sennheiser HD 555. Considering these headphones do have a back to them, this score really points out just how bad the A1000s are at establishing a seal with your head. For the sake of other commuters, keep your A1000s at home.