In order to understand the Numark Red Wave headphones, you need to understand the brand behind them.
Numark is a well-known DJ industry brand that has been in existence for decades. It’s known for its world-changing firsts: the first DJ mixer with a built-in sampler, the first professional dual CD player, the first hard-drive based DJ system, the first iOS-enabled DJ system and the first motorized DJ control surface.
The American company also stands tall as the largest manufacturer of DJ equipment in the world.
Now that you understand the Numark brand, you can fully understand the Red Wave headphones.
They exist in a market filled with a lot of great DJ headphones. But few quality ones come with a price tag that is under $100. For such an affordable price, the Red Wave headphones excel in terms of design, sound quality, and isolation.
The first thing you will notice about these headphones is their striking appearance. The red and silver thing going on makes them look just as good as they sound for that price.
They were obviously designed with the full DJ experience in mind. Mostly because they were designed by DJs. Numark employs an international team of product developers and engineers who are themselves, DJs and musicians.
The Red Wave headphones’ closed-cup over-the-ear design provides great isolation from outside noise. The earcups are made of a breathable protein-leather padding that ensures this and also ensures comfort during extended use.
These headphones also have a swivel and folding mechanism that allows one-ear listening and convenient portability.
The headphones come in a box together with a quickstart guide, a carrying case, a cable with a 1/8” connector and a ¼” adapter.
Design
As mentioned above, the Red Wave headphones were made for DJs. Their overall design exemplifies style, innovation, and usability.
Apart from their eye-catching appearance, they are characterized by their sturdy and modern design.
There is quite a bit of silver and plastic involved in the design. For some, this makes the headphones look quite cheap. But if you ask us, we think the leather makes up for it.
The Red Wave headphones’ headband is made from bendable steel that’s been nicely covered with red and gray plastic padding.
The headband is adjustable by a good 2 inches on both sides meaning the headphones can fit just about any head size.
As mentioned earlier, the earcups are made of a special breathable protein-leather material. This allows them to remain comfortable and cool with little “sweating” involved.
There is a bit of pressure to the ears from these cans when worn but the soft earcups counter that fairly well.
The same soft earcups swivel 90 degrees backwards to allow one-ear listening scenarios in the DJ booth. They also fold neatly into the headband to allow portability.
While transporting these headphones, you can make use of the carrying case provided in the box.
Considering their size, these headphones are quite light. But when compared with other DJ headphones, they are more on the heavy side.
They come with a detachable cable that has a 1/8” adapter for use with MP3 players as well as DJ gear. You’ll notice that while the length of the cable is great for DJing, it’s a bit too long for other listening purposes.
Performance
In terms of performance, the Red Wave headphones do pretty well for their price.
They come with large 50mm neodymium drivers that reproduce a clean and powerful sound. Also helping in this are the neodymium magnet and voice coil – they allow for optimal frequency response.
The most noticeable thing about these cans is the bass. It comes off a bit too powerful. It is not crisp or clear, but more of muffled. When compared with other cans, the Red Waves’ bass sounds way muddier than is necessary.
For example, when we compared the Red Waves to Reloop RHP-20s, we found that they both had similar highs and mids but when it came to the bass, the Red Waves sounded boomier or muddier, if we may call it so. The Reloops, on the other hand, sounded more natural.
This kind of bass from the Red Waves means you don’t get the highs and mids you would expect from similarly-priced headphones.
In general, these headphones work best for people who prefer a bass-filled listening experience.
They play well with gadgets like iPhones. But you would need to get shorter cables for those. They are sold differently.
The earcups are well designed to keep out surrounding noise. They are big enough to fit snugly over the ear so that there’s pretty good isolation. But in terms of sound leakage, they don’t perform too well. If you are in a crowded area, you can be sure that the person next to you will hear exactly what you are listening to.
Conclusion
The Numark Red Wave headphones are a great product.
They are totally affordable for the kind of performance they’ve come to be known for. At under $100, you get pretty good sound quality – one that is characterized by a powerful bass output and clean mids and highs.
These headphones are also stylish and well-designed. They don’t just sound good. They look good. The red, silver and black give it a nice modern look. Any DJ or music lover who cares about style and fashion will certainly not be disappointed with them.
They come with a headband that is adjustable to fit different head sizes. The same headband includes some pretty solid multi-pivot points. These make these headphones compact and foldable. Considering their overall size, that’s definite plus. These babies can fold down to a perfect size that makes them conveniently portable.
To add on to that, they come with a carrying case that allows you to pack them neatly into your backpack when you are on the go.
Add a durable detachable cable and you’ve got headphones that are worth every damn penny.
So there you have it. The Numark Red Wave headphones – We highly recommend them.