Beyerdynamic's high-end MMX 330 Pro doesn't reinvent the gaming headset, but does pump in excellent audio that makes it worth the slightly high price tag. Squint a bit, and the great microphone and ultra-comfortable pads only cement that impression. In other words, Beyer's cans are well worth the jump from something mid-range to the next level.
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Design
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Sound
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Build
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Microphone
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Value
Continuing our streak of Beyerdynamic reviews at Stuff is what is arguably the company’s best set of gaming cans – the MMX 330 Pro. We’ve tested these open-back, button-down, high-quality gamers for a couple of weeks now, and we finally know what people mean when they say that when you’re in love, you’ll know.
Except, you know, for a gaming headset. It’s all the same principle. We think. There indeed are plenty of fish in the sea, but Beyer’s MMX 330 Pro stands out among those fish with excellent audio, extreme comfort, and a mic that’ll have your gamer pals commenting. It’s got issues, but we can overlook them in the face of true love.
Button-down gamer
Beyer’s MMX 330 Pro might not have the elegance you’d associate with something from Sonos, even without the 3.5mm audio cable attached, but damned if these aren’t a comfortable pair of cans. You can thank the over-ear velour earpads for that, as Beyer’s attentions have made these extremely breathable, even over our oversized ears.
They do lose a couple cool points the moment you hook ’em up to that cable, mostly due to its roughly 260cm length that we imagine would be handy for a PC gamer that’s not right next to their tower. The length felt overbearing as a console gamer who’s only looking to connect with their DualSense, Xbox, or Switch 2 Pro controller.
There’s not much flexibility in the headband, beyond a slight margin to get these over even the largest of heads. It’s a mostly plastic affair, devoid of any buttons to fiddle with (a small volume wheel and mic toggle live on the cable itself) – but metal hinges control those minor adjustments, playing their part in making the MMX 330 Pro feel that much more premium. These weigh 318g, not that you’d ever notice.
These being open-back, you’ll notice four small vents on each earcup, which do about as much as you’d expect to drown out any surrounding noise. If there’s a chatty Cathy that can’t take a hint on your fourth pause of Tears of the Kingdom, you’ll have to get used to hearing their voice interrupt your gameplay.
These aren’t the prettiest headphones we’ve ever tested, with the too-gamey aesthetic almost ensuring you’ll never leave the house while wearing them. It’s difficult to complain about a simple black look Beyer has pretty much nailed here — save for the odd wires peeking out from under the headband and the clip-on headband. It might be useful down the line to swap out the headband, but we weren’t thrilled with the look.
It isn’t just that you won’t want these to leave the house (at least in your vicinity), but because they can’t. The too-long cable gets in the way, meaning it won’t coexist with most modern smartphones. The lack of any flexibility rules out sticking these on a backpack. You can, but the worry of damaging these expensive cans stopped us.
No right sounding this good
They might not be pretty, but Beyer’s STELLAR.45 drivers more than make up for any misgivings we might’ve had. The audio on show feels understated, getting by on a more natural profile rather than blasting your ears with too much bass that’s of no use to anyone in a typical Call of Duty lobby.
Most of that is owed to the open-back design of the headset itself, with the vents on each cup we mentioned lending themselves to that more natural sound. And, unfortunately, to too-chatty family members. Don’t confuse natural with “poor”. The MMX 330 Pro still delivered a full soundstage that made the engines in Rocket League roar without going overboard and helped Battlefield 6’s epic sound design shine through.
It’s all incredibly clear, too. This especially came in handy for first-person shooters like Battlefield 6 while hunting down enemies (or rather, avoiding enemies hunting us). Part of that is the lack of latency on the headphones’ part, which makes the too-long 3.5mm cable finally worth it.
Even without a top-of-the-line microphone on their end, we had absolutely no issue discerning our friend’s voice on the MMX 330 Pro. Both audios complemented each other perfectly, without one crowding the other to produce results.
This was most noticeable in Elden Ring Nightreign, with our friend’s mic singing through without impeding upon From Software’s fabulous work on the otherworldly action-RPG. But it didn’t just succeed for online play. In fact, our time spent in Tears of the Kingdom with Beyer’s audio efforts in our ears was some of the best Zelda we’ve experienced, with Nintendo’s exceptional attention to detail brought to clearly defined life.
Even though the open-back design does let some background noise slip through the cracks (and vents), the MMX 330 Pro never stopped performing to its best, even when surrounded by distracting environments.
“I’m kinda locked in right now, Mom”
It won’t do you or your crew much good to hear your teammates’ callouts in superb quality only for your mates to be left in the dark, metaphorically speaking. Fortunately, that wasn’t an issue for the Pro’s condenser microphone. It employs a cardioid polar pattern that isolates voices well, despite a noisy background.
It’s not all about isolation. Our regular gamer friends remarked upon the clearer, more natural-sounding audio from our end before we had even mentioned the MMX 330 Pro was in the mix. We found this to be the case when we recreated the situation, this time with the mic’s audio pouring into our ears.
There was an occasion or two when those on the other end of Beyer’s auditory efforts reported some feedback – likely from our music and game audio leaking out of the vents on the left cup. These being rather near the microphone wasn’t ideal, but it was quickly remedied by slightly dropping the volume.
The biggest problem with the MMX 330 Pro’s microphone is that you can’t get rid of it. Not that it mattered all that much – simply swivelling it upwards was enough to get it out of our way for single player campaigns – but it still might have benefited from being detachable, particularly if you plan on taking these anywhere.
Beyerdynamic MMX 330 Pro verdict
Beyerdynamic’s top-of-the-line gaming headset does nearly everything correctly, but at a price that many will find unpalatable — R6,300. It does everything that a regular headset can do, right? Right, but you’ll be missing out on the MMX 330 Pro’s superb audio, equally impressive mic, and ultra-comfortable fit, even if it is a smidge expensive. We can’t promise it’ll deliver an instant rank-up, but it’ll certainly sound like it can.
