The Vento P55 are SoundMAGIC’s first headphones where every component is manufactured in house. I don’t know why this is important, but you never know what questions might pop up in the pub quiz, so, while we are at it: the name Vento comes from the Italian word for “wind”; we can only hope it refers to the weather rather than butt acoustics.

Anyway, I digress. Starting with the look of the headphones, you can be forgiven for thinking they are much more expensive than their wallet-friendly price tag suggests. The combination of a brushed stainless-steel headband, aluminium earcups, leather earpads and premium plastic creates a stylish and minimalist look with a slim profile and accessories equal in quality. The earpads are soft and comfortable and the lightweight headset (285g) makes them suitable for extended periods of wear. Also included in the box is a 1.2m audio cable, 1.2m “C” audio cable with mic and remote, VoIP adaptor, phone adaptor, a soft carrying pouch and good quality hard case. The included “C” cable means you can plug into your smartphone and answer incoming calls via the remote. As well as start and stop tracks, skip tracks and control the volume, the two included cables also mean you can swap between you phone a regular aux device.

The 40mm proprietary driver has been developed from the ground up by SoundMAGIC’s team of engineers. It uses ultra-thin copper winding imported from Japan, resulting in a good quality of sound. It is formed very much around the mid-tones, providing a pleasant listening experience for most genres of music and tv audio, however it is a little flat at either end on the spectrum and could benefit from a tighter high end and punchier bass. Having said all that, I think most people would be pleased with the balance of sound and combined with the Vento P55’s good looks and build quality, they represent a good value for money set of headphones. RRP £189.99

4 out of 5

Current Cheapest Price

Pros

Stylish stainless steel and aluminium construction

Comfortable leather ear pads

Lightweight build

Closed earcups for excellent noise isolation

Replaceable cable

Integrated mic and smartphone remote

Skype/VOIP adaptor included

Cons

Limited features

Soft bass and slightly dull high tones