SoundMAGIC P22C Review

 

SoundMAGIC P22C Review

 

Introduction:

The company SoundMAGIC was founded in 2005 by acoustic design engineer Tony Xu and is a designing and manufacturing company of headphones and earphones. The SoundMAGIC P22C is one of the latest on-ear headphones of the P Series, which belongs to the portable headphone lineup. They P22 is available in two variants; the P22C which is the wired version (C = Cable) and the P22BT with wireless Bluetooth connectivity (BT = Bluetooth).

I will review the SoundMAGIC P22C variant with a fixed cable.

 

Disclaimer:

This sample was provided to me by SoundMAGIC by our local retailer HES Audio for the purpose of an honest review. I am not affiliated with SoundMAGIC or HES Audio beyond this review and these words reflect my true, unaltered, opinions about the product.

 

The Price:

The SoundMAGIC P22C is available on SoundMAGIC’s online Store. The MSRP Price is €39.53 EUR.

Purchase Links: SoundMAGIC Offical Store

 

Package and Accessories:

The SounMAGIC P22C comes in a white cardboard box, which includes the following items;

  • 1 x SoundMAGIC P22C
  • 1 x Pleather pouch

The pleather pouch looks very nice and stylish, but doesn’t offer any protection from impacts, which could came form outside.

 

Design, Build Quality and Ergonomics:

The SoundMAGIC P22C is designed for portable usage and the folding mechanism on the headband making it ideal for taking with you without to make a big space impact in your bag or suitcase.

The SoundMAGIC P22C is made of plastic which is based on a thermoplastic resin material. They are some metal components used on the headband that gives the P22C a good strength and hardiness for such a light weight design. The headband size adjusting mechanism is showing the size of the headband with numbers which makes a more precise adjustment possible.

The ear cups are sporting the brand name and model information and are made of this thermoplastic material which looks pretty solid.

You should note that this is an on ear headphone with pleather ear pads which have direct contact to your ears. This ear pads are pretty soft, but getting hot, especially in warmer environments, which is a general downside of on ear headphone.

The top of the headband is soft and has a pleather coating which doesn’t make any unpleasant pressure to the top of my head.

They are left and right markings near the folding system and the mechanism looks solid and reliable.

The cable of the SoundMAGIC P22C looks simple and has flat profile, which is coated with a soft rubber material.

This cable sports a microphone with 3 button controls, which has a microchip that switches automatically between Apple and Android Smartphones to allow owners of different Smartphone types an easily swap between devices with full control of volume, tracks and call functions. The voice transmission of the mic is fairly clean.

The 3.5mm Headphone jack has L angled profile which I prefer by the use with mobile phones.

 

Isolation:

The noise cancelling from outside is average, but the P22C has enough isolation to use it in the public without to disturb peoples in moderate volume levels.

 

Features listed on SoundMAGIC’s Official Website:

  • Closed earcup design for increased sound isolation
  • Integrated 3-button smart remote and microphone
  • Remote control automatically switches Apple and Android compatibility
  • Flat cable design with anti-tangle properties
  • Soft and comfortable memory foam earpads
  • Lightweight build with folding headband

 

 

Technical Details:

  • Driver                           : Dynamic 40mm Neodymium
  • Frequency range          : 20Hz – 22kHz
  • DC Resistance               : 32Ω
  • Sensitivity                     : 103dB
  • Maximum input power : 100mW
  • Cable length                : 1.2m
  • Connection                  : Gold-plated straight stereo 3.5mm
  • Weight                         : 115g
  • Mic sensitivity              : – 44dB
  • Mic freq. response       : 20 Hz -16kHz

 

Albums & tracks used for this review:

  • Jehan Barbur – Yollar (Spotify)
  • Minor Empire – Bulbulum Altin Kafeste (Spotify)
  • London Grammar – Interlud (Live) (Flac 24bit/44kHz)
  • Laura Pergolizzi – Lost On You “Live at Harvard and Stone” (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Steve Strauss – Mr. Bones (Flac 16bit/44kHz)
  • Dire Straits – Money for Nothing (DSD 64)
  • Gothart – Jovano, Jovanke (Spotify)
  • Otto Liebert & Luna Negra – The River (DSF) – Binaural Recording
  • GoGo Penguin – Fanfares (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Adam Taylor – Colour to the Moon (Flac 16bit/44kHz)
  • Casey Abrams – Robot Lover (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Yosi Horikawa – Bubbles (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Liquid Tension Experiment 2 – Acid Rain (Spotify)
  • Opeth – Damnation (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Megadeth – Sweating Bullets (Flac 16bit/44kHz)
  • Metallica – Sad bu True (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
  • Future Heroes – Another World (Tidal Hi-fi)
  • Lorde – Team (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
  • Tom Player – Resonace Theory “Album” (Tidal Hi-Fi)
  • Deeperise feat. Jabbar – Move On (Spotify)

 

Sources used for this review:

  • Headphone                : SoundMAGIC P22C
  • DAP/DAC                    : Cayin N5II, Chord Mojo, Fiio M7, Hidiz DH1000

 

The Sound:

I am the sort of people who believes in burn-in and the SoundMAGIC P22C review is written after a burn-in process of 80 hours.

 

Sound Signature & Tonality:

The SoundMAGIC P22C has a V shaped sound signature with a slightly colored, warmer than neutral tonality.

 

Frequencies:

Bass:

The bass of the SoundMAGIC P22C is fairly fast and hits pretty hard for an on-ear headphone. It doesn’t sound overpowered or too thin and has the right amount to give the overall presentation a nice hint of warmth.

The bass of the P22C extends easily into the sub-bass area, which is a pretty good ability for a headphone at this price level. The bass performance especially the control is pretty good with genres like electronic, trance, rock or even metal music, which was a big surprise for me at this price tag.

The mid-bass of the P22C has slightly more presence in the lower frequency area and sounds fairly clean without to bleed in to the midrange, which could result to a muffled presentation. The mid-bass area gives the sound a nice sense of body with fairly good dynamics that is a big welcome for an on-ear headphone.

For example; Guitar strings in Casey Abram’s “Robot Lover” sounding pretty realistic and representing a nice sense of fullness.

 

Mids:

As I mentioned before, the SoundMAGIC P22C has a V shaped sound signature which means that the midrange is behind the bass and treble, but don’t get me wrong, the P22C doesn’t have a very laid back midrange presentation where instruments and vocals loosing definition and I can describe the midrange as fun and fairly energetic sounding.

The midrange of the SoundMAGIC P22C has a moderate level of clearness and shares a nice amount of warmness that is avoiding a too thin or thick presentation of instruments and human voices, which results to a more organic presentation. The overall resolution in this frequency range is in a moderate level.

Female voices sounding slightly more realistic than male voices and I am especially enjoying the performance of London Grammer’s vocalist Hannah Reid, which has a very emotional and engaging voice.

The upper midrange has only a slightly boost and is sharing some nice level of detail. The separation of instruments in this area is above average, but should be not a problem regarding the price.  There is a moderate amount of harshness, which was noticeable in Megadeth’s “Sweating Bullets” where you can here some control issues with instruments like cymbals.

 

Treble:

The treble range of the SoundMAGIC P22C is slightly boosted, sounds bright and shares some nice clarity. The treble tuning of the P22C gives the overall presentation a nice sense of airy and openness, which is a welcome ability for any closed back headphone.

There is a moderate level of extension and the speed is in an acceptable level for modern genres like pop, electronic, RnB etc. but not ideal for metal music.

The treble is energetic and has an above average level of resolution that is pretty in my opinion pretty good considering the price of under 50,00 Euro.

The upper treble extension is in a pretty good level and gives the overall presentation a nice amount sparkle, without any remarkable harshness of instruments or sibilance with female vocals.

 

The Soundstage and Imaging:

The SoundMAGIC P22C sounds surprisingly airy and open for a closed back over-ear headphone. The soundstage of the P22C is pretty expansive with good wideness and above average depth. The placement of instruments is fairly realistic and overall imaging is quite accurate in its presentation.

 

Conclusion:

The SoundMAGIC P22C sounds surprisingly good and has its musical tuning and airy presentation, which I have really enjoyed with modern genres like electronic, pop, trance and even with rock and classical tracks. The price tag of €39.53 makes it to an affordable headphone for those who are looking for a portable over-ear to use it in the public.

 

Summary (plus and minus):

  • + Nice airy presentation,
  • + Musical sound with good bass and treble control,
  • + Good build quality,
  • + Value for the money
  • + Easy to drive

 

  • – Pleather earpads getting hot
  • – The pouch doesn’t offer any protection

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may also like...

4 Responses

  1. Yuzu says:

    Thanks for your review. Have you ever tested the Soundmagic P21S? I wonder if they sound the same,and if the build quality is better on this P22C. Because many people seems to have build quality issues (headphones break after few months).

    • moonstarreviews says:

      Thank you! Sorry but the Soundmagic P22C is my first experience with any Soundmagic product I am using it now for about 2.5 months with no noticable quality issue. I will update your question if I have any new experiences regarding to quality ann comparison.

  1. 15 April 2021

    […] SoundMAGIC P22C Review » MOONSTAR Reviews […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *