Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 Review

Introduction
Many associate Ferrari with a very particular shade of red, very loud engines and very full wallets. But there is another side to the car-maker, as demonstrated by the Ferrari Cavallino T250 headphones by Logic3. Out to demonstrate the marquis’ classier side, these headphones are much more demure than the gaudy Ferrari red cans we checked out recently, the Ferrari Scuderia P200.

Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 Design
Ferrari’s teaming-up with Logic3 to make its latest range of Ferrari-branded headphones didn’t seem like the most obvious choice to us at first. Logic3 has traditionally make affordable mobile accessories that have focused on value for money above most else.

However, it has done a good job with the design of these Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 headphones. We’re told that they’re based on the looks of the Ferrari touring cars – focused more on the leather interior than the bright red exterior of Ferrari’s signature cars.

If you care about looks, there’s a good chance you’ll be entranced by these headphones. They’re tasteful, while still bearing the Ferrari horse on the rear of each cup, within a rear cap of fine concentric circles that catch the light in eye-catching fashion.

The Logic3 Ferrari T250 headphones are made of a mixture of synthetic leather – for the cups – and the real stuff – the headband – and both plastic and aluminium. Often, where a headphone maker trips from one material too other is all-too obvious, but here it’s laudably subtle. The metal and plastic of the headband look similar, and we had to give them the cool-to-the-touch test to see which part was which.

Most of the frame is made of metal, though, giving the Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 on-ear headphones a reassuringly strong feel. There are plenty of reasons to claim that they’re not worth £250, but the materials used in their manufacture isn’t one of them.

All that metal does mean they’re a little on the heavy side, though. At around 215g without the cable, Logic3 has had to make the headband exert a fairly firm pressure on your head to keep them in place. If you have sensitive ears and a giant head, you may find the fit a bit too tight, but otherwise the fit is great.

The relatively small pads mean they won’t bother glasses-wearers, the cups swivel to fit your head shape automatically, and the padding is excellent. It’s thick, it’s fairly soft and the synthetic leather that tops the pads is smooth and delicate. There’s an added functional benefit to a tight headband too – noise isolation is good for an on-ear set like this, making them decent cans for the train.

Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 Cable
The Ferrari Cavallino T250 use a terribly-fashionable braided cable, ending in a Ferrari-branded straight 3.5mm jack. This cable is fully removable, plugging into the bottom of the left earcup with a standard 2.5mm plug. Logic3 bundles a full set of three cables with each pair too – one standard, one with an iPhone music remote and one with a basic hands-free remote for non-iPhones.

 

There was some slight fraying near the jack end fresh out of the box, which isn’t the best indicator of quality, but this didn’t worsen in our weeks of testing with the Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250. The back of the headphones are a little susceptible to knocks and bumps, though.

Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 Sound Quality
The Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 headphones use 40mm dynamic drivers, which is the standard size for over-ear headphones of this type. Their bigger brothers, the Logic3 Ferrari Scuderia P200, use larger 50mm drivers and a semi open design. These headphones, on the other hands, are fully closed.

Sound quality is largely unremarkable, which is a bit of a problem at the £249 price. They don’t boom out with over-done bass, as the Logic3 Ferrari Scuderia P200s did at times, but there’s a disappointing hemmed-in character here. It’s contributed to by several factors.

First, as a closed-back headphone, the soundstage is not dramatically wide. Top-end treble performance is also quite poor at this level. There’s not a great deal of insight up there, and none of the sparkle we like to hear in a mid-to-high price pair. The mid-range is also prone to congestion, which can leave music sounding flat or, at worst, muddled.
 

There’s nothing offensive about the Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 sound as such. The treble isn’t harsh and the bottom-end isn’t boomy. However, they frequently sound congested, with little sense of space, or air, or the separation that some cheaper rivals offer. In this respect, we might compare these headphones to the rather one-note Beats Solo HD, which are some of the biggest rivals for these headphones.

It seems to be a case of deliberate tuning rather than using low-end components, making the performance all the more disappointing. Fans of warm and bassy headphones will likely find the Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250s easy to live with, but they don’t match up to the expectations of a £250 headphone.

Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T250 Verdict
On paper the Ferrari Cavallino T250 headphones by Logic3 sound like winners. They look the part, come with all the accessories we could ask for and leave out features that rarely help sound quality, such as Bluetooth wireless and active noise cancellation. However, as much as we enjoy wearing these thoroughly well-made headphones, the muddled, muggy sound doesn’t nearly match up to the price.