Unlike traditional earbuds, open-style earphones help to keep you aware of your surroundings without the need for transparency modes. TheBeyerdynamic VERIO 200are the first earphones of this type from the company, and they deliver on the sound quality the brand is known for.
Beyerdynamic VERIO 200
Beyerdynamic’s leap into the open-ear form factor offers up great sound and plenty of comfort, plus the ability to hear your surroundings. That makes just as great for taking on a run as wearing at the office.
Price and Availability
The Beyerdynamic VERIO 200 retail for $219, and are available directly from Beyerdynamic, as well as Amazon and other retailers. That price tag may seem steep, and they certainly aren’t cheap, but they are cheaper than theBose Ultra Open Earbuds, which sell for $299.
I’m looking at the VERIO 200 in the Sport (black and orange) variety for this review, but they’re also in Black and Cream color options.
Specifications
Great Fit, Once You Get the Hang of Them
What are open-style earphones, and how do they compare to traditional earbuds? Open-ear designs effectively hover the driver of the earphones just away from your ear canal, much the same as the drivers do when you’re wearing a set of standard headphones. This is more comfortable for some people, but also help keep you more aware of your surroundings.
This type of design means taking a different approach to how the earphones fit. These are still true wireless, so each earphone hooks over your ear with a flexible wing. This lets the driver sit just outside your ear canal without sitting inside of it as an earbud would.
Finding the initial fit was a little tricky, even though I’ve used sport earbuds with similar hooks in the past. After the first few tries, I got used to putting on and adjusting the VERIO 200, and I no longer had to think about finding the right fit.
Aside from the ear hooks, there aren’t many soft materials used here, but this didn’t negatively affect comfort in any way. Instead, I found these comfortable to wear, even for hours at a time. This was somewhat surprising, as I’ve found over-ear hooks have bothered me on some other earbuds.
The fit was also quite secure. I took the VERIO 200 on a few bike rides on trails, and never felt in danger of them bouncing loose. They also never slipped to a point where they became uncomfortable or the sound suffered in any way.
One thing worth pointing out is that, while I’m not a regular glasses wearer, I noticed that sunglasses didn’t interfere with the fit of the VERIO 200 at all. If you wear glasses, this is definitely nice to know, as some of these designs don’t play so well with frames.
These have some protection against water, but they’re only IP54-rated. This protects against “splashing water and sweat,” so you don’t need to worry about a few drops of rain on a run, but you certainly don’t want to drop them in the sink to wash them off.
Another thing to be aware of—and this is similar across open-ear designs in general—is that the case is larger than standard earbuds. This offers some advantages in terms of battery life, as we’ll see later, but it does mean that they won’t fit as easily into smaller pockets.
Excellent Sound and Environmental Awareness
Open-ear designs haven’t always been known for sounding great, but I’m not sure how much of that reputation is deserved. I think, in many cases, people are confusing open-ear headphones withbone conduction headphones, which work differently and have different advantages and drawbacks.
That said, some older open designs could lack bass, but that isn’t a problem here. This is thanks in part to the 16.22mm driver—much larger than the drivers found in traditional earbuds—which gives the VERIO 200 a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz.
Listening to Mahavishnu Orchestra’s “The Noonward Race,” there is plenty of low-end presence, but it isn’t as heavy on the bass as you’d expect from traditional in-ear style earbuds. It’s not that it’s lacking, but more that the bass is slightly distant, more like listening to a set of good-sized bookshelf speakers without a subwoofer.
Moving on to The Eternals’ “Silhouette,” the midrange delivers the string sample that sits at the core of the song well, but here it’s the bass that surprises. The power of the bass in this song is difficult to ignore, while still sounding more like a set of speakers than a distinct bass signal originating somewhere inside your head, as some earbuds convey.
In my experience, the midrange has always been expertly handled in Beyerdynamic audio products, and that’s the case here. This also means that in addition to music, these are very well suited to voice, whether that is via podcasts, audiobooks, or calls.
Microphone quality is as solid as you’d expect from any set of headphones these days. I wasn’t blown away by the quality, but at the same time, I didn’t find it disappointing, either indoors or outdoors.
VERIO 200 Microphone Sample: Indoors
VERIO 200 Microphone Sample: Outdoors
Touchy Controls, Capable Software
The VERIO 200 earphones use capacitive controls, and they’re a little finicky, as they often are. At least in this case, I can see why they’re used in the way they are. More tactile buttons might have felt better to press, but they’d likely lead to you accidentally adjusting the fit or pressing the driver closer toward your ear.
On the plus side, the controls are easy to remap in most cases, using the Beyerdynamic app, available foriPhoneandAndroid. This has been updated since the last time I used it, and it seems like a nicer experience overall. Finding where settings are located can be a strangely involved process with some other similar apps, so I’m glad to see the simpler approach here.
The appeal of the app for most people (at least those happy with the default control scheme) will be the EQ. You get a few presets for typical music genres, but if those aren’t for you, there is also a custom EQ. It’s only a five-band EQ, but this is par for the course with many apps, and I’ve found it can typically get you fairly close to the sound you’re looking for.
Bigger Size Makes For Better Battery Life
While the larger size of the VERIO 200 compared to your average earbuds isn’t always the most convenient, it does have at least one handy aspect: more room for batteries.
The Beyerdynamic VERIO 200 can hold up to eight hours on a single charge, which is more than theApple AirPods Pro 2or the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds. Plus, the charging case can charge them more than three times.
Charging doesn’t take long, either. The earphones will take 1.5 hours to charge fully, but don’t worry if you don’t have that kind of time. A 10-minute charge gets you at least an hour of playback. Unfortunately, the case isn’t equipped with any sort of wireless charging.
Should You Buy the Beyerdynamic VERIO 200?
Whether these are right for you largely comes down to whether open-ear style designs in general are right for you. If the answer to that question is yes, theBeyerdynamic VERIO 200are a great-sounding example. They also have a fit that is both comfortable and secure, which is easier said than done.
The capacitive touch controls do leave something to be desired, but you can get used to them, and they make sense here rather than tactile buttons, plus the software helps make up for this. The case is on the large side, so they’re not the most pocketable, but the ample battery life helps to make up for that.
If you’re looking for the awareness of open-style designs without sacrificing on sound quality, the VERIO 200 are among the better options you’ll find.
