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We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-09-26 · 6 min read · Independent comparison
• Maxell Headphone 190319-1 — biggest strength: a low-fuss, foldable stereo design with a 6ft cord and a standard 3.5mm jack, so it plugs straight into phones, tablets, laptops and desktops.
• Maxell Headphone 190319-1 — biggest trade-off: it's a plastic, on-ear/open-ear build with a single 3.5mm connection and no adapter, so it isn't aimed at studio-grade monitoring.
• New Bee Studio Headphones — biggest strength: over-ear memory-foam cushions, 50mm dynamic drivers, a 10 Hz–40,000 Hz range and a 3.5/6.35mm jack combo built for recording, mixing and single-ear monitoring.
• New Bee Studio Headphones — biggest trade-off: it's a wired, over-ear studio tool with no folding design mentioned, so it's bulkier for pocket carry and tethered to your gear.
• Who each is for: Maxell for classrooms, libraries, travel and casual phone/laptop listening; New Bee for home studios, DJs, podcasters and guitar/piano players.
The Maxell 190319-1 is the definition of a utility headphone. It's a wired stereo model with a 3.5mm jack, a 6ft cord and a 32 ohm impedance rating — a combination that tells you it's designed to be driven easily by everyday devices rather than by a dedicated amp. Sensitivity is listed at 100 dB, and the frequency range runs a standard 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. In plain terms: this is a headphone made to play music, podcasts and lesson audio reliably, not to reveal flaws in a mix.
The design is where it makes its case. It's plastic, black, on-ear and open-ear, weighing just 2.4 ounces, and the description notes it can be folded into a small soft pouch. The 6ft cord is the detail I keep coming back to — it's long enough to reach from a desktop tower or a laptop across a desk without yanking. The 3.5mm jack is described as robust and compatible with nearly any single-3.5mm device: smartphones, tablets, laptops, iPads, iPods and PCs. Sound isolation is listed as a noise-control feature, which suits shared spaces where you want to soften background chatter.
So who should buy it? Anyone who needs a spare, no-drama headphone that lives in a bag, a classroom bin or a library desk. The description explicitly names schools, libraries, spas and fitness centers — environments where headphones get handed around and durability matters more than fidelity. Who should skip it? If you're tracking vocals, mixing a podcast or monitoring a guitar amp, this isn't the tool. There's no 6.35mm adapter, no swiveling cup, and the open-ear on-ear shape won't seal out a room the way a closed over-ear will.
The New Bee Studio Headphones sit at the opposite end of the spectrum. This is an over-ear, wired headphone with 50mm dynamic drivers and a frequency range of 10 Hz to 40,000 Hz. That extended low end and high end matters for studio work: you want to hear the sub-bass of a kick drum and the air around a cymbal, and a wider stated range is the spec that signals that intent. The earpieces are over-ear with artificial leather and memory foam, and the whole thing weighs 210g — light for a full-size studio can, which is why the listing calls out an ultra-lightweight design.
The feature that changes how you use it is the 90° swiveling ear cups. That lets you rotate one cup off your ear for single-side monitoring — the standard move when you're tracking a vocal or checking a cue mix while still hearing the room. The connection is a 3.5/6.35mm jack, so it covers both consumer devices and pro gear like interfaces, mixers and amps straight out of the box. Noise control is passive cancellation, meaning the closed over-ear fit does the blocking rather than electronics.
Buy it if you're recording, mixing, DJing, podcasting, or playing guitar and piano and you need one headphone that speaks both to your laptop and your audio interface. New Bee lists a 2-year warranty, which is a meaningful signal for gear that gets handled daily. Skip it if your priority is a throw-in-your-pocket headphone for the commute — the over-ear frame and fixed wired connection are built for a desk, not a pocket.
Side-by-Side: Which Should You Choose?
• Best for studio and recording work → New Bee Studio Headphones. 50mm drivers, 10 Hz–40,000 Hz and 90° swiveling cups are purpose-built for monitoring.
• Best for portable carry → Maxell Headphone 190319-1. It folds into a soft pouch and weighs 2.4 ounces.
• Best for long sessions → New Bee Studio Headphones. Memory foam over-ear cushions and a 210g frame are designed to sit on your head for hours.
• Best for connecting to pro audio gear → New Bee Studio Headphones. The 3.5/6.35mm jack works with interfaces, mixers and amps without an adapter.
• Best for shared or institutional spaces → Maxell Headphone 190319-1. Sound isolation plus a durable 3.5mm jack suits classrooms, libraries and fitness centers.
• Best for plugging into a phone, tablet or laptop → Maxell Headphone 190319-1. It's explicitly built around the single 3.5mm connection those devices use.
• Best for blocking out a noisy room → New Bee Studio Headphones. The closed over-ear fit with passive noise cancellation seals better than an open on-ear design.
If I were buying for myself and my priority was real audio work — mixing, recording, monitoring, or playing an instrument into an interface — I'd take the New Bee Studio Headphones. The 50mm drivers, the wider frequency range, the swiveling cups for single-ear monitoring and the 3.5/6.35mm jack all point at a headphone that does a job the Maxell simply isn't designed for. I'd pick the Maxell 190319-1 instead if I wanted a cheap-feeling-but-reliable spare for a laptop bag, a classroom or a shared desk, where folding it away and plugging into anything with a 3.5mm socket is the entire point. In my opinion, they're not really competitors — they're two different tools, and the right one depends on whether you're creating audio or just listening to it.
how to wireless headphones work
Neither of these two is a wireless headphone. The Maxell 190319-1 and the New Bee Studio Headphones are both wired models — the Maxell uses a 3.5mm jack on a 6ft cord, and the New Bee uses a 3.5/6.35mm jack. Wireless headphones in general use a radio link such as Bluetooth to carry audio from your device to the earcups instead of a cable; if that's what you need, neither of these picks is the right match.
how to connect wireless headphones
That step doesn't apply here, because both products connect by cable. On the Maxell you plug the 3.5mm jack into a phone, tablet, laptop or PC. On the New Bee you plug into either a 3.5mm or a 6.35mm socket, which covers consumer devices and pro audio gear like mixers and interfaces.
how to use wireless headphones
Again, both are wired, so you use them by plugging in rather than pairing. With the Maxell, you push the 3.5mm plug into your device and listen. With the New Bee, you plug in, then rotate the 90° swiveling ear cups to monitor with one ear when you're recording or checking a mix.
For production work, yes, in my opinion. The New Bee has 50mm dynamic drivers, a 10 Hz–40,000 Hz frequency range, over-ear memory foam cushions and single-side monitoring via swiveling cups. The Maxell is a 20 Hz–20,000 Hz on-ear stereo headphone with a 3.5mm jack only — fine for casual listening, but not built for critical monitoring.
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