A Tale of Four Headphones
I do quite a bit of headphone listening during the day, making use of their convenience to shut out the office hubbub while I get down to serious copy editing. The system I use is modesta pair of no-longer-available Sennheiser HD420SLs driven by an Advent 300 receiver I bought for $75, with CD source provided by a Denon DCD-1500 IIbut I get quite a bit of musical satisfaction from it.
A Traveler's Sanctuary: The Bose Quiet Comfort 20 Noise Canceling Earphone
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com
Damn! I almost fell over the first time I switched them on...the quiet was physically stunning. I spent my last two flights with the Bose Quiet Comfort 20 in my ears...the sense of having my own space and refuge was extraordinary. Go ahead and yell it at the top of your lungs, I'm sure I'll barely hear...
SANCTUARY!!!
A Unique Bass Sensation: The Skullcandy Crusher
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com
It may seem silly to us, but a headphone with a sub-woofer sounds like a stupendously good idea to a 20 year old. Nature abhors a vacuum...somebody had to do it.
Acoustic Research AR-H1 Open Planar Magnetic Headphones
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.comAnd BOOM! Acoustic Research, a brand long recognised amongst audio enthusiasts, shows up with their new planar magnetic AR-H1 at CanJam at RMAF 2017. Color me surprised!
Advanced Alpha Over-Ear Open Planar Magnetic Headphones
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.comOne of a nice handfull of $500ish planar magnetic headphones at the show, I was impressed with the Advanced Alpha at CanJam@RMAF last October. In my report I said:
Maybe it was just the show conditions, or maybe I was just in the right mood, but holy smoke these sounded really good to me on first listen. I've been wrong at shows before so don't take this as gospel, but I sure liked these Advanced planar magnetic cans.Well, time to find out if we can trust my ears at shows.
AfterShokz and TEAC Filltune HP-F100 Bone Conduction Headphones
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com
Tap your cheek bones, and you'll hear it plain as day. The sound's not coming through your ear canals ... it's just rattling the bones in your ear, and you can hear it. But is this a good way to get your tunes?
Let's find out ...
AKG Acoustics K 701 headphones
Oh mama, was I ever excited when I heard rumors of the existence of AKG's K 701! If you're among the audiophiles who sneer at those of us who like headphones, you're probably rolling your eyes and thinking I must lack a rich inner life.
AKG N60NC On Ear Bluetooth Noise Canceling Headphones
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.comHaving not too long ago reviewed the $1499 AKG N90Q and finding it an astonishingly cool and effective noise canceler, I thought it would be interesting to look at what AKG was doing way down the food chain at a more affordable price. Thing is $300 is still $300, and in my book a pretty serious purchase. A $300 headphone needs to be good and competitive. Let's see if AKG managed to pull it off.
AKG N90Q Noise Canceling Auto-Calibrating Over-Ear Headphones
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.comOh my! What an extraordinary headphone. The N90Q represents the first real effort to deliver seriously good sound quality using DSP corrections. It's my feeling that in the long run this type of headphone may eventually be able to deliver a superior subjective listening experience compared with passive headphones of the same price. On the other hand, I also have a little saying, "The first one is usually the worst one." Seems to me the proper perspective here is that the N90Q will be a good indicator of where we're starting on the road to DSP headphones, and how far they're likely to take us in the future. Let's get to it!
AKG Quincy Jones Q460
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com
Quincy Jones has it going on, and I liked their higher-end Quincy Jones Q701 when I reviewed it a while ago. But now we come to a very small, sealed portable headphone, the Quincy Jones Q460.
Let's see how it does.