SoundStage! Solo | SoundStageSolo.com

Details: Written by: Brent Butterworth; Created: 01 April 2022

Sound: 1/2
Value: 1/2
(Read about our ratings)

Measurements can be found by clicking this link.

These days, when someone tells me there’s a new brand of true wireless earphones, I assume it’s just a few people in an office somewhere in Southern California, getting their logo slapped onto a generic design from a Chinese factory, with barely a clue about how earphones are designed and tuned. Grell Audio is exactly the opposite. It was founded by Axel Grell, a guy with 30-plus years of experience designing headphones and earphones—most notably for Sennheiser, where he designed, among other models, the top-of-the-line HD 800s. The TWS/1 true wirelesses ($199.99, all prices USD) are the first earphones he’s offered under his own name.

Details: Written by: Brent Butterworth; Created: 20 March 2022

Sound: 1/2
Value: 1/2
(Read about our ratings)

Measurements can be found by clicking this link.

True wireless earphones aren’t literally a dime a dozen—not yet, anyway. But even though SoundStage! Solo targets audiophiles, and I thus review only a few true wireless models a year, I’d say I get at least three pitches per week to review new true wireless models. Many of these loosely resemble Apple AirPods, but are priced much lower, often less than $50, sometimes as low as $20. Denon’s AH-C830NCW earphones definitely look like AirPods, but at $159 (all prices in USD), they’re not inexpensive. What, I wondered, might Denon be thinking, launching what looks like a generic model at a—well, not expensive, but certainly not inexpensive, price?

Details: Written by: Brent Butterworth; Created: 10 January 2022

Sound:
Value: 1/2
(Read about our ratings)

Measurements can be found by clicking this link.

Because I test only 36 headphones and earphones a year for SoundStage! Solo, our review slots are usually filled with old-school brands like AKG and Sennheiser, along with the companies that regularly show up at US headphone shows, such as HiFiMan and Dan Clark Audio. That means many lesser-known brands usually don’t attract my attention. But if you’re reading this site and you’re on Facebook, then Facebook has surely tagged you as a headphone enthusiast, and routinely serves you ads for earphones with unfamiliar brands at too-low-to-believe prices.

Read more: CCA C10 Earphones

Details: Written by: Brent Butterworth; Created: 01 January 2022

Sound: 1/2
Value:
(Read about our ratings)

Measurements can be found by clicking this link.

Campfire Audio makes so many different earphones it was hard to figure out which ones I should review, so last time I talked with company founder Ken Ball, I just asked him. He was pretty excited about two then-new earphone models, the Holocene and the Mammoth. Asked what the difference was, he said that the Holocenes have a more “reference” response, and that the Mammoths have more bottom end, with a response closer to the Harman curve. This left me thinking I’d prefer the Mammoths, but just in case, I asked Ball if he wouldn’t mind sending a test sample of the Holocenes, too.

Details: Written by: Brent Butterworth; Created: 01 December 2021

Sound: 1/2
Value: 1/2
(Read about our ratings)

Measurements can be found by clicking this link.

Why are the Evos the first Etymotic earphones I’ve ever reviewed on SoundStage! Solo? After all, the company practically invented the in-ear monitor, and it was the first to use balanced armature drivers in consumer earphones. But I still remember the first time I tried Etymotics, way back in the early 1990s, and while the highs sounded clean, I was put off by the lack of bass response, which, as a musician, I knew was not realistic. I respected the brand, but only because it was respected by people I respected.