SoundStage! Solo | SoundStageSolo.com

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 01 December 2024

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I’m a big fan of unique-looking headphones. Sure, there’s a place for the myriad pill-shaped offerings from the major manufacturers, but in their drive to be as acceptable as possible to the widest audience, they all start looking the same. That’s definitely not the case with the 105 AER headphones from Romanian manufacturer Meze. With big steel arches for the headband and a spiderweb-esque earcup structure, they are visually interesting in a way most headphones in their price range are not.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 October 2024

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What we have here is an interesting oddity. There are lots of Bluetooth headphones on the market. There are also quite a few planar-magnetic headphones on the market. But there aren’t a lot of planar-magnetic Bluetooth headphones. Edifier’s Stax Spirit S5 headphones ($499, all prices in USD) are one of these rarefied concoctions, and as you can guess from the model number, they aren’t Edifier’s first try at this.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 August 2024

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Long ago, in the before times, I remember hearing the first Beats Solo headphones. I remember it vividly. I was in the kitchen of Brent Butterworth, former editor of this site and current cohost of the excellent Audio Unleashed podcast. They were . . . remarkable. Remarkable like getting a flat tire on your way to a job interview. They were bad, is what I’m trying to say.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 July 2024

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It seems like only yesterday I was reviewing a pair of delightful over-ear Sennheiser headphones. But apparently, that was over a year ago. Someone should create an idiom about how time moves quickly. Running maybe? Perhaps something more aerial? That review focused on the HE 660S2s ($499.95, all prices in USD), which are higher-end open-back headphones. At $349.95, Sennheiser’s new HD 620S ’phones are lower in price, and they’re a closed-back design. However, Sennheiser claims that they provide “open sound in a closed-back design.” We shall see.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 June 2024

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In a sea of black plastic, fake chrome, and monochromatic color choices, it’s great to see some gorgeous new headphones. The Sivga P2 Pro headphones are a stunning combination of oak, leather, and stainless steel. I liked how the Sivga Luan headphones looked when I reviewed them last year, and these are a step above.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 May 2024

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Reviewers' Choice The music you listen to is rarely, if ever, recorded straight from the musician onto a recording medium. There are almost always extra steps, most notably mixing and mastering. There’s a sort of black magic to both processes, and the people who do it well are always in high demand. In short, they’re largely what makes a song sound the way it does. A pan here, an EQ tweak there—they let you hear individual instruments (or not), hear the room (or not), and so on.