SoundStage! Solo | SoundStageSolo.com

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.

Details: Written by: Killain Jones; Created: 15 March 2024

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Reviewers' Choice At the start of my college career in 2001, I became heavily involved in road cycling. Every day I would spend hours riding my road bike, captivated by the solitude of the climbs in California’s Santa Monica mountains. I was far from a natural climber; I was just too heavy, with too little threshold power. But I loved the long climbs for two distinct reasons: the long, fast descents, and the sense of focus enabled by my Apple earbuds and first-generation iPod. High fidelity was not the goal; having 1000 songs at the touch of a button was. The music provided the fuel that no carbohydrate gel could match, and earbuds were the key.