SoundStage! Solo | SoundStageSolo.com

Details: Written by: S. Andrea Sundaram; Created: 01 February 2019

Sound: 1/2
Value: 1/2
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Measurements can be found by clicking this link.

Four score and three years ago, Peter J. Walker brought forth, on the island of Great Britain, an audio company called S.P. Fidelity Sound Systems, which would later take the name Quad Electroacoustics. With its many successful products over the years -- especially the original ESL electrostatic loudspeaker (later nicknamed the ESL 57) and its derivatives -- it’s safe to say that Quad is one of the most venerable British hi-fi companies. But while in the past decade many traditional hi-fi brands have come out with headphone products, Quad’s only entry in that race has been a headphone amplifier, the PA-One. That changes with the subject of this review, the ERA-1: full-size, over-ear, open-backed headphones ($799 USD).

Read more: Fostex T60RP Headphones

Details: Written by: Brent Butterworth; Created: 20 December 2018

Sound:
Value:
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Measurements can be found by clicking this link.

Reviewers' Choice Closed-back audiophile headphones became something of a big deal in the last year, with lots of new releases in this somewhat neglected category. Does this reflect a desire to block banal chit-chat in open-plan offices? An urge to keep Starbucks’ innocuous playlists from mixing with Miles? I don’t know, but I do know the Audeze LCD2 Closed-Back headphones ($899 USD) are the latest example of this trend. The original LCD-2s ($995) and most other Audeze headphones are open-back designs, which produce a spacious sound but do almost nothing to block the sound from your environment. The LCD2 Closed-Backs have big, semi-spherical rear shells that keep outside noise from interfering with your music and your mental well-being.

Details: Written by: Brent Butterworth; Created: 20 November 2018

Sound:
Value:

Measurements can be found by clicking this link.

Reviewers' Choice Fostex has one of the most unusual product lines in the headphone biz. They mostly split between pro ’phones priced under $200 and high-end consumer models priced at $599 or more. I’ve been a fan since 1997, when a very well-informed sales guy at the old Sam Ash store on Manhattan’s 48th Street “music row” steered me toward a set of Fostex T20s to use for mixing my music recordings. True to Fostex form, the new TH909s ($1799.99 USD) cost more than 11 times the price of the current version of the T20s, the T20RPmk3s. But of course, they’re almost completely different headphones -- all they have in common is that they’re open-back and they wear the Fostex brand.