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Headphones
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- Written by Brent Butterworth
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The Rolling Stones occupy but a few square centimeters of my vast musical landscape. I’m merely using the launch of the Crossfade 2 Wireless Rolling Stones Tattoo You headphones ($279.99, all prices USD) as an excuse to give a fresh listen to some V-Moda headphones, which I haven’t reviewed since before the company was sold to Roland in 2016. The company was started in the early days of the headphone boom by DJ Val Kolton. Its headphones built a strong rep among enthusiasts for sound quality, and among the stylish set for their cool looks and customizable cover plates. But when Roland bought the brand, it kind of shifted more into the pro audio realm, which I cover only sporadically.
Read more: V-Moda Crossfade 2 Wireless Rolling Stones Tattoo You Headphones
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Sometimes I wish HiFiMan wasn’t such an efficient, well-run business. I can’t think of any brand that cranks out so many new models each year. Most are variants of a previous design. The company might update an existing frame with an improved driver, as it did with the new Arya Stealth Magnet Version headphones ($1599, all prices USD) reviewed here. Or it might cost-reduce an existing design so it can sell for less. Or it might introduce a Bluetooth version. It’s great that the company keeps offering new and improved (or new and cheaper) models, but for a reviewer like me, the pace tough to keep up with—and any model I review this year is likely to emerge in an updated form within about 18 months.
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As I look back on my dozen or so years of reviewing headphones, the 2012 entry of PSB Speakers into the headphone market marks one of the most important new products I’ve tested. When PSB founder Paul Barton designed his first set of headphones, the M4U 2s, he applied much of the knowledge he’d gained in decades of work measuring and designing his speakers at Canada’s National Research Council in Ottawa (where the speaker measurements SoundStage! publishes are performed). The result was a set of headphones that sounded a lot like hearing real speakers in a good listening room. But it’s been a while since PSB introduced a new headphone model. I was starting to wonder if PSB, like so many other speaker companies, had bailed out of the headphone biz—but now along come the M4U 8 MKII Bluetooth noise-canceling headphones.
Read more: PSB M4U 8 MKII Bluetooth Noise-Canceling Headphones
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- Written by Brent Butterworth
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I think I know why there’s so much emphasis on closed-back audiophile headphones now. A couple of years ago, they were few and far between, but now they’re becoming almost as common as open-back audiophile headphones. My guess? The COVID-19 pandemic, and the increase in the amount of time families spend together, left people wanting some personal sonic space where others couldn’t annoy them without putting some effort into it. So I wasn’t too surprised to hear, after I’d reviewed the Monoprice Monolith M1570 open-back headphones, that the company also has a closed-back model, the M1570C (both $599.99, all prices USD).
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How many closed-back headphones are priced at $2000 and up? Not many. The Focal Stellias ($3000, all prices USD) come right to mind, and I suspected HiFiMan has a model, but I had to look it up—the HE-R10P headphones ($5499). Now Meze Audio is entering this tiny market with the new Liric, a closed-back, scaled-down, less-expensive version of its big, open-back Empyrean and Elite headphones.
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Grado reminds me of some of the musicians I’ve encountered. Most people I play gigs with show up on time, play whatever the leader wants, and do a solid job on most or all of the tunes that get called—but they don’t really stand out. There are a few, though, who maybe aren’t so reliable, or get fussy about what we play, or might suddenly sit out on a tune they don’t like—but blow my mind at least once per gig with the brilliant stuff they play. Grado’s the headphone equivalent of that. I’ve loved a few of its headphones, but some I’ve found too far outside the norm to enjoy. So when the company offered me the RS2x headphones for review, I had no idea whether or not I’d find them sonically simpatico with my ears.
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