Yes, they are fast, and they deliver scale, low distortion, and power in ways most dynamic headphones cannot. WHIle my experience with planar headphones (I had the Audeze LCD-XC for a time) is limited, it left me wanting. I’ve not heard the Meze Empyrean ($2999) yet, for example, but it has received several glowing reviews. The latest luxury products are primarily high-priced planar magnetic and electrostatic designs with which the builders have driven measured performance to Olympian levels (Focal’s headphones are one exception). The current mainstream trends in headphones lean more toward HiFi, or what I might describe as hyper-real playback. One point I’d like to make here is that even those dedicated to two-channel playback and maybe a less modern hifi sound can find satisfaction in personal audio. With headphones, we lose the scale, full body immersion, and some social aspects, and in turn, get a more direct and intimate sound that removes the influence of a listening room. That said, I have spent ever more time with headphones in recent years, and now with my reference system, find the trade-primarily, a much smaller listening space-to be an equitable one. The pendulum swings… The Verve 1995 stereo reissue – found it at StinkweedsĪs time passed I came to prefer two-channel over headphones for its scale and power, and still do. Today, we know many who continue pursuing (I’d like to experiment with a mono cartridge, well, because I want to know, and information isn’t knowledge.) mono playback, and with verve. Mono was benched to make room for stereo years before I was born, and, I suspect (hoping, actually) there has been a Loyal Order of the Monophonic since the industry made the switch. Of course, music (making it or playing it back) is not a sport. I went mono before it was cool, uh, again. I can’t recall the exact model, but this looks like it… My first loudspeaker was not two channel, but instead a single speaker in a small red briefcase, with the 8-track slot on the side and a microphone. I was most likely listening to the Star Wars soundtrack. I recall sitting on one end of our couch in the living room with some big 70’s headphones on, leashed (with the coiled cable) to an 8-track player like a tetherball (skinny kid/big head) to a pole. Two channel systems with loudspeakers, or “stereos” as my childhood friends and I called them, and headphones have always run together, side by side-my earliest memories of listening to playback include both. Meet totaldac’s New Amp-1-Sublime Power Amplifier HiFi Bargains: Wattson Emerson ANALOG Streaming DAC In Barn for Review: Viva Solista Integrated Amplifier Twittering Machines Favorite Gear of 2023 In Barn for Review: GoldenEar T66 Tower Speakers In Barn for Review: Vivid Audio GIYA G3 Series 2 Qobuz Sessions at SXSW: Live Music from Yazmin Lacey, Daniel Villarreal, and Shana Cleveland! Twittering Machines: A Year (of Reviews) in PicturesĪlbum of the Week: New Age Doom | There Is No End Review: Audio Research I/50 Integrated Amplifier
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