Emotiva XDA3 DAC/preamp The marketing line ‘why pay more?’ is as old as retailing itself but, for the longest time, it hasn’t prevented audiophiles answering quite reasonably: ‘above a certain level, small improvements start to cost a lot’. The law of diminishing returns has been a thorny fact of life for hi-fi owning music lovers […]
Dali IO-8 wireless headphones Danish audio brand Dali might not be unique among its audio industry peers, but it is somewhat unusual, because as well as a large range of speakers, it also makes headphones. There are three over-ear models, all intended for portable use and therefore adaptive noise cancelling (ANC) designs. There’s the IO-6 […]
HEDD Heddphone Two headphones I don’t often get over-excited by headphones, using them only when listening via loudspeakers is not possible for whatever reason. However, at the Dutch Audio Event last autumn I discovered some rather amazing German headphones using AMT drivers, my preferred type of high frequency drive unit for speakers, rather than more […]
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 in-ear phones Having enjoyed Sennheiser’s over-the-head wireless Momentum 4 headphones for a while, I do find them rather cumbersome when trying to travel light. They are perfect, for example, for long-haul flights but, for day trips they take up so much valuable space that I leave them at home, and […]
Sendy Peacock planar magnetic headphones It’s so obvious once you’ve seen it, but it was three or four weeks before the light caught the Sendy Peacock’s outer earcup at just the right angle and it dawned on me that they looked like peacock tail feathers. Having initially found the name of these headphones rather challenging, […]
Meze Audio Empyrean II headphones Romanian headphones are, I have to admit, new to me; likewise, the idea of spending almost £3,000 on a pair. And yet that’s a comparable sum to my everyday loudspeakers and my former reference streaming amplifier, so it’s far from an outlandish amount, especially if it’s a principal source of […]
Dali IO-12 wireless headphones There is a sizeable cohort of music lovers for whom the world of portable audio is off-limits. It’s true that there is a rich choice of in-ear monitors (IEMs) and some of them, I have it on good authority, are really good-sounding. So what’s the problem? The portable audio exclusion zone […]
Sennheiser HD660S2 headphones Designing the HD660S2, a mid-priced, dynamic open-back headphone, to supplant the legendary HD600 and HD650 was never going to be easy. When Sennheiser finally made their 600 series into a trio in 2017 with the release of the HD660S it’s fair to say it caused some confusion among HD aficionados. Despite using […]
Sivga SV023 open-backed headphone Using a headphone like the Sivga SV023 on the move is not something I do anymore but back in the late ‘80s and the pre-iPod years of the ‘90s I was regularly involved in work-related long haul travel, and my trusty Sony Walkman and then Discman were always in my hand […]
Bowers & Wilkins Px8 headphones The Px8 headphones came up in conversation with the editor while I was immobilised with a fractured ankle we agreed that about the only things I might be able to handle for review would be headphones, shortly thereafter a pair of Bowers & Wilkins Px8s a few weeks ago. Back […]
The best of the best that we have reviewed on the Ear over the last 12 months
More than one fellow reviewer has suggested that I find some noise-cancelling headphones to to use on my travels. Goodness knows who’s previously used the ones supplied on long-haul aircraft and, as far as European travel is concerned, passengers are left to their own devices. That in mind, I was very excited to read the […]