Headphone Reviews

NAD VISO HP50
What's with the short cords? This one is about 30 inches... ouch. Probably good for your mobile phone and that's about it. These phones have a style to them and a rectangular pad that doesn't fit around my round ears but rather on top of them, so there is not a good seal or comfort. They just don't sit very well on my ears. What's with that? Maybe Spock will love them in the year 2205. I have to give the comfort a C minus grade. Ultimately you look at these and say, "stylish but cheap looking: I have better taste." OK, I love NAD electronics so let's give these cans a try.

Listening note: Blackbird, Cassandra Wilson, from the Silver Pony Album. Produced, recorded and mixed by the great John Fischbach, who also made the sound of Stevie Wonder. BK master, 2496. This recording is big and rich jazz with Grammy-winning Cassandra at the helm and fabulous New Orleans artists including Steven Colbert's manicky bandleader Jon Batiste. Ravi Coltrane and John Legend also participate on this album.

These are at least 2 dB, probably 3 dB more sensitive than the Audeze. Well, the sound is pretty good, well balanced overall, so these are promising. Unlike so many "tuned" headphones, there is no artificial presence boost, it's very smooth all the way from 125 through at least 12k! Desirable sound if you can put up with the skimpy short cord and the weird feeling of the rectangular pads on your round ears. There's good body to the snare hits circa 150 Hz. Bass below 100 is lacking a bit, shelved down a dB or so, but the overall impression of bass is good because there's a bit of a boost in the harmonic range between 80 and 200 to make up for the loss of low bass.

Cymbals are sweet and not over emphasized. I could use these to make equalization judgments, at least from 125 Hz on up and easily learn their sound from 125 down. I can still identify nearly all the bass notes and feel the bass drum a bit. I'd give you $200 for these but I'll bet they're premium priced above $300. They probably deserve that for their neutral tonality but I am totally put off by the uncomfortable narrow rectangular "on the ear/off the ear" cushions.

Wonder what NAD gets for these stylish puppies? Because of the physical discomfort I'm not going to listen to any other musical cuts, sorry.

Bottom line: Amazon has them at $249 MSRP: it's not particularly cheap, but if these pads fit your ears comfortably they may be worth it as a neutral, good sounding low-end audiophile headphone. A longer replacement cord is available. Price/performance ratio is very good if you can wear these on your ears.

Read full InnerFidelity NAD VISO HP50 review.
Product page for NAD VISO HP50.