Stereophile's Products of 1998 Accessory of 1998

Accessory of 1998:

Sennheiser HD600 headphones ($449.95; reviewed by Sam Tellig & Wes Phillips, Vol.21 No.2, February 1998 Review)

Finalists (in alphabetical order):
Black Diamond Racing Cones & Shelves (Cones, $20 each; Shelves, $440–$875; reviewed by Jonathan Scull, Vol.21 No.6, June 1998)
Grado Reference Series RS-1 headphones ($695; reviewed by Sam Tellig, Vol.21 No.2, February 1998 Review)
Nordost Blue Heaven loudspeaker cables ($399/2m pair; reviewed by Brian Damkroger, Vol.21 No.6, June 1998)
Philips CDR880 CD-R/CD-RW recorder ($649; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.21 No.9, September 1998 Review)
Synergistic Research Designer's Reference interconnect ($2000/1m pair; reviewed by Jonathan Scull & Brian Damkroger, Vol.21 No.1, January 1998 Review)
TARA Labs The One interconnect ($1895/1m pair; reviewed by Jonathan Scull, Vol.21 No.8, August 1998)
Wallytractor cartridge-alignment gauge ($85; reviewed by Michael Fremer, Vol.20 No.11, November 1997 Review)

Sennheiser's HD600 has the distinction of winning its category by garnering nothing but first-place votes, which means that no one voting for it considered it less than superlative—an impressive accolade from a bunch as particular as our editors and reviewers.

Well, why not? The HD600s are the best dynamic headphones that WP, KR, JA, and ST have ever heard, and they're comfortable enough to wear for hours on end. Couple that with impressive bass response, near-magical midrange, and extended but never fatiguing HF response, and you have a true winner. Literally and emphatically.

COMMENTS
Anton's picture

He was the audio-review pioneer of commentary via paragraph title.

Some classics....

"Wire we talking about this?"

"Beating against the bars of the cage of form"

"Mr. Polk, are you trying to seduce me?"

A killer title for a conclusion paragraph..."A panegyric untainted by poppy"

Dang, I miss Wes.

John Atkinson's picture
John Atkinson wrote:
Z-System's RDP-1 is my 1998 Editor's Choice. With its transparent control of tone, it points to a future in which audiophiles can eat their cake and have it too.

I bought the review sample of the RDP-1 and subsequently had it updated to handle data sampled at 88.2kHz and 96kHz. It's still in the rack but with my playback of digital audio now happening over the network with Roon and my PS Audio DirectStream DAC, it only very occasionally sees action.

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

Kal Rubinson's picture

The RDP-1 is the product that convinced me of the value and efficacy of DSP.

Robin Landseadel's picture

"Designing great-sounding gear is no simple matter no matter how much you spend, but it's doubly impressive when the product is available at a bargain price."

Guess that one went out the window.

X