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Sound Quality
After initially hearing the MDR-1R I had hoped all three headphones would have similar sound signatures. Unfortunately, that's not the case, all three headphones have fairly strongly different characteristics so I will be commenting on the sound of each separately.

Sony MDR-1R
Like most sealed headphones, the Sony MDR-1R has a somewhat uneven frequency response. Bass response is probably the biggest problem suffering from a lack of extension into the lowest octave and being a bit bloated in the mid-bass. The mid-range is good, but has a slightly…

Sony MDR-1R Measurements

Raw frequency response plots show a headphone that is positionally insensitive, and has pads that seal reliably quite well. Compensated plot shows falling response below 100Hz, with a broad upper-bass/low mid-range hump and another centered at 1-2kHz. The broad hump centered at 100-200Hz coupled with the strong downward curve of the 30Hz square wave top and rising THD+noise curve in the bass (especially the 100dB plot) are indicators of a somewhat loose bass response heard in listening…

(Ed. Note: I want to thank John Grandberg for writing the Introduction and the company capsule profiles for this article. Lots of tidbits in there I didn't know. Thanks, mate.)

Introduction
Custom in-ear monitors—often referred to as custom IEMs or just CIEMs—are a rapidly growing segment of the headphone industry. You don't have to go too far back to find a time when there were only a handful of companies making a few models each. Most of those went to industry folks—musicians and sound…

Never at a loss for a new product, Fang Bien of HiFiMAN gave me a listen to his new RE-600 ($399) in-ear monitor, which I enjoyed very much. I'll definitely get a pair to listen and measure, and then send off to ljokerl to consider for review.

The real treat for me, however, was getting to hear the RE-400. I'd read a lot of posts saying it was good, and since the demise of the Etymotic ER6 I've been searching for a good motorcycle earphone. In-ear monitors for motorcycling need to virtually disappear into your ear because…

AKG K267 Tiesto ($349)
Sometimes I feel like an old geezer. Who the heck is Tiesto?

I read a bit of his Wiki page, and, as many of you undoubtedly know, he's a hugely popular European DJ. The first of his kind ever to spin discs live at the Olympics (2004 Athens). As I write this I'm listening to his MOG.com radio channel on the K267 and, well, yeah, not really for me. No surprise there. But if you're a fan you should read on, because in the final analysis these headphones are pretty good.

The AKG K267 Tiesto…

Sound Quality
The $300 around-ear, sealed headphone category may be the toughest one around. Customers are paying good money and expect a serious return. Sealed headphones are very tough to design, good sound and good isolation are very hard to get simultaneously. And maybe most importantly, this is a really sweet spot for makers and competition is extremely vigorous.

The result of all this is a category of headphones filled with headphones much better than you would have found five years ago, but also a group of cans that have many compromises—so much so, that I had…

JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 Planar Magnetic Headphones ($5495)
The very unusual looking JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 is an over-ear, open, planar-magnetic headphone. (Unusual looking? Let's not mince words, these headphones are butt-ugly.) But despite its odd looks and significant weight, they are surprisingly comfortable. Primary adjustment is accomplished at the top join of the two black anodized aluminum headband sides with a friction fitting that allows the space between the two earpieces headphones to be widened and narrowed, and…

Listening Test Equipment
At $5495, the Abyss AB-1266 clearly intends to play among the big boys. My initial listening tests did indicate these cans were indeed of this caliber, so I assembled what I thought would be a very tough group of systems for comparison.

The front-end feeding all the amp/headphone systems was a MacBook using Amarra software. The USB output was connected to an Ayre Acoustics QB9 DAC (I love this DAC!). Both balanced and unbalanced connections were used depending…

Uncompensated frequency response plots show a headphone that, while a bit hard to adjust initially, is relatively insensitive to positional changes on the head. Compensated frequency response plot show bass response nicely extended and beginning to fall off at about 28Hz. Between 30Hz and 1kHz response shows a mild U-shaped response heard in listening tests as a modest coloration. The wiggle at 500Hz is too low in frequency to be an internal acoustic resonance of the headphone; my guess is this is the primary…

Onkyo ES-FC300 ($149) and ES-HF300 ($179)
Onkyo, particularly famous for their A/V receivers, and like many big audio companies these days, has decided to enter the headphone fray with both on-ear and in-ear models. Initial press releases were filled with all the appropriate buzzwords: "Deep Powerful Bass"; "Well-Defined, Clear Sound"; "Tangle-Free Cable"; "Solid Build Quality"; and, of course, sexy pictures of white, black, and purple headphones with clean, contemporary lines. Typical big company brand promising that rarely…