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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…

Sound Quality
Wow. Really, just wow. I spent a lot of time comparing these little gems with a variety of other good headphones and they consistently outperformed all other cans of this type and price. When comparing the Onkyo with on-ear headphones in a similar price range like the V-Moda M-80, Logitech UE40000, or Noontec Zoro, the ES-FC300 handily slayed them with a richer, more open sound. Likewise, when compared to significantly more expensive on-ear, sealed cans like the Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear, HD 25 Aluminum, Beyerdynamic DT1350, and B&W P5, the Onkyos were competitive…

Raw frequency response (lower gray traces) shows some variation in low frequency response with positional changes, likely due to difficulty sealing on the measurement head ears as these are not quite full-size, over-ear cans and will have some difficulties in this regard. My feeling after wearing these cans is that this will not be as big a problem as might be represented here. (The dummy's ears are a bit stiffer than human ears and makes sealing a bit more difficult with on-ear style headphones.)

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NAD VISO HP50 ($299)
For those of you looking for a great all-around headphone, run, don't walk, to your nearest NAD dealer and get one...right now.

Not convinced yet? Okay, I'd be happy to go on for a little while about why this headphone is simply a game changer. We'll start with Paul Barton...

You may have read my recent article on the work done by Sean Olive et. al. at Harman Intl. on developing a new headphone target response curve. In it, I describe the great lengths to which this research team has gone…

Physical Description
The NAD VISO HP50 is a full-size, circumaural, sealed headphone. The overall look of these headphones is very nice, in my opinion, and the integration of ergonomics, comfort, and styling is very well executed.

Synthetic materials are used broadly, and appear to be of high quality. Ear-pads and headband pad are ample and use high quality protein leather coverings. Ear-cushions are memory foam, and, though a bit snug, were quite comfortable for me. On first view I thought the headband pad might be a bit under padded, but found the HP50 quite light…

Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear ($229)
On-ear headsets are a tough category. They're small, so it's tough to get really good sound from them. They bare a huge ergonomic burden: on-ear headphones can be uncomfortable, and difficult to get a good fit and acoustic seal; and they need to be compact enough to easily fit in a briefcase and desk drawer. And these days, with so many headphones sporting the bling, all headphones need to be good looking. I'd say Sennheiser pretty much nailed it with the Momentum On-Ear (MOE).

Styling…

Sound Quality
On-ear, sealed headphones, as a category, are second only to ear-buds as a poor sounding headphones. Generally speaking, on-ear sealed cans tend to sound congested and uneven, so in addition to listening to the Momentum On-Ear in isolation I also spent quite a bit of time comparing these cans to other good performers in this class. Listening tests included the: B&W P5; V-Moda M80; Sennheiser HD 25 Aluminum and Amperior; Noontech Zoro HD; Logitec UE4000; and Beyerdynamic DT1350. Let's start with the MOE in isolation first.

The Momentum On-Ear has a…

Measurements

Raw frequency response plots show a broad and relatively modest change in FR tilt to about 1kHz as the pad seal changes during repositioning for the five measurements. I think Sennheiser must have done a lot of work with the pad materials and shape to deliver such a gentle and relatively well controlled FR result with various sealings on the ear. For a moment, have a look at the isolation plot and you'll see that he MOE doesn't isolate particularly well. I think what Sennheiser has done is build a pad…