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Conclusion

I notice that five out of six listeners feel the vocals are stronger on the LCD-4 than on the Focal, and the reasons they give are that the percussion and other instruments are emphasized and more forward in the Focal, masking the vocals. Whereas the sixth listener feels that the bass gets in the way of the vocals and consequently the vocals are murkier in the LCD-4s. Clearly different listeners have different listening preferences. But regardless, there is a consensus that the Focals are brighter and more forward: most of the listeners feel they are brighter than…

Sony MDR-1000X ($399)
The insanely rapid growth of smartphones is beginning to level off to a comparatively sedate 6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). That's what happens when virtually everyone is already staring into their palms...the market is pretty saturated. That's good news for us headphone geeks because now that everyone has their phone they can start lusting the next worthwhile gadget, and that turns out to be wireless headphones.

For the first time last year,…

Sound Quality
I would basically characterize the Sony MDR-1000X as a modestly warm and pleasant sounding headphone. Bass is well extended and tight though slightly too emphatic and does very mildly intrude on the mids—though that may have more to do with the presence region of the upper mids being dialed back. Once above the presence region, the treble response is just a tad on the bright side of neutral, but it really doesn't sound bright at all with the presence area so subdued. The more audible issue for me is a somewhat grainy character that tends to obscure detail.

The…

Lot of graphs here, let's start with the Wireless ANC Off. Raw frequency response plots show the headphone is sealing well in all positions and plots are very consistant. Bass shows a modest and nicely…

Meze 99 Neo ($249)
Just over a year ago I wrote about the preceding Meze model 99 Classic and liked it very much. The Meze 99 Neo is a very similar headphone; the most significant differences are that the 99 Neo has a plastic housing vs. the wooden capsule housings of the 99 Classic, and the earpads have been changed to be a bit larger on the new model. Due to the nature of my findings, I'm not going to do a full review here of the new model, but will rather dive right into what I see as a problem with these new cans.

In my…

On the one hand you have Sony, Sennheiser, AKG, and the like mounting big bucks R&D efforts to grab at the various brass rings in the headphone world; and on the other hand you have a guy like Zach Mehrbach, Founder, CEO, and Chief Cook and Bottle-Washer at ZMF Headphones, who's artisanal approach is less mental and measurement, and more heart and art...lots more.

ZMF is best known in headphone enthusiast circles for their modified Fostex T50RP models. Personally, I've always felt the T50RP never quite lives up to the…

To my eyes, the Atticus is one half of a two part experiment by Zach Mehrbach, Founder and CEO of ZMF Headphones. His past has been dominated by the venerable, but in my opinion underperforming, Fostex T50RP planar magnetic driver. I guess Zach sees his future with a more modern—though more common—dynamic driver. It seems to me he's designed these latest two headphones as an experiment to find out just how good a headphone he can build using two different types of dynamic driver: the Atticus with a TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer) diaphragm…

[Editor's Note: Through a long and tedious process it was found that the Focal Utopia and Audeze LCD-4 reviewed here at InnerFidelity in numerous articles were found to be not representative of currently manufactured product. This article is therefore not entirely indicative of our current impressions of this product. To get a complete understanding of our evaluation the reader should start with this summary article and work back through the articles leading up to our current understanding.]

Looking Back
Episodes 13 and…

Dag nab it! I got so busy last week with the Focal Utopia measurements that I neglected to get the new Massdrop Noble X measured and listened to for a quick report before the drop. Sorry about that.

The Massdrop Noble X is a dandy dual balanced armature driver in-ear monitor. The $249 IEMs come with five different tips, a cleaning tool, and a small cylindrical plastic carry case. A Lightning cable is available separately for $40!

The sound is polite and mildly warm. Bass is modestly boosted and bleeds slightly into…

One hell of a story here. Interesting roots in a buncha places. I'm going to power through it with pics and links if you're interested in a deeper dive. Here we go!

Warwick Audio Technologies
The central differentiating technology in these headphones is the Warwick Audio Technologies (WAT) High-Precision Electrostatic Laminate Transducer (HPEL) driver. The basic driver is three layers: a 15 micron (thinner than a human hair) metalized laminate film; a 0.1mm thick stainless steel screen; and a die cut Formex™ spacer…