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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…

About a year and a half ago, SCOTTeVEST sent me a jacket to be included in the 2015 Holiday Gift Guide. I liked what I saw and included it. But for a product like this, the proof is in the wearing...the long-time wearing. I figured I'd use it for a while before giving it a real thumbs-up.

Well, a year and a half down the road, probably a hundred yards on my back under vehicles, a half dozen back country motorcycle rides, innumerable hours around the campfire, at least three trips through the wash cycle, and every-day use nine…

Twenty five years ago when I started HeadRoom and built the first commercially available portable headphone amplifier I said to myself, "The day Sony decides to enter the fray with a portable headphone amp my mission will be complete." That happened a few years ago and I've found it quite entertaining to watch this humungous consumer electronics company try to snuggle into our tiny headphone enthusiast niche.

Sure, they've been at it for quite a while: First in 1989 with the legendary $2500 MDR-R10, then in 2004 with the $…

It's pretty amazing, really. I would say Sankar Thiagasamudram of Audeze, Fang Bian of HiFiMAN, and Dan Clark of MrSpeakers—all of whom got their start within the headphone enthusiast community—have revolutionized the headphone world with their planar magnetic designs over the past ten years. HiFiMAN has a pretty diversified offering of products and provides a one-stop on-line shopping experience, but their planar magnetic designs have continued to evolve and put pressure on the other two competitors. Audeze had some some money…

Sound Quality
Simply put: This is the best sounding around-ear, sealed, headphone I've heard to date. Tonal balance is spot on but for a very slight emphasis 5-10kHz. Bass is tight, well balanced and does not bleed into the mids. Transition to mids is seamless and excellent. Midrange is excellently balanced; vocals and overtones are very well proportioned giving voices just the right sense of presence and ease simultaneously. Treble is terrifically proportioned as well; cymbals and snares sound very natural. I guess my only note here is a very, very slight over-emphasis at 5kHz-10kHz…

The first thing you'll notice about the raw frequency response is how close it is to the Harman Target Response curve. Maybe the closest I've seen of any passive headphone.

Response is remarkably stable with ear position changes though some variation can be seen 2-8kHz. I did hear this region being emphasized when having my ear positioned near the front of the earpad. A slight emphasis can be seen in and between the twin peaks at 5kHz and…

When first I saw the Audeze iSine models I wondered to myself, "What the heck are these for?" and, "Who will want these?" I'd never heard of an open acoustic in-ear before...heck, I'd not even thought of the possibility. Why in the world was Audeze even going down this road? I spent some time on the phone with Sankar Thiagasamudram, founder and CEO of Audeze, to gain some understanding.

To put it bluntly, they did it because they could. With significant experience designing, tensioning, and manufacturing planar magnetic…

Finding affordable headphones is rough. There are just so many to sort through; I wish I could be more comprehensive. I encourage readers who are aware of and own really good sub-$200 headphones to contact me so that I can measure and evaluate them more broadly. Please check the listing of headphone measurements; if your cans are not on there I'd be happy to measure them. (Email tyll@tyllhertsens.com with subject line "Headphone Measurements.")

Anywho, Sennheiser has been "remastering" their line-up for the past little while and I'…

Oh boy. The folks at Massdrop have gone and done it again. Just got their new Massdrop x HiFiMAN HE4XX in for measurements and a quick listen before the drop. There seems to be a little curiosity on the forums about from which HE400 varient the HE4XX descends. By the look of the measurements (HE4XX and HE400i) I think it most resembles the HE400i. They have changed a few things: there's a new, much better headband; they've used the lauded Focus-A pads; it's liveried now in a cool midnight-blue colorway soft-touch matte finish; and most…