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Review: AKG K550 Headphones

A closed-back headphone designed to sound as spacious as an open-back model.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted July 30, 2012
- 4
Even if you’re not an audiophile, you’ve seen the huge headphones many audiophiles wear. Most are open-back models, which allow the sound from the back of the speaker driver inside to escape, and which thus avoid the “boxy” sound that driver enclosures can create.

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Review: Hybrid Headphones from AKG, Audiofly, and Scosche

Does the combination of dynamic drivers with balanced armatures give you the best of both worlds?
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted July 23, 2012
To most people, the only apparent differences among in-ear monitors (IEMs) are the logos on the sides. But there are two very different technologies used in IEMs.

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Review: AKG K3003

An ultra-high-end hybrid IEM for the private-jet set.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted July 23, 2012
- 4
The $1,299 K3003 seems as if it were designed to be the official IEM of the one-percenters. One look at the stainless-steel earpieces tells you it’s something exclusive and different. It’s different inside, too, with two balanced armatures instead of just one. As one might expect from a $1,299 IEM, it comes with a snazzy and unique leather case, although the case is relatively bulky.

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Review: Dusting Off Some Vintage Headphones

Revisiting the great, not-so-great, and just plain wacky headphones of the ’70s
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted July 11, 2012
Checking out the latest acquisitions during a recent visit to Vancouver, BC vintage audio dealer Innovative Audio, I noticed a lot of headphones that I hadn’t seen since the days when I wore Qiana shirts and had hair down past my shoulders.

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Review: B&W P3 Headphones

A smaller on-ear headphone from the biggest name in (good) speakers.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted May 28, 2012
- 1
There are speaker companies better-known than B&W, but I doubt any has a more enviable reputation. B&Ws have been a fave of audiophiles and recording engineers for decades. But the best indicator of B&W’s rep would probably be a walk through an audio show in China, where you’ll see no other speaker brand so brazenly copied.
Nowadays, though, B&W seems focused on compact and portable products, such as its Zeppelin Air and P5 and C5 headphones. Can’t blame B&W for wanting to surf the market trends, but headphones, especially, are so different from speakers that a company’s expertise in one is little indicator of skill in the other.
All three of the products I just mentioned have received rave reviews, though. That praise gives us great hope for the P3, a smaller, more portable, $100-less-expensive version of the P5.

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Review: AKG K 490 NC and K 495 NC Noise-Canceling Headphones

On-ear headphones designed for serious sound
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted March 9, 2012
- 6
I love the form factor of on-ear, or "supra-aural" headphones — the kind where the ear pads press against your ears’ pinnae instead of surrounding them — because they usually fit easily into my laptop computer case. But I’ve had a problem finding a model comfortable enough to wear for more than an hour. What’s more, I’ve found no on-ears whose performance compares to that of a good over-ear (or circumaural) headphone — until now.

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CES 2012: Headphones

The hottest new cans and in-ear monitors, from low-priced to luxury
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted January 12, 2012
Surely there’s never been such a vast display of headphones in the history of the universe as at CES 2012. From super-high-end models to bottom-feeder stuff, there was something for every budget and every taste.

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Headphone Shootout: The Best and Worst Celebrity Cans

We go ears and measurement microphones on with headphones from Dr. Dre, Quincy Jones, Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Bob Marley, and Miles Davis
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted October 5, 2011
- 25
The success of Dr. Dre's Beats sent up a signal flare that alerted the rest of the celebrigentsia — who've realized that there's no safe money in music anymore — that there was cash to be had in them thar ‘phones. They've since had at it in a big way, with everyone from Justin Bieber to Quincy Jones to the estates of Miles Davis and Bob Marley slapping their names on hardware.
But are any of these headphones any good? We set out to figure out which — if any — of these celebs deserve your hard-earned dollars. We called in a team of expert listeners to pick 'em apart, and then put each headphone through some rigorous lab testing to figure out what was really going on underneath those fancy designs.

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