As you guys may remember, I was absolutely charmed by the planar Kennerton Heartland headphones. That is, when their dynamic brother (sister?) version was announced, I got really excited. Because, you know, is it even possible to craft something better than the Heartland? But the Kennerton crew is as unpredictable and ambitious as ever.
As soon as I managed to find some time (and as the guys have said they’re ready for my awesomeness), I rushed to the Kennerton office to try the two of their new models – the Heartland and the HORS. So! I’ve tried the Heartland and asked… no, plagued the guys to lend those to me to try more and listen to and ultimately to write a pre-review.
Here are the headphones that I, again, was really waiting for. These are the Edifier wireless planar ones powered by Audeze technologies. And the symbolic STAX in the model name kind of suggests THINGS. Well, since closed-back planars with decent sound are something manufacturers don’t always achieve, it was double as interesting for me to take a look at this Edifier masterpiece.
There are different models of headphones I’d love to try SO much that I’m ready to buy them. Like, to spend literal money, not just get them for a test-n-review. And today I’m going to tell you about one such model. It’s HiFiMan Sundara – open back isodynamic headphones for around $280.
A year is not over yet and I have already got a new test fixture stand, and I am more than happy about it. I have switched now from a modified miniDSP EARS to a real test fixture, which is IEC711 complied: a coupler (IEC60318-4), artificial pinna, speficially calibrated microphone. So, now I can apply any target curve to frequency graphs without any recaltulations for real. An article about my new test fixture with all the detials – where to get it, how to use it and so on – is coming soon. Stay tuned. And for now you can check frequency graphs of almost all current Kennerton models from the new test fixture.
In the middle of 2021, the Kennerton introduced their Rognir planar headphones with prismatic cutting inside the earcups allowing effective sound dispersion in the inner space of the earcups. So it was pretty logical to anticipate a dynamic model with the same technological approach to be developed and released. And it actually happened: in December 2022, the Rognir Dynamic were released.
In 2007, Nassim Taleb wrote a book called ‘The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable’, in which he introduced the concept of a ‘Black Swan’ event. He describes it as an event that was unpredictable before, but became completely rationally explicable in hindsight, and also triggered some significant consequences. Why am I telling…
The Slovenian Ollo Audio company manufactures headphones since 2015. Both two current Ollo models are for musicians, sound engineers and other professionals whose everyday tasks are related to sound. Today we have an open-back S4X model to review (product page). Spoiler: these headphones are darn good. All images are clickable to enlarge.
I’ve got three pairs of Kennerton headphones delivered at once for a review: the M12s, the Magni and the Vali. I’ve already reviewed the more expensive models, which are the Gjallarhorn and the Wodan, and now it’s time to take a look at the less pricey representatives of the line. These are two closed-back and…
