SoundStage! Solo | SoundStageSolo.com

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 January 2025

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As I’ve mentioned often in this space, I travel a lot. Early on, when I started traveling more or less full-time, I was lucky enough to meet an absolutely delightful person who I am even luckier to still call a friend. She’s Austrian and lives in Vienna. As such, I’ve been to that stunning city many times. Walkable streets, endless culture, and, as it turns out, a surprising number of audio companies.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 December 2024

Sound: 1/2
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Reviewers' Choice This is my last headphone review of 2024, and while I didn’t plan it this way, it’s ending the year with a bang. Can bangs be comfortable? Can bangs be beautifully detailed with an enormous soundstage? The metaphor breaks down here a bit, clearly. Which is to say, the Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro MkIIs ($599.99, all prices USD) are one of my favorite headphones I’ve heard this year.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 01 December 2024

Sound: 1/2
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I’m a big fan of unique-looking headphones. Sure, there’s a place for the myriad pill-shaped offerings from the major manufacturers, but in their drive to be as acceptable as possible to the widest audience, they all start looking the same. That’s definitely not the case with the 105 AER headphones from Romanian manufacturer Meze. With big steel arches for the headband and a spiderweb-esque earcup structure, they are visually interesting in a way most headphones in their price range are not.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 October 2024

Sound: 1/2
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What we have here is an interesting oddity. There are lots of Bluetooth headphones on the market. There are also quite a few planar-magnetic headphones on the market. But there aren’t a lot of planar-magnetic Bluetooth headphones. Edifier’s Stax Spirit S5 headphones ($499, all prices in USD) are one of these rarefied concoctions, and as you can guess from the model number, they aren’t Edifier’s first try at this.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 August 2024

Sound: 1/2
Value: 1/2
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Long ago, in the before times, I remember hearing the first Beats Solo headphones. I remember it vividly. I was in the kitchen of Brent Butterworth, former editor of this site and current cohost of the excellent Audio Unleashed podcast. They were . . . remarkable. Remarkable like getting a flat tire on your way to a job interview. They were bad, is what I’m trying to say.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 July 2024

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It seems like only yesterday I was reviewing a pair of delightful over-ear Sennheiser headphones. But apparently, that was over a year ago. Someone should create an idiom about how time moves quickly. Running maybe? Perhaps something more aerial? That review focused on the HE 660S2s ($499.95, all prices in USD), which are higher-end open-back headphones. At $349.95, Sennheiser’s new HD 620S ’phones are lower in price, and they’re a closed-back design. However, Sennheiser claims that they provide “open sound in a closed-back design.” We shall see.