SoundStage! Solo | SoundStageSolo.com

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

Sound: 1/2
Value:
(Read about our ratings)

Reviewers' Choice The music you listen to is rarely, if ever, recorded straight from the musician onto a recording medium. There are almost always extra steps, most notably mixing and mastering. There’s a sort of black magic to both processes, and the people who do it well are always in high demand. In short, they’re largely what makes a song sound the way it does. A pan here, an EQ tweak there—they let you hear individual instruments (or not), hear the room (or not), and so on.

Details: Written by: Killain Jones; Created: 15 March 2024

Sound:
Value:
(Read about our ratings)

Reviewers' Choice At the start of my college career in 2001, I became heavily involved in road cycling. Every day I would spend hours riding my road bike, captivated by the solitude of the climbs in California’s Santa Monica mountains. I was far from a natural climber; I was just too heavy, with too little threshold power. But I loved the long climbs for two distinct reasons: the long, fast descents, and the sense of focus enabled by my Apple earbuds and first-generation iPod. High fidelity was not the goal; having 1000 songs at the touch of a button was. The music provided the fuel that no carbohydrate gel could match, and earbuds were the key.

Read more: Fostex TH616 Headphones

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

Sound:
Value:
(Read about our ratings)

In my ongoing project to find some good headphone amps, I sought out a HiFiMan amp for review, but I ended up agreeing to review two different models (both reviews soon). I figured while they were at it, why not throw in some lower-mid-priced open-back headphones? A few years ago, Brent Butterworth reviewed the closed-back version of the Sundara headphones for Solo. At $300 (all prices USD), this open-back design is cheaper. That puts the open-back Sundaras right in the ballpark of some of the heavy hitters of the mainstream headphone market, i.e., the Sonys and Boses of the world. I was curious to find out if the open-back Sundaras could deliver a more “audiophile” experience for the same money.

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

Sound: 1/2
Value:
(Read about our ratings)

Rarely in my reviewing career have I come across a product I wanted to like so much, and in the end, couldn’t actually recommend. I love the sound of the M4U 9 headphones. On that undeniably important aspect, they’re fantastic. They’ve got a well-balanced sound with a bit of extra bass, and that’s exactly the personality I like in a pair of headphones.

Read more: PSB M4U 9 Headphones

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 15 October 2023

Sound:
Value: 1/2
(Read about our ratings)

There’s a pervasive mindset among certain enthusiasts that bass is bad. Bass is pedestrian. Bass is for plebes. Call me a plebe, then, because I like bass. Not all bass, mind you, but good bass.

Details: Written by: Geoffrey Morrison; Created: 01 September 2023

Sound: 1/2
Value:
(Read about our ratings)

There are few brands that elicit a more varied response between audiophiles and average consumers than Beats. Perhaps because I’m firmly on one side of that divide, I understand why. Early Beats headphones were pretty bad, even by the standards of the day (headphones have come a long way since then). To counter that situation, Beats had a colossal marketing budget. Honestly, though, I think their mainstream appeal was a huge factor behind the explosion of headphones as an audio category.