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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.
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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.
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In a sea of black plastic, fake chrome, and monochromatic color choices, it’s great to see some gorgeous new headphones. The Sivga P2 Pro headphones are a stunning combination of oak, leather, and stainless steel. I liked how the Sivga Luan headphones looked when I reviewed them last year, and these are a step above.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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