A wider view of audio gear
What reviewers agree on.
Where they disagree. What matters to you.
An IEM brand's first planar headphone: praised for its bass and its metalwork, argued over for its treble — and heard as anything from "balanced" to "V-shaped" depending on who is listening.
The widest stage in its price class, and fifteen years of argument over everything around it — treble, bass, tonality and the plastic.
Sennheiser's single-driver flagship has bass nearly everyone rates among the best in any IEM — and a hollowed-out midrange, and a service record, that split its owners.
The budget standmount everyone recommends — and the one owners most often call either 'honest' or 'boring'.
The $499 amp that fixed everything people disliked about the Jotunheim 2 — and made its single-ended jack the new thing to argue about.
The KeyStep everyone had finally gets a screen and real encoders — and whether that's an upgrade or a loss of the immediacy that made the original is the whole argument.
The dictionary
A boost in the bass and lower mids that gives music a rich, cozy, easy-on-the-ears character.
The perceived three-dimensional space of a recording — how wide, deep, and tall the sound appears.
An emphasis on the upper midrange and treble — vivid, clear, and sometimes sharp.
An even-handed sound with no part of the spectrum pushed forward or held back — balanced and reference-like.
