Philips M1
Price: $240
Philips
M1, the best portable on-ears $150-$300
Philips has hit a run of good form with its
Fidelio range, the bigger brothers to these headphones, the L1s, were on the
receiving end of a four-star review back in May, but these really blew our
socks off and beat B&W’s excellent P3s in a photo-finish for this Award.
Favoring a simple and stylish on-ear,
vented construction over the L1s’ semi-open design, they eschew plastic is
favor of metal which Philips hopes will keep unwanted vibration and resonance
to a minimum. The pads are of the faux-leather type, but sit nicely on the ears
and grip tightly enough – they didn’t get too sweaty on our ears after a long
listening session, either. We think they look the business. They isolate sound
well, too – so they’re good for the commute.
Vocals have room to breathe, while
high frequencies sound natural, and don’t harden up. Stereo imaging is
impressive too
Well-rounded, detailed presentation
Listening to a WAV of Robert Plant and
Alison Krauss’ Please Read The Letter running from iTunes through a Chrod
Chordette headphone amp, we’re happy with the level of detail on offer. The M1s
don’t have the kind of airy zing offered by open-packed cans such as the Grado
SR80is but neither do they demand your compete attention (or leak like US
diplomatic communiqués).
It’s a rounded presentation. Vocals are
given a decent amount of room to breathe, while high-frequency sounds are
natural and don’t harden up when you crank the volume, stereo imaging is
impressive, too, with instruments sitting explicitly in their own space. It’s all
tightly marshaled, too, which is important.
Downstairs, the bass is decently weighty.
It never overwhelms proceedings, and stays nice and tight even with complex
rhythms such as those found in Tortoise’s Corpone Brunch.
The one thing the M1s don’t do is grab you
by the lapels and force you listen. And we mean that in a good way. It means
they never get tiring to listen to, and they excel if you’re after en extended
listening session.
These headphones go up directly against the
B&W P3, which have won admiration for their confident, controlled delivery.
Not only do they meet the challenge laid down by the P3s, they beat it and in
some style, too.
Best portable on-ears $300+
Beyer dynamic T50p
Price: $345
Don’t
sell them short: these superb headphones deserve to be fed a high quality
signal. Try to stick with uncompressed music files.
In last year’s Awards, we said the of the
T50ps: “If you’re the kind of person who feels their commute would benefit from
genuine hi-fi sound quality, the Beyerdynamics are the way to get it.” And
that’s just as true today.
Arriving with minimal fanfare right at the
tail-end of 2010, these premium cans caused an instant stir. Beyer dynamic has
used a couple of different alloys to come up with a design that’s thin but
solid, functional but elegant.
There’s a real weight and depth to
the bass, but it’s integrated seamlessly with the midrange, itself solid and
full-bodied
Lightweight sonic heavyweights
They’re comfy, too – the leatherette ear-pads
are kept snugly in place by the grippy band, but at 174g they’re light enough
to be ignored. And, thanks to a closed-back design that leaks almost no noise,
they’re perfect for commuting.
The sound they produce, on the other hand,
is entirely ignorable. Start with Bon Iver’s brilliantly haunting Perth and the
T50ps prove to be incredibly insightful, finding nuance in all of the many
vocal strands.
They’re superbly punchy and precise, too,
hammering out the thumping drums as the track builds, and throwing out the
intentionally cacophonous crescendo with serious, dramatic force. There’s real
weight and depth to the bass, but it’s integrated seamlessly with the midrange,
itself solid and full-bodied.
At the top-end the treble is crisp but
controlled, with cymbals sounding detailed and striking without ever sounding
harsh.
This ability to combine punch and attack
with control and fluidity means they won’t overly expose more compressed
tracks, but you’d be doing these excellent headphones a disservice if you
didn’t switch to a lossless or uncompressed format.
Given the price and the inexorable rise of
the mobile phone as a music device, we wish there was a mic and control unit
but otherwise we have no complaints. These are superb.
Best home on-ears up to $225
Grado SR80i
Price: $172.5
Grado
SR80i, the best home on-ears up to $225
You can’t have everything: sometimes, when
it comes to hi-fi, those pesky ‘laws of physics’ come along and smugly insist
that it simply can’t be done. Compromises must be made.
In this case, we’re referring to the sonic performance
of headphones, and what can and can’t be achieved in terms of real quality:
clarity, detail, naturalness, fluidity, transparency, and so on.
The fact is, headphones are used for
private listening which means most models utilize a closed-back design. which
keeps you from inflicting your music on those around you.
But this design also creates a plethora of
internal reflections, enclosure vibrations and standing waves – all of which
are detrimental to sound quality.
Detailed, musical and natural these
really are the kind of headphones that make you close your eyes and sit back
Shouldn’t everyone enjoy the music?
So, what’s to be done? Well, it’s to
Grado’s great credit that it decided to answer that question with a method of
mind-boggling simplicity: make open-backed headphones that leak sound like
there’s no tomorrow but which, as a result, sound sublime to the person wearing
them.
Sit next to someone on the train or bus who
happens to be wearing these, however and you might be forgiven for thinking
they had them on inside out.
And it’s not as if these colander levels of
leakiness are their only idiosyncrasy. With their retro-looking ear-cups
attached to a leather headband via a metal rod, they look for all the world
like a headset for a 1950’s shortwave radio.
But the SR80i have a serious point. And
that point is how they sound: sharply timed, awesomely detailed, musical,
natural and – with the right recordings simply beautiful. These really are the
kind of headphones that will make you almost involuntarily close your eyes, sit
back and imagine you’re in the auditorium with the orchestra.
But don’t take them on the train with you:
the person next to you will hear every single note and, let’s face it, not
everyone likes Micheal Bublé.
But, for home listening where it won’t
bother the spouse, the SR80is are simply a stupendous buy for $165. Sound per
pound? Yep. Another Award? It’s be churlish not to…
