Hi!
The following article is taken from Today's Age Green Guide, I'm yet to
find a direct link to the article so I've scanned it directly from the
paper which I'm sure will suffice for the time being.
I thought other list members may find this article of interest since the
discussion of headphones does come up from time to time.
The headphones discussed here are of an extreme high quality, the brand
Grado Labs is no stranger to the lover of fine music and - whilst I
don't have the pair of Grado Labs headphones mentioned in the article -
I do have the cheaper of Grado Lab headphones, the SR60I's which are
very nice indeed, here's the article.
Headline, Headphone makers turn to wood to add a little polish, by Rod
Easdown.
Makers of speakers worry about wood, because most speaker cabinets are
made of the stuff. Their task is to find the wood that gives the best
audible results with their hardware, design and budget. They put as much
work into selecting wood as winemakers put into choosing barrels.
Now it's happening with headphones too. Lately three headphone brands
with wooden earcups have entered the market.
Many audiophiles place great faith in wood. Indeed, 15 years ago a
company called Shun Mook unveiled an ebony record clamp, designed to sit
on top of the centre boss of a spinning record to keep it steady. This
wasn't just ebony, but "extra-heavy black ebony root immersed in the
swamps of Africa for decades". It offered "a unique power that no other
wood possesses".
The idea was that when a diamond stylus moves through a record's groove,
it creates a resonance that excites the molecules in the clamp, causing
it to resonate in turn. These resonations are transmitted back to the
stylus and reproduced as "increased sound staging, enhanced focus and
tonal warmth".
Back then it cost $US1200. I saw one online recently for $US2800 ($3700).
None of these headphones use swamp-seasoned ebony, but they are attractive.
Grado is a leading brand in premium headphones and its RS1e open-backed
numbers use mahogany, which, it says, enhances their ability to reduce
sound colouration and produce consistent results.
Grado is a true timber believer. It once made wooden tone arms and
cartridges, and its website is wood-grained.
The earcups on the phones are supported by a broad headband and feel
strange at first, because the grilles over the 50-millimetre drivers sit
hard up against the ears, but you get used to it, and the phones sound
better after they've been run in for a few months.
The bass is not strong but the accuracy and speed are brilliant and the
mids and highs are excellent. They are great for listening to classical
music (RRP $899).
Audio Technica is another giant in headphones and one close to my heart.
I paid $100 for a pair of basic A-Ts almost 30 years ago and to this day
they can find nuances in recordings that others miss.
Its new Maestoso ATH-W1000Z headphones have earcups made of teak with
lambskin pads, which, although superbly comfortable, can be hot. With
closed backs, the teak finish is prominent and unmistakable.
They have a great all-round sound with solid, lightning-fast bass and
accurate, crisp and beautifully defined mid and high range. The problem
is comfort. The headband consists of two thin steel arcs with a couple
of pads that contact your head, but these are not height adjustable,
pivoting to the shape of your head. It works until you move, then you
have to readjust them. For me that's a deal breaker. They're $899 too.
At the top of the tree are the Audeze LCD-3s, made with zebrawood from
the forests of Gabon and Cameroon. They're open-backed like the Grados,
although a closed-back model, the LCD-XC, better highlights the
zebrawood finish.
However, it wasn't the wood that caught my attention, but the vegan
option. The earpads are made of lambskin leather, but you can order
"vegan leather", which Audeze describes as microsuede made of polyester
microfibre.
"The earpads are specially designed to create a lifelike natural sound.
Recreating this with a non-leather product turned out to be tougher than
we expected," the company says. Of course, the vegan option costs more.
So how much do you love lambs?
With lovely airiness and accuracy, these are the best sounding
headphones of this lot, and so they should be for $2779.
If you like the look of wooden headphones and, more importantly, if you
like the sound, remember that wood can be heavy and heavy headphones can
be tiring with extended listening. With headphones, comfort is every bit
as important as sound quality.
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Those who need help are those who are prepared to help themselves
