Bang & Olufsen launches the HX, a successor to the H9 that is supposed to offer more in all respects - except weight. At 285 grams, it occupies a top spot in the lightweight ear-cup league, which makes them exceedingly pleasant to wear right from the first fitting.
The Clear Mg Professional from Focal is the successor to the Clear Professional. Those come from the French manufacturer's Professional series and are expressly aimed at professional and demanding sound engineers, while Focal offers the Clear Mg to the audiophile music lovers segment of the market.
It must have been around 1988 when I bought my first pair of Koss Porta Pro, on the recommendation of an audiophile friend. In fact, for many people of my generation, the Koss Porta Pro was a widely used upgrade to the bog-standard headphones that came with the first Discman (or worse, the Walkman headphones that could be found on every teenager's bedroom floor).
With the HD 820, Sennheiser has followed the outstanding HD 800 S with a top-of-the-range closed model for a particularly demanding clientele.
Beyerdynamic present their high-end T1 (open) and T5 (closed) headphones as a MK3 four years after the release of their second generation.
With the exception of the Orpheus HE-1, the HD 800 S is the top model among Sennheiser's open headphones. The successor to the HD 800 from 2009 is available both in the regular version tested here in black and in a technically identical Anniversary Edition in stylish matt gold which is limited to 750 units - and available for the same price.
The HD 559 is the most affordable headphone in Sennheiser's HD-5 series. The manufacturer, from near Hanover, recommends a retail price of 99 Euros and classifies these headphones for home use, but also places them as an entry-level model in the audiophile class.
In plain black or gold with clean lines and state-of-the-art features, the FreeBuds Studio from Huawei are, first of all, a real eye-catcher in terms of shape and technology. They target the same market and are in direct competition with other Bluetooth over-ears like those from Bose, Sennheiser and Sony, and - clearly - also want to outdo them. However, for this to succeed at all, you will need a current Smartphone from the same manufacturer.
In studio circles, the American company Avantone Pro has been known (and loved) for years for reissuing legendary studio monitors such as Yamaha's NS-10 or Auratone's Soundcube, as well as a whole range of classic microphones of outstanding quality. But more and more often Avantone also release their own creations, which are often much more exciting than the replicas. One of these new developments is the Planar - an open studio headphone that uses the somewhat exotic magnetostatic driver principle.
The Danish high-end manufacturer Bang & Olufsen celebrate their 95th birthday with the special model H95, which - as of 2020 - seeks to combine all their experience and technical know-how in a pair of stylish ANC headphones.