TOP 5 HEADPHONES
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The various headphones listed below are our subjective picks for the top headphones in the world, based upon our reviews. That said, the list is a dynamic list and as we review new headphones that we feel deserve a spot on the list, the list and the ranking will change to accommodate the new headphone. Things do change.
The new and undisputed flagship of the STAX earspeaker/headphone line is the STAX SR-X9000 electrostatic headphone! And after listening these past weeks, this was perhaps one of the easiest calls that I have made to date. Did I mention how extraordinarily immersive the STAX SR-X9000 is? $6,200
1.
ABYSS AB1266 PHI TC
What happens when transparency is, seemingly, exceeded? Realism? Or, perhaps, seeming realism? This is the conundrum raised by the Abyss AB1266 Phi TC and its easy ability to make the best of the best headphones sound dull, uneventful, while it waxes on clear as a well-made bell, even upending electrostatics. Yikes!
The STAX SR-009S may represent, for many, a transcendent listening experience. It may move you beyond expectation to that which you never imagined possible in a earspeaker or headphone. And should its stable of playmates be able—of good musical repute and like ability and up to task—then you will find yourself in another world of music, altogether. $4,000
Wow! I’ve just come upon a headphone—the ZMF Atrium—that bridges three separate headphone technologies/worlds in a single form. And not in a slipshod fashion, as it rises to TOTL status across all three worlds and at nearly half to one third the cost of the reining TOTLs. Further, it does all of the above while being absolutely gorgeous. $2,499
Gorgeous. Incredibly transparent, resolving, detail rich, fast, fast, fast, and astonishingly musical. The sum of the Véríté’s talents speak to something other than a dynamic headphone, something imbued with a good measure of the planar magnetic tribe, and, at times, the electrostatic tribe as well. $2,495