American headphone brand Audeze is probably best known for its use of planar magnetic driver technology, but it’s also one of the few manufacturers that still uses electrostatic transducers as well – and its new CRBN2 over-ears could be a real game-changer.
Audeze has designed the CRBN2 to make use of its new Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modulator (SLAM) technology, which promises “powerful, lifelike bass response”. And that’s the key part, because for all the natural-sounding transparency and distortion-free detail that electrostatic headphones are famous for delivering, they traditionally don’t do so well with really punchy bass.
SLAM does this by optimising air-pressure distribution across Audeze’s second-generation carbon-nanotube electrostatic driver, so you get both an enhanced low-frequency performance and more accurate and immersive spatial imaging.
That’s not the only upside of using electrostatic drivers either. Because they use an electric field rather than magnets to work, it’s possible to keep the weight of the open-backed CRBN2 down to 480g, which is nearly 100g lighter than Audeze’s planar magnetic LCD-4z. Along with the leather earpads and a suspension headband, plus housings made from magnesium, stainless steel and polymer acetate, that should make them comfortable to wear for long periods.
Electrostatic headphones can’t be paired with just any headphone amplifier, so to listen to a pair of CRBN2 you’ll need to plug them into an amp that offers a 580-volt bias output (aka Stax Pro Bias), so they’re not for everyone, but that much should be obvious from the lofty price.
Each pair of CRBN2 headphones is put together by hand in California, and the kind of tech inside doesn’t come cheap either, so you’re looking at $5995 per pair, with pricing in other territories yet to be confirmed.
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