NOVU-1 £69

Web metersmusic.com Gear Closed back headphones

Meters is part of parent company Ashdown Engineering, no newcomer to the industry, having spent more than two decades designing bass amps for the biggest bands in the world.

One of the USPs of the Meters range is that most come with a set of VU meters on each earpiece – a striking feature if not obviously useful, as you can’t see the meters while wearing the ‘phones. These aren’t present on the entry level NOVU-1s on test here anyway, just a logo, but that does probably help make these among the lightest headphones we’ve worn. They fit comfortably and also deliver a surprisingly good spread of sound considering their price tag. It’s even and flat with little accentuation bar the upper frequencies; we could detect most of the bass we’d been mixing with on much more expensive reference phones, though the stereo width is not as detailed and pronounced here.

The weight and plastic finish makes the phones perhaps feel as cheap as they cost, but many of the parts are replaceable should anything go wrong, and with a soft case and that decent sound, these make great A/B reference phones.

n8/ 10n