CANS FOR CONNOISSEURS

A good pair of headphones forms the heart of any decent hi-fi system. We test some of the best money can buy…

Choosing a pair of headphones should never be an afterthought when you’re building a hi-fi system. A decent pair of cans isn’t a mere accessory, or a necessary tool to ensure you don’t annoy the neighbours or wake the kids up – the right pair can be your passport to a world of musical enjoyment you scarcely imagined existed, revealing hidden depths and unexpected, thrilling highs in even the most familiar of recordings.

It has to be said that this was one of the toughest group tests we’ve undertaken in a while. As you’d hope, given that these are four pairs of headphones from four highly respected manufacturers, all priced around the £500 mark, there isn’t a sub-standard pair in sight. No tryhard contenders, no victories of style over substance, no disappointing ‘will this do?’ offerings from companies trading on former glories. If we met you in the pub and you told us you’d bought any one of the headphones on test here, we’d say “Ooh, nice” and shake our heads enviously, because we couldn’t afford them.

That said, objectivity and close critical listening are the name(s) of the game. So over the course of many happy hours we put all four pairs through their paces, and here’s what we found out…