Recording - May 2017 - 44

AudezeEL-8

Open-Back
Headphones
EarsOn
HEADPHONES
ON REVIEW

Planar magnetic drivers offer a
wonderfully clear and powerful
listening experience
Review by Mike Metlay

Audeze is making its first foray into the professional studio market this
year, with an appearance at the 2017 Winter NAMM Show. However,
the brand is already well-known in audiophile circles thanks to its
remarkable headphones, which combine planar magnetic driver technology
with beautiful craftsmanship for an utterly unique presentation.
The four open-back and one closed-back headphones in the audiophile LCD Collection range from $995 up to a whopping $3995 per
pair, but for this review I'll be looking at a headphone from the EL-8
Series, one open and two closed models that sell for $699 to $799.
Even that's a lot of money for a studio headphone, but a listening
session with the EL-8 makes a pretty darn convincing argument...

Planar magnetic what now?
The EL-8 isn't the first planar magnetic headphone we've
reviewed, but we've yet to experience a headphone that highlights the advantages of this driver design quite so dramatically.
So what precisely is a planar magnetic driver?
We know that transduction-the conversion of sound in air to
electrical signals-happens in both directions. Microphones and
speakers are both transducers, and in fact it's possible (sometimes
even desirable) to turn one into the other. A dynamic microphone's
simply a tiny speaker working in reverse, with sound hitting it and
causing motion that creates a signal from the voice coil; the Yamaha
SubKick is nothing more than a large speaker mounted in front of
a kick drum that creates a signal in the same way.
In very simple terms, much the same way as a conventional
speaker driver is a dynamic microphone in reverse, a planar
magnetic driver is something like a ribbon microphone in reverse.
It consists of a large and microscopically thin plastic membrane
that's been etched with patterns of metal traces to magnetize it in
a controlled fashion, backed by an array of powerful magnets.
There's more to it than that, of course-Audeze makes much of its
technological advancements in enclosure design, high-frequency
phase control, and so on-but those are the basics.
Ideally, because a planar magnetic driver is so much larger
than a conventional headphone driver element, and yet so much
lighter, it's expected to have faster transient response, more
extended highs, and more clearly defined lows. That's how
things are supposed to work on paper... what about in practice?
44

RECORDING May 2017

EL-8tion
The EL-8 Series consists of two closed-back headphones,
one with wood-accented earcups and one with a titanium design,
and one open-back headphone, the model under review
today. Everything about the EL-8 Open-Back radiates class,
from the moment you open the box.
The large form-fitting earcups feature nicely angled and very
soft pads for a perfect seal against the sides of the head, with a
generously padded metal headband and swivelled joints for a
sinfully comfortable fit with no associated fatigue. The headphones
don't fold up for compactness, but the earcups can turn 90º for flat
storage in their box or in the provided soft drawstring bag.
The EL-8's cable connects to both earcups via a proprietary
flat multipin connector that's impressively sturdy-looking, keyed
to prevent being plugged in backward, and marked with L and
R indications that are much easier to see than the similar etchings
on the inside of the headphone's swivel joints above each
earcup. The 2-meter cable is a compactly-rollable flat design
ending in a TRS miniplug; a snap-on 1/4" adaptor is included.
The EL-8 sports a 100 mm planar magnetic driver, providing a
lot more surface area than a conventional driver in about the same
earcup size. It's a 30Ω headphone, an impedance that makes
it suitable for use with anything from professional headphone
amplifiers to smartphones. Frequency response is given as 10 Hz to
50 kHz, with no tolerances listed (as is common for headphones).
Maximum SPL is rated as more than 130 dB, which is about 40
dB too loud for any sensible listening environment, but at least you
won't have to worry about distortion or breakup when listening at
reasonable levels. The open-back model has a listed sensitivity of
102 dB / 1mW at 1 kHz, and weighs 460 grams (about a pound),
but is so comfortably fitted that you won't notice the weight.
Each unit comes with a signed certificate of authenticity that
certifies that it was burned in at the factory and ready to use.
With that in mind, we put the EL-8 Open-Back to work right away.

In use
The EL-8 Open-Back is a very open headphone; you can't use
it anywhere near an open mic because of sound bleed, but the
resulting sound is an arresting combination of full-range transparency
and airiness. Aside from that, the first thing you notice about
the EL-8 is how darn huge the soundstage is. As is the case for
a select few headphones we've tried, music seems to expand

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2017