Recording - March 2016 - 49

Isolation was excellent, and the phones got plenty loud, even
with modest amplification. I could easily see any studio investing in several pairs of Z35 phones for tracking as well as mixing and edit work. For its asking price, it's an amazing value.
In use: the Z55
The first impression I got of the Z55 after switching over from
the Z35 was, "Wow, just more of everything!" More clarity, more
detail, more depth, more punch, more spaciousness... the difference in driver quality and tuning is evident from the very first note.
These phones provide that most precious of listening experiences: one that's accurate and reliable for serious work, but
fun and engaging as well. Lead vocals and solo instruments sit
nicely in front of every mix where they're easy to work on.
Stereo spread is wide and enveloping, with easy placement of
instruments very precisely in the soundstage. Highs are airy
and clear without shrillness or nasty artifacting, and the lower
lows are lush without being tubby or indistinct.
I worked with the Z55 on a wide variety of applications, from
editing a recent live multitrack project to mixing songs for a new
album, all while switching back and forth between studio work and

listening for pleasure. And what a pleasure it was-high-resolution
audio files through my interface sounded glorious. To quote a better
songwriter than me: a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
Conclusions
The Z55 has a lot of competition in its price range, but it presents
a wonderful sonic spectrum that I think a lot of listeners are going to
love. As a primary headphone in a studio for mixing, tracking solo
work, editing, and so on, I think it's a great choice, and the fact that
it's a delight for casual listening as well doesn't hurt.
The Z35, on the other hand, is an instant attention-getter simply for the cost of entry. There really aren't many headphones
in this price range that are genuinely worth owning for the discerning engineer. With its clarity, depth, isolation, and highly
affordable price, it should be on any studio owner's short list,
whether for the tracking room, control room, or iso booth.
Prices: Z25, $69.99; Z35 (reviewed above), $99.99; Z45,
$149.99; Z55 (reviewed above), $199.99
More from: Samson, www.samsonheadphones.com

Grain Audio OEHP.01
Real wood in a headphone that's lovely to look at and lovely to hear
Grain Audio makes portable speaker
systems, in-ear monitors, and one overthe-ear headphone, the OEHP.01,
which Grain Audio was kind enough
to send in for a review. I was a bit
concerned about this review, given the
obviously "fashion forward" nature of
the Grain Audio line, but I've been
pleasantly surprised by such headphones
before-most recently by Copenhagenbased AIAIAI, whose excellent TMA-1
Young Guru Edition headphones were
reviewed in our December 2013 issue. I
looked forward to hearing how the Grain
Audio phones would perform.
In the box
The "grain" in Grain Audio comes from wood, and in
fact the earcups of the OEHP.01 are made from finely
grained walnut, hand-rubbed with oil and then coated in a
smooth clear finish for durability. The other parts of the headphones are decidedly more high-tech, though, with 40 mm drivers with neodymium magnets and copper-clad aluminum wire
voice coils, and leather-covered memory foam earcups. In a
design similar to the AIAIAI model previously reviewed, the
OEHP.01 suspends its earcups flexibly on a lightweight flexible
silicone/plastic headband with a generous pad to ease its
very light 8 ounce weight.
By the way, that weight is the only spec you'll get. Whether
on the product box, in the user guide, or online, Grain Audio
doesn't provide a frequency response, impedance, power handling capacity, sensitivity, or anything else. So what do you
get? A zippered fabric carrying pouch, and a 1-meter detachable cable with microphone and 3-button remote, terminated in
a TRRS miniplug, with a snap-on gold-plated 1/4" TRS adaptor.
Over the ears
The OEHP.01 is a very pretty headphone, with its neutral
grey silicone parts a nice contrast to the smoothly finished walnut earcups. No traditional black, but no garish colors either!
It's also a very comfortable headphone, luxuriously padded on

the earcups and headband, light enough to be
completely non-fatiguing.
As for sound, the OEHP.01 offers certain of
the qualities that are beneficial in a studio
headphone. There's a lot of detail and a
very wide soundstage, making it easy to
pick out edits as you work. The lows are
present without being as insanely
boomy as you'll hear on many casuallistening headphones, and there's a fair
bit of treble emphasis that can accentuate hints of sibilance where they occur.
The place where engineers will need
to be cautious (or dive right in, if this is
to their taste!) is the upper midrange,
which is significantly pushed forward. Lead
vocals sit above and in front of the mix, and
getting solos to sit nicely in place without things getting cluttered and cloudy can be tricky. On the other hand, if you do a
lot of work with sparse arrangements, the OEHP.01 is great on
solo guitar (with or without vocals), solo piano, and smallensemble acoustic music like jazz, country, or bluegrass.
Final thoughts
The OEHP.01 isn't a headphone for dissecting film cues, or
even your average massively-overdubbed rock opus, but it
excels at presenting acoustic instruments and vocals loud and
proud. It's primarily intended as a casual listening headphone,
and its warm mid-forward sound, with plenty of highs and not
too much thumpy bass, is a pleasure for the same sorts of
music you'd want to use it on in the studio.
This is the sort of headphone that you'd wear in public to the
accompaniment of admiring glances and "Is that really wood?",
but it won't necessarily get tossed aside when you come home
to your studio and get down to serious business. In a world of
thumpy, muddled fashion headphones, Grain Audio has provided a very listenable alternative in the OEHP.01.
Price: $199.99
More from: Grain Audio, www.grainaudio.com
RECORDING March 2016

http://www.samsonheadphones.com http://www.grainaudio.com

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