There’s no substitute for getting right inside your favourite tunes… and that means popping your noggin between a pair of proper head-huggers
FIIO FT3
There’s really only one thing that separates FiiO from the other brands that are trying to keep the ‘high-end hard-wired over-ear headphones’ flame burning.
FiiO has developed the FT3 cans to compete hard –they’re thoroughly specced and properly built –and then made one major oversight. For some reason, FiiO has forgotten to attach an eye-watering price-tag. Instead, the FT3s are that rarest of hi-fi products: an authentic bargain.
Ordinarily, components like 60mm dynamic drivers with beryllium-coated gaskets, diaphragms made from diamond-like carbon and aluminium voice-coils clad in ultra-fine copper mean you pay through the nose. And ordinarily, over-ear headphones that use monocrystalline copper cables developed by Furukawa cost an arm and a leg. And ordinarily, a blend of aluminium alloy for the earcups, protein leather for the headband and a choice of coverings for the earpads themselves is strongly indicative of an unblinkingly high price. But that, it seems, is not how FiiO rolls.
The sub-£300 price seems like even more of a misprint when you hear them. They’re dynamically adept; they create a big, confident soundstage and make sure every instrument on it has plenty of space to breathe; they retain and reveal even the finest, most fleeting details in a recording; and they have beautifully even tonality, right from the (deep, textured) bottom of the frequency range to the (crisp, bright) top, while the midrange zone gives vocalists of all types a huge helping of character and individuality.
So it’s important not to overthink the FiiO FT3s. Don’t be put off by how suspiciously affordable they are. Because once you see, feel and hear a pair doing their thing, there’s a good chance you’ll slap that money down with no further questions.
Price £289 /go.stuff.tv/FT3
Key specs
● 60mm dynamic ● Wired only ● No ANC ● 391g
STUFF SAYS Don’t they know high-end cans are meant to cost high-end cash? ★★★★★
ALTERNATIVELY…
SHURE AONIC 50 GEN 2
£349 / shure.com
If it’s pro audio cred you want, it’s tricky to find a brand more compelling than Shure. And the company’s no slouch when it comes to consumer audio either, as the second-gen Aonic 50 over-ears demonstrate in some style. This sort of money can buy (slightly) more effective ANC, but it can’t buy greater fidelity and impact.
Stuff says ★★★★★
SENNHEISER HD 660S2
£499 /sennheiser-hearing.com
Where do you stand on the words ‘smooth’ and ‘relaxed’? Because if you consider them
