Why would you want wired headphones? Well, it turns out there are quite a few reasons
Over-ear headphones | £149 | whf.cm/NTH-100
Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of Røde – the company may be a big deal in the world of pro audio, but the NTH-100 are both its first pair of headphones and its first attempt to engage with the consumer audio market. So unless you have an interest in the world of recording studio mics and what-have-you, this Australian brand will be new to you.
The pro audio world is competitive enough, of course, but the consumer-facing equivalent is absolutely cut-throat. And Røde doesn’t seem to have given itself the biggest chance of making waves by making its first product a pair of wired headphones – if there’s a consumer audio category that is currently less fashionable, we would like to hear about it. But who knows? Maybe Røde’s NTH-100 are high-achieving enough to lure us back in time.
The Røde NTH-100 are on sale now for £149 a pair. You don’t need us to tell you there’s an awful lot of choice where over-ear headphones at this sort of money are concerned, of course. But wired headphones are harder to come by – and wired headphones that claim to be equally at home in the studio as in the lounge are harder still. Is it a good thing that Røde has such little competition? Or does it suggest a flaw in the NTH-100 concept?
There’s a school of thought that says the design of over-ear headphones achieved perfection almost immediately, and anyone who tries to mess with the rule-book is doomed to failure. It’s difficult to argue against – and it’s certainly apparent that Røde sees no reason to fiddle with a winning formula. So the NTH-100 look exactly as you would expect a pair of (reasonably) affordable over-ear headphones to look.
A combination of plastic and metal, with Alcantara fabric at the contact points, makes for a purposeful look. The big, stylised ‘Ø’ on each slightly triangular earcup manages to be both bold and understated at the same time – the company’s customary gold dot is about as close to a design ‘flourish’ as the NTH-100 get. Unless you want to spend a little more by switching up the colour of your cable.
The Røde weigh in at a significant 350g. But the company has paid a lot of attention to the headband and hanger arrangement, and clamping force is very nicely judged, so the NTH-100 don’t really feel their weight and stay comfortable for even long listening sessions. In fact, they might stay comfortable for ever – but the ‘CoolTech’ gel that’s integrated into the memory foam earcups stays cool only up to
