- Audeze has unveiled MM-520 headphones at High End Munich
- These are professional studio cans with 90mm drivers
- They cost a relatively reasonable $1,699 (about £1,250, AU$2500)
We’re in the midst of the massive audio convention High End Vienna, so every day brings a glut of top-end speakers or professional headphones with the price tag of a small car. So Audeze’s new cans look almost affordable in comparison (spoiler alert: they’re still really quite expensive).
The brand has unveiled the Audeze MM-520, professional studios as part of its Manny Marroquin-branded series (he’s a hugely successful mixing engineer — you knew that) which succeed the MM-500s. They’re open-back wired cans designed for professionals.
I did say these look affordable, but that’s only in comparison; these new headphones cost $1,699 (about £1,250, AU$2500) so they’re not finding a space in our best cheap headphones list any time soon — but they might well join the ranks of our best wired headphones, if we can get our hands on a set for a thorough review. By the sounds of it, they’re on sale right now, from the brand’s website or hi-fi retailers.
So, what’s the unique sell here? Well, it’s SLAM.
SLAM ’em down
One of the biggest selling points of the MM-520s is their use of Audeze’s proprietary SLAM technology. Nothing to do with basketball dunking, or tequila-soda shots; this stands for Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modular. Yes, that’s a run of four adjectives, with no subject. Pedants, I’m sorry, and I’ll keep to calling it SLAM.
SLAM is technology which is focused on the low-end: it improves how bass sounds, and creates a wider-spaced sound stage at this frequency range. It’s all about “optimizing air pressure” using the open design, to improve bass without affecting the neutral sound so much.
Other improvements to the MM-520 come to the design: the memory foam earpads have seen a change, and Audeze says they’re more comfortable to wear for long periods of time.
Like their predecessors, they use 90mm planar magnetic drivers, with a super-thin diaphragm and phase management to avoid distortion. They offer a frequency response of 5Hz-50kHz, with an impedance of 18 ohms, and 102dB sensitivity.
Audeze lists the MM series in its Professional category, so they’re clearly designed for engineers or designers (if the price didn’t give that away).
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tom.bedford@hotmail.co.uk (Tom Bedford)
