Audiophilepure

The Mark Levinson No.5909 ended up completely overturning my preconceptions of these headphones being more style than substance. Besides their elite good looks, a serious level of R&D has gone into these cans to not only make them sound exceptional but also to make them almost effortless to use. In a very real sense, they are two headphones in one. The benefits of enhanced range and bandwidth found in the latest Bluetooth 5.1 chipset, meshed with effective ANC performance, selectable bass tuning, and great comfort make them an excellent set of wireless travel headphones. The Beryllium-coated drivers not only deliver the sonic goods when operating wirelessly but they continue to do so when listening completely passively. It’s actually a better-than-enjoyable experience. No longer are you stuck with the sound of “last resort” when the power runs out. I like the passive sound of the Mark Levinson No.5909 better than some more expensive wired headphones out there. It’s that good. Looking at the entirety of what the No.5909 can do, they are certainly worth the price. They are the best of their breed thus far, with no qualifiers. Highly Recommended!

One odd thing I found (and this may just be me) but I found wearing the headphones backward to be far more comfortable when listening for extended periods of time. In the normal mode, they sat too far back on my head and felt like they were sliding back, pulling on my head. In reverse, they sit near perfectly at the top of my head. Let me know in the comments if you own a pair and have tried this out.

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/sennheiser-momentum-4-wireless

Play Waxahatchee’s Oxbow and immediately the cymbals crash over the top of the rightfully booming drum beat and scatty electronica with impact and purpose. As the song settles into its piano- and vocal-led melody, everything in the mix is explicit and precise in a soundstage that’s nicely layered and spacious, never feeling cramped or one-dimensional. There’s a nice feel and flow to the song as, being about the writer Katie Crutchfield finding sobriety, it musically treads a fine line between wistfulness and optimism. We only have to let the next track seep into our ears to be sure of the Sennheisers’ musical talent, which fervently laps up the boppy, country-infused instrumentation.

The Sony XM5 are comparatively richer, with a more prominent bass, though their added midrange clarity and transparency is what really pulls them away from the Sennheisers (and other competition at this level) and justifies their greater expense. The gap isn’t huge exactly, but the Sony’s detail-on-tap does make an instrumentally dense and texturally diverse piece like Oneohtrix Point Never’s Long Road Home unarguably more compelling, and is able to tug on the heartstrings a little harder when playing an intimate track like Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ grief-laden Girl In Amber. The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2’s analytical nature surfaces subtleties in similar class-leading fashion, but the livelier Sennheisers reply with greater get up and go.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/dan-clark-audio-aeon-2-closed

With its 2m cable and neat folding action for easy storage, it would appear that the Aeon 2 Closed is best suited to listening to music on the move and its comfortable earpads and lightweight design will certainly make your journey a congenial one. For those that like their lower frequencies, the impressive bass extension is a real boon although the treble could do with being a touch more extended. Having said that, the soundstage is spacious and insightful, meaning that at the price this deserves to be on your audition list