MusicRadar Verdict
Highly recommended for those who require mix accuracy but must keep levels low.
Pros
- +
Brilliantly precise monitoring experience.
Cons
- -
You won't want to wear them in public.
MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.
Open-back headphones are a bit of an acquired taste. By allowing the sound to escape from the back of the 'phone rather than be 'fired' direct into the ear you get a literally more 'open' flavour.
It's a surprising experience akin to mounting high quality monitors on your shoulders. Of course, this renders open backs as useless for recording or 'on the bus' music listening duties as leakage levels are off the scale.
However, for in-depth precision listening during the mix stage we found the 1840s incredibly useful. Rather than simply 'checking on headphones' we were able to accurately locate and adjust mix queries that our monitors kept masked.
The 1840s' perspective is super-true with a widescreen look at your music in detail that you simply wouldn't think possible with headphones.
“You could take everything away from me but leave the laptop and I'm confident I could make interesting music quite happily for the rest of my life”: Lone on the gear behind his technicolour, rave-adjacent electronica
“One of the concepts we are exploring is whether an artist could continue to create work after they have passed away”: The groundbreaking tech that will shape the future of music production
“If you messed something up on a production, admit it, fix it, and move on”: 8 cost-free tips to improve as a producer in 2025
