The headphones that sound like a hi-fi

Home / Hot Stuff / Promoted / The headphones that sound like a hi-fi

When it comes to music quality, hi-fi has always been the headline-grabbing diva. Headphones, meanwhile, are something of an overlooked support act.

Even after headphones’ meteoric rise of recent years, most music is produced with the assumption that listeners will experience it through a hi-fi from the comfort of their sofa – and not while they’re out and about, sitting in the office or travelling via train, plane or automobile.

For anyone who cares about sound quality, that matters. While headphones have a left and right channel like hi-fi speakers, the assumptions of the recording engineer can mean the music piped through them arrives at your ears distorted. This is partly due to something called ‘room gain’, the phenomenon by which objects in the listening environment – from furnishings to walls – absorb and bend sound waves in specific ways. Your living room has those objects; the space between your ears does not.

So, the question is: how do you take hi-fi quality sound with you?

You could lug your trusty separates system to the tube, pump up the volume and quickly make yourself a public transport pariah. Or you could invest in a pair of PSB headphones, complete with RoomFeel technology.

Natural remedy

Following decades of research, PSB headphones now feature RoomFeel. It’s designed to inject some of the interaction between room and speaker into the listening experience. The process by which it does this, known as a transfer function, delivers sound to each ear that simulates the sense of space and depth of a larger room. The upshot is that, whether you’re commuting to work or sunning yourself on the beach, you’ll never be far from true hi-fi listening.

Since RoomFeel is now available across the PSB range, you’ll receive hi-fi quality sound whichever model you opt for. If you’re in the market for an in-ear headphone, the M4U 4 is a fine place to start, offering the full RoomFeel experience in a lightweight package. It’s not just that the sound has been designed to convey every detail of a recording, either; similar attention has been paid to style and ergonomics, with its Comply Foam Tx-200 Series Eartips ensuring a comfortable fit.

If you’re after an over-ear model, the M4U 1 offers clean, open and energetic audio quality, premium comfort and dual cable inputs for simple connection. The M4U 2 takes that template and cranks it up a level, offering three listening modes – passive, active (engaging their internal powered amplifier) and active noise cancelling. The latter mode means you won’t hear fellow travellers telling you to stop singing along to ‘Shake It Off’ – but unlike your singular interpretation of Taylor Swift’s back catalogue, when it comes to offering hi-fi quality sound on the move, RoomFeel is engineered to hit all the right notes.

To find out more about the PSB M4U range of headphones and RoomFeel, click here >>