With the arrival of high quality personal music players (like the Astell & Kern AK100) back in 2012, headphone quality took on a new level of importance for me not felt since my days of using personal CD and (briefly) MiniDisc players.
In 2012 the Over-Ear candidates doing the rounds in the press were models like the B&W P5 and numerous options from Sennheiser/Beyerdynamic/AKG. My winner in the end (after listening to these brands and more) was the PSB M4U2 closed-back headphones.
Unashamedly designed to mirror the aesthetics of brands such as Beats, but with a natural sound that brutally mocked Dr Dre’s ‘finest’ and made other closed-back rivals sound claustrophobic.
Fast forward to 2015 and I was doing less of my listening on-the-go, and at that point the far (far far far) superior OPPO PM-2 Open-backs were wooing me, but £700 was well beyond my reach. I just accepted that was the level I’d have to go to be a significant upgrade over the PSBs, and simply could not justify it.
Now in 2019, OPPO have left the Hi-fi scene but a new contender from an old name has made a real splash in the swamp of uninspiring models.
The KLH Ultimate One audiophile headphones are an over-ear, open-back, design with high-end specifications, driver materials and luxury build. The high calibre of the supplied carry case and retail packaging is almost considered mandatory these days, so naturally KLH have not scrimped here either.
Used initially with a Micromega MYAMP, fed by my Roon server via a Roon Bridge, I first played Bad Guy by Billie Eilish.
The Ultimate Ones really fleshed out the contrast between the close-mic breathy vocals with the more spatial layering of the (deliberately) distorted hammering bass lines and rest of the mix. It’s almost like the track was mixed intentionally for the headphone-only generation and the KLHs revelled in it.
Moving on to Damn (What must a woman do) by Christine & The Queens, highlighted their ability to convey the leading edge and trails of notes supremely, revealing the inky blackness behind the music. Very, very clean and precise yet not overly analytical.
Playing more rough ‘n’ ready recordings like Walk This Way (Aerosmith/Run DMC) and the Mony Mony EP (Billy Idol) showed that the KLHs can let through the technique of the artists in their rawness without letting the lower-fi production spoiling things. Even with that in mind though, it was a genuine surprise to hear the stark contrast in the warmth of the three-dimensional feel of Aerosmith’s guitars against that of Run DMC’s backing beats.
The KLH Ultimate One’s nimbleness and transparency also pays big dividends at low volume levels and with more more gentle or nuanced music: the So Long So Wrong CD (Alison Krauss & Union Station) and La Donna e Mobile from Rigoletto were flowing and silky yet soaring when required.
Needless to say my PSB M4U1s are now back in their carry case as, even when playing F1 2019 on my PC, they sound so hollow and anaemic in comparison to the Ultimate Ones.
I am now REALLY glad I didn’t have that £700 for the OPPO PM-2s…………
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