My father once said to me that if you live long enough, you will see everything. He was right—at least in this case. After 60 years as an audiophile and music lover, the ultimate in electrostatic headphone technology has finally yielded what I believe to be the most musical and lifelike electrostatic headphones on the planet: Audeze CRBN Electrostatic Headphones.
Designed by Dr. Drag Colich, CTO of Audeze and holder of 29 patents, the CRBN reproduces music as never before. The CRBN utilizes "carbon nanotubes film" for the diaphragms in an original electrostatic style, with standard five-pin 580 VDC Stax pro bias, 120dB capability, and 20Hz - 40 kHz frequency response, righteously even from top to bottom. They crush the state of the art, and move headphone technology well into the future.
How do they sound? The CRBN sounds like the microphone feed, absolutely real. Holistic and neutral, they yield zero detectable colorations, a reality I never before heard in musical reproduction, and no grain or electret character whatsoever. The CRBN represents and performs as a "breakthrough" design that brings the listener tantalizingly near to perfection and musical truth.
Weighing in at a comfortable 300 grams, I ran them a full 125 hours, necessary, in my judgment, to bring out their top performance. This was essential, as they are tested at the factory and run in for only about six hours. Each CRBN set when you order it is hand-built of outrageously gorgeous materials, superb fit and finish, and supplied in a premium lockable aluminum travel case. They are over-ear and open back, and are a bit less efficient than my Stax 009 cans. I auditioned the CRBN in my all-tube OTL Stax 006T Driver Unit and the Woo WES 10 tube/two-chassis Driver Unit. (Thank you, John Williams, head of personal listening for the LA&OC Audio Society, for lending me the Woo.) The CRBN was compared to my Stax 009 and Lambda Signature headphones.
John Williams setting up the Woo WES
Both Stax Headphones revealed lots of sheer definition as usual, but all was rather bland and colorless compared to the CRBN. The Stax units felt musically distant and removed from reality, with ambient echoes unattached to the musical images. The level of graininess varied with the Stax but was always there. Hall sounds were just not real. Coltrane's sax had a congealed evenness with the Stax versus layers of textural nuance with the CRBN. I was surprised by the beauty of massed violins with the CRBN and their total lack of mechanical reproduction so plainly apparent with the Stax headphones.
The smallest changes in the system were very apparent, and a quiet background was essential. I switched to the superb UITaudio interconnect from the EAR 912 preamp to the Electrostatic Drivers, utilizing both balanced and RCA terminations. The UITaudio interconnects yield the quietest backgrounds I have ever achieved, with maximum definition and a sense of textural reality. This is confirmed now with the CRBN headphones. UITaudio cables are only sold directly at UITaudio.com. Their USB design is outstanding as well, and is my current reference.
I spent hours listening to my classic FM tuners from the Day Sequerra to the Marantz 10B. Gorgeous. FM analog is so underrated. Live programming from PBS is live indeed. The CRBN put me in row A and gave me an open window to live performances around the world.
Qobuz 24-bit material was excellent and truly musical and involving on the CRBN. I went from Beethoven to Cat Stevens and was astounded by the sense of realism and energy of the material. The CRBN restores and improves the signal by doing a more faithful job of bringing the music to your ears than any other electrostatic headphones I've heard. Distortions that we are all so used to vanish to an astounding degree. Etch is gone. Grain is gone. The flatness and lumpiness are gone. What remains with the CRBN is rounded fleshed-out colorful music. Qobuz has never sounded better and more live on the CRBN. (Well done David Solomon!)
The earth is not flat and music should not be either. All electrostatic cans that I've experienced, compared to the CRBN, sound flat with flat images on a flat stage. Depth was rendered well with the Stax cans, but with more flat images like flat bells and flat musical instruments in the distance. All of this was bathed in meaningless echo and sweetening. Not the CRBN. Images were rounded and much more realistic as a result. The CRBN rounded images in the front and rear of the stage. As a result, the CRBN was more involving and realistic to my ears—plus more intimate. The CRBN had a big broad soundstage with superb center fill. I could not find anything to criticize in their elegant design. You were plugged into the performances. You were never aware of driver blending, dynamic overload, sizzle or spit, or anything at all but the music!
Vocals are the best ever when reproduced by the CRBN to my ears compared to anything competitive. With the CRBN you will hear layers of vocal definition, textural nuance, warmth, glow, and mellifluousness like never before in our hobby. From Beethoven's 9th Symphony to Paul Simon, vocals have never sounded so real and alive. Utter perfection. The CRBN is the equivalent of my $35,000 pair of floor-standing speakers. Audiophiles who listened to my Marten loudspeakers loaded with Accuton drivers and diamond tweeter then heard the CRBN commented on the extraordinary musical similarities and balance. Frankly, the CRBN is better, more detailed, and realistic, since it is not having to fight room colorations.
Utilizing my phono references, including the Zesto Andros Deluxe and the extraordinary Zesto Tessura Reference in for review, I heard warmth and elegance with the CRBN rarely reproduced by any other medium. This is what this hobby is all about. Hard to believe these tiny LP grooves have such huge quantities of music in them. The CRBN allowed me to bathe in that beauty. I wish I had speakers as outstanding relative to the CRBN. Maybe their technology could be made into speakers someday?
Summary
The Audeze CRBN Electrostatic Headphones are not only groundbreaking technology, an understatement for sure, but mightily push the envelope for reproducing recorded music in the home. Eclipsing all other electrostatics I have ever heard, the CRBN made my 009 headphones sound grainy and not particularly musical. With unprecedented elegance in construction, 21st-century carbon drivers, and weighing only 300 grams, the CRBN are the equivalent of $35,000 loudspeakers for your ears. The CRBN sounds like they are plugged into the studio as the performance is recorded. The experience of listening with these truly innovative electrostatics is immersive and magical. In my opinion, the CRBN from Audeze are the best electrostatics ever produced on our planet, and rival any other luxury, state-of-the-art headphone design, dynamic or planar, that I have auditioned in my half-century as an audiophile.
Bravo Audeze! Bravo Dr. C.!
CRBN
Retail: $4500
Audeze
3412 S. Susan Street
Santa Ana, CA 92704
714.581.8010
All photos courtesy of Audeze and Bob Levi
