Asus has tweaked the twangers out of Hifiman's planar magnetic drivers in its new audiophile-grade gaming headset, and it exhibits
Nicely, this is a product I did not have on my CES bingo card. Asus has partnered with boutique headphone producer Hifiman to convey planar magnetic drivers to its new gaming headset, the Asus ROG Kithara.
For these not within the know, planar magnetic drivers use a magnet-suspended diaphragm to ship exceptionally crisp and correct audio, which makes them highly-prized amongst audiophiles. Our greatest audiophile headphones decide, the Audeze Maxwell, makes use of an identical pair—but it surely appears to be like like there’s some new competitors on the town.
The set has a 16 Ohm impedance ranking, so I will be to see if the Kithara can nonetheless ship when powered by an unusual headphone socket with out further amplification. The set has a definite gaming flavour to it, and I can not think about too many avid gamers will need to buy further gear to get an affordable outcome out of their new cans.
The audiophile air, it’s rarefied. Anyway, the Kithara is not low cost, being a planar magnetic set, with what I am informed will seemingly be a $300-$350 MSRP. That places it squarely within the sights of the newly-announced Audeze Maxwell 2. The Audeze is wi-fi, too, so the Asus set goes to must work fairly dang exhausting to justify that price ticket.
Powerful competitors, little question. Nonetheless, with tuned Hifiman drivers at its core, the Kithira makes for a compelling headset at first hear. I will be very, very curious to listen to it correctly for myself quieter circumstances, because the Asus sales space was full of noisy tech journos. Preserve it down, would you? I am listening intently over right here.