New Products

HiFiMan today announced that the cost-no-object electrostatic headphone system it has been working on for years is now available for pre-order.

It is not uncommon for an audio manufacturer to hold a product launch at a recording studio. Although the newly released products at these events often have little or no relevance to pro audio, such a venue is undeniably cool. The pro audio tie-in was readily apparent at the HiFiMan press event held on Wednesday (April 26) at Quad Recording Studios NYC in the always-bustling Times Square area of Manhattan.

HiFiMan has introduced two in-ear monitors (IEMs)—including a new flagship model—built around new drivers designed to deliver smoother, more extended response with reduced distortion.

HiFiMan today introduced a super compact audio player that plays files at resolutions up to 192 kHz/24-bit and supports all lossless file formats including DSD.

Reaching ever higher, HiFiMan’s new $6,000 Susvara planar-magnetic headphones use acoustically invisible “stealth magnets” to improve sound quality by keeping sound waves intact.

Editor's Note: Following Sound & Vision's initial print publication of this article, Neil Young took the post of PonoMusic CEO, replacing John Hamm. The company also named Rick Cohen, PonoMusic's general counsel, to be its COO, and accomplished producer Bruce Botnick to be its Head of Content Acquisition.

If there’s one thing we know about Neil Young, it’s that he’s deeply passionate about how his music gets heard. As an artist who’s long championed sound quality over final-mix compromise, Young has been on a lifelong quest to make sure listeners have the opportunity to hear his music the way he intended from both the studio and the stage, whether it be via high-grade 180-gram virgin vinyl or high-resolution stereo PCM on Blu-ray. “That’s all I do now—192/24,” he tells me. “Back when I started recording, we did everything we could so that our listeners could hear the music. The more we presented and the more you were able to hear, the happier you were. We lost touch with that.”