Shanling HW600 consider: wired over-ear headphones that pack a sonic punch, do you have to’ve acquired a large head…
Shanling HW600: Two-minute consider
Shanling hasn’t so much dipped a toe into the ‘premium wired over-ear headphones’ market with the HW600 as dived in headfirst. Big, well-appointed, hard-wired planar magnetic headphones are normally not exactly a rarity, nonetheless they’re not all that mainstream each – and the most effective spherical tend to return again from producers who’ve established their credentials over pretty a few years. Meze Audio springs most readily to ideas.
The Shanling HW600 have what it takes, though, a minimum of the place specification and finish are concerned. An elaborate driver affiliation is hid inside aluminum-backed, lambskin-fronted earcups, every hard-wired to a provide using braided single crystal copper cable ending in a 4.4mm balanced termination.
The usual of constructing and finish merely can’t be argued with, and is correctly as a lot as the kind of commonplace the asking worth requires to sit down down among the many many best wired headphones money can purchase.
Shanling HW600 consider: Value & launch date
- Launched October 15, 2024
- Priced: $1099 / £1099 / AU$1699
You almost really don’t need me to tell you that Shanling hasn’t made its life easy by pricing its HW600 this way. TechRadar favorites from the likes of Focal, Meze Audio and Sennheiser (to name nonetheless three) will likely be yours for not dissimilar money – so the Shanling HW600 have their work decrease out within the occasion that they’re going to make a optimistic impression…
Shanling HW600 consider: Specs
| Kind | Wired over-ear |
| Drivers | 110 x 86mm planar magnetic |
| Weight | 480g |
| Cable measurement | 1.5m |
| Cable termination | 4.4mm balanced |
| Frequency response | 12Hz – 40kHz |
Shanling HW600 consider: Choices
- 110mm x 86mm planar magnetic drivers
- 12Hz – 40kHz frequency response (claimed)
- 1.5m quad-core cable with 4.4mm termination
Passive, wired headphones don’t are normally overburdened with choices, and that’s really the case the place the Shanling HW600 are concerned. Nevertheless it is truthful to say the choices these headphones do have are with out compromise of their specification and totally match for goal.
These are planar magnetic headphones, in actual fact, which explains their head-swamping measurement. Inside each earcup there’s a 110 x 86mm planar magnetic driver – it’s a mere 8µm thick, printed with a silver-plated aluminum ‘switchback’ coil and sits between 14 neodymium/iron/boron magnets organized in a seven-a-side assembly.
Shanling is claiming a frequency response of 12Hz – 40Khz and suggests it’s a responsive, easy-to-drive affiliation – a sensitivity rating of 104dB @ 1kHz would seem to bear that out. The one-unit driver building features a pair of acoustic chambers, which Shanling says makes for minimal distortion along with delivering its desired sonic effectivity.
Each earcup is wired, using an peculiar 3.5mm connector – which suggests it must be easy ample to swap the cable do you have to so want. It’s value giving Shanling’s cable an excellent prolonged hear sooner than you rush into one thing, though – it’s a 1.5m measurement of loosely braided single crustal copper wire, and features a balanced 4.4mm termination. There’s a 6.3mm adapter inside the packaging too.
Shanling HW600 consider: Sound top quality
- Spacious, well-defined sonic construction
- Punch and drive, dynamism and component in equal measure
- Can sound barely monotonal on the very bottom of the frequency differ
Some headphones prioritize pleasure and leisure, and sacrifice analysis and notion inside the course of. Some headphones want to conduct a sort of aural audit of a recording, inspecting every nook and cranny, and is normally a considerably uninteresting and undemonstrative hear due to this. And some, identical to the Shanling HW600, try and perform a little bit of each half.
The good news proper right here is that the HW600 deal with to perform a little bit of each half with amount of success. The stableness they strike between ‘leisure’, ‘musicality’ and ‘analysis’ is expertly judged, and due to this they’re good agency no matter the kind of listening you’re fascinated by doing or the kind of stuff you want to take heed to if you do it.
A 24bit/88.2kHz FLAC file of Get Lucky by Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams is a hi-fi cliché as of late, nonetheless for good trigger. And when served by the HW600 by the use of an iFi iDSD Diablo 2 headphone amplifier, its ubiquity is totally understandable. It permits the headphones to exhibit their potential to clarify an open, well-defined and completely managed soundstage, and to offer acceptable weighting to the areas, along with the units, on it. It’s acquired the kind of rapid-fire low-frequency presence that lets the HW600 showcase their administration of assault and decay, and as a consequence their rhythmic certainty. And its mixture of textures and tones, along with the close-mic’d nature of its vocal line, lets the Shanling exhibit impressively neutral tonality and winningly even frequency response.
Component ranges are extreme all by, and there’s larger than ample substance on the prime of the frequency differ to steadiness out the brilliance the HW600 lend to treble sounds. Mid-range notion is straightforwardly accomplished – there’s no secret of Williams’ strategy that the Shanling aren’t celebration to, and they also’re greater than happy to position each half into convincing context.
There’s larger than ample dynamic headroom accessible to make the shifts in depth all through Eartheater’s How To Wrestle fully obvious, and the kind of consideration they pay to the harmonic variations all through Arvo Pärt’s A Music in Memory of Benjamin Britten is approaching the fanatical. The textures and overlaps of that remaining recording are given full expression by the HW600, and due to this the sound is multi-faceted the place, in a lot much less succesful arms, it may really come all through as repetitive and monochrome.
Truly, in regards to the one house the place the Shanling don’t perform with full confidence is on the very bottom of the frequency differ. The HW600 dig deep, most really, and they also hit with secure assurance – there’s nothing powder puff regarding the low-frequency impression these headphones can summon. And as much as a level, there’s a great deal of variation and constructive component accessible on the same time. Previous that point, though, down on the very depths of their extension, the Shanling lose a couple of of their notion and simply rumble.
There’s no gentle or shade to the deepest bass notes proper right here, no suggestion of texture or component. If it’s ever going to be an issue, it might affect those who take heed to a lot of EDM or totally different content material materials that relies on low-end eloquence. The rest of us might merely observe it in passing and get on with having enjoyable with the alternative 99 per cent of the copy of the frequency differ.
- Sound top quality ranking: 4.5/5
Shanling HW600 consider: Design
- Friction-pole headband adjustment
- Make liberal use of lambskin
- 480g
Planar magnetic headphones, merely as a consequence of the experience they use, are normally on the large aspect. Nevertheless there’s ‘big’ after which there’s the Shanling HW600. I’m 6ft tall, and I flatter myself that my head is of proportionate measurement, nonetheless the HW600 practically match me when adjusted to be as small as potential. So do you have to’re fortunate ample to be on the petite aspect, you can overlook it.
Let’s assume, though, that your head is massive ample to be accommodated comfortably contained within the Shanling. You’ll find yourself sporting a pair of comfortable, correctly accomplished headphones that disguise their 480g weight correctly on account of a fastidiously thought-about hanger affiliation. The earpads are of angled memory foam coated in lambskin, and there’s further of this considerably divisive supplies forming the thin contact house of the headband. Between the two-tier headband affiliation and the considerably rudimentary friction-pole headband adjustment mechanism, the HW600 are larger than a little bit bit harking again to a couple of Meze Audio’s pricier over-ear designs. Imitation is the sincerest sort of flattery and all that.
The pores and skin of the earcups, along with the yokes and outer portion of the headband, are product of aircraft-grade ‘7xxx’ aluminum – it feels practically just about pretty much as good as a result of it appears. The design of the outer part of the earcups is, says Shanling, impressed by the usual method of creating bamboo joints. It’s pretty elegant and understated, and it prevents the HW600 wanting as assertively open-backed as they in another case might.
Shanling HW600 consider: Value
- Premium provides, flawlessly deployed…
- … and a great deal of them
- Worthwhile in practically every house of audio effectivity
Expensive(ish) headphones are always tough on this respect. They need to be pretty gentle with the intention to be comfortable, and until you rise up shut an expensive pair can look very very like an moderately priced pair.
Nevertheless Shanling has given it a go the place perceived price is frightened, there’s no arguing with the match and finish, and sound top quality is correctly as a lot as the kind of commonplace the asking worth requires. For individuals who can stick with the liberal use of lambskin, there’s specific price proper right here.
Should I buy the Shanling HW600?
| Half | Notes | Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Choices | 110 x 86mm planar magnetic drivers; 12Hz – 40kHz frequency response | 5/5 |
| Sound top quality | Open, punchy, impressively informative sound | 4.5/5 |
| Design | Perhaps too ‘outsized’; lambskin will put some off | 4/5 |
| Value | Should make your outsized, hard-wired, open-backed headphones shortlist a little bit bit bit longer | 4.5/5 |
Buy them if…
Don’t purchase them if…
Shanling HW600 consider: Moreover take into consideration
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Shanling HW600 | Meze Audio Lyric | I am FT5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $1099 / £1099 / AU$1699 | $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$3,399 | $449 / £429 / AU$799 |
| Drivers | 110 x 86mm planar magnetic | 92 x 63mm planar magnetic | 90mm planar magnetic |
| Weight | 480g | 391g | 456g |
| Cable measurement | 1.5m | 1.5m, 3m | 1.5m |
| Connectivity | 4.4mm balanced | 3.5mm (6.3mm adapter) | 3.5mm; 4.4mm; 6.3mm; 4-pin XLR |
| Frequency response | 12Hz – 40kHz | 20Hz – 20kHz | 7Hz – 40kHz |
How I examined the Shanling HW600
- Linked to an iFi Diablo 2 and a FiiO M15S
- Music of many alternative varieties and resolutions
- Examined for correctly over each week
Being rapidly gentle on full-size gear with one thing other than a 3.5mm headphone socket, I used the HW600 linked on to a FiiO M15S hi-res digital audio participant by the use of its 4.4mm output. I moreover plugged them into an iFi iDSD Diablo headphone amplifier, as soon as extra by the use of the 4.4mm connection, which was in flip linked to an Apple MacBook Skilled working Colibri software program program.
After which I listened to a lot of completely various kinds of music, of various file varieties and sizes, on a fairly strict ‘10am – 5pm’ basis for all the things of a working week whereas taking time to examine the sound of the Shanling to some acceptable choices I’ve regarding the place…
