While some speaker companies have always done it, until very recently, manufacturer's of studio monitors have resisted the temptation to enter the headphone market, given the competitive nature of that segment. But with more and more music producers and audio engineers starting to use headphones as an alternative reference monitoring source - including to check binaural renditions of their work - the motivation increased.
Several years in the making, the new ADAM Audio H200 headphones were designed from the ground up at company's R&D department in Berlin, which has expanded to include a dedicated headphone engineering team. The result was now revealed and is an interesting fusion of hardware and software.
Unlike the ADAM Audio studio monitors which are renowned for its X-ART planar drivers (eXtended Accelerating Ribbon Technology), the H200 headphones use more conventional 40mm PEEK diaphragm drivers combined with a patent-pending internal airflow technology to deliver a frequency response that matches the benchmark set by the company's S Series monitors. The overall design carefully considered headband physics to ensure a comfortable fit, combined with memory foam-based earpads to provide excellent isolation.
With environmental factors in mind, ADAM Audio also says that modularity and materials played an important role during the development process. Both the earpads and the headband padding are easily replaceable, and the durable main cable is attachable to either side of the headphones. The packaging is paper-based, while the driver housing consists of 85% post-consumer recycled ABS plastic. A high-quality carry bag is included for storage and transportation.
Headphones Utility Software
The studio market has been challenged in the past 10 years, when the concept of speaker calibration software for studio monitors was embraced, and users were made aware of the inconsistencies between their monitoring experiences and the possibilities opened by digital correction products. By enabling calibration of studio monitors and headphones towards a sonic reference of choice, as well as simulating different audio systems with high accuracy to check how mixes translate, music producers and sound engineers have been encouraged to embrace a monitoring reference that they can take with them anywhere, including when working on a laptop with headphones.
ADAM Audio was one of the studio monitor companies that quickly embraced the concept and partnered with Sonarworks to implement an automated room correction solution that runs directly on the DSP of its A Series monitors. Now, a distinct advantage of the H200 headphones is that the purpose-built ADAM Audio Headphone Utility DAW software plugin offers a range of optimization tools, as well as an Externalization feature that uses advanced crossfeed techniques to better translate loudspeaker mixes to headphones.
This software was developed in collaboration with Sonnox, the famous Oxford-based software company that was spun-off from Sony's original digital audio division, and which since 2022 are part of the Focusrite Group that also owns ADAM Audio. Interesting features implemented in the software allow users to compensate equalization curves for different earpads. The H200 ships with faux leather earpads, with a soft cloth option available as a separate accessory. Users can also choose between different voicings that more closely resemble the response of ADAM Audio A Series and S Series monitors, which they might be more familiar with. The Headphone Utility software also includes gain compensation, Equal Loudness and a Safe Mode mode.
The new ADAM Audio H200 headphones will be demonstrated at AES New York (Oct 8-10), Music China Shanghai (Oct 10-13), Amsterdam Dance Event (Oct 17-19), LEaT Con Hamburg (Oct 22-24) and JTSE Paris (Nov 27-28) events, and will be available in stores from November 2025. Suggested retail pricing is USD $149.99 / EUR €159,99.
www.adam-audio.com
