IRL: Alpine puts its car audio chops to good use... in headphones?
Some of the best headphones I listened to this year came from a car audio company. It's true. When I hear the name Alpine, I think of two things: the car stereos and the brewery in southern California. Back in October, the tech-focused Alpine announced its $300 over-ear cans with so-called Full Frequency Immersion technology to simulate the feeling of a live show. There's even a pulsing headband that keeps up with the bass line. What may seem like an odd move for Alpine actually makes a lot of sense. A company with a history in audio, even if its car audio, should be well-equipped to make a solid set of headphones. I've been using the set for a couple months now, and the sound is stellar.
At this price, Alpine is taking a direct shot at Beats and all the other usual suspects in the high-end headphone space. With the design in particular, the company definitely did enough to stand toe to toe with its rivals. The headband is made of a matte white plastic (there's a black option too) with black soft-touch rubber on the inside. Rather than being round, the earcups are square, but they've been rotated to look more diamond-like -- taking a cue from the angular nature of the Alpine logo, no doubt. To be honest, this choice is one of my favorite aesthetic features of the set, offering a nice departure from a seemingly endless selection of circular designs.
Those earcups have a shiny silver backing, but on the inside, a soft leather-esque material provides the padding needed to keep things comfy. And comfortable they are. I'm used to a much lighter set of headphones for daily use (B&O BeoPlay H6), so the added weight took some adjustment on my part. Alpine's headphones certainly aren't a load, like Blue's Mo-Fi, and they also don't pinch my dome like Beats' Solo2 line. Like I said, the fit feels nice, even with a bit more heft due to the on-board digital-to-analog converter. With that being the reason for the added mass, I'm not complaining too much.
What's inside its headphones that's the real selling point: Full Frequency Immersion tech and a 24-bit DAC. There's also that pulsing bass transducer in the headband that allows you to feel the bass while barreling through a playlist. To further fine-tune things, an iOS companion app allows you to tweak a five-band EQ. All of that looks good on paper, and I could definitely tell a difference, but I prefered to leave all the fancy features turned off. The set sounded great without being powered on, and after a few seconds, I found the pulsing to be rather annoying. It's tolerable for hip-hop and electronic music, but switch over to metal and the allure quickly fades. I did give it a full day, though, and the claim of around 10 hours of playback is indeed accurate. Despite being a wired set of cans, they do need to be recharged to power all of that built-in tech.
So, what about the sound? It's really good. There's a solid dose of bass, but it's not overpowering like I've heard on a number of other premium-priced options. What stands out most for me is that even with a respectable handling of the low end, the rest remains quite clear. Things like hi-hats, snares and more stand out on bass-heavy records like Big K.R.I.T's Cadillactica and Run the Jewels 2. It's not just hip-hop either: Alpine's headphones handle most genres quite well, almost enough to make me switch over from the H6s. Cranked up way past the point of normal listening, I didn't notice any distortion as everything remained quite clear, albeit super loud.
After nearly two months of listening, I'm still smitten with these. I've found myself coming back to them every so often. Sure, I don't care for all the audio tech that's baked in, but in passive mode, these are one of the best-sounding pairs of headphones I've listened to this year. I've worn Samsung's Level line, both of Beats' Solo2 releases and Sennheiser's Urbanite on-ears over the past few months, and the Alpine option bests them all. The obvious issue is spending $300 on a souped-up set when I don't use the added features. They may come in handy for others, but I enjoyed these headphones much more without them, finding the pair to be a worthy consideration even without the bells and whistles. If you're looking to give all that tech a shot, be my guest, but just know you're getting a great set of regular ol' headphones, too.
