August 03, 2021
Audeze is well known and well regarded for its extensive lineup of superb planar-magnetic headphones; for example, see my glowing review of the LCD-1. Today, the company is taking a step into new territory with its CRBN (pronounced “carbon”) electrostatic headphone.
For those who are unfamiliar with planar-magnetic (PM) and electrostatic (ES) headphones, they are similar in that they have a relatively large, thin diaphragm suspended between two acoustically transparent structures called stators. In PM designs, the stators are permanent magnets, and the diaphragm has a flat, conductive ribbon that snakes across its entire surface. The ribbon carries the electrical audio signal, which creates a corresponding oscillating magnetic field that interacts with the static magnetic field of the stators, pushing the diaphragm back and forth.
You can read Scott's piece on CRBN here.