Introduction

I’m genuinely not sure if these headphones are priced correctly, but at £120 a pair these Angle and Curve Carbon Black/Bullion Gold carboncans ™ present outstanding performance and therefore represent fabulous value for money.

Build Quality and Design

Well I am very nicely placed, sitting here in my leafy abode North of Banbury. To the south of me, not six miles away I have ACS, leading bespoke in ear monitor manufacturer. And to the North, in Stratford-upon-Avon, I have Angle and Curve, a new maker of terrific headphones, as they say:

If marketing is, or certainly used to be, Product, Place, Promotion and Price, Angle and Curve have the first three in spades, but in world of beats headphones retailing at the three hundred pound mark, they may need some advice on pricing, upwards in my opinion!

My sample (courtesy of the excellent HiFi store Music Matters, Stratford) is the Carbon Black/Bullion Gold carboncans ™. They’re black, mainly, very cool, with gold edging, hence the bullion tag. The finish is soft to feel made of a durable nylon/carbon composite material. There is an understated and discrete A&C on the side. Many other colours and combinations are on the website. The black ones with black edging look particularly Darth Vader, in a good way.

The design of the ‘phones is ‘on ear’, as opposed to ‘in ear’ (buds) or ‘over ear’. They are very comfortable indeed, the super soft earpads do a fine job. For storage or transport the carboncans ™ fold up, just above the ear.

There is a built in microphone for urban use I guess. The lead is just about long enough for comfortable ‘phone in pocket/coat/headphones’ use. I’d have preferred another 20 cm! Because of the finish of the carboncans , they claim extreme weather resistance, which I can believe, though I have not yet tried, since I have to give these back at some point, I presume.

Performance

These headphones are wonderfully balanced between low end frequencies and the higher end. The bass response is superb, not overly heavy or unduly light but nicely pitched. Compared to some other headphones I’ve listened to recently, I’d say a bit lighter than others, but this no criticism.

I’m reviewing using my ‘daily’ listening set-up which is an Android phone with lossless files played through PowerAmp into the Oppo HA-2 portable headphone amplifier. The treble range on my sample files and vocals are wonderfully crisp and clear. Pianos are, using Neil Cowley’s 96kHz, 24bit FLAC recordings, crystal clear and are opened up nice and wide with these ‘phones. Coupled with the double bass and crashing symbols there is no clutter in the presentation and you can visualise their respective positions on a stage.

Verdict

If the retail price is still £120 on their site and they haven’t realised their mistake, these headphones are outstanding value for money and I would recommend them to anybody, be they sat on the train or sat in an armchair.

For further information goto

Music Matters:  http://www.musicmatters.co.uk/
Angle and Curve:  http://www.angleandcurve.com/