27 October 2009
I have been invited to do some scribbling on the subject of headphones and microphones. It happens that headphones were responsible for some of my key formative experiences as a rookie writer in the wonderful world of audio and high fidelity. The first was with an early open-back model, the brightly presented HD 414, which came like a bolt from the blue to what at the time was moribund market dominated by the dull sounding heavyweight sealed back designs from US based manufacturers like, well you know who.
According to my increasingly leaky memory cells, the HD 
414 dated back to the late 60s, and it remained in the range for several years, selling like hotcakes. Oh, it came with groovy bright yellow earpads where most of the others were dressed in multiple shades of grey. We used words like groovy then, without a hint of embarrassment.
The HD414 introduced the idea of open-back phones, where no seal was necessary around the ears to generate bass, and there were other benefits too: the option of different colour earpads, a simple but robust loop headband that could be folded over on itself, and which sprang back to its original shape when released, and interchangeable cables and earphone capsules that avoided countless return trips to the menders. Oh yes, one other thing: as well as being practically indestructible in everyday use, the HD414 was as cheap as chips.
I had the opportunity to listen to an HD 414 once long after the model had been withdrawn, and was interested to see how my memories corresponded with the more contemporary reality. They still sounded clean and open, with a lean bass and a rather bright treble which clearly sounded overcooked and edgy to my ears. Overall the sound appeared to have worn reasonably well, but of course things had advanced in the years since it was introduced.
Good thing really, or we’d have nothing left to talk about.
A few notes about my background, so if you’re not interested, stop reading now. I was born in a manger in 19…, and after getting what I loosely describe as an education, I transplanted myself to to Israel for a few years, before returning to the UK, eventually ending up working for one of the UK’s best hi-fi dealers, Grahams in London.
I decided that without the skills necessary to be a worthwhile musician, the less onerous task of writing about high fidelity seemed like a good idea. I started writing for the most radical and influential of the hi-fi magazines, the celebrated Hi Fi Answers, at a time when the publisher, Haymarket Publishing (now best of course known as publisher of What Hi-fi?), was not scared of being a tad edgy. I also wrote extensively for the latter, before the injunction against using freelancers was introduced, and eventually I started to write for many of the other titles that have come and (in many cases) gone.
My main regular writing gigs in the UK now are in Hi-fi Choice and Home Entertainment.
Related posts:
- Lossless Audio & Digital Audio Formats
- Audio Connoisseur
- Spare Parts Finder
- A whole new meaning to Frequency Response
- The many flavors of wireless are all delicious
Tags: Add new tag | HD 414 | Headphones | high fidelity | open-back
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