Austrian Audio is a young brand. Its leaders, however, look back on a long history. The headphone provider from Austria recruited numerous developers to create something new after the closure of AKG Vienna in 2017. With the Austrian Audio The Composer, the Viennese present their new flagship. It could almost be a magnetostat in appearance and especially in sound. However, it is a dynamic driver.
The developers placed great emphasis on the over-ear producing little distortion at the standard measurement frequency of 1 kHz. According to the manufacturer, its THD value of should be less than 0.1%. Austrian Audio also placed great emphasis on precise, powerful low-frequency reproduction. The Composer is said to reproduce a powerful bass drum thrust at 60 Hz in all its glory. Here, the Austrian Audio is even said to outshine competitors that are significantly more expensive.
At the heart of The Composer headphones is its exclusive Hi-X (High Excursion) technology. The over-ear from Austria features 49 mm drivers with precision CNC-machined ring magnet system with so-called N52 magnets. The acronym stands for neodymium, a rare earth material known for its exceptional magnetic flux density. The Composer’s unique ring design is said to not only optimize airflow, but also deliver the strongest magnetic field in its class.
Diamonds are forever
The diaphragm of the HI-X49 DLC driver has a coating of diamond-like carbon (DLC). This makes them exceptionally stiff and shifts the breakup frequencies into higher frequency ranges. Thus, the diaphragm follows the audio signal longer with a perfect piston stroke. DLC enables the stiffening of the membrane without adding significant weight.
The Composer comes with three different cables – jack plugs in 3.5mm and 6.3mm sizes, a 4.4mm Pentaconn plug and a 4-pin XLR plug. The latter two connectors allow for a fully balanced connection from the amplifier to the two transducers of the Austrian Audio.
Thanks to its banana jacks, audiophiles can tailor their own cable solutions. The cables are attached to the headband and not to the ear cups. This design serves the purpose of harmoniously distributing the force applied to the cable over the entire head. At the upper part of the cables, an elastomer sheath ensures that unwanted interference from body noise is cleverly eliminated. The foldable handset and its high-quality cable set come in a lush wooden box with the dimensions of a gift basket from the delicatessen. No question, this is personal audio at its finest.
Thoughtful details
What we particularly like is that the Austrian Audio The Composer has adjustable earcups with detents to allow the tilt angle to be adjusted to the ears.
Accordingly, the over-ear with its optimally shaped ear cups could be adjusted to the ears by tilting it forward or backward. We also got the opportunity from Thomas Halbgewachs, the head of the Headphone Shop, to listen to the Composer on the high-resolution audio player Astell&Kern KANN Ultra, which was just introduced today, during the first listening test. To say it in advance: The result is a dream team worth a proud total of 4,000 euros, which makes the sonic splendor of an even more expensive high-end stereo system transportable.
Before we get into the sound nuances, a few facts and impressions about the fifth and latest offshoot of the popular Kann series. It offers the highest output power of all Astell&Kern players. The manufacturer talks about Triple Output Sound and four gain modes that deliver up to 16 Vrms of output power. At the heart of the A&K KANN Ultra are its ESS ES9039MPRO Dual DAC chips with a maximum resolution of 32 bit/768 kHz, respectively support for native DSD512. A separate Pre/Line Out allows the user to use the Hi-Res player, which is equipped with next-generation Octa-Core processors along with TERATON ALPHA technology from Astell&Kern, as a preamplifier as well or to connect it to an integrated amplifier. The integrated battery provides up to 11 hours of playback time with its capacity of 8,400 mAh.
The first listening test: Austrian Audio The Composer with Astell&Kern KANN Ultra
We couldn’t savor the rare pleasure for that long, but at least the exclusive listening session was enough for very differentiated sound impressions. As for the Astell&Kern KANN Ultra, its high output power was evident, allowing it to perform confidently like a high-quality headphone amplifier. He tightly controlled the Austrian Audio The Composer all the way down to the amazingly low bass. With its open design and its fast, inertia-free reaction to impulses, it spread that flair characterized by filigree resolution and maximum transparency that is generally only known from magnetostatic headphones or exotic electrostats.
Even if the composer could not overcome the typical headphone problem of in-the-head location of soloists centered in the sound panorama, it did convey a rarely heard sense of expansiveness and natural spaciousness on both sides of the imaginary listening stage. In terms of room feel, it was a perfect match for the cross-feed control, which allows the crosstalk between the left and right channels on the Astell&Kern KANN Ultra to be continuously controlled in two frequency ranges. The callable preset from Jan Meier of Meier Audio perfectly complemented Austrian Audio’s top-over-ear. Can’t remember when or if I’ve heard such spaciousness with headphones.
Far more than you would expect
Needless to say, you can expect a balanced, audiophile tuning from a high-end headphone in the 2,500-euro class, and in this case, you get it convincingly. The really surprising, outstanding points are the outstanding room imaging, the overtone resolution bought without any harshness or coolness and this extremely clean, deep bass. As luck would have it, the integrated 128 gigabyte memory of the KANN Ultra contained not only songs by Diana Krall, which beautifully underscored the fidelity of sound and the silky smoothness of voices, but also the Eagles classic “Hotel California” in the live version from the album “Hell Freezes Over”, which has been popular with high-end users for decades. With this, I have also been able to work out many useful impressions in time-lapse in listening tests for a long time. The strumming of the acoustic guitar – fantastic. The applause – differentiated and widely distributed. And last but not least the mighty bass drum – rarely experienced so awe-inspiring through headphones.
Conclusion: Austrian Audio The Composer and Astell&Kern CAN Ultra
If you are looking for a pair of headphones in the absolute high-end league and have the necessary small change, you should definitely listen to the Austrian Audio The Composer before reflexively buying one of the usual suspects. And if you want a matching headphone amplifier, you should consider buying the Astell&Kern KANN Ultra for 1,500 Euros and check off the streaming player with Roon support and integrated music services like Tidal or Spotify in one go.
Technical specifications: Austrian Audio The Composer
- Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: 2,500 euros
- Construction: Over Ear, open
- Transducer principle: Dynamic
- Weight: 385 gram
- Special features: Adjustable angle of attack, neodymium magnet, DLC-coated diaphragm, three different connection cables, wooden box, banana plug for free cable selection.
- More at: headphone.store
Technical specifications: Astell&Kern KANN Ultra
- Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: 1,500 euros
- Dimensions (W x H x D): 8.24 x 1.41.1 x 2.44 cm
- Weight: 390 gram
- More at: headphone.store
