A lot of high quality headphones and earphones find there way onto my desk. Over the past few years I’ve tested the best from Shure, Ultimate Ears and Etymotic Research, to name but a few. I was therefore curious when Sony announced a new set of headphones sporting a truly radical design.
Although I was keen to hear what these new Personal Field Speaker headphones had to offer, I wasn’t expecting too much when it came to sound quality. And that’s the problem with preconceptions, they are all too often proved well and truly wrong, which is very much the case in this instance. Put simply, the sound produced by the Sony PFR-V1s is staggeringly good, so good in fact that I’ll be first in line to buy a set, with my intrepid news hound Hugo right behind me in the queue!
So, what makes these headphones so special? Let’s start with the design – the PFR-V1s are unlike any set of cans I’ve placed on my head before. These headphones were designed by an engineer looking for ultimate sound quality, regardless of how unusual, or even downright bizarre they look. There’s a wide band that supports the headphones on the top of your head, then each side can be adjusted into or out of this band to suit even the largest head. More delicate adjustments can be made by moving the actual speakers up and down, while two supports sit on your temple to help support the whole setup.
