Review: MrSpeakers Ether 2 – Honey

MrSpeakers recently launched the successor to the popular Ether headphones – the Ether 2.

Disclaimer: MrSpeakers provided the Ether 2 at no cost, I only had to pay for importing them. MrSpeakers is not affiliated with Headfonia and not a site advertizer. Many thanks for the generosity and opportunity to review the Ether 2.

About MrSpeakers:

MrSpeakers is one of the few companies that started out doing modifications to existing products, namely the Fostex T50RP. Mike has reviewed this special headphone back in 2012.

With the gaining popularity of their Mad Dog headphones, MrSpeakers has financed their own Research and Development department and to manufacture their own planar magnetic drivers.

Dan Clark, founder of MrSpeakers, has been in the audio scene for a long time, working in various fields, from retail to development. Dan’s products have always been passion-driven, he wanted to build headphones that excel in audio quality, but won’t break a certain price. His mindset is, that there can be great sounding headphones at any price point.

MrSpeakers Ether 2

About Ether 2:

As mentioned above, the Ether 2 is the successor to a very popular headphone. MrSpeakers has been feverishly working on improving the Ether open back headphones.

Just like the previous Ether models, this one also comes with MrSpeakers’ patent pending V-Planar technology. Explained in simple terms you can look at the V-Planar as a driver with a folded diaphragm, just like you know from an accordion for example. This way the diaphragm doesn’t excessively bend when it’s pushed and therefore it does not lose its structure.

With the V-Planar technology MrSpeakers was able to deliver less distortion, better dynamics and a wider treble response.

New with the Ether 2 is an optimized motor system for the TrueFlow technology and a 60% lighter diaphragm compared to the Ether. These are said to give the Ether 2 even better dynamics, details and linearity.

Another upgrade has been made to the stock cable. Ether 2 comes with their new VIVO cable, which can be terminated to 2.5 mm (balanced), 3.5 mm, 4.4 mm (balanced), 6.35 mm or 4 Pin XLR in various lenghts.

MrSpeakers Ether 2

Unlike most planar-magnetic headphones, the Ether 2 comes in at a very low 290 Grams of weight. Other manufacturers should take notes here, because if there’s one thing I don’t like about planars it’s their weight. The size of their planar driver is 71 x 45 Millimeters, the Ether 2 measures a very low 16 Ohms impedance, yet there is no frequency given at which this value was measured.

MrSpeakers also does not make any other specifications publically available, as they don’t want to “play the spec game”. Which I do understand, as the most important about a headphone is its sound. If it doesn’t suit your taste, it simply isn’t for you and no measurement can convince you otherwise.

The Ether 2 can be purchased directly from MrSpeakers or from one of their many dealers around the globe. The current MSRP for it is 1999$.

The review continues on page two.