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Door staff@engadget.com (James Trew) - 16 Oct 2026
Headphone marketing materials are like gourmet menus: There are a lot of decorative adjectives to describe beef. Or, in the case of headphones, 40mm drivers. I can't put my hand on my heart and say that the magnetic fluid technology Technics mentions is making a difference, but I was immediately impressed when I first put the A1000 on and pressed play on Spotify.
My music tastes skew electronic, so bass really matters. On the A1000, the low frequencies are some of the tightest I've heard. That's the best word I can find for it. The bass is present, I can feel it, but it's not vibrating in my eardrums at all. It sounds like it's firmly attached to the song with glue, in a good way. Kick drums in dance music offer a gentle thwack, in turn providing a good sense of space and dynamic range in the mix.
Pop and rock genres do a good job at exposing the mid and high frequencies. BTS' Dynamite, for example, sounds much more robust and balanced in the A1000 than it does in my car on the school run when I'm trying to animate the kids. I even heard parts of the bassline I barely knew existed. If there's a minor criticism, it's at the higher end. Listening to AC/DC or the Arctic Monkeys, the guitars sound authentic, but my ears wanted a teeny-tiny bit more sizzle out of them.
I regularly use the Sennheiser HDB 630 and the Technics A1000 surprised me with a slightly bigger sense of space and soundstage. The tight balance and well-rounded bass make them one of the strongest pairs I've tried for a long time.
The stellar sound wasn't the first thing I noticed when I put them on, the adaptive ANC is also extremely good. I'm a little fussy with noise cancellation; it's a feature I appreciate but I prefer good audio chops over superior ANC if I have to choose. With the A1000, that's not really an issue. The noise cancellation is effective for both steady sounds like fans, yet it's adaptive enough that I can't hear people talking when my spouse has guests and I'm working. I prefer it to the ANC on the HDB 630 and I'd say it's good enough to be in the same room with Sony and Bose.
My music tastes skew electronic, so bass really matters. On the A1000, the low frequencies are some of the tightest I've heard. That's the best word I can find for it. The bass is present, I can feel it, but it's not vibrating in my eardrums at all. It sounds like it's firmly attached to the song with glue, in a good way. Kick drums in dance music offer a gentle thwack, in turn providing a good sense of space and dynamic range in the mix.
Pop and rock genres do a good job at exposing the mid and high frequencies. BTS' Dynamite, for example, sounds much more robust and balanced in the A1000 than it does in my car on the school run when I'm trying to animate the kids. I even heard parts of the bassline I barely knew existed. If there's a minor criticism, it's at the higher end. Listening to AC/DC or the Arctic Monkeys, the guitars sound authentic, but my ears wanted a teeny-tiny bit more sizzle out of them.
I regularly use the Sennheiser HDB 630 and the Technics A1000 surprised me with a slightly bigger sense of space and soundstage. The tight balance and well-rounded bass make them one of the strongest pairs I've tried for a long time.
The stellar sound wasn't the first thing I noticed when I put them on, the adaptive ANC is also extremely good. I'm a little fussy with noise cancellation; it's a feature I appreciate but I prefer good audio chops over superior ANC if I have to choose. With the A1000, that's not really an issue. The noise cancellation is effective for both steady sounds like fans, yet it's adaptive enough that I can't hear people talking when my spouse has guests and I'm working. I prefer it to the ANC on the HDB 630 and I'd say it's good enough to be in the same room with Sony and Bose.