View offers: whf.cm/BestWiredHeadphones2023
Røde NTH-100 £115
There’s a lot of choice in over-ear headphones at this sort of money, but wired headphones are harder to come by – and wired headphones that claim to be equally at home in the studio as in the living room are rarer still.
The NTH-100 use a combination of plastic and metal, with Alcantara fabric at the contact points. A lot of attention has been paid to the headband and hanger, and the clamping force is very nicely judged – so the NTH-100 don’t really feel their 350g weight and stay comfortable for long sessions. A little ‘twist/lock’ control on either side of the headband locks the position once you are happy with the fit.
‘Purity of purpose’ is probably the most charitable way to describe the NTH-100, with 40mm full-range dynamic drivers and a claimed frequency response of 5Hz-35kHz, which is more than adequate.
Headphones are either for the purposes of casual entertainment, or they are for critical, business-like purposes such as monitoring or mixing. It’s unusual to find a pair of headphones
