Editor’s Choice Award Winner – écoute Headphones, A HiFi System For Your Ears (Review)

I always love to look for disruptors in the audio space; whether it’s speakers, headphones, or other components, there is always something exciting about brands that approach things differently and put it all on the line. 

The product team at écoute has done just that, creating a pair of headphones with a component-based design, with the goal of creating the cleanest signal path possible, bringing the concept of a HiFi component system to a headphone. Huh? Read on, and this will make more sense, but essentially, this is a high-end stereo system designed as a headphone. 

For decades, audiophiles and sound nerds have subscribed to the theory that the best sound requires the best components—separates that work together harmoniously to create the best possible signal path from source to speakers to your ears. Think of things like amplifiers, tube preamps, high-fidelity DACs, and carefully matched cables, all working harmoniously to create perfect sound reproduction. Yes, this world can go a little overboard, but any engineer will tell you that this philosophy is rooted in truth. So where does that leave headphones? 

Typically, a high-performing pair of headphones connected to a component system will be a great experience, especially if you use a pair of higher-end cans like a pair of Audezes.

The challenge comes in being mobile and using a device like a smartphone, which most people do. This experience for serious sound enthusiasts can be lackluster, and there have been many attempts to make mobile fidelity more palatable for audiophiles, from portable DACs and headphone amps to high-end HiFi media players to better streaming quality through apps like Quoboz. Nothing is all that great if you want to be mobile; you end up just lugging around more gear, defeating the purpose of being mobile. Enter écoute stage left. 

If I’ve lost you already, the best way to explain the écoute philosophy is they thought of headphones like a stereo system, taking those components and putting them into headphones. 

écoute headphones have a fresh approach to mobile high-quality audio, one that, while not perfect, is excellent for a maiden voyage. At first glance, these cans have a charming 1960s retro look, and you will get people doing double takes if you are rocking these out in the wild.

The build is top-notch, with quality materials and not a hint of plastic in sight. These aren’t just headphones in the traditional sense. They are, in essence, a fully realized, component-based, high-fidelity system, shrunken down and placed directly over your ears. 

Let me explain why écoute has me rethinking everything I thought I knew about personal HiFi.

To start, I tested these headphones extensively, giving them time to burn in and using different sources to see if they differed in any dramatic way. The headphones were tested with all genres of music, with a focus on electronic, jazz, live rock/indie. 

Source One – écoute’s analog coiled cable with an Astell&Kern AkJR media player and on my laptop using high-end streaming service Qobuz. 

Source Two – écoute’s USB-C digital cable (also the cable that charges it) directly connected to my laptop using Spotify and Qobuz

Source Three – wirelessly connected to my iPhone and Macbook Pro using Qobuz and Spotify. 

My favorite source of the three was the first because of the slightly warmer sound, and the AkJr is a purpose-built HiFi media player, so it was the perfect companion for the écoutes. 

Note – These headphones do feature active noise canceling (ANC), but since that function can mess with the sound output, it was never used. The ANC is solid but not at the level of other mid- to high-end headphones. However, that is NOT what you are buying these for, and for most users, it will be just fine. 

The Sound

The first time I put on the écoutes, everything sounded like vinyl: warmer, wider, and more realistic. The other thing you hear is the flaws of the recording, little things that might not be evident on a pair of lesser headphones that have been overly tuned. So that might annoy some people, as recordings you used to like might sound lesser than before. These are the risks I’m willing to take, but they aren’t for everyone. 

With Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, I felt as if I was inside the venue listening to the performance. The space between notes, the artifacts, the air in the recording, the three-dimensional placement of instruments—it all felt as if I could smell and hear the smoke in the room. These headphones don’t sound like headphones. They sound like a reference-grade two-channel system, where music isn’t just presented—it’s performed in front of you.

The Vacuum Tube Preamp

Most high-end headphones rely on solid-state amplification, which, while clean and efficient, often lacks the warmth and musicality that vinyl lovers and tube enthusiasts crave. This is all VERY subjective, but for most people I’ve put in front of my HiFi system at home, there is a discernable difference between digital and analog sources like vinyl. 

écoute’s integrated vacuum tube preamp brings richness and depth to the sound that solid-state designs don’t really replicate for me, but again, this is subjective. Why does this matter? Because tubes do something almost magical to music, especially in the midrange—the frequency range where our ears are most sensitive.

With écoute, vocals gain a human presence that feels eerily real. Guitars have wood and resonance instead of just sharp transients. Pianos breathe rather than just play notes. It’s an effect that’s immediately noticeable—like stepping into an intimate recording studio session, where you can hear every tiny nuance of the performance, or listening to vinyl on a great system. 

The Dual Mono Integrated Amplifier 

One of the biggest limitations of headphones is crosstalk—when the left and right channels bleed into each other, collapsing the soundstage into a more confined, in-the-head experience. Many headphones try to compensate with angled drivers or artificial DSP (Digital Signal Processing) effects, but écoute solves the problem at the source. By using a dual mono integrated amplifier, écoute achieves channel isolation, meaning the left and right signals are entirely independent. The result? A soundstage that sounds like a full-sized HiFi systems.

I tested écoute with various recordings, from spacious live jazz to intimate acoustic folk to complex, layered electronic music. Every time, the effect was astonishing. Instead of sound being “placed inside my head,” as with most headphones, it existed in front of me, around me, beyond me. Nerds call this soundstage, and the écoute’s provide a big one that I’ve not experienced in many headphones. 

I could hear the vocalist dead center, the guitarist to the left, the drummer slightly behind, the bass resonating from a distinct pocket in space. It wasn’t just stereo imaging—it was a true spatial realism that didn’t feel fake; it just sounded wide.

Midrange Purity

Suppose you’ve spent years refining a HiFi setup. In that case, you know that the midrange is what is usually missing in most listening experiences, lost to over-tuned bass or shouty treble to mask mediocre headphones. It’s where vocals live. It’s where the richness of acoustic instruments is found. It’s where the soul of music resides.

écoute absolutely nails this.

Most modern headphones are engineered with an emphasis on booming bass and sparkling highs, but they often neglect the midrange, either scooping it out for a “V-shaped” tuning or making it too forward and unnatural. If you are not trained to hear the difference, most people find overly tuned headphones OK, even great. It’s like eating a steak at Sizzler and then having one at a truly excellent steak house; you can’t go back. écoute, on the other hand, delivers a pristine, lifelike midrange that feels like stepping into the studio with the artist. If you love the organic, true-to-life warmth of vinyl, this is the closest I’ve heard to that experience in a headphone.

Design and Build 

écoute isn’t just designed to look good—it’s engineered like a HiFi system. Every part of these headphones has been meticulously crafted with a pure signal path in mind. Unlike most high-end headphones, which rely on software-based tuning and DSP tricks, écoute keeps things pure and analog, mirroring the architecture of a rack-mounted reference system.

From the component choices to the construction materials, everything about écoute exudes audiophile-grade precision. These aren’t just headphones; they are a statement piece—an extension of the tradition of high-fidelity craftsmanship that HiFi purists have gravitated to for decades. 

Who Are These Headphones For?

écoute isn’t for everyone, and sadly, most people don’t care about the quality of sound, that is, until they hear it. Most people never will compare and contrast, but for those who do or those who crave incredible sound, this headphone was made for you. It is meant to savor music and hear the details and the rich sounds between every note. If you live for music, seek truth in sound, and crave a listening experience that removes the barrier between you and the artist, then écoute will change how you think about personal HiFi. 

For the first time with a mobile wireless (and wired) headphone, I feel like I’m not just listening to a reproduction of music—I’m experiencing it as if it were being played live. If you’ve ever wished for a headphone that sounds like a true, high-end two-channel system, écoute is that dream realized. This isn’t just a great headphone—it’s a revolution in personal high-fidelity audio. 

Q&A With écoute founder Kendal Liddle 

What specifically motivated you to create a new headphone design and launch écoute? Was there a particular gap or frustration in the audiophile headphone market that you were addressing?

écoute started from a deep love of listening to music. I don’t come from an audio engineering background—this wasn’t born out of industry experience but out of a personal obsession with the listening experience. As I got deeper into vacuum tube audio, I wondered: why hasn’t anyone built a headphone with a real tube preamp? Why is that kind of sound still stuck in the living room?

That question became the foundation for écoute. Our first prototypes used traditional subminiature tubes. They worked, but they came with obvious limitations of vacuum tubes: heat, power consumption, and durability made them impractical for a consumer product. We had proven it was technically possible, just not practical. That changed with the arrival of the Korg Nutube 6P1—a next-gen vacuum triode based on vacuum fluorescence that delivered the sonic character we loved but with compact size, low power draw, and effectively no heat. That’s what made écoute viable.

What we are solving is a gap we felt ourselves: we love our hi-fi systems, but most of our listening happens away from them—at work, commuting, traveling. Carrying a DAC, tube preamp, and analog amp around isn’t realistic. So we built the mobile headphone we wished existed: one with the architecture and sonic performance of our home systems but with the portability and features of our mobile headphones. And we’re not alone. Even audiophiles do most of their listening away from their gear. That’s who écoute is for—people who want that same level of sound quality wherever they actually listen.

What really sets écoute headphones apart from other high-end models out there?

écoute stands apart because it’s not just a headphone—it’s a complete hi-fi system in a headset. Most high-end headphones still rely on external gear to reach their full potential: separate DACs, amps, sometimes even dedicated tube preamps. We built all of that into the headset. Inside écoute, you’ll find a dual-mono analog signal path, a built-in DAC, and a genuine vacuum tube preamp stage for each channel—something no other headphone offers.

But just as important is the onboard DSP. It’s not there to “fix” the sound—it’s there to give the listener control. The DSP allows for precise, firmware-level tuning via our app, letting you tailor the frequency response to your taste without degrading resolution or adding coloration. That combination of analog warmth and digital precision is rare—and it means écoute doesn’t just sound great out of the box, it adapts to how you want to listen.

So what sets it apart? It’s the only headphone that gives you the signal integrity and tonal quality of a full hi-fi rack—tube preamp, DAC, dual-mono amplification, and DSP-based customization—all in one, without the furniture.

Let’s talk about that built-in tube preamp—it’s a rare feature in headphones. What does it actually do for the sound?

Yeah, it’s probably the most talked-about part of the design. Tubes are often misunderstood as just adding “warmth,” but what they really do—especially in the preamp stage—is shape how we perceive sound. The Nutube we use helps with tonal balance and adds a harmonic structure that enhances vocals and instruments in a very natural way. It doesn’t smear detail—it actually helps bring out subtle textures and depth, especially in the midrange, which is where our ears are most sensitive. Compared to a solid-state preamp, it’s less clinical, more musical. You’ll notice things like voices sounding more lifelike, string instruments having a more tactile feel, and a greater sense of space around the music. It sounds less like your music is being reproduced by audio equipment, and more like it’s being performed live, right there in the room with you—it’s something you really have to hear to appreciate.

You also went with dual mono amplification—something we usually see in high-end gear. Why put that inside the headphones?

Because it matters.

With dual mono amps, each channel has its own isolated signal path and its own analog amplifier. That gives you true channel separation and basically zero crosstalk, which makes a big difference when it comes to imaging and clarity. You’ll hear instruments placed more precisely in the soundstage, subtle reverbs become more apparent, and the overall depth improves.

It’s a level of stereo performance that you just don’t get with traditional shared amplification. It gives écoute headphones more of a live or in room sound than what you typically experience from headphones. Is it overkill? Maybe, but in the best possible way.

Can you walk us through the signal path in écoute headphones—from source to sound?

Absolutely. Regardless of whether you’re using a digital connection—either USB-C or Bluetooth—or an analog connection via 3.5mm, the first step is the onboard digital signal processor (DSP). This is where the listener-created custom tuning happens. The DSP operates at the firmware level, allowing listeners to shape the frequency response to their preference without compromising resolution or transparency.

From there, the signal is passed to the internal DAC, which converts digital signals to analog—independently processing the left and right channels for superior separation. Each analog signal then flows into its own dedicated triode preamp via the Nutube, where tone and harmonic depth are shaped. After that, it passes through independent analog amplifiers—one per channel—that drive the transducers directly.

If you’re using the 3.5mm analog input with the headphones powered off, the internal DSP, DAC, preamp, and amplifiers are bypassed entirely—delivering passive playback straight from your external system.

No matter how you connect—lossless digital, high-resolution wireless, or pure analog—the architecture is designed to respect the signal and maximize its potential. Each path is carefully engineered to preserve integrity from end to end, ensuring that the character, detail, and dynamic range of the source are fully realized. So whether you’re plugged in or listening wirelessly, the goal remains the same: deliver the most faithful and musically engaging reproduction possible.

Tubes are usually bulky and power-hungry. How did you manage to integrate them without making the headphones uncomfortable or impractical?

It’s a fair question—and the short answer is: we didn’t use a traditional tube. Traditional vacuum tubes are large, fragile, power-hungry, and radiate heat like a second sun which is why they’ve never been practical in headphones. We use the Nutube 6P1, a modern vacuum triode developed by Korg and Noritake that’s compact, efficient, and generates almost no heat—ideal for our application. While tubes are inherently microphonic, and the Nutube is no exception, our internal architecture isolates it from vibration, keeping noise to a minimum. These aren’t gym headphones, but for everyday listening, microphonics aren’t an issue. What you do get is the unmistakable tonal richness and depth that only a real tube stage can deliver—quietly, reliably, and without compromise.

Are there certain genres or situations where écoute really shines?

They’re pretty versatile, honestly. But where they really shine is with music that benefits from nuance and spatial information—acoustic recordings, vocals, jazz, orchestral, classic rock. Anything where you want to hear the room, the breath in a vocal, the decay of a reverb. That said, they’re not genre-locked. Thanks to the custom tuning app, you can adapt the sound to suit whatever you’re into—whether that’s flat and analytical for mixing or something warmer and more immersive for casual listening. What matters is that the fidelity and resolution are always there, regardless of the style.

Like any tube-based system, there’s a slight roll-off at the extremes—sub-bass and upper treble—but that’s not where most music lives. The real emotional content is in the midrange, and that’s where écoute excels. Vocals, instruments, and spatial detail come through with a natural, lifelike presence that makes the music feel alive. For most genres and most listeners, that’s exactly what matters.