Quad ERA-1

摘要

For Quad devotees, the ERA-1 headphone has been a long time coming. One suspects that the company - like B&W, KEF and so many other traditional British brands - saw the writing on the wall. And what did this say? 'Headphones are now the only growth area in audio.' Disagree or concur, that's the reality check in the post-iPod era, and Quad has wisely chosen to deliver a model costing £599. Arriving with a planar driver to preclude having a cone in each earpiece, the ERA-1 pays homage to the speaker that put the brand on the map, despite not being an actual electrostatic a la Stax. This, however, is reasonable because it makes the ERA-1 able to work off just about any headphone socket, while obviating the need for an energiser and keeping the costs down - a crucial element of the ERA-1's positioning.