Austrian Audio The Arranger Review

Design

• Open-backed
• Beige? Is that beige?
• Weighs 320g (without cable)

The Arranger is an open-backed, over-ear headphone, the style of which has apparently (and justifiably) prioritised function over fashion.

There’s nothing especially glamorous about the notably broad headband, the slatted earcup covers that render this an almost semi-open design, or the (sort of) beige-and-gold finish that is reminiscent of nothing more than a mid-70s British saloon car – but when it comes to comfort and longevity, these Austrian Audio headphones have it where it counts.

The contact points of the headband and the earcups are of firm memory foam with a soft, faux-suede covering that is actually quite a lot less prone to retaining and returning body heat than seems likely.

Both earpads and headband can be replaced, which is far from normal in this part of the headphone market – the fact the headphones fold both flat and inwards, making them easily transportable, is rarer still.

There’s sufficient adjustment in the headphone to accommodate heads from ‘fairly standard’ up to ‘notably large’, and the clamping force is nicely judged. At 320g (without cable) these are one of the lighter £1K-ish headphone designs around.

The standard of construction and finish is exactly what we’ve all come to expect from Austrian Audio – which is another way of saying there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. The parts that are supposed to move do so with reassuring solidity, the parts that aren’t just don’t.

Specification

• 44mm DLC-coated drivers
• Detachable 3m cable with 3.5mm termination
• 25ohms impedance

The audio business is done by a couple of 44mm dynamic drivers with a diamond-like carbon coating on the diaphragm and proprietary ring magnet – the idea is to deliver good impulse response, ultra-low distortion and clean bass extension. Austrian Audio is claiming a frequency response of 5Hz – 30kHz, which seems to cover bass extension quite nicely.

Impedance of 25ohms and 110dB sensitivity means these headphones are in no way tricky to drive. There is no need for a dedicated headphone amp, and even the 3.5mm output on a bog-standard laptop should be sufficient to get The Arranger up and running. 

The headphones are supplied with a 3m length of relatively chunky cable – it joins only to the left earcup via a twist-to-lock connection. At the other end there’s an unbalanced 3.5mm jack, and there’s a 6.3mm adapter included in the package.

Cost-option upgrades include a 2m 4.4mm balanced cable or a 3m cable with an XLR termination, and there’s also the opportunity to spend money on a hard case – The Arranger are supplied with a soft carry-bag.

Performance

• Expansive, involving and revealing performance
• Great low-frequency presence and poise
• Somehow sound open yet intimate

Austrian Audio is adamant The Arranger can turn their hand to anything? Studio monitoring? Listening for pleasure? No problem. Ropey source of music (a laptop, say) and/or small, compressed audio files? Not an issue. Remarkably, to a lesser or greater extent it’s true – The Arranger can find the good in even the least promising circumstances.

Of course, it doesn’t do to spend decent money on a pair of well-specified headphones in order to make them slum it – and sure enough, the best way to hear The Arranger is to give them the best stuff to work with.

Which, for the purposes of my test, means plugging them into the 3.5mm socket of a FiiO M15S digital audio player (which allows them to get at some extremely high-resolution content) and the 6.3mm socket of an Eversolo DAC-Z10 (so they can access a Technics SL-1300G turntable, an Arcam ST25 network streamer, and a Rega Apollo CD player).

Heard this way, the Austrian Audio have a whole lot to recommend them. A DSD64 file of Talk Talk’s Spirit of Edensounds gloriously open and spacious, with every one of the numerous elements of the recording given a heap of space in which to operate – but at the same time, the headphones do an excellent job of unifying each of the elements into a whole.

The presentation is of a singular occurrence, and the sensation of response and interaction between participants is strong.

The tonal balance is as neutral and uncoloured as it needs to be if The Arranger are going to be of any use for monitoring – when it comes to ‘nothing added, nothing taken away’ they’re very faithful indeed to both the material and the source player they’re connected to. 

They’re fairly forceful at the extremes of the frequency range, but never anything close to being unruly – instead there’s shine and bite to treble sounds, and considerable punch and substance to the bass.

Detail levels are high at every point, both where the broad strokes are concerned and the more fleeting, transient stuff too. In the midrange they communicate eloquently, investing voices with ample information regarding tone and timbre – and also character and attitude too.

Frequency response is, from top to bottom, smooth and even – in ultimate terms the Austrian Audio nudge the lower end forward just slightly, but they control the attack and decay of bass sounds with such care that it never becomes problematic. It also means the headphones can express rhythms with real confidence and positivity.

The Arranger are no less assured when it comes to dynamic variations, too. The Talk Talk recording indulges in quite a lot of sudden and fearsome up- and downshifts in intensity, attack and volume – and the headphones are well capable of keeping up.

Without exhibiting any signs of stress or effort, they track these fluctuations faithfully and are able to put a huge distance between the quietest and the loudest moments in any given passage. Equal attention is paid to the dynamics of harmonic variation, too, with the Austrian Audio able to identify and contextualise the over- and undertones around the fundamental note that are not always picked up on by less capable designs.

But while this is all very admirable, it doesn’t cover what’s perhaps the most unexpectedly enjoyable thing about The Arranger – and that’s how energetic and entertaining a listen they are.

Sometimes – often, in fact – headphones with the powers of analysis that are on show here can be slightly academic in their presentation, undemonstrative and even, at worst, rather dull. That is emphatically not the case here, though – the Austrian Audio are a vigorous and engaging listen, with the sort of attitude that will keep you listening long after you should really have stopped.

Should you buy it?