This time out, The Luxe Review podcast lends an ear to the latest developments in personal audio. Join our AI hosts as they recap TLR’s recent headphone coverage, including a review of Sony’s new WH-1000X flagship cans, and a literal paint swatch of new colourways from JBL and Technics…
Anne: The team has been covering a lot of ground lately – premium over-ear headphones from several directions at once, distinctive earbuds pushing into genuinely unusual territory, and some retro and experimental audio gear that deserves its own conversation.
Robert: Let’s start with the over-ear headphones, because there’s a lot happening there.
Style, Stamina, and Serious Sound: The Over-Ear Headphone Field
Anne: The question running through all of this is what premium over-ear headphones are actually optimising for right now – sound quality, stamina, aesthetics, or some combination of all three.
Robert: The JBL Live 780NC hands-on makes the fashion angle explicit from the first line: “The latest JBL wireless headphones are clearly made for those who want their personal audio to make as much of a style statement as their dress sense.”
Anne: And the spec sheet backs the ambition. The 780NC runs up to 80 hours without ANC, 50 with it engaged, uses 40mm compound-diaphragm drivers, and adds Personi-Fi 3.0 for personal sound tailoring. The launch in Amsterdam also unveiled the Live 680NC alongside it, an on-ear sibling at £129.99 to the 780NC’s £179.99.
Robert: Marshall is playing the stamina game too, with the Milton A.N.C. matching those exact same numbers (80 hours without ANC, 50 with) and doing it in a chassis that looks like it should be on a tour bus.
Anne: The Marshall product manager puts it plainly: “We’ve increased the ear cushion size to help keep the sound in and improve passive noise attenuation. We’ve introduced an entirely new driver system tuned to improve bass and treble extension, delivering dynamic Hi-Res audio with rich details.” It also debuts Bluetooth 6.0 and LDAC for Marshall, both firsts for the brand.
Robert: Then Sony arrives at the other end of the price spectrum and asks a different question entirely.
Anne: The Sony 1000X The Collexion review is a full extended test at £549. The verdict is that these are “artfully engineered, thoughtfully tuned and beautifully assembled.” The faux leather exterior reportedly took two years to develop, and the new unidirectional carbon composite driver is tuned with a clear emphasis on midrange fidelity. The reviewer calls them “simply, deeply musical.”
Robert: JBL’s flagship Tour One M3 also gets a mention, a firmware update refines the sound curve based on the Harman Curve, and a new classic green colourway with copper accents arrives at £249. Meanwhile, the Grado Signature S550 takes the opposite approach: open-back, Brazilian walnut housing, a 50mm driver, wired only, £995.
Anne: The Grado is hand-built in Brooklyn, with individually grained enclosures and a detachable Signature Silver cable. It’s aimed squarely at listeners who want warmth and long-session comfort without any wireless compromise. From catwalk colours to hand-turned walnut, the over-ear market is covering a lot of ground right now.
Robert: Speaking of covering ground, some of the most interesting earphone stories this week go places that headphones simply can’t follow.
Earbuds at Every Extreme
Anne: The range here runs from genuinely accessible to eye-wateringly expensive. Campfire Audio’s Chimera in-ear monitor sits at the far end: £6,999, hand-built in Portland, with a nine-driver architecture combining a dynamic driver, balanced armatures, electrostatic tweeters, and a bone-conduction driver making its Campfire debut.
Robert: Founder Ken Ball describes it plainly: “Chimera is the most advanced in-ear monitor we’ve developed at Campfire so far. It reflects a new horizon in the performance of Campfire products and expands on what is possible from compact, portable audio systems.”
Anne: The bone-conduction element is the key differentiator. It transfers vibration through the earpiece shell itself, so bass frequencies become physically perceptible rather than just audible. The shell is CNC-machined magnesium with carbon fibre and brass Damascus faceplates, meaning no two pairs look identical.
Robert: At the other end of the spectrum, the SIVGA M260 wired earbuds are £39.90 and deliberately retro, no Bluetooth, no battery, just plug-and-play with a 14.2mm dynamic driver and detachable MMCX cable. And the Technics EAH-AZ100 Moonlight Lilac edition is worth noting: ten percent of sales go directly to the Teenage Cancer Trust, with an additional ten percent from a dedicated charity program.
Anne: Sony’s LinkBuds Clip round it out; an open-ear design that rests against the ear rather than sealing it, built for listeners who want a personal soundtrack without losing awareness of the world around them. The range this week is genuinely striking.
Robert: And if earbuds at the extremes feel bold, the retro and experimental gear takes things somewhere stranger still.
Valves, Warmth, and the Analogue Instinct
Anne: The Écoute TH1 is the headline here, £900 Bluetooth headphones with a real Nutube 6P1 valve inside, visible through a window in the left earcup.
Robert: A glowing valve in a pair of wireless headphones. Audiophile gear has officially started dressing for dinner.
Anne: The valve acts as a stereo preamp stage in a fully discrete signal chain, separate DAC, valve preamp, and dual-mono Class A/B amplification, rather than the single-chip approach most wireless headphones use. Alongside it, the Astell and Kern PD20 digital audio player takes personalisation in a different direction: a built-in hearing test generates a unique sound profile tuned to each listener’s actual hearing, priced at £1,799.
Robert: From £39 wired earbuds to £7,000 bone-conducting monitors, personal audio right now seems determined to prove there’s no such thing as a settled category.
Anne: The through-line is that every price point is getting more considered. Materials, tuning, even the shape of who the listener is. More of that next time.
The right Father’s Day gift isn’t always about extravagance, it’s about the gesture. A well-chosen token that says: I know what you love. And yes, I noticed that your favourite aftershave ran out three months ago. But what will surprise and delight? In this guide, we’ve done the hard work for you, scouring the shelves,…
Campfire Audio has unveiled the Chimera, a new flagship in-ear monitor that combines four distinct driver technologies within a single design. Hand-built in Portland, Oregon, the luxury earphones bring together a dynamic driver, balanced armatures, electrostatic tweeters and, for the first time in a Campfire Audio product, a bone-conduction driver. The idea is to deliver…
The 1000X The Collexion is the most indulgent headphone yet from Sony. Crafted in celebration of its award-winning, and best-selling, WH-1000XM series, and marking a decade of the brand’s flagship wireless line, the 1000X has been created with the sole aim of delivering Sony’s most engaging headphone experience yet. But has it succeeded? Certainly, the…
The Luxe Review 
This time out, The Luxe Review podcast lends an ear to the latest developments in personal audio. Join our AI hosts as they recap TLR’s recent headphone coverage, including a review of Sony’s new WH-1000X flagship cans, and a literal paint swatch of new colourways from JBL and Technics…
Anne: The team has been covering a lot of ground lately – premium over-ear headphones from several directions at once, distinctive earbuds pushing into genuinely unusual territory, and some retro and experimental audio gear that deserves its own conversation.
Robert: Let’s start with the over-ear headphones, because there’s a lot happening there.
Style, Stamina, and Serious Sound: The Over-Ear Headphone Field
Anne: The question running through all of this is what premium over-ear headphones are actually optimising for right now – sound quality, stamina, aesthetics, or some combination of all three.
Robert: The JBL Live 780NC hands-on makes the fashion angle explicit from the first line: “The latest JBL wireless headphones are clearly made for those who want their personal audio to make as much of a style statement as their dress sense.”
Anne: And the spec sheet backs the ambition. The 780NC runs up to 80 hours without ANC, 50 with it engaged, uses 40mm compound-diaphragm drivers, and adds Personi-Fi 3.0 for personal sound tailoring. The launch in Amsterdam also unveiled the Live 680NC alongside it, an on-ear sibling at £129.99 to the 780NC’s £179.99.
Robert: Marshall is playing the stamina game too, with the Milton A.N.C. matching those exact same numbers (80 hours without ANC, 50 with) and doing it in a chassis that looks like it should be on a tour bus.
Anne: The Marshall product manager puts it plainly: “We’ve increased the ear cushion size to help keep the sound in and improve passive noise attenuation. We’ve introduced an entirely new driver system tuned to improve bass and treble extension, delivering dynamic Hi-Res audio with rich details.” It also debuts Bluetooth 6.0 and LDAC for Marshall, both firsts for the brand.
Robert: Then Sony arrives at the other end of the price spectrum and asks a different question entirely.
Anne: The Sony 1000X The Collexion review is a full extended test at £549. The verdict is that these are “artfully engineered, thoughtfully tuned and beautifully assembled.” The faux leather exterior reportedly took two years to develop, and the new unidirectional carbon composite driver is tuned with a clear emphasis on midrange fidelity. The reviewer calls them “simply, deeply musical.”
Robert: JBL’s flagship Tour One M3 also gets a mention, a firmware update refines the sound curve based on the Harman Curve, and a new classic green colourway with copper accents arrives at £249. Meanwhile, the Grado Signature S550 takes the opposite approach: open-back, Brazilian walnut housing, a 50mm driver, wired only, £995.
Anne: The Grado is hand-built in Brooklyn, with individually grained enclosures and a detachable Signature Silver cable. It’s aimed squarely at listeners who want warmth and long-session comfort without any wireless compromise. From catwalk colours to hand-turned walnut, the over-ear market is covering a lot of ground right now.
Robert: Speaking of covering ground, some of the most interesting earphone stories this week go places that headphones simply can’t follow.
Earbuds at Every Extreme
Anne: The range here runs from genuinely accessible to eye-wateringly expensive. Campfire Audio’s Chimera in-ear monitor sits at the far end: £6,999, hand-built in Portland, with a nine-driver architecture combining a dynamic driver, balanced armatures, electrostatic tweeters, and a bone-conduction driver making its Campfire debut.
Robert: Founder Ken Ball describes it plainly: “Chimera is the most advanced in-ear monitor we’ve developed at Campfire so far. It reflects a new horizon in the performance of Campfire products and expands on what is possible from compact, portable audio systems.”
Anne: The bone-conduction element is the key differentiator. It transfers vibration through the earpiece shell itself, so bass frequencies become physically perceptible rather than just audible. The shell is CNC-machined magnesium with carbon fibre and brass Damascus faceplates, meaning no two pairs look identical.
Robert: At the other end of the spectrum, the SIVGA M260 wired earbuds are £39.90 and deliberately retro, no Bluetooth, no battery, just plug-and-play with a 14.2mm dynamic driver and detachable MMCX cable. And the Technics EAH-AZ100 Moonlight Lilac edition is worth noting: ten percent of sales go directly to the Teenage Cancer Trust, with an additional ten percent from a dedicated charity program.
Anne: Sony’s LinkBuds Clip round it out; an open-ear design that rests against the ear rather than sealing it, built for listeners who want a personal soundtrack without losing awareness of the world around them. The range this week is genuinely striking.
Robert: And if earbuds at the extremes feel bold, the retro and experimental gear takes things somewhere stranger still.
Valves, Warmth, and the Analogue Instinct
Anne: The Écoute TH1 is the headline here, £900 Bluetooth headphones with a real Nutube 6P1 valve inside, visible through a window in the left earcup.
Robert: A glowing valve in a pair of wireless headphones. Audiophile gear has officially started dressing for dinner.
Anne: The valve acts as a stereo preamp stage in a fully discrete signal chain, separate DAC, valve preamp, and dual-mono Class A/B amplification, rather than the single-chip approach most wireless headphones use. Alongside it, the Astell and Kern PD20 digital audio player takes personalisation in a different direction: a built-in hearing test generates a unique sound profile tuned to each listener’s actual hearing, priced at £1,799.
Robert: From £39 wired earbuds to £7,000 bone-conducting monitors, personal audio right now seems determined to prove there’s no such thing as a settled category.
Anne: The through-line is that every price point is getting more considered. Materials, tuning, even the shape of who the listener is. More of that next time.
55 of the best luxury Father’s Day gifts: watches, booze, fashion, experiences and tech treats
The right Father’s Day gift isn’t always about extravagance, it’s about the gesture. A well-chosen token that says: I know what you love. And yes, I noticed that your favourite aftershave ran out three months ago. But what will surprise and delight? In this guide, we’ve done the hard work for you, scouring the shelves,…
Campfire Audio unveils ultra-premium bone-conducting Chimera in-ear monitors
Campfire Audio has unveiled the Chimera, a new flagship in-ear monitor that combines four distinct driver technologies within a single design. Hand-built in Portland, Oregon, the luxury earphones bring together a dynamic driver, balanced armatures, electrostatic tweeters and, for the first time in a Campfire Audio product, a bone-conduction driver. The idea is to deliver…
Sony 1000X The Collexion headphone review: Luxurious comfort, premium styling, yacht rock sound
The 1000X The Collexion is the most indulgent headphone yet from Sony. Crafted in celebration of its award-winning, and best-selling, WH-1000XM series, and marking a decade of the brand’s flagship wireless line, the 1000X has been created with the sole aim of delivering Sony’s most engaging headphone experience yet. But has it succeeded? Certainly, the…
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