REVIEW – Quad ERA-1 Headphones

Quad has never made a headphone before and so we were delighted to hear about, and get the chance to try, their ERA 1 planar cans costing £599. Janine Elliot takes a listen.

“I grew up during probably the most exciting time in audio, eager to own a Quad 33/303 and then a 405 and saving up so I could one day get an ESL57 or better still an ESL63. Actually, I didn’t get any of these until an adult. I made do with Sansui amp and Audiomaster loudspeakers, though I did get a pair of PWB electrostatic headphones as I could hear the importance of good personal stereo. That was when Mr Belt made some good British products. I pretended that my headphones were Stax Lambda Earspeakers or miniature ESL57s. With the rise in sales of headphones over the last 5 years up by 50% this is now a very big market, so it was great to hear that Quad finally bit the bullet and introduced a headphone to plug into their PA-One headphone amplifier…”