ESS-RLM-713 On Ear Headphones

Now discontinued but NOS and used they sell for $100 or so. My RLM-713 were re-wired to be balanced and have a 3.5mm cable connector on each ear cup. With my EL84 tube headphone amp, I enjoy them a lot. I think you would have to move up to the HE6SEV2 with an amp capable of driving those hard to drive headphones or the Final Audio Sonorous III headphone to get better sound. The tubes really enhance their sound. One major con for me is the on-ear design which makes them uncomfortable.

They do look like the Meze 88 Classics AND are also nearly identical to the Fischer Audio Con Fuoco, however the underlying specs are different from model to model, e.g. the ESS model has a 40Ω Impedance, yet the Meze are rated at 36Ω. This leads me to believe that an OEM is handling the builds, however they are only going with the drivers provided to them. So, though they may look alike on the outside, their audio characteristics may vary dramatically. Just a thought.

This is especially true if one ventures out from IEMs and cans to the speaker world as ESS has been producing first-rate speakers and speaker systems for decades now! ESS is fairly new to cans, but they are far from new to engineering great sound. So, I really wouldn’t expect those unfamiliar with receivers, amps, and speaker systems to know their name; but if you are familiar with ESS, their AMT should certainly be top of mind! What ESS is now trying to do is get their signature AMT sound into something a bit more portable. Closed-back was a design choice as to achieve the most passive noise cancelation possible, besides many studio producers and engineers have a preference for closed-back headphones to allow them to better focus on their work with minimal distractions. Personally, I feel that there is a need for both open- and closed-back headphone designs, and I own both types so that I could just pick what I’m in the mood for or what works best at the moment. Let’s also not forget that passive noise cancellation works in both directions and just like you would want to block out the noise while taking a train or waiting for a bus on a busy city street, you may also need to ‘tone down’ the sound leakage if others in the room are not up for listening to the same thing you are. This literally becomes exponentially more vital as you’re increasing the listening volume (with dBs being an exponential scale of course). I’ll end on this — I have to concur that these cans don’t suck — furthermore, there is a ‘funny’ caveat if you will as I also own the ESS 252 closed-back headphones and though smaller and less expensive, they are far better IMHO! So, if you’re going to get some ESS cans, which I’d certainly recommend doing, go for the cheaper ones first as these were okay, but the 252s frankly blew me away!