Rosson Audio Design RAD-O planar magnetic headphones

Imagine for a moment you’re in the happy position of being able to specify a custom finish for the expensive open-backed headphones you’ve ordered from one of the most significant new figures in the whole of Headphoneland. Within reason, pretty much any finish that takes your fancy is possible. What would you go for?

Whoever specified the finish of my review sample of Rosson Audio Design’s superlative RAD-O open-back planar magnetic headphones apparently asked for ‘Grateful Dead’s kitchen worktop’. There’s no accounting for taste, I suppose.

Still, no matter how your RAD-O end up looking, you can be sure they have hardcore hi-fi credibility. Alex Rosson has been around the music and electronics industries for decades – he’s one of the founders of Audeze, he’s put a significant shift in at Technicolor, he’s a musician and a record-label owner. When Montblanc wanted to ensure its MB-01 noise-cancelling headphones weren’t simply perceived as a vanity project by a company of dilettantes, it called Alex Rosson. And it ended up with a truly impressive-sounding pair of headphones as a result.

So after putting in the hard yards as a background mover and shaker, it’s time for Alex Rosson and Rosson Audio Design to take centre stage. And as an opening salvo, the RAD-O are quite the statement of intent.

Psychedelic finish aside, the RAD-O are an extremely serious proposition. The entire arrangement orbits around a 66mm planar magnetic transducer that’s both designed and manufactured by Rosson Audio Design in California. It’s made from a low-mass composite material, and it’s fitted with an array of 11 rare earth N52 magnets – the intention is to keep size and weight at manageable levels while offering as balanced, detailed and controlled a sound as possible.