A slam-dunk at High End Vienna: Audeze unveils professional mixing headphones with huge 90mm drivers (and yes, proprietary SLAM technology too)

Audeze unveiled the MM-520 headphones at High End Munich
These are professional studio cans with 90mm drivers
They cost a relatively reasonable $1,699 (around £1,250, AU$2,500)

We’re in the middle of the massive High End Vienna audio convention, so every day brings a glut of high-end speakers or pro headphones at the price of a small car. So Audeze’s new cans seem almost affordable in comparison (spoiler alert: they’re still really quite expensive).

The brand has unveiled the Audeze MM-520, professional studios as part of its series signed Manny Marroquin (he’s a successful mixing engineer, as you knew) which succeeds the MM-500. These are open wired bobbins designed for professionals.

I did Let’s say these seem affordable, but that’s just for comparison; These new headphones cost $1,699 (around £1,250, AU$2,500), so they won’t find a place on our list of the best cheap headphones anytime soon – but they might just join the ranks of our best wired headphones, if we can get our hands on a set for an in-depth review. At first glance, they are currently on sale, on the brand’s website or at hi-fi resellers.

SLAM them down

One of the MM-520s’ biggest selling points is their use of Audeze’s proprietary SLAM technology. Nothing to do with basketball dunks or tequila-soda shots; it stands for Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modular. Yes, it’s a series of four adjectives, without a subject. Pedants, I’m sorry, and I will continue to call it SLAM.

SLAM is a low-end focused technology: it improves bass sound and creates a more spaced out soundstage across this frequency range. This is to “optimize air pressure” through the open design, to improve bass without affecting the neutral sound too much.

Other improvements to the MM-520 relate to design: the memory foam ear cushions have seen a change, and Audeze claims they are more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.

Like their predecessors, they use 90mm planar magnetic drivers, with an ultra-thin diaphragm and phase management to prevent distortion. They offer a frequency response of 5 Hz to 50 kHz, with an impedance of 18 ohms and a sensitivity of 102 dB.

Audeze lists the MM series in its Professional category, so it’s clearly designed for engineers or designers (if the price doesn’t reveal that).