New UK product launches expected at Headroom Show 2016

The Headroom show takes place on the 29th and 30th January 2016 at the Metropolis Studios in Chiswick. Brands including Sennheiser, Shure, Audiolab, Audeze and Astell & Kern among others will all be in attendance and some have new kit to bring to the UK.

Sennheiser will be showing off its new reference-level headphone, the HD800S. The new headphones use “absorber technology” found in the IE800 in-ears and come with an XLR-4 balanced cable to “maximise sound quality from sources with balanced outputs”.

Headroom will also be the first place in the UK to see Audiolab’s new M-DAC+, which improves on its predecessor by adding 32-bit/384kHz resolution for the USB input. It also supports four DSD and seven PCM filters and benefits from updated circuitry.

Shure’s KSE 1500 sound-isolating electrostatic in-ear headphones will be making their way to London as well. They come with a hi-res USB amp/DAC which supports 24-bit/192kHz hi-res audio.

The show will also give visitors the first chance to see Audeze's new LCD-4 headphones and King headphone amplifier. The LCD-4 headphones use "Double Magnetic Fluxor arrays", a variation on Fluxor technology found in the EL-8s, designed to increase magnetic power, resulting in a more efficicent driver from a reduced weight.

The King headphone amp meanwhile has a hybrid design, a symmetrical circuit and claims low impedance, low distortion and wide frequency output.

Quad’s VA-One headphone amplifier will be another highlight at the show, alongside Arcam’s MusicBoost headphone amp/DAC for iPhone.

For more information about the show, head to the Headroom website.

MORE: Headroom 2015 show report

Max is a staff writer for What Hi-Fi?'s sister site, TechRadar, in Australia. But being the wonderful English guy he is, he helps out with content across a number of Future sites, including What Hi-Fi?. It wouldn't be his first exposure to the world of all things hi-fi and home cinema, as his first role in technology journalism was with What Hi-Fi? in the UK. Clearly he pined to return after making the move to Australia and the team have welcomed him back with arms wide open.