When I was a kid, my Dad used to take me to our local HiFi shop. Shelves lined with stacks of amplifiers, turntables, and speakers towered over my small form. Jazz music gently playing over gear that cost more than the car we'd arrived in.
But it was the glowing tube amps and vinyl pre-amps that drew my attention. The glowing vacuum tubes enraptured me, casting a spell over me that's been impossible to shake ever since.
I've learned what those tubes actually do since then, of course, but the fascination and love of the older technology persists in my subconscious like a strange parasite. So you can imagine when I saw the Ecoute headphones and their built-in vacuum tube my attention was once again hooked in — and I was a kid in a HiFi shop all over again.
Vacuum tube headphones?
First of all, a little about vacuum tubes themselves. They are an older (but still very much in use) method of amplification that's been used in everything from HiFi gear to Death Metal Guitar amps to your Grandad's radio and everything in between.
They're known for a warmer, thicker sound, and plenty of HiFi enthusiasts prefer them to more modern digital amplification methods.
There are a couple of reasons I suspect it's taken this long to see a vacuum tube in a pair of headphones. Tubes are hungry beasts, with higher power draws than other methods of amplification. They also generate heat more than other amps — they even need a slight warm-up period before they sound their best.
So the fact that the Ecoute headphones even exist sounds like my favorite kind of audio Black Magic. They feature a small tube called a 'Triode Vacuum Tube', which is small and thus able to fit in the headphone form factor. This acts as a pre-amp for the audio circuitry, coloring the sound of your music before it reaches the final amplification circuit.
That, in turn, will bring that lovely, tubey warmth to whatever music you play over the Ecoute headphones, for a more natural sound than digital alternatives. Whether it works or not I'll find out soon, but the rest of the headphones sound like a suitably luxury device.
They cost $799, but pack in Hybrid noise cancelation and support for Siri and Google Assistant. There's Bluetooth 5.3 on board, along with support for LDAC. Battery life does seem to have taken a hit thanks to the vacuum tube, with an AirPods Max like 20 hours of staying power. You can listen wired over a USB-C cable for high-res 32bit/384kHz audio.
If you want the protective case and all the cables, like a 3.5mm headphone wire, you need to buy the more expensive "Audiophile Bundle" from the Ecoute site for $849.
I can't wait to see how they compare to the likes of the Sony WH-1000XM5 — and hear my Bluetooth streaming receive a helping of vacuum tube flavoring. Whatever happens, they're going to bring a whole new dimension of sound to the best wireless headphones.
