Era

Headphones from the 1990s

The 1990s brought easy-to-drive headphones for portable players and the CD era. Grado launched the SR60 in 1994 and built its Prestige series around it, Sennheiser's HD 565 Ovation sat just below the HD 580, and Koss returned to electrostatics in 1990 with the ESP/950 and its E/90 energizer. Many of these are still made in updated forms, from the Grado SR series to the ESP/950 itself, so check which generation a listing shows. On the Grados, the wired-in cable is the usual weak spot.

8 models we cover.