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Hi-Fi Corner: RHA’s gorgeous T20 premiere an all new driver system

By Ryan Waniata May 10, 2015 5:09 AM

British audio brand RHA makes some beautiful in-ear headphones, cast from steel for a silver sparkle that stands out from their plastic competitors. The company’s previously-introduced T10i bring more than just style to the table, too, boasting excellent performance, as well as removable filters that alter the sound. Now, RHA has taken that concept a few steps further, unveiling the innovative new T20.

Related: RHA’s steely T10i offer big bass, without sacrificing clarity or detail

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Set to premiere at next week’s High End show in Munich, the T20 boast the same removable filters and mold injection steel construction as their predecessor. But inside, there’s something new cooking. RHA has created a brand new driver that melds two individually-powered voice coils together — one focused on the upper registers, and one for the low end — to build a powerful, balanced sound signature.

Using what the company calls “micro annular magnets” to produce the T20’s new DualVoice Coil, the headphones are engineered to offer a refined performance that’s tailored to showcase high resolution audio, with a massively wide claimed frequency response of 16Hz-40kHz. It’s an all-new kind of dynamic driver, according to the company, and one that RHA hopes will bring some sonic gold to its silver buds.

The included filters are designed to let users emphasize bass, treble, or choose a more balanced sound, allowing the headphones to lean in to a variety of musical tastes. In addition, the new T20 offer high-grade cables composed of oxygen-free copper, as well as patent-pending moldable over-ear hooks. And as with the T10i, the headphones come in a tidy display case that hosts 10 pairs of silicone and memory foam eartips, and a carrying case to take the headphones on the go.

The T20 don’t come cheap, towing a suggested retail price of $260. However, tendering a host of innovative features and accessories, good pedigree, and a chic design, the T20 might just be the stylish choice discerning listeners have been waiting for.

Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a… Read Full Bio

Do you know the myth of Napoleon (the pig…not the man)

Napoleon

One of the many times I watched The Gentlemen, I laughed at the scene where Matthew (Jeremy Strong) joked that it was illegal in France to name a pig Napoleon. Of course, there are ridiculous laws all over the place. Want a few? In Georgia, it is illegal to eat fried chicken with a fork. In Arkansas, it is against the law to say the name incorrectly. Which means Bill Clinton would have come after me for years of me saying “ARE-Kansas.” It is prohibited to sleep on top of a refrigerator in Pennsylvania. That means my cat is a thug in Penn. And one of my favorites: It is illegal for unmarried women to parachute on Sundays.

The point is that there are crazy laws all over the place that seem completely ridiculous, and there is almost always a story behind them. So, is the Napoleon pig law a real thing? Is it illegal to raise a swine and name it after the legendary French Emperor? Well, let’s dig in. Why? Because I am a nerd and I need company in the weeds.

Who does James Bond work for? And is MI6 real?

James Bond Specter double breasted

We have some news on the movement of the next James Bond. According to reports, we are looking at the final four (we know of three). Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk), Callum Turner (Eternity, One Night Only), and Josh O’Connor (The Crown, Challengers) are all in the final running to portray the next 007. We also, allegedly, have a fourth, unannounced actor in the running. But of course we do. And since we have news and movement on the James Bond front, I started thinking about what the next movie will be about. That took me down a rabbit hole, and I landed on a question. What is MI6? James Bond’s employer is a shadowy government agency, like Jason Bourne’s Treadstone or Ethan Hunt’s Impossible Mission Force (IMF). But there is one major difference between them and the organization that signs 007’s paychecks.

His is real.

A toast to excellence: Don’t overthink lighting a cigar…but don’t underthink it either

Face, Head, Person

When I first decided I was ready to try cigars for the first time, I was ready to jump right in and sit back to enjoy the experience. Then, something crazy happened. I couldn’t light it. It seemed so simple. Flame, meet cigar. It really couldn’t be that complicated. But I ran into a slew of problems. The wrong kind of flame, canoeing, an uneven burn, and the damn thing kept going out, causing me to restart the embarrassing process. So I reached out to my friends over at La Aurora to find out what I was doing wrong.

That is when I found out from their own John Gaglio that these issues are very common and there is no reason to be embarrassed. Instead, don’t overthink lighting your cigar. And don’t underthink it. Instead, try to use the following tips and enjoy the experience without shame.