It’s not news that MrSpeakers is waving a goodbye to the hacked Fostex models that made them famous. THE Show was the final bow for the Dog Kennel, with Mad Dogs making their last appearance on the show circuit. The new hotness from Dan Clark is the ETHER ($1499) that Josh Emmons gushed about in his AXPONA writeup. Back to back listening here made one thing clear: the Dogs are obsolete.
I won’t say much about the sound of the ETHER here. I haven’t, after all, auditioned them in any kind of controlled environment. That said, you probably shouldn’t expect me to review a pair. My plan, at this point, is simply to save my pennies until I can afford to buy them for myself.
Even limited to show listening, the ETHER so quickly established itself as necessary that I felt the need to borrow a pair from Dan whenever I visited a table that wasn’t already kitted out. It’s the very definition of reference hardware. I’m not sure that there’s another set of commercially available cans that offers this level of accessible transparency short of a spendy electrostat rig. Even ‘stats can’t offer this kind of wide amplifier compatibility and versatility.
ETHER is a game changer. It’s love at first sight.
And it should be shipping by the time you read this.
