Tech
Audeze CRBN2 Electrostatic Headphone at CanJam NYC 2026: Is This the Best Headphone in the World?
Back in 2021, Audeze invited members of the eCoustics team to a private demonstration of something very different. The company’s engineers had been quietly working on a new electrostatic technology called CRBN, a carbon nanotube based driver design that would ultimately become the foundation for a breakthrough medical imaging headphone system. It was ambitious, complicated, and unlike anything the brand had attempted before.
While COVID sent demand for headphones through the roof as millions of people suddenly found themselves working and listening at home, Audeze kept its focus on the bigger picture. The CRBN technology would eventually lead to two of the most ambitious headphones the company has ever produced, including the Audeze CRBN2 electrostatic headphone.
More than a year ago, I asked eCoustics Headphone Editor Will Jennings a simple question: what is the best headphone in the world? Jennings has listened to more headphones and IEMs than anyone in the industry that I’ve met over the past 28 years. The only people who might rival him are Jude Mansilla and Ethan Opolion from Head‑Fi and CanJam. What separates Will from most enthusiasts is that he truly understands the engineering behind these products. Not just the sound, but the science.
He also knows I have a weakness for electrostatic designs. I’ve owned five pairs of MartinLogan electrostatic loudspeakers going back to 1989.
So when I asked the question, he didn’t hesitate.
“Have you read my review?”
Of course I had. I spent the better part of a morning editing it.
“You already have your answer.”
Big City Lights and the CRBN2
New York City and I have a complicated relationship. The good. The bad. And more than a little ugly. Some of my best moments happened here. Some of the worst too. Most of those were self-inflicted. On myself and others. There isn’t enough biltong in the world for me to flog myself with to make the punishment fit the crime.
Living almost 60 miles away now along the Jersey Shore, I don’t come into Manhattan very often anymore. These days I’m more likely to drive down to Philadelphia, stay local by the ocean, or catch a flight to my place in Florida. New York used to be a regular stop. Now it’s more of an occasional reminder.
But the city has a way of changing your perspective when you look at it from the right angle. Forty five floors above the street, the noise fades and the chaos turns into something else. Lights everywhere. Windows glowing. Traffic moving like veins of electricity through the grid. From up there, the city looks almost calm. Order hiding inside the madness.
Listening to the Audeze CRBN2 at CanJam NYC felt a little like that. The glare disappears. The edges sharpen. Details that were buried down at street level suddenly come into focus. A different kind of illumination. Not brighter. Just clearer. And once you see it that way, it’s hard to go back to the street.
The Audeze booth is always packed. Think Penn Station on St. Patrick’s Day, which I’ve survived once and highly recommend avoiding if you value your sanity. So Chris Boylan and I had to circle back more than once to get time with the new Audeze Maxwell 2 gaming headset and the Audeze CRBN2.
I’ve seen the CRBN and CRBN2 paired with the Linear Tube Audio electrostatic headphone amplifier at other shows, but patience has never been one of my defining character traits. Waiting more than five minutes in a drive thru is already pushing it. I’m probably on a few watch lists at Starbucks, Dunkin, and my local deli.
But then something unexpected happened.
The Simpsons comic book store guy who had been glued to the listening spot like a barnacle on a boat suddenly got up and moved. No warning. No explanation. Maybe he spotted another forum user he wanted to antagonize. Or hug.
Same energy, really.
Lost in the Light
For those familiar with the original Audeze CRBN, the Audeze CRBN2 won’t look radically different at first glance. You still get the aluminum travel case and a pair of white gloves, which feels appropriate for a $5,995 electrostatic headphone. Inside the box are the headphones with the attached cable and a desiccant pack. The headband, suspension system, gimbals, and overall cup shape remain largely the same, although the CRBN2 does show off a bit more gold trim around the cups and hardware.
The first real sign that something has changed is the size of the earcups. They’re larger and deeper than the first model, which contributes to a slight increase in weight. The CRBN2 comes in at 480 grams compared to 470 grams for the original. Not a huge jump, but noticeable on paper. The attached cable is also thicker and retains the same 5 pin DIN connector used with electrostatic energizers.
The driver technology remains the core of what makes these headphones unique. Audeze’s carbon nanotube impregnated diaphragm places the current carrying elements directly inside the membrane itself. Unlike electrostatic designs that rely on coatings that can eventually delaminate, this approach embeds the conductive structure into the diaphragm. The company’s research also suggests that this produces a more uniform diaphragm thickness and therefore more consistent movement across the surface.
The big engineering change is something Audeze calls the Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modulator, or SLAM. It’s a passive acoustic structure designed to improve low frequency performance, specifically in the 10Hz to 50Hz region where electrostatic headphones traditionally struggle. According to Audeze, the system delivers roughly a 6dB increase in output between 20Hz and 30Hz compared to the original CRBN.
And that matters because bass has always been the Achilles’ heel of electrostatic designs. Since their inception, electrostatic headphones and loudspeakers have excelled at transparency, speed, detail, and a massive sense of space. The presentation can feel almost supernatural. But critics have long argued that something is missing. Call it weight. Call it soul.
The sound is often described as ethereal. Beautiful. Haunting even.
But sometimes it feels like there’s no flesh on the bones. Nothing that grabs you by the collar and forces you to feel something. Angst. Joy. Ecstasy. Anger. Fear.
Just light.
The system was not the one I had seen paired with the Audeze CRBN2 at other shows. In previous demos, Audeze often relied on amplification from Linear Tube Audio and a rather serious digital front end from dCS. Neither was in use this time.
Instead, the headphones were driven by the Eksonic Aeras Electrostatic Headphone Amplifier ($7,000). The amplifier is the result of a collaboration between engineers in the United States and Greece, with the company headquartered and manufacturing its products in Athens. It’s a compact but very serious electrostatic energizer designed specifically for demanding headphones like the CRBN2.
The Aeras accepts balanced XLR inputs with an input impedance of 50K x2 and delivers a gain of 1000x. Frequency response is specified from 10Hz to 30kHz with a maximum peak to peak voltage of 1600VAC and a maximum RMS voltage of 1100VAC. Output is handled through a single Stax Pro Bias connector. The amplifier uses four 6S4A vacuum tubes and consumes roughly 100W of power.
Physically, it measures 19 cm x 34.3 cm x 14.2 cm (7.5 x 13.5 x 5.6 inches) and weighs approximately 5.5 kg (12 pounds), making it relatively compact for a tube based electrostatic design.
The digital front end was also different from the typical multi box stacks seen at many CanJam demos. The source was a laptop feeding the $12,000 Imersiv D1 DAC from Millennia Media, which then passed signal to the Eksonic amplifier. Millennia Media, based in California, is best known in the professional recording world for its ultra transparent microphone preamps and mastering grade audio equipment.
Light, Finally With Blood in It
Chris from Audeze left me alone with the rig and I did the only sensible thing. I hit play. First Tool. Then Deadmau5. Closed my eyes.
The first thing that hit me was the bass. Real bass. Through electrostatic headphones. Sub bass information was absolutely there. No, it wasn’t the kind of blunt force slam some dynamic or planar designs deliver, but the mid and upper bass had weight, speed, and definition that made it impossible to ignore. Impactful. Transparent. Lightning fast. Defined. Juicy. Like smoked wings that have been on the grill just long enough to make you forget every other meal you’ve ever had.
Everything I’ve always loved about electrostatics was there. The transparency. The speed. The sense that every tiny detail is floating in its own pocket of air. But now there was texture too. Depth. Emotion. Presence. The kind that makes the music feel alive instead of just technically impressive.
I found myself tapping my fingers on the table while staring straight through the crowd of attendees moving around the room. Hundreds of people. Noise everywhere.
Didn’t matter.
For those few minutes, I was alone with the music.
Switching to vocals changed everything. I could feel Amy in the room. Close enough that it almost felt like her hand was resting against my face. I could practically smell the cheap cigarettes and bad decisions. I probably would have let her kiss me. After she had her shots.
That sense of presence carried through with almost every vocalist I threw at the system. Male. Female. Didn’t matter. They were just there. Standing in front of me like the band had wandered into the room and decided to stay a while. I half expected Elvis Presley to pull up a chair and start talking about Cadillacs and the cost of fame.
And then my mind drifted somewhere else entirely. Upstate New York. Cold air. Used bookstores that smelled like dust and forgotten paperbacks. I remember the way she gripped my fingers as we drove away. My heart was racing so hard I thought the steering wheel might start shaking.
That’s what listening to the Audeze CRBN2 felt like.
Utterly there.
The kind of presence that digs under the ribs and reminds you that some memories never really leave. No matter how painful.
Where to buy: $5,995 at Audeze