Audeze’s Euclid in-ear planar magnetic headphones are extraordinary. And at $1299/£1099, they’d better be. These are intended to be god-tier audiophile-grade in-ears for music and the like, but this is Digital Foundry – so we’ve focused on their gaming performance in our testing regime. Is it ever worth spending so much on in-ears for this purpose – and are there any cheaper alternatives worth considering?
We’ll provide that information soon, but let’s start at the beginning: who is Audeze anyway? This Californian firm isn’t a mainstream gaming brand like your Corsairs or Razers, but the company has earned a reputation for great-sounding planar magnetic headphones and gaming headsets that justify their premium price points. Indeed, we’ve named Audeze’s Penrose and LCD-GX as some of the very best in their categories. The Penrose, Penrose X and HyperX-branded Cloud Orbit S are full-fat gaming headsets, supporting modern consoles and PC, while the LCD-GX is an ultra-premium audiophile headset that could also be used for gaming – a descriptor that’s closer to the nature of the Euclid in-ears.
However, even trying these headsets didn’t quite prepare me for the Euclid – it’s one thing to plunk a comfortably massive over-ear headset on and get great sound, but quite another to shrink the same tech down to a size that’ll fit in your ears.
