JANUARY 2022 MACWORLD 95isolation from ambient sound, which
means you won’t hear its full potential in
a noisy environment.
One small ergonomic concern is the
thin wires that emerge from both ends of
the headband and connect to the
earpieces. As I put the headphone on and
took it off, I thought there was a chance I
would accidently hit the wires with my
fingers and break their connection. I think
it’s a relatively low probability, but it’s
something that caught my attention.
As usual, I listened to a variety of
music from Tidal’s Master library of
lossless high-res tracks on my iPhone
XS. First up was “Sleeping on My
Dreams” from Jacob Collier’s Djesse
Vol. 3, which features some pretty
deep synth bass. The GW100 v2
produced a very open sound with
excellent imaging and wide sound
stage. The synth bass was well defined
and abundant, and the vocal was right up
front where it should be.
With the recent passing of jazz legend
Chick Corea, I had to listen to one of his
classic tunes, so I cued up “500 Miles
High” from Light as a Feather with his
band Return to Forever. Chick on electric
piano, Stanley Clarke on bass, Airto
Moreira on drums, Joe Farrell on sax, and
Flora Purim on vocals—man, what a
lineup!
The GW100 v2 had a nice open sound
with a wide soundstage and great
imaging. Each instrument was clearly
delineated, though the bass was perhaps
a bit indistinct and the piano was more
forward during other solos than I would
have preferred. Both of these observations
were probably due to the mix rather thanIn this shot, you can see the thin wires that
emerge from each end of the headband and
connect to the earpieces. I felt a bit nervous
about accidentally breaking these wires
with a slip of the finger when putting the
headphones on and taking them off.