These Audio-Technica birthday headphones look jaw-dropping

If you're going to celebrate a big birthday, there's no better way to do it in the tech world than launching a new product. That's even more the case if said birthday is a particularly meaningful one, like Audio-Technica's current anniversary.

2024 is the 50th year since it brought out its first-ever pair of headphones, remarkably, making it not only a heck of a lot older than me, but also older than plenty of its bigger competitors. In those years there's no doubt that Audio-Technica has made some of the best headphones on the market, too. So, it's only fitting that the headphones it's bringing out look sumptuous, too - the classic, open-backed ATH-ADX3000.

The chunky over-ear headphones are traditional and therefore wired, with an extremely comfortable-looking design that should make them perfect for long, relaxed listening sessions at home. Each one will have been hand-crafted in Machida, Tokyo, according to Audio-Technica, from in-house components.

Those exposed drivers should make for a hugely expansive sound-stage, which will thrill audiophiles, and the free flowing of air through the headphones has apparently been a core facet of the design. Depending on your level of expertise, then, the price tag attached will probably surprise you in one of two ways.

At £859 or €999, the ATH-ADX3000 is clearly a pretty expensive set of headphones, but we're actually impressed at how affordable that price is compared to some other limited editions that Audio-Technica has launched in the last few years. These still won't come close to rivalling a mainstream pair of wireless headphones on price, even high-end ones like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, but they're potentially attractive to anyone looking to get into wired audiophile-grade hardware without spending literally thousands.

The ATH-ADX3000 should be available today directly from Audio-Technica, to crown that 50th birthday celebration, so you might want to consider getting a pair for yourself if that attracts you. Once you start listening to lossless music in a quiet environment with this sort of kit, you'll soon start to wonder why you ever did it the more modern way.