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Shinola continues its march into premium audio with the Canfield collection, featuring an in-ear monitor (in partnership with Portland-based Campfire Audio), on-ear and over-ear headphones. We tested their top-of-the-line Canfield Over-Ear Headphones, which weigh in at a hefty $595.
The Good: Is there such a thing as “Detroit” sound? If so, it seems that Shinola Audio engineers have sculpted the sound of their new Canfield headphone lineup in a way that feels American: robust and relaxed. Bold and mid-range forward, a touch lazy on the very top and bottom range – a smile shape on a tone curve – a bit like a good ol’ American small block V8 engine, or in this case: Beats. There’s not much in the way of technical proof for the “tuned and balanced” in Detroit aspect, but these headphones definitely like to rock and roll and rap. The design and build-quality are outstanding. Low key premium touches like gold-plated contacts, top grain leather components and lambskin ear cushions up the sophistication quotient.
Who It’s For: If you’re caught up in the swirl of the Shinola brand and eager to try their audio products without venturing into their higher priced wares like turntables, you’ll love the Canfield Over-Ears. They’re a fantastic alternative to Master & Dynamic (great sounding American audio) with a distinctly bold American sound. Like their watches, there a bit of romance and nostalgia with these headphones, but it’s worth noting that these headphones are assembled in America, but not manufactured here.
Watch Out For: The price. You’re paying $595 ($650 for PVD black) for the Shinola experience with audio performance at about 2/3rds of that. We don’t mean that condescendingly either. Experience matters to many consumers. Elsewhere, a split cable seems rather “last-gen” for new headphones, but we get that Shinola probably chose to do this to “honor” the spirit of heritage audio devices irrespective of the inconvenience. The cable, while nicely braided, also seems a bit unbalanced in robustness to the headphones themselves. The higher end of the audio spectrum (18kHz-20kHz) gets a bit lazy as does the very bottom of the base range for this reviewer’s tastes, but the mid-range performance is impressive.
Alternatives: In terms of dollar for dollar performance, you should consider Audeze EL-8 ($629), Bowers & Wilkins P7s ($345) or even the Sennheiser HD1s ($350) at a lower price level. If you need noise-canceling or wireless you should move on though I imagine a wireless pair is not long behind. Shinola has a lot of market share to erode away from Bose consumers.
