Audio Technica Audio-Technica Kokutan

The Audio-Technica ATH-AWKT's wood earcups lend a refreshing, realistic timbre that helps brings out the best in well-recorded tracks. The small-batch Audio-Technica ATH-AWKT Kokutan over-ears are the latest and greatest in Audio-Technica's storied line of premium real-wood headphones. They are meticulously assembled by hand in the company's Tokyo headquarters. And I made the clutch move of bringing them home right before our extended stay-in-place reality . I've used them for months as my go-to headphones for focused listening, and it still feels like an event every time I put them on. You'll certainly want to connect them to a headphone amplifier to hear them at their best. But they are efficient enough to be driven by a wide variety of amps with 1/4" unbalanced connections. I paired them with the iFi ZEN DAC /headphone amp, and found the combination worked really well — particularly with iFi's bass boost engaged for extra oomph. Audio-Technica has made headphones with wood earcups for years, but this is...