Audeze announces the MM-520, successor to the MM-500
The $1,699 successor to the MM-500 adds Audeze's SLAM airflow technology to a 90 mm open-back planar, developed again with mixing engineer Manny Marroquin.
Audeze has announced the MM-520 at $1,699, the successor to the MM-500 in its Manny Marroquin Signature Series, shown at High End Vienna 2026. The open-back design uses 90 mm planar drivers with Ultra-Thin Uniforce diaphragms, Fluxor magnet arrays and Fazor phase management, and adds Audeze's Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modulator: engineered channels that manage airflow and pressure inside the cup, which Audeze credits with improved bass definition and imaging.
Studio-targeted headphones are tuned against a different brief from consumer ones: the goal is a response an engineer can learn and trust across rooms, not one that flatters a first listen. Whether the MM-520 moves toward or away from the MM-500's balance is the question a measurement answers, and mixing decisions ride on the answer.
Announcement sources
More new Planar
FiiO shows the FT15, an open-back planar expected to replace the FT5
Shown at CanJam London with expected UK pricing around £499, the FT15 continues FiiO's push into full-size open-back planars.
HiFiMAN relaunches the HE6 Remastered at $1,899, and it still needs a big amplifier
The remaster revives the original HE6 driver design and fits HiFiMAN's second-generation composite headband, but does nothing to soften the amplifier demands the original was notorious for.
Dan Clark Audio announces the ÆON CORE, an $899 closed-back planar
DCA puts what it calls its most efficient driver yet into a closed-back ÆON chassis at $899, with a revised reference tuning.
This is an announcement, not a verdict. Specifications come from the manufacturer and nothing here is measured until a unit reaches the rig. For tested planar, see Planar reviews. Back to all new releases.