These headphones look like they're from a designer's steampunk fantasy

A pair of open-back headphones with wooden earcups and a black padded headband is resting on a wooden desk in front of a black headphone amplifier with gold trim and VU meters.

Sendy Audio has announced Egret, a new open-back planar magnetic headphone that brings together precision engineering and traditional craftsmanship. Priced $799 / £799, they're firmly aimed at audiophiles and studio professionals – and they're pretty special.

Now, that's a lot of cash – and the Egret isn't going to make our list of the best budget audiophile headphones anytime soon – but the tech you're getting in return is cutting-edge. At its core is a custom-built 98 x 84mm planar magnetic driver, featuring a nano-scale composite diaphragm measuring less than 800 nanometres thick; that's about 1/1000th the thickness of a single bacteria. This extreme thinness enables it's able to deliver rapid transient response and detailed sound reproduction across the frequency spectrum.