Gadhouse, maker of affordable and often very retro turntables, has announced a set of 80s-inspired wired headphones.
Priced at £59 / €69, they'll be available from September and come "wired for sound".
If you're looking for a set of retro-styled headphones without unnecessary faff or features, Gadhouse may have the perfect pair for you. Its Wesley over-ears are so retro you half expect to see a roller-skating Cliff Richard modelling them in a video.
According to the brand, the over-ears are "a nod to the era of mixtapes". And to stay true to that era, there's virtually nothing here that didn't exist in the 80s – bar the option to connect via USB-C.
This is a new direction for Gadhouse. To date, its musical products have concentrated on affordable and often retro-inspired turntables, such as the COSMO Solar. And I suspect it's going to appeal to a similar group of buyers who like classic looks at low prices.
Gadhouse Wesley headphones: key features and pricing
The Wesley headphones look very much like the foam-tipped equivalents that we Walkman owners rocked back in the days of leg warmers and Level 42. However, the bits over your ears are larger and the headband is considerably more robust.
They're still very light, though – at 105g they're a fraction of the weight of the average over-ears.
These headphones are wired, with three output options: 3.5mm jack, 6.35mm jack and USB-C. And as a nice surprise, you get 48kHz lossless audio with the latter connection. The cable also features an integrated microphone for calling, and controls for playback.
Gadhouse's marketing tends to focus on the way its products look rather than the way they sound, although there's also some decent specs underneath the retro looks. You get a 40mm dynamic driver in each ear, for example, while the frequency response is 20Hz to 20kHz.
An omnidirectional microphone is on board too, to deliver the sort of voice calling that wasn't available 40 years ago.
The Gadhouse Wesley headphones will launch in September 2025 with a price tag of £59 / €69 (about $79 / AU$123).
