In this review I’m looking at the Avantone Planar Red (aka the Avantone Planar), a $499 open-back planar that I stumbled across on Bloom Audio at like 3–4 AM and had to try purely because it looked so weird. I go over the specs (32 ohm, 104 dB/mW, 30–30,000 Hz, ~480 g), then talk build and comfort. It’s mostly metal and feels solid, but also oddly janky—like it clicks and has this “old metal toy” vibe. The pads are rectangular velour that Velcro on (cool idea), but I think that’s part of why the bass seal isn’t great. It also comes with both single/dual-entry cables and, hilariously, a full-size tote bag. Sound-wise, the tuning is just… strange. Sub-bass rolls off (mainly below ~50 Hz) with a little hump around 50–60 Hz, the mids have some small dips/peaks, and the treble is kind of all over the place with some splashy air up top. But the real headline is the staging: this is the narrowest soundstage I’ve ever heard on an open-back headphone—borderline mono—which also makes imaging pretty poor. My takeaway: it’s not egregiously terrible and it’s an interesting first attempt, but I don’t see why you’d buy it over the Hifiman Sundara unless you specifically want an open-back that stages like a classic closed-back studio monitor.