Yes. No.

It's classic dualism or binary thinking where it's either a one or a zero. 2023's post-Covid Hollywood saw the term Barbenheimer, a portmanteau of the movies 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' which together finally celebrated big box-office numbers again. For this year the studios hope that 'Wicked' and 'Gladiator II' will repeat those figures. If so, what freaky hybrid will it coin? Glicked? Wickiator? And what if we don't want a strange mishmash but both, simultaneously? How to make yes plus no equal yo, one + zero = zen?

Enter Palma Audio's new DHS-1 [€2'195], a classic dynamic circumaural headphone with a 50mm driver of 26mm voice coil built into a solid-wood Sapele ear cup. Its novel and already patented spin or rather twist are the black aluminium cover discs with their golden-ratio perf pattern. Rotating them by 14° either has all holes unobstructed for open-backed radiation; or hermetically sealed for closed-back privacy. High 107dB/1mW sensitivity in the former mode ups to 109dB in the latter whilst impedance remains an unaffected 32Ω. Weight is 490g. Two cables with 3.5 and 6.3mm terminations plus a hard carrying case come with.

The obvious challenge is using the same chamber geometry for both modes without playing favourites. After three years of R&D, our team feel certain that they've aced it. For once the buying question needn't be either/or nor yes/no. For once it can be a cheery Yo! followed by Palma not Adrian. Say hello to the world's first convertible headphone.