Unless you have a recording habit, the name Blue may
be somewhat unfamiliar to you. The company was founded in the mid '90s as an
outfit that refurbished pro-level studio mics. Blue continually moved
toward more accessible, consumer friendly products. It started with a more
affordable pro mic, the Blueberry, before using a similar setup to what's in
the 8 Ball condenser unit for the extremely popular US$ 50 Snowball USB model.
At first, Blue partnered with popular headphone amp
company Fiio on the tech for Mo-Fi. Since that first model, Blue has been
working on its own amplifier components and those debuted this week. "Now
that we've had a few years of experience, we're actually developing our own
amps," Maier said. "In fact, Ella has a power amp we think is an
improvement over the original Mo-Fi amp."
The new models include Ella, a high-end planar
magnetic headphone with a built-in amp, and Sadie, an update to Mo-Fi. Then
there's my personal favorite: Satellite. Blue's first wireless headphone has an
all-new design that differs from the hinged form factor used on the other models.
It keeps the on-board amp and adds in active noise cancellation (ANC) to keep
the sound quality top notch. Unlike most noise-cancelling headphones, Satellite
has dedicated drivers for both audio and the ANC so that the sound doesn't
suffer from a lack of power.
In terms of those wireless Satellite headphones,
Blue was able to take all the lessons it learned from Mo-Fi, Sadie and Ella and
apply them to a new model that didn't require a cord. The company naturally
focused on the sound first, and once they were satisfied with that, they moved
on to see what they could accomplish with noise cancellation and Bluetooth.
