Author: Sword of Damocles
Kuulokenurkka has already reached the age of four, which even feels like a rather short time considering how much the style of reviews has changed during this period. I find older articles amusing to read, because back then I was still meant to run the site with a fairly relaxed approach, more blog-style and based on subjective observations.
Since then, the matter has become quite serious, so perhaps Kuulokenurkka can now justifiably be called a headphone review site. My texts may not be the easiest to understand for beginner enthusiasts or casual headphone listeners, but when we delve into the deep end of headphone reproduction, I am, in my opinion, a certain kind of influencer in Finland. This is actually quite frightening, because experiences with headphones are inherently subjective, and not everyone can fundamentally agree with you. So thank you to those of you who occasionally mention whether you experience things the same way or if a product feels completely different compared to my description. This truly helps in understanding things.
In 2025, nothing particularly special happened. Products and reviews came and went, and there was still work left for the next year. We published 34 articles and focused especially on noise-cancelling headphones. This certainly contributed to raising the annual visitor count by a good 20 percent compared to 2024. Now, about 85,000 people visited Kuulokenurkka and articles were read approximately 165,000 times. The largest visitor peak, as expected, occurred again in November-December. The site has not yet been visited from absolutely all countries in the world, but about 14 percent of the total traffic comes from outside Finland.
A couple of reviews I translated into English gathered quite a good number of readers, so it would be worth doing more of these. If you haven't noticed yet, the language of Kuulokenurkka can also be changed to English, but the reviews are still mainly in Finnish, as I haven't had time to start translating them. Different language models would indeed speed up the work, but each thoughtfully done translation still easily takes one day of free time.
The TOP15 most read articles were as follows:
- JBL Tune 770NC
- Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless
- Valco VMK25
- Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2e
- AKG N9 Hybrid
- Comparison of affordable closed-back headphones (100-200 €)
- Audeze Maxwell
- Bose QuietComfort SE
- Sony WH-1000XM5
- Sony WH-1000XM6
- Bose QuietComfort Ultra
- Sony ULT Wear
- Sennheiser HD 660S2
- Qudelix 5K
- Valco VMK20
Noise-cancelling headphones still interest Finns the most, which is why so many of them were reviewed this year. This time, however, the Valco VMK25 was displaced from the top spot, as JBL's cheap Tune 770NC headphones attracted about twice as many people. It remains to be seen whether Valco's new VMK15 and VMK25.2 will once again climb to the top in 2026. The NL25 in-ear headphones are at least already moving up the list.
For me, the highlights of the year included my visit in January visit to Mareksound's store and Helsinki Hi-Fi Fair, which I visited for two days this time. On the other hand, I am also grateful for all the collaborations, product loans, and new acquaintances I've had the chance to talk with throughout the year. Likewise, for AVPlus magazine it was interesting to write articles, but I cannot yet say whether the collaboration will continue in 2026.
People, and especially commercial operators, often seem so busy nowadays that coordinating schedules is challenging, and messages often go unanswered. Many times, preliminarily agreed-upon matters also unfortunately fail to materialize, which at worst is followed by complete radio silence. Fortunately, however, there are also more positive examples, so I do not want to blame any individual operators, but rather state my observations on a general level.
This year, I had a small contribution to the product development of Ecoute Audio's TH1 tube headphones and a slightly larger role in the finalization of Kaiku Acoustics' new Wave noise-cancelling headphone model. I also designed and built a Patreon page, but I think I overestimated people's willingness to pay a small sum for extra content. On the other hand, I probably would have had to write a lot of content in advance for it to be interesting enough. So, I've put that aside for now and will focus solely on Kuulokenurkka.
Outlook for 2026
Every New Year, I realize all the new and wonderful things I could have added to the site if only one person's time were enough. So, I've learned to keep my promises moderate. The only change I know of in the near future will be a new device I've ordered, with which I can measure the clamping force of headphone headbands and its distribution around the ears. This way, I'll be able to provide more objective information about comfort at some point, even though clamping force is only one part of the whole. However, there's clearly some kind of measurement nerd living in me, as such devices make hobbies and content creation more enjoyable.
From my Squiglink database I calculated that there are already frequency response measurements for over 150 headphone models, so by 2026, the number may well rise close to two hundred. Kuulokenurkka was actually one of the first Squiglink sub-pages offering measurement results for over-ear headphones before the number of measurers slowly began to grow. I have also documented my equipment more thoroughly than most other enthusiasts, which is why my measurements are quite often linked on various websites or used as supporting material, for example, in headphone review videos.
That's all from me this time, so let's move towards 2026. It's always good to hope that people around the world will finally come to their senses, but let's try to use headphones to divert at least some attention away from more unpleasant things. Equal thanks to all Kuulokenurkka readers and to those who have collaborated with us! See and hear you again soon!
Yours, Kuuloke-Aapeli
EN 
FI