Westone ADV Alpha

The Westone ADV Alpha delivers powerful audio in an outdoor-friendly design, but its sturdy build isn't cheap.

Westone applies its wide-ranging expertise in hearing and audio to develop the ADV Alpha, an in-ear headphone meant to deliver stellar sound for the elusive active audiophile.

The companies that have most benefitted from the headphone boom are the ones who are great at marketing but don't know much about audio engineering. (Yet.) Two of the hottest brands in the biz are Beats and Skullcandy, companies that didn't even exist when the iPod debuted. Stalwarts like AKG, Beyerdynamic, and Sennheiser-companies that made headphones before headphones were cool-seem lost in the ever-increasing noise of new companies and products.

Brian Kahn takes a look at headphones from a brand that isn't as widely known in the consumer electronics and audiophile world but, given the performance he encountered with the ADV Alpha headphones, should be.