écoute TH2 Valve Headphones Head to Australia

The écoute TH2 wireless headphones are coming to Australia, with local distributor Advance Audio Australia opening pre-orders ahead of their expected arrival in September.

The TH2 succeeds the company’s unconventional TH1, which combined wireless convenience and active noise cancellation with the sort of componentry normally found inside a compact hi-fi system. Advance Audio introduced écoute to the Australian market in December 2025, before the TH1 received its full StereoNET review earlier this year.

This is an evolutionary model rather than a clean-sheet replacement. écoute has retained the Korg Nutube 6P1 dual-triode valve, which performs preamplifier duties before passing the signal to separate discrete Class A/B amplifiers for the left and right channels.

The dual-mono architecture keeps those channels separated from the 32-bit/384kHz DAC through to the 40mm titanium-coated Mylar drivers. It remains an unusual amount of traditional hi-fi thinking to package inside a pair of wireless headphones, particularly when most rivals consolidate much of their signal processing and amplification within a single system-on-chip.

Connectivity continues to cover Bluetooth 5.3 with LDAC, AAC and SBC, alongside lossless USB-C digital audio and a 3.5mm analogue input. The latter can operate actively through the TH2’s internal electronics or passively with an external headphone amplifier. Battery life is rated at more than 20 hours, while écoute’s companion app provides eight-band parametric tuning that can be stored within the headphones.

The more significant changes concern how the TH2 feels, behaves and holds up over time. Its redesigned chassis is machined from solid aluminium, while a new suspension headband adjusts to the listener’s head shape and distributes pressure more evenly.

That particular change should be welcome given our TH1 review found its 424-gram weight became noticeable during longer sessions and observed that the headphone felt more like a substantial desk-based design than a conventional portable noise-cancelling model.

écoute has also made the earpads, suspension strap and headband trim user-replaceable. Owners can change the appearance or refresh worn components without replacing the entire headphone, while the upgraded cables and earpads will also be compatible with the original TH1.

Additional internal shielding and damping are intended to reduce vibration, interference and microphonic ringing around the valve stage. écoute claims these revisions also improve bass performance, detail retrieval and separation.

Again, this corresponds closely with our experience of the TH1, a jolt to its earcups could produce a resonance that lingered for several seconds, although we were advised during the review that the TH2 would introduce further shielding to address it.

The active noise cancellation has also been revised for a lower noise floor, accompanied by a more natural-sounding transparency mode. These were two other areas where the TH1 proved functional rather than class-leading, so the TH2’s improvements appear targeted rather than merely cosmetic. Their effectiveness will naturally need to be assessed once production headphones become available.

Darren Lawrence, brand manager at Advance Audio, has spent time with the new model and told StereoNET: 

Having had the opportunity to listen to the TH2 myself, I can confidently say it is a substantial improvement over the TH1 and, in my opinion, a significantly better headphone overall.

The écoute TH2 will be available in Nickel, Gun Metal and Charcoal finishes. Australian pricing is A$1,775 for the two-tone cloth version and A$1,950 with full-grain lambskin leather. Internationally, the standard TH2 is expected to retail for US$999 and approximately £900 in the UK, while European pricing has yet to be confirmed. Australian pre-orders are open now, with stock expected during September 2026.

For more information visit écoute or Advance Audio