The Asus Kithara Brings Audiophile Performance to the Mainstream

HiFiMAN and Asus Team Up to Make a Killer Headphone

You’ve almost certainly heard of Asus — they’re a massive electronics corporation, making everything from monitors to motherboards to wireless mice. But did you know that Asus also has a range of headphones, earphones, and TWS products? Until recently, I did not. In fact, I only found out about Asus’s range of audio devices after learning about the subject of today’s review, the Asus Kithara. This simple-looking headphone brings real, audiophile-grade performance to the mainstream, and it does so without emulating the unreasonable price points often found in more-niche HiFi spaces.

The Kithara costs $299 and can be purchased at basically every major electronics store, including Amazon, Best Buy, and Microcenter.

About My Preferences: This review is a subjective assessment and is therefore tinged by my personal preferences. While I try to mitigate this as much as possible during my review process, I’d be lying if I said my biases are completely erased. So for you, my readers, keep this in mind:

• My ideal sound signature would be one with competent sub-bass, a textured mid-bass, a slightly warm midrange, and an extended treble.
• I have mild treble sensitivity.

Testing equipment and standards can be found here.

The Big Picture

Pros:

• Aggressively priced
• Lots of useful accessories
• Strong, deep bass response
• Crisp and articulate upper-register
• Tons of performance
• Comfortable and lightweight
• Breathable
• Wide console/PC compatibility
• Solid mic performance

Cons:

• Occasional treble sharpness
• Large earcups don’t fit on shorter headphone stands
• No storage case
• Headband occasionally “slips”

Key Specs

• Drivers: 1x 100mm planar
• Sensitivity:
• Impedance: 16 ohms
• Mic: Yes, Full-Band MEMS
• Cable: detachable dual-3.5mm mono w/ USB-C, 3.5mm termination
• Weight: 420g

Sound

Each Kithara comes with a unique frequency-response certificate, detailing the precise behavior of your particular unit. While the overall sound signature of the Kithara remains the same between units, there is some variance.

Broadly-speaking, the Kithara has a V-shaped sound signature, boasting elevated bass and treble. Its midrange is neutrally-toned, sounding full and rich without becoming thick and heavy. The Kithara’s sound stage is wide and deep, and is complemented by its speedy and responsive drivers. Extension is great, with the Kithara’s upper-treble and sub-bass pulling out to the extremes with minimal roll-off.

Energetic Treble

As is tradition with headphones made by HiFiMAN, the Kithara’s treble is bright and forward. It renders metallic elements crisply and with precision, layering hi-hats and cymbals effortlessly. The Kithara’s ability to grasp precise degrees of lifelike timbre is impressive. For example, I was able to clearly make out the ringing of the guitars being strummed in the background of Throw Me in The Water; WILD, even as the chorus progressively became busier.

The cost of having such forward and energic treble is that the Kithara can occasionally sound harsh or sibilant. The vocals and synthetic effects in Satisfy; Nero toe the line of comfort for me at my normal listening volumes, generating a bit of distraction that is not present on my less-bright headphones.

Crunchy, Textured Midrange

The Kithara has a subtly-cool midrange, slightly deviating from neutral tonality. This “clean” style of tuning complements the Kithara’s immense speed and technical ability well, allowing it to render intense textural depth. While listening to In Exile; Thrice, I was impressed by the consistency and delicacy with which the Kithara was able to resolve the vibration of the guitar strings against their fretboards. And its not just guitars — the Kithara’s midrange is tuned to perform well in the general case.

I found the Kithara more-than-capable of staging subtle and nuanced vocal performances, pulling plenty of detail out of tracks like What a Shame; Shinedown. Elements with complex harmonics, like the piano in The Ocean; Manchester Orchestra, are delivered with fullness and a sense of cohesion — which isn’t too common on headphones with cool-styled mids like the Kithara.

Dynamic Bass Performance

The Kithara’s bass is surprisingly forward, delivering full-sounding mid-bass while still extending well into the sub-bass. It synergizes well with drums in Rock and Alternative, generating subtle, rich drum beats. They’re not thunderous, but have a delicate tactility to them. This allows the Kithara to develop a solid, full foundation in tracks like My Hero; Foo Fighters. It is with this undercurrent of richness that the Kithara is able to build up its high-contrast presentation. With this depth, the Kithara renders a convincingly-weighty atmosphere in tracks like Kids; MGMT and Lisztomania; Phoenix. These tracks’ respective bass lines sound phenomenal on the Kithara, its tonal harmony almost fooling me into thinking I was listening to a dynamic-driver headphone.

As “bassy” as the Kithara is, it is still an open-backed planar headphone. As such, there’s a limit to how much punch a rumble you can get out of its drivers. While articulate and full-range, the Kithara doesn’t generate enough bass output to feel truly immersive in electronic tracks like *No Way (Bassnectar Remix). I was likewise a bit disappointed with the amount of rumble generated while listening to [Blackout*; Mike Hawkins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ci3-GBZVGQ).

Gaming

The Kithara is sold under Asus’s gaming sub-brand, ROG. As such, we put the Kithara through the ringer, using it for both competitive multiplayer games as well as robust story-driven single player experiences.

In fast-paced FPS titles like Call of Duty Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6, the Kithara performed admirably. Directional queues, even subtle ones, were rendered crisply and intelligibly. The Kithara’s forward treble wasn’t particularly fatiguing during prolonged gunfights, though I don’t typically play games at very high volumes. I was impressed with the Kithara’s ability to manage the chaotic scenes in battle-royal games as well. Titles like Apex Legends, which often demand precise placement of sonic clues generated by multiple competing squads, can be challenging for warmer headphones — but not so for the Kithara. Tense, audio-oriented extraction shooters like Arc Raiders are a match even better suited for the Kithara’s precise and well-measured tuning.

Unboxing

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Build

The Kithara feels well-built. Asus’s ROG gamer-y branding is emblazoned on the Kithara’s metal earcup grills. They’re machined cleanly and installed precisely in the earcup’s shells.

The Kithara is quite large, but is not particularly heavy. Its headband is adjustable and slides along a spring-steel insert. The adjustments are notched and feel tactile when adjusted. I encountered instances of the headband sliding out of its notches, even while I was sitting still — an irritating issue, especially after carefully setting the headband to fit my head and getting the cups properly-angled.

As is tradition with HiFiMAN’s headphones, the Kithara’s cables are detachable. It features standard dual-mono 3.5mm sockets, so aftermarket cables should be easy to source.

Asus included a few cables in the box, one with a built-in boom mic and one without. The boom-mic cable features in-line volume control and terminates into two 3.5mm TRRS cables: one for audio input, and one for mic output. This scheme makes it easy to plug into discrete mic inputs on a PC motherboard or case. If you wish to use the Kithara on a device that does not support analog 3.5mm jacks, you can use the USB-C adapter that comes in the box. It works quite well and functioned perfectly on Windows 10/11 and Linux Mint.

The second cable is fairly standard, featuring a simple black chain braid and a modular termination. Asus includes a 1/4in, 4.4mm, and 3.5mm termination in the box, ensuring you’ll be able to use the Kithara with basically any device.

Comfort

Comfort is a metric that relies heavily on factors influenced by your individual ear anatomy. Mileage will vary.

The Kithara is large, but light. I found it to be very comfortable during extended listening sessions, even when my office had warmed up. My head is average in size, but my wife’s is quite small. She’s able to use the Kithara, but must keep it at its absolute smallest headband size. Even then, it floats a little and doesn’t make great contact with the top of her head. She reports no discomfort on her ears, however.

Conclusion

The Kithara is a high-fidelity headphone, designed to for audiophiles and gamers alike. Its thoughtful accessory package, careful ergonomics, and appealing sonic tuning make it a compelling offering. At $300, however, it isn’t the only good option in its price range, especially for those that aren’t interested in the integrated boom mic and USB-C adapter. Gamers with substantial treble sensitivity may be better suited to tamer tunings, like the Beyerdynamic DT-770 PRO. But, if you’re someone looking for planar-driver performance with a flexible, powerful tuning, the Kithara is the right place to be.

As always, happy listening!