How to resolve AdBlock issue? Audio-Technica ATH-R70xa wins TEC Award
Audio-Technica, an innovator in transducer technology for over 60 years, is the recipient of a Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) Award at the 41st Annual TEC Awards, held on Thursday, January 22, at The 2026 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California. The ATH-R70xa Open-Back Reference Headphones got top honors in the Headphone / Earpiece Technology category. Finalists from all categories were selected by industry professionals across major music, sound and game audio associations, along with pro audio-focused media groups.
Kurt Van Scoy, Audio-Technica Vice President of Products, Business Alliances, and Marketing, remarked, “We are very proud of our ATH-R70xa headphones, and it is a true honor to be recognized by our industry peers with a TEC Award. All departments within Audio-Technica worked hard to bring the ATH-R70xa headphones to market including engineering, product development, sales and marketing, and we are very pleased the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We thank the voters of the TEC Awards for this recognition.”
The ATH-R70xa is Audio-Technica’s new flagship pair of professional open-back reference headphones. Whether mixing, mastering or creating, the ATH-R70xa is the perfect production tool, delivering accurate and dependable reference across stereo, surround and immersive formats. This enhanced version of the ATH-R70x delivers the natural and balanced sound of its predecessor but with refined accuracy and detail, providing a heightened listening experience with precise imaging and depth for realistic sound staging. While the ATH-R70x utilized damping and its acoustic design for added low-frequency emphasis, the fully open-back sound of the ATH-R70xa relies solely on the performance of the driver – each diaphragm movement translates directly into sound without reliance on acoustic cavities or resonance for frequency enhancement and minimizing distortion. Made for critical listening, the ATH-R70xa headphones allow engineers to make the right decision at every step of the production process. With an extended frequency range (5 – 40,000 Hz), every detail of a mix is transparently reproduced. The unrestricted airflow and absence of internal resonance allows for an extremely quick transient response, ensuring the clarity and separation needed to handle complex contemporary mixes.
Hiroyasu Suzuki, Audio-Technica Global Product Manager, stated, “After the success of the ATH-R70x, we knew we wanted to push our engineering team to develop something truly innovative and unique for the next-generation ATH-R70xa headphones. Transducer and analog acoustic design technology are in our DNA, so we were able to expand the possibilities of open-back sound with our own analog audio technology in the R70xa headphones. We were also focused on comfort, and spent many hours researching and testing different materials to ensure the headphones would be as light as possible. We are very proud of the ATH-R70xa, and it is truly an honor to see the industry recognize our efforts.”
Presented annually at The NAMM Show, The NAMM TEC Awards recognize the individuals, companies, and technical innovations behind the sound of recordings, live performances, films, television, video games, and other media in Technical and Creative Achievement Categories. Through its Hall of Fame, The TEC Awards also honors the pioneers of audio technology and the music industry’s most accomplished producers and audio technicians. The NAMM Foundation’s TECnology Hall of Fame celebrates innovations and groundbreaking technical achievements of the past.