It might be seen as l33t gone mad, but Ed-Ph0n3s is actually the first product to spring from the collaboration between Onkyo and heavy metal gods Iron Maiden.

The headphones have been designed for rock and heavy metal fans in mind - sort of the anti-Beats - and were used by Maiden bassist Steve Harris when mixing the new studio album, The Book of Souls, released today.

He had a hand-built pair, tuned and created by Onkyo to make the most of rock, but they have since been recreated into a production model shown at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin.

As for the name, the Ed naturally refers to Eddie, the band's mascot. The rest, well, we'll look past the rest for now.

In specifications terms, the Ed-Ph0n3s come with twin 40mm titanium-coated diaphragm drivers. Have a frequency response of 10Hz to 27kHz, impendence of 32-Ohms, pressure level of 105db/mW (Nominal), and are capable of a max input power of 800W.

They weigh 245g and the 3.5mm cable length is 160cm. There will also be a 6.35mm jack adaptor in the box.

Onkyo is yet to reveal pricing or on sale date, but it's good to see a manufacturer looking at other genres of music than dance and hip-hop when coming up with specialist headphones.