Reviews by AetherDrive
My Background: In Case Context Is Important To You
You can skip this if you'd like but given that this is my first review, actually my first anything on head-fi, I feel that it's important to provide context on my observations based on my experiences. First, I'm a storyteller by nature and am typically verbose, I apologize
. Also, I would like to note that these are my own thoughts and experiences with these cans, which I've had for about two weeks, in no way have I been incentivized to write this review. I just noticed how few reviews, one at the time of writing, this sleeper had and thought I'd give a crack at it as my first post here on Head-Fi.
The Beginning: I've been interested in music and been messing with stereos since I was a kid, I helped my mother setup our Bose LifeStyle 12 II in our small den when I was 9. While I know better now, at the time it was a massive improvement over the little crt's stereo that we had going originally. For all its faults, which were many, it had an excellent diffused sound stage and with that I became interested in surround sound in general. I tweaked that system till I started building my own in my small bedroom, my family was big on garage sailing and from that I built my first setup from a mishmash of speakers and electronics. At that time I didn't really know what I was doing but I was becoming more discerning and informed. The best thing that came out of that was my "discrete" subwoofer system, a neighbor had thrown out a pair of JVC tower speakers as he had blown out everything but the woofers. Limited by my small room I cleaned out the bed's trundle and placed them both under my bed and let me tell you they were thunderous and a heck of a lot of fun. I still have those towers in storage if I ever manage to get out of living in apartments.
College: When I moved out I brought most of my system with me and I was extremely lucky that my apartment was right next to Salvation Army that was a boutique-ish store in that they had a constant hi-fi selection for absurdly low prices. I got to try out, refurbish and resell a bunch of equipment that I otherwise would never have gotten to try. Before I settled on my "endgame" in that apartment, I managed to get myself a 9.2.2 system. Used to have weekly get togethers where my friends would gather in my apartment to watch the movie of the week and such.
DIY: Through that SA I came across a pair of Super Rhino cabinets, can't find much on the internet anymore but they were these MASSIVE wood cabinets with dual 8 woofers, a Philips "egg" tweeter and midrange. I had done some restoration work but these guys needed some help and so I reached out to a friend's father who I convinced me to rebuild them in it's entirety. Two years later they lived as an completely different beast, a 3 way active design that utilized the vintage amps I had collected. I downsized my setup to a 5.2.2 to simplify, cut down on heat and electricity, those towers were literally life changing as the amount of research and time that I put into their design helped to form my understanding of what a truly good sound system could be. The sad part is I moved out 6 months later and they've been in storage since as my living space over the years continually becomes smaller and smaller.
DIY 2 Electric Boogaloo: Gonna make this a bit brief, I moved to a different state for work my new apartment was too small for a theater in my bedroom. I spent another couple of years researching and saving for my next build. I've built a nearfield active 4 way in a desktop form factor. They are tuned to have a wide soundstage with a relaxed but detailed sound signature. I could review it but that's not why we are here (emoji insert)I've moved since and they were able to move with me to where I'm currently living somewhere even smaller, with roommates.
Headphones: Finally! We are in the present! Up until a couple of months ago I've only had a little bit of experience with headphones with the exception of my Sony WH-900N H.ear on 2 which has been with me since 2018 I believe which also is my only comparable closed back headphone. There's also the Dekoni Blue which is semi-closed... frankly I dislike them. I do have a small choice of open back for comparison; Grado Hemp w/Pad Roll, Beyerdynamic T2.2, Thieaudio Ghost. As such I won't make any comparisons between these.
TLDR; All of this preamble is simply to state that my experience with audio has mostly been with stereo and surround systems and not with headphones. Onto the Actual Review!!!
Build and Comfort: Boring But Important Nonetheless
One of the many benefits of JM Audio is that they offer customization options for their headphones, I was able to choose between two headbands and I went with the Enhanced Arya Style Headband. The original fit was a bit too tight and put pressure on my temples after about two hours of wear, I must note that I wear glasses which I believe played a factor in this discomfort as well. Luckily the headband is easy to adjust, using a little bit of pressure I loosened the headband to where it's comfortable for many hours without discomfort. With the headband at its stock position, I had the notion that these were heavy and fatiguing cans but once adjusted they feel light and comfortable thanks to the suspension style headband. The cups themselves are tad bit cumbersome, I don't think anyone would recomend these for travel simply because of how big the cans are, that being said I'm quite partial to the function over form plus I know that the design is inspired by Sony's MDR-R10. The cans themselves are interesting in that if you do a finger rasp test on them, they do have a nice deadened sound to them which likely has to do with JM Audio Proprietary Fractal Mesh Technology™ and Fractal Fiberglass Porous Carbon™, very cool stuff. The pads are stock Hifiman, plenty comfortable if not a little warm after a bit but I think that's to be expected of a closed headphone. This all is a wonderful thing as I need them to be comfy for long sitting hours as I'm a work from home IT manager and my roommate is constantly on calls which leads me into the next section.
Isolation: Closed Back Cans Can Do The Can Can
I imagine most people get closed backs for the sake of isolation, working in a noisy environment, traveling, etc. These handle sound isolation well for my use case, during work hours I can't hear my roomie and he can't hear me, that's all I could ask for.
Listening Gear: The All Important Source
First off, if you've read all of the above and are still with me, thank you! Running off of USB from my PC into the Geshelli J2 (Non-Socketed) and I tried the R9's with these amps: THX 789, NITSCH Piety and LD MKII with rolled tubes (Mullard M8100) and all three run these with next to no effort. For most of my my time with this review I listened through the Piety as enjoyed this combination plus it's my newest toy and I can't help but enjoy it. I don't have a traditional list of reference music, typically I just listen to whatever I'm enjoying at the time, if you really need a break down of my preferred music please ask me how x sounds in the comments section and I'll do my best to give a listen and provide my thoughts.
How Does It Sound? This Is What You're Here For Right?
Presentation: Wow, we finally made it and I don't mean to spoil the end but, these are some fine cans! At the time of writing this review, these are my favorite headphones and are now competing with my personal stereo for run time outside of work hours. Let me start off with the stand out of these cans and that's the sound stage. If you are aware of John and JM Audio prior to this review then this may not be much of a surprise but the claims that his product page makes for the R9s here (https://www.jmaudioeditions.com/product-page/hifiman-he-r9-jm-ocd-extreme-stealth-edition) are no joke, the sound stage is held in what I would describe as a medium sized room where the stage provides room for the instruments to breath and have their own space in the music, they are neither intimate nor distant. They are also rather dynamic which I think empowers them in their overall presentation. Combine this with clean imaging and instrument separation and you've got the makings of a real winner. Also, they are no slouch in locational accuracy, they are a fantastic companion for gaming sessions and you don't even need rgb!
Bass: The Bass is presented in a very clean fashion, at no point does the bass overwhelm the midrange or sound muddy. I wouldn't say they are bass cannons but the bass is definitely there! I'm more interested in the bass quality and the ability to resolve bass texture which is something that they do well. The ability to listen to the strings on a guitar being individually plucked and here them reverberate is a reality here which is something that is extremely hard to do. Something funny to note is that reverb as an effect is actually rather noticeable in a non-distracting but strangely observable in some music which I think has to do with that natural transient nature of the bass? If some here has a better way to describe this please lemme know!
Midrange: I could give it a three word review, Natural and Smooth. While these do have a good deal of detail and definition, the overall midrange presents itself as natural and smooth. It does a nice balancing act for the midrange as it neither adds nor detracts from the overall sound signature, neither super defined or laid back, for lack of better words I'd call it a faithful reproduction throughout the midrange. While some might prefer to have some flavoring in their midrange I think this is a strong base.
Treble: Enjoyable, non-fatiguing or piercing although at higher volumes it might catch you by surprise. This is perhaps the most uninteresting part of this review as I can't find any faults with the treble but it doesn't standout in any particular manner which perhaps is a good thing.
Tubes: While I did most of my listening on the piety, which is designed to be a tube-like solid state amp, I would like to note that, at least with my tube amp, these did play nicely with them and added a touch to the soundstage and made the treble and midrange a touch sweeter, your tubes may vary
Conclusion: The Ultimate TLDR;
I might've spoiled the conclusion at the beginning but I am thoroughly enjoying these headphones, if only they were made fashionable to walk the block with... hmmm, they could be considered a fashion statement? Seriously though, if you are in need of a great pair of closed backs for whatever reason and the price is right for you I would suggest you give these a try, if you don't like their initial tuning, it's advertised throughout the the product page that they can be further customized to your liking. If you aren't looking for a closed back for a particular reason but something fun and different to your collection I can also recommend these as the sound stage is not a gimmick, its not dsp or some snake oil, its real and its GREAT!
If you made it to the end of this, again... thank you very much and I apologize for any rambling or lack of clarity in my review, as this is my first review and I might write more in the future; any and all feedback is appreciated
You can skip this if you'd like but given that this is my first review, actually my first anything on head-fi, I feel that it's important to provide context on my observations based on my experiences. First, I'm a storyteller by nature and am typically verbose, I apologize
. Also, I would like to note that these are my own thoughts and experiences with these cans, which I've had for about two weeks, in no way have I been incentivized to write this review. I just noticed how few reviews, one at the time of writing, this sleeper had and thought I'd give a crack at it as my first post here on Head-Fi.The Beginning: I've been interested in music and been messing with stereos since I was a kid, I helped my mother setup our Bose LifeStyle 12 II in our small den when I was 9. While I know better now, at the time it was a massive improvement over the little crt's stereo that we had going originally. For all its faults, which were many, it had an excellent diffused sound stage and with that I became interested in surround sound in general. I tweaked that system till I started building my own in my small bedroom, my family was big on garage sailing and from that I built my first setup from a mishmash of speakers and electronics. At that time I didn't really know what I was doing but I was becoming more discerning and informed. The best thing that came out of that was my "discrete" subwoofer system, a neighbor had thrown out a pair of JVC tower speakers as he had blown out everything but the woofers. Limited by my small room I cleaned out the bed's trundle and placed them both under my bed and let me tell you they were thunderous and a heck of a lot of fun. I still have those towers in storage if I ever manage to get out of living in apartments.
College: When I moved out I brought most of my system with me and I was extremely lucky that my apartment was right next to Salvation Army that was a boutique-ish store in that they had a constant hi-fi selection for absurdly low prices. I got to try out, refurbish and resell a bunch of equipment that I otherwise would never have gotten to try. Before I settled on my "endgame" in that apartment, I managed to get myself a 9.2.2 system. Used to have weekly get togethers where my friends would gather in my apartment to watch the movie of the week and such.
DIY: Through that SA I came across a pair of Super Rhino cabinets, can't find much on the internet anymore but they were these MASSIVE wood cabinets with dual 8 woofers, a Philips "egg" tweeter and midrange. I had done some restoration work but these guys needed some help and so I reached out to a friend's father who I convinced me to rebuild them in it's entirety. Two years later they lived as an completely different beast, a 3 way active design that utilized the vintage amps I had collected. I downsized my setup to a 5.2.2 to simplify, cut down on heat and electricity, those towers were literally life changing as the amount of research and time that I put into their design helped to form my understanding of what a truly good sound system could be. The sad part is I moved out 6 months later and they've been in storage since as my living space over the years continually becomes smaller and smaller.
DIY 2 Electric Boogaloo: Gonna make this a bit brief, I moved to a different state for work my new apartment was too small for a theater in my bedroom. I spent another couple of years researching and saving for my next build. I've built a nearfield active 4 way in a desktop form factor. They are tuned to have a wide soundstage with a relaxed but detailed sound signature. I could review it but that's not why we are here (emoji insert)I've moved since and they were able to move with me to where I'm currently living somewhere even smaller, with roommates.
Headphones: Finally! We are in the present! Up until a couple of months ago I've only had a little bit of experience with headphones with the exception of my Sony WH-900N H.ear on 2 which has been with me since 2018 I believe which also is my only comparable closed back headphone. There's also the Dekoni Blue which is semi-closed... frankly I dislike them. I do have a small choice of open back for comparison; Grado Hemp w/Pad Roll, Beyerdynamic T2.2, Thieaudio Ghost. As such I won't make any comparisons between these.
TLDR; All of this preamble is simply to state that my experience with audio has mostly been with stereo and surround systems and not with headphones. Onto the Actual Review!!!
Build and Comfort: Boring But Important Nonetheless
One of the many benefits of JM Audio is that they offer customization options for their headphones, I was able to choose between two headbands and I went with the Enhanced Arya Style Headband. The original fit was a bit too tight and put pressure on my temples after about two hours of wear, I must note that I wear glasses which I believe played a factor in this discomfort as well. Luckily the headband is easy to adjust, using a little bit of pressure I loosened the headband to where it's comfortable for many hours without discomfort. With the headband at its stock position, I had the notion that these were heavy and fatiguing cans but once adjusted they feel light and comfortable thanks to the suspension style headband. The cups themselves are tad bit cumbersome, I don't think anyone would recomend these for travel simply because of how big the cans are, that being said I'm quite partial to the function over form plus I know that the design is inspired by Sony's MDR-R10. The cans themselves are interesting in that if you do a finger rasp test on them, they do have a nice deadened sound to them which likely has to do with JM Audio Proprietary Fractal Mesh Technology™ and Fractal Fiberglass Porous Carbon™, very cool stuff. The pads are stock Hifiman, plenty comfortable if not a little warm after a bit but I think that's to be expected of a closed headphone. This all is a wonderful thing as I need them to be comfy for long sitting hours as I'm a work from home IT manager and my roommate is constantly on calls which leads me into the next section.
Isolation: Closed Back Cans Can Do The Can Can
I imagine most people get closed backs for the sake of isolation, working in a noisy environment, traveling, etc. These handle sound isolation well for my use case, during work hours I can't hear my roomie and he can't hear me, that's all I could ask for.
Listening Gear: The All Important Source
First off, if you've read all of the above and are still with me, thank you! Running off of USB from my PC into the Geshelli J2 (Non-Socketed) and I tried the R9's with these amps: THX 789, NITSCH Piety and LD MKII with rolled tubes (Mullard M8100) and all three run these with next to no effort. For most of my my time with this review I listened through the Piety as enjoyed this combination plus it's my newest toy and I can't help but enjoy it
. I don't have a traditional list of reference music, typically I just listen to whatever I'm enjoying at the time, if you really need a break down of my preferred music please ask me how x sounds in the comments section and I'll do my best to give a listen and provide my thoughts.How Does It Sound? This Is What You're Here For Right?
Presentation: Wow, we finally made it and I don't mean to spoil the end but, these are some fine cans! At the time of writing this review, these are my favorite headphones and are now competing with my personal stereo for run time outside of work hours. Let me start off with the stand out of these cans and that's the sound stage. If you are aware of John and JM Audio prior to this review then this may not be much of a surprise but the claims that his product page makes for the R9s here (https://www.jmaudioeditions.com/product-page/hifiman-he-r9-jm-ocd-extreme-stealth-edition) are no joke, the sound stage is held in what I would describe as a medium sized room where the stage provides room for the instruments to breath and have their own space in the music, they are neither intimate nor distant. They are also rather dynamic which I think empowers them in their overall presentation. Combine this with clean imaging and instrument separation and you've got the makings of a real winner. Also, they are no slouch in locational accuracy, they are a fantastic companion for gaming sessions and you don't even need rgb!
Bass: The Bass is presented in a very clean fashion, at no point does the bass overwhelm the midrange or sound muddy. I wouldn't say they are bass cannons but the bass is definitely there! I'm more interested in the bass quality and the ability to resolve bass texture which is something that they do well. The ability to listen to the strings on a guitar being individually plucked and here them reverberate is a reality here which is something that is extremely hard to do. Something funny to note is that reverb as an effect is actually rather noticeable in a non-distracting but strangely observable in some music which I think has to do with that natural transient nature of the bass? If some here has a better way to describe this please lemme know!
Midrange: I could give it a three word review, Natural and Smooth. While these do have a good deal of detail and definition, the overall midrange presents itself as natural and smooth. It does a nice balancing act for the midrange as it neither adds nor detracts from the overall sound signature, neither super defined or laid back, for lack of better words I'd call it a faithful reproduction throughout the midrange. While some might prefer to have some flavoring in their midrange I think this is a strong base.
Treble: Enjoyable, non-fatiguing or piercing although at higher volumes it might catch you by surprise. This is perhaps the most uninteresting part of this review as I can't find any faults with the treble but it doesn't standout in any particular manner which perhaps is a good thing.
Tubes: While I did most of my listening on the piety, which is designed to be a tube-like solid state amp, I would like to note that, at least with my tube amp, these did play nicely with them and added a touch to the soundstage and made the treble and midrange a touch sweeter, your tubes may vary
Conclusion: The Ultimate TLDR;
I might've spoiled the conclusion at the beginning but I am thoroughly enjoying these headphones, if only they were made fashionable to walk the block with... hmmm, they could be considered a fashion statement? Seriously though, if you are in need of a great pair of closed backs for whatever reason and the price is right for you I would suggest you give these a try, if you don't like their initial tuning, it's advertised throughout the the product page that they can be further customized to your liking. If you aren't looking for a closed back for a particular reason but something fun and different to your collection I can also recommend these as the sound stage is not a gimmick, its not dsp or some snake oil, its real and its GREAT!
If you made it to the end of this, again... thank you very much and I apologize for any rambling or lack of clarity in my review, as this is my first review and I might write more in the future; any and all feedback is appreciated
K othic
Hey AetherDrive, nice review! I believe that for a first one you've made a really good job describing the different aspects of the sound signature. I am not really a stereo guy (more of a headphones/IEMs guy) so I'm not educated on stereo systems enough but I appreciate that you took time to explain where your experiences come from. I hope you keep writing and don't be afraid haha (I'm kind of new too so I know it can be a little scary). Cheers!
AetherDrive
Hey K othic, thank you for the kind words! I was a bit worried that it might've come off as me talking more about myself so I'm glad you appreciated that bit and enjoyed my review
