Reviews by MartussDer
I have been calmly testing this headset and doing extensive testing.
So here is the detailed review of the Hifiman Audivina, the brand's new closed back.
Build, comfort and technology.
We have the same level of quality seen in the hifiman HE1000SE and the HE1000V2 Stealth. The hinges and headbands are real metal and leather. The clamping force is superior to an Arya but inferior to that of an Ananda, which is why I consider it at its precise point. The weight is practically not felt and the pads are huge. Your ear won't touch anything and they're not warm. These pads are made of a porous fabric and inside are made of perforated synthetic leather.
The wood of the cups is very thin, to the degree that it feels like it vibrates when you play music with predominant bass. It is likely that if you drop them, the wood of the cup will completely break, which would not happen with the Sundara Closed Back. However, Hifiman assures that the geometry of this wood and its material is responsible for generating the big soundstage and the resonant effects that lead to the spacious sound of the headset. Rather that, I believe that being thin, it allows some waves to get out, decreasing the reflected component, but we cannot know it.
We have a SuperNano driver between 1-2 microns thick. It is not the thinnest that Hifiman manages and I suppose that is why they feel difficult to move. Even though it's only 20 ohms and 97dB (per mW?), the audivina is a bit trickier to move than the Arya Organic, Arya Stealth, and the mdr Z1r. My adi2 and Astell kern sp1000 by 2.5mm drives very well, but only on burson soloist sounds a lil bit more controlled.
Worst of all, are the connectors. These are of cheap plastic and don't feel solid in its position. I'll tell you in time.
Something very curious is the "foam" that they have put between the drivers and the earpads. This foam has a function of attenuating some frequencies, so I want to assume that they are trying to imitate the operation of a dynamic driver:
SOUND and comparison vs Sony MDR Z1R
When I put them on, the first thing I noticed is that it doesn't blatantly follow harman curves or diffuse field curves. On the contrary, it has its own sound, which told me that it surely had those "Martian" FR curves.
The bass was super present, smooth, fast, detailed. The treble with an excess of detail and the massive scene.
.
.
LOWs
The extension of the audivina towards the sub bass is almost nil. The sony mdr z1r has a little more presence in that sub-bass area, but let me clarify, the sony also has few sub-bass quantity.
However, the mid bass of the Audivina is quite present. It hits with a high presence, dynamics and speed, but it is not as enhanced as that of a fostex. I'd say it's in the same category of mid bass presence as an Audeze LCD-2 Fazor. However, the amount of detail and speed is very good (much better than lcd-2). It has more cleanliness and softness than the bass of the MDR Z1R and is a little more raised and present than this in the same way. What I like the most is that it is a super soft, mellow, clean, detailed bass. It makes you want to turn up the volume to the fullest with how good its mid bass sounds.
It is likely that the speed of the mid bass is due to the fact that the upper bass is less present, I am not sure but I have discovered that. If you want to feel immense speed, we can use parametric EQ and decrease the band 150Hz and let the bass around 60Hz do the wonders. Therefore, I want to believe that the bass in the area close to 150Hz is recessed or maybe near 200Hz, but I'm not sure (i need messurements).
I have to say that the bass therefore seems superior to that of the mdr Z1r despite the fact that the other one is more neutral (less raised) and with more presence in the sub bass. I also find it much better bass than the focal stellia in quality.
Mids
Possibly this part is the strangest part of the headset. The instruments have an immense amount of detail, at levels that border on Arya organic performance. But the weirdest thing about this headphone is that some voices may sound in the front, but others sound further back. What?
The ones that sound further back are the voices that have higher frequency tones (between 1.5kHz-3kHz).
EXERCISE:
TREBLE
This headphone was made for the bass to caress your soul and the treble to show you classical music in the rawest way possible!!!.
The Lost in Venice disc is simply enjoyable in almost the same way I enjoy it with arya organic and hd800 on the audivina. The treble is not as full bodied, but has a hint of it that leaves you with the timbre on the perfect point but not as fat either. With the sony mdr z1r everything sounds full bodied, and slower and less dynamic.
Clearly the Audivina has the treble quite present in the style of maybe an Arya Stealth magnets however, we don't have the same clean treble that we would have in the Audeze LCD-4, HE1000v2. The treble is more of the character of the arya organic in cleanliness. Even I think a little bit lower. Maybe about the level of cleanliness of an Aeon Flow.
I repeat the treble is not as full bodied and not the cleanest, but "EYE": I've seen what is the reason.
The Audivina has a clear peak at 6kHz with a considerable bandwidth. Well, with Going Away to college - Blink 182, mark's voice is sibilant. And with De momento abriil - la bien querida, the voice is super sibilant. So, that's it, the notes with the letter S doing their thing.
I decided to put PEQ in and remove the 6kHz peak and it became much cleaner now. Now if we have the same level of cleanliness, at least from the Arya Stealh magnets and almost the same as the hifiman he1000v2.
I think this problem must be a product of a resonance, because this headphone vibrates a lot like a mini Skull candy Crusher!!!!.
But compared to the Z1r the treble has more detail. Mainly microdetail. The mdr z1r as you may know (if you saw my review on youtube), has very pronounced peaks in treble that mask the other treble frequencies. So it (z1r) feels clean and with good macrodetail but it masks the microdetail. Something that for example the FOCAL stellia does not do. The focal stellia shows you a treble with luxurious microdetail, cleanliness and smoothness!!!! But the audivina has the same detail as the focal Stellia in treble, with even more extension, but with more agility and speed in how it presents them. And the sony is the loser here because although it has cleanliness and smoothness, it lacks a lot of information.
Soundstage and layering
The star of the crown.
Audivina has massive soundstage!!!. Up to this point the headphone with the most soundstage size Before Audivina, The biggest soundstage in a closed back headphones were the MDR Z1r and le hifiman HE-R9. However, the Audivina has surpassed them both by a bit.
The soundstage of the mdr z1r is like an oval in width and height. And the audivina is like a Rectangle that covers the parts that the oval fails to cover. In this way the audivina covers more space on the sides compared to the MDR Z1r.
On the other hand, as the mdr z1r does follow the harman curve very well in the mids and high mids, it shows you the voices totally in front and closer to the nose. Something that as I already explained, in audivina does not exist. Audivina played with the EQ and managed to make you feel that in the front you have some voices far away and others close. That in the end generates a sensation of more air. So in depth the Audivina beats the mdr Z1r.
However, something happens with the audivina that only if you get picky will you notice:
All the sound sounds more concentrated in the area corresponding to the ear canal and with less presence in the areas corresponding to the higher parts of the ear. This phenomenon is to be expected, as the central part of the driver is NOT covered by the foam. Therefore, it is to be expected that in a certain way, the treble will be more concentrated in that area and the rest will have more presence of other frequencies. You will only notice this effect if you get really serious about analyzing it.
The audivina layering is at the same level as the mdr z1r. Both separate the sound layers in that huge scene without anything getting in the way. But even audivina is a little better because it has less body, and less forward high frequency voices, allowing you to feel less congestion.
Here in layering the stellia can't compete, it comes out crying against these two.
MUSICAL GENRES
-Very good for: Classical, Jazz, Instrumental.
-Good for: Electronic, Reggaeton, Trap.
-Normal only if you have well recorded: Pop, Rock and country with few of vocals and some metal subgenres.
-Avoid: Music with sibilant female vocals or with registers near the letter S. Avoid if you are looking for sub bass, because it has almost none. AVOID black metal and power metal because they have no body and high 6kHz treble, and the percussions will be a treble machine-gun.
CONCLUSION
I think that if we removed that 6kHz peak, and we moved back a little the region around 1kHz and raised a little the other one around 2kHz, we could have a real end game closed back. I still like the treble more the treble on the stellia, but it's not as impressive as this audivina, and it doesn't have the same majestic performance with violin, organ, harpsichord, etc. either. Audivina is a live classical music concert!!! (as long as there are no sibilant voices).
I think I still like more the sony mdr z1r because it goes with EVERY genre out there. But it does make me miss that extra morbid detail in treble. But for classica, instrumental, opera and jazz, i think my new favorite is audivina.
Harman
By putting in 17 band EQ PEQ towards harman, the audivina doesn't change much but the treble becomes now if almost perfect and the vocals in place. The bass doesn't change much either (but I do feel it gets a little worse, less speed, maybe because we have now upper-lows). I think that with this harman EQ, audivina sounds very similar to a Stax electrostatic but with less cleanness and refinement in treble.
Curiously, The soundstage is not affected with Harman EQ. Just Amazing! because that means that the region over 2 kHz is not too recessed like I thought or maybe the magic is in treble? hehe..
Cheers.
So here is the detailed review of the Hifiman Audivina, the brand's new closed back.
Build, comfort and technology.
We have the same level of quality seen in the hifiman HE1000SE and the HE1000V2 Stealth. The hinges and headbands are real metal and leather. The clamping force is superior to an Arya but inferior to that of an Ananda, which is why I consider it at its precise point. The weight is practically not felt and the pads are huge. Your ear won't touch anything and they're not warm. These pads are made of a porous fabric and inside are made of perforated synthetic leather.
The wood of the cups is very thin, to the degree that it feels like it vibrates when you play music with predominant bass. It is likely that if you drop them, the wood of the cup will completely break, which would not happen with the Sundara Closed Back. However, Hifiman assures that the geometry of this wood and its material is responsible for generating the big soundstage and the resonant effects that lead to the spacious sound of the headset. Rather that, I believe that being thin, it allows some waves to get out, decreasing the reflected component, but we cannot know it.
We have a SuperNano driver between 1-2 microns thick. It is not the thinnest that Hifiman manages and I suppose that is why they feel difficult to move. Even though it's only 20 ohms and 97dB (per mW?), the audivina is a bit trickier to move than the Arya Organic, Arya Stealth, and the mdr Z1r. My adi2 and Astell kern sp1000 by 2.5mm drives very well, but only on burson soloist sounds a lil bit more controlled.
Worst of all, are the connectors. These are of cheap plastic and don't feel solid in its position. I'll tell you in time.
Something very curious is the "foam" that they have put between the drivers and the earpads. This foam has a function of attenuating some frequencies, so I want to assume that they are trying to imitate the operation of a dynamic driver:
- Dynamic drivers are more flexible at the ends to have a greater excursion and generate low frequencies of greater amplitude.
- In the high-end dynamic drivers the center is more rigid because in this way, the short wavelength frequencies are less susceptible to overdrive and therefore generates a better transient response in this range (treble).
SOUND and comparison vs Sony MDR Z1R
When I put them on, the first thing I noticed is that it doesn't blatantly follow harman curves or diffuse field curves. On the contrary, it has its own sound, which told me that it surely had those "Martian" FR curves.
The bass was super present, smooth, fast, detailed. The treble with an excess of detail and the massive scene.
.
.
LOWs
The extension of the audivina towards the sub bass is almost nil. The sony mdr z1r has a little more presence in that sub-bass area, but let me clarify, the sony also has few sub-bass quantity.
However, the mid bass of the Audivina is quite present. It hits with a high presence, dynamics and speed, but it is not as enhanced as that of a fostex. I'd say it's in the same category of mid bass presence as an Audeze LCD-2 Fazor. However, the amount of detail and speed is very good (much better than lcd-2). It has more cleanliness and softness than the bass of the MDR Z1R and is a little more raised and present than this in the same way. What I like the most is that it is a super soft, mellow, clean, detailed bass. It makes you want to turn up the volume to the fullest with how good its mid bass sounds.
It is likely that the speed of the mid bass is due to the fact that the upper bass is less present, I am not sure but I have discovered that. If you want to feel immense speed, we can use parametric EQ and decrease the band 150Hz and let the bass around 60Hz do the wonders. Therefore, I want to believe that the bass in the area close to 150Hz is recessed or maybe near 200Hz, but I'm not sure (i need messurements).
I have to say that the bass therefore seems superior to that of the mdr Z1r despite the fact that the other one is more neutral (less raised) and with more presence in the sub bass. I also find it much better bass than the focal stellia in quality.
Mids
Possibly this part is the strangest part of the headset. The instruments have an immense amount of detail, at levels that border on Arya organic performance. But the weirdest thing about this headphone is that some voices may sound in the front, but others sound further back. What?
The ones that sound further back are the voices that have higher frequency tones (between 1.5kHz-3kHz).
EXERCISE:
- The song from All or nothig at all - Diana Krall has registers between 500Hz and 1.2khz of lots and lots of energy. These voices sound quite present in Audivina and if you don't lower the volume, a bit screaming.
- But the song Promise - Woongsan has registers of her voice clearly between 1.6kHz, 1.9kHz, 2.6kHz and 3kHz. Here her voice sounds without weight/body in the Audivina, and far, far away!!!!. Something that DOES NOT HAPPEN with the mdr Z1r.
TREBLE
This headphone was made for the bass to caress your soul and the treble to show you classical music in the rawest way possible!!!.
The Lost in Venice disc is simply enjoyable in almost the same way I enjoy it with arya organic and hd800 on the audivina. The treble is not as full bodied, but has a hint of it that leaves you with the timbre on the perfect point but not as fat either. With the sony mdr z1r everything sounds full bodied, and slower and less dynamic.
Clearly the Audivina has the treble quite present in the style of maybe an Arya Stealth magnets however, we don't have the same clean treble that we would have in the Audeze LCD-4, HE1000v2. The treble is more of the character of the arya organic in cleanliness. Even I think a little bit lower. Maybe about the level of cleanliness of an Aeon Flow.
I repeat the treble is not as full bodied and not the cleanest, but "EYE": I've seen what is the reason.
The Audivina has a clear peak at 6kHz with a considerable bandwidth. Well, with Going Away to college - Blink 182, mark's voice is sibilant. And with De momento abriil - la bien querida, the voice is super sibilant. So, that's it, the notes with the letter S doing their thing.
I decided to put PEQ in and remove the 6kHz peak and it became much cleaner now. Now if we have the same level of cleanliness, at least from the Arya Stealh magnets and almost the same as the hifiman he1000v2.
I think this problem must be a product of a resonance, because this headphone vibrates a lot like a mini Skull candy Crusher!!!!.
But compared to the Z1r the treble has more detail. Mainly microdetail. The mdr z1r as you may know (if you saw my review on youtube), has very pronounced peaks in treble that mask the other treble frequencies. So it (z1r) feels clean and with good macrodetail but it masks the microdetail. Something that for example the FOCAL stellia does not do. The focal stellia shows you a treble with luxurious microdetail, cleanliness and smoothness!!!! But the audivina has the same detail as the focal Stellia in treble, with even more extension, but with more agility and speed in how it presents them. And the sony is the loser here because although it has cleanliness and smoothness, it lacks a lot of information.
Soundstage and layering
The star of the crown.
Audivina has massive soundstage!!!. Up to this point the headphone with the most soundstage size Before Audivina, The biggest soundstage in a closed back headphones were the MDR Z1r and le hifiman HE-R9. However, the Audivina has surpassed them both by a bit.
The soundstage of the mdr z1r is like an oval in width and height. And the audivina is like a Rectangle that covers the parts that the oval fails to cover. In this way the audivina covers more space on the sides compared to the MDR Z1r.
On the other hand, as the mdr z1r does follow the harman curve very well in the mids and high mids, it shows you the voices totally in front and closer to the nose. Something that as I already explained, in audivina does not exist. Audivina played with the EQ and managed to make you feel that in the front you have some voices far away and others close. That in the end generates a sensation of more air. So in depth the Audivina beats the mdr Z1r.
However, something happens with the audivina that only if you get picky will you notice:
All the sound sounds more concentrated in the area corresponding to the ear canal and with less presence in the areas corresponding to the higher parts of the ear. This phenomenon is to be expected, as the central part of the driver is NOT covered by the foam. Therefore, it is to be expected that in a certain way, the treble will be more concentrated in that area and the rest will have more presence of other frequencies. You will only notice this effect if you get really serious about analyzing it.
The audivina layering is at the same level as the mdr z1r. Both separate the sound layers in that huge scene without anything getting in the way. But even audivina is a little better because it has less body, and less forward high frequency voices, allowing you to feel less congestion.
Here in layering the stellia can't compete, it comes out crying against these two.
MUSICAL GENRES
-Very good for: Classical, Jazz, Instrumental.
-Good for: Electronic, Reggaeton, Trap.
-Normal only if you have well recorded: Pop, Rock and country with few of vocals and some metal subgenres.
-Avoid: Music with sibilant female vocals or with registers near the letter S. Avoid if you are looking for sub bass, because it has almost none. AVOID black metal and power metal because they have no body and high 6kHz treble, and the percussions will be a treble machine-gun.
CONCLUSION
I think that if we removed that 6kHz peak, and we moved back a little the region around 1kHz and raised a little the other one around 2kHz, we could have a real end game closed back. I still like the treble more the treble on the stellia, but it's not as impressive as this audivina, and it doesn't have the same majestic performance with violin, organ, harpsichord, etc. either. Audivina is a live classical music concert!!! (as long as there are no sibilant voices).
I think I still like more the sony mdr z1r because it goes with EVERY genre out there. But it does make me miss that extra morbid detail in treble. But for classica, instrumental, opera and jazz, i think my new favorite is audivina.
Harman
By putting in 17 band EQ PEQ towards harman, the audivina doesn't change much but the treble becomes now if almost perfect and the vocals in place. The bass doesn't change much either (but I do feel it gets a little worse, less speed, maybe because we have now upper-lows). I think that with this harman EQ, audivina sounds very similar to a Stax electrostatic but with less cleanness and refinement in treble.
Curiously, The soundstage is not affected with Harman EQ. Just Amazing! because that means that the region over 2 kHz is not too recessed like I thought or maybe the magic is in treble? hehe..
Cheers.
