Final Audio Design Appreciation/Discussion Thread - Page 10

Originally Posted by ianmedium 


Ahh, so glad you have a pair of these mate. I have been off the forum for a while due to some personal problems, just dipping back in and I saw this thread started and I was really happy to find it.
One of the things that has kept me sane all this time is listening to music and in the main through my Heaven S's.
I have had mine now for around 5 months now and as the time has passed I have come to appreciate their qualities more and more. Firstly, this is the only Balanced armature driver that I have used that has actually benefited from burn in! After about 50 hours they took off!
There are many things I love about them but two stand out the most, firstly the PRaT qualities, the ability to follow a recording be it slow or fast paced and to have ones feet tap and be fully engrossed in the performance is quite exceptional with these. The other is how they allow a space around individual notes. The only other headphones that I own that do that, and to be honest I thought it was exclusive to the type are my Stax portables. The way a note is hung in an inky black space so that one can fully absorb it and it's fellow notes which then added together bring a cohesive story before you to enjoy is once again quite remarkable in any headphone but astonishing in a single driver in ear device I feel.
One of the things I have thought about whilst incapacitated for what seemed like endless periods over the past few months is the benefits of a really well thought out single driver in a in ear monitor. What I have found with multiple driver units is that though they are able to handle sonic range really well they do it inefficiently I find. Add multiple crossovers and you add additions in the way of the signal path from source and amplification through to our ears. For me, in all the multi driver models I have tried this leads to a smearing of the sonic space. Notes merge together slowing proceedings, information is lost or at least covered up to the extent one has to listen more to hear those details rather than relax and allow the music to flow.
With the Heaven S's, and it seems from reading here, the sonic signature of FAD's there is none of this delay, no smearing just clear, concise musical enjoyment. What makes this all the better is that these headphones seem to achieve this across all musical genre's in my experience. From small and intimate with the likes of Leonard Cohen's wonderful new album to Solti's ring, from Electronic such as Kraftwerk to Metal such as Tool's beautifully recorded Album Lateralus, of note on that album is Ticks and Leeches, a festival of fast past and complex structured drumming that if heard with lesser headphones is a cacophony, a mess but through these one can hear all the details, all the subtle nuances of rhythm, the start stop immediacy raises ones hairs on the back of ones neck!
I used to think my ER4S's were detail hounds but they actually sound thick compared to the Heavens! That level of immediacy and detail retrieval is not everyones cup of tea and if it were that this was the only thing of note then the heavens would have a harder time. But it is not the whole story. For not only is there speed and detail retrieval there is emotion, there is feeling and warmth. I have just been listening to Mary Chapin Carpenters wonderful new album Ashes and Roses. This is a deeply personal and emotional recording for her, charting some very tender and painful moments over the past few years of her life. All of this tenderness, all of the emotion and intensity is conveyed so well listened to through the heavens. I think the way they convey breath and finger plucks on strings is truly very special, it is as if you can feel the very emotions that bring that breath, that bring the way the string is plucked.
I do have one word of warning though! Listen through inferior sources or amplification or music that is recorded at anything less than lossless (these headphones have made me go through my entire collection of CD's these past few months and re-rip them in AIFF) and you may think it is the fault of the headphone.. It is not, these are just picking up what is wrong with the source and amplification! I tried them straight out of my iPad and it was not the nicest of experiences!
But the other side of the coin is that it has given me a greater appreciation for Ray Samuels wonderful SR71-B and the CLAS/ Classic combo. Now, I only have one thing left in my mind, I wonder if these could be terminated with a balanced connector!
Oh yes, for those who think the single ended output on the blackbird is not up to snuff, you really need to hear it with decent headphones, it would change your mind!
So glad this thread is here and so glad to come back to seeing more love for FAD, they deserve it, for me they are the STAX of non electrostatic headphones and higher praise I could not think of!