These headphones seem to have a lot in common, but there are also some differences.
- the headbands seem a bit different. The Alara one is thinner, the Quad one plusher. I prefer the latter, but the difference is small.
- the arcing of the headband is also a bit different, with the Alara being more elongated and the Quad slightly wider.
- the drivers look identical from what I can observe
- the pads work on both headphones
- the internal wiring from what I can see has a different colour, so probably different wires connecting the plug to the driver
- the build quality seems really good with both models, with metalic cups for the enclosure. The gimbals seem to be made out of plastic, but that might not matter at all.
- most important so far: the actual sensitivity of the drivers is not the same. The Quads I have are a bit more inefficient, so I had to adjust volume for comparison.
After a few hours playing the first impression, using the same leather pads from the Quads, sound wise they have unsurprisingly quite a few things in common. That said my Quads pair have a faster, more focused, more resolving and more dynamic sound. The Alara have slower more rounded bass, and are softer smoother, slightly more dense sounding. The high treble is more present on the Quads. Some of these differences are relatively small, some a bit bigger and there's a lot in common sound wise, such as the midrange.
For sound reasons I do not like the pads that come with the Alara or the velour pads for the Quads. They hold the headphones back in my opinon, reducing the stage 3D and overall size, dynamics and transient/edge focus, and hence resolution. The angled leather pads are a must have for me. I suggest to consider adding this option to Alara, looking at the Quad example.
Of course the Alara might open up more with more hours on them and I will update accordingly. The Quads I've had for a few weeks and they were ex-demo so any burn-in should that matter is a done deal.
Since I really like the Quads, and I think they offer tremendous performance for the price, the same goes for the Alara, the latter being cheaper, with the caveats I mentioned. Despite the delay shipping, once they got shipped they were delivered to me in 4 working days using free shipping, so I think that's great.