I've had mine for a week now and am really enjoying them. This was my first step into "mid-fi". For perspective, I like a nice rounded sound, preferably more on the warmer side. I listen to everything from Beethoven, Beetles, Bruce Springsteen, Blondie, and Tristam (couldn't think of one of my electronic artists with a "b" darnit).
Primary listening is through a Fulla, they did okay through my LG G3 but in comparison were a bit more loose. My initial impressions were that these were a bit boomy out of the box. However, I was worried that a combination of them being new yet and me coming from a set that was a little anemic would bias a review. I wanted to give it a good long while before giving it a solid "what are they like". After giving them a chance to break in either a) I've gotten accustomed to it or b) they've rolled off a bit during the break-in process. Most likely a combination of both. Very articulate sounding, even on the "bright" fulla the highs are very managed and crisp but not harsh. Mid-range is great and provides a lot of clarity. Bass is definitely there if you're listening to music that's got it. As stated the punctuality of the bass rolled off a bit but still remained very tight. I'd say now it's less "in your face" after break-in. If i could give a short description of them, I'd say they're like a more "vee'd" PM3 (more base and maybe a scosh more treble). I'd probably come back to the PM3's as they're a bit more relaxed in that regard (bass freq) than the HP-2's but overall I'm very pleased on the purchase especially for the price. While they may lack the detail that a planar set of cans, I thought that for the category they're in ~$200 they did quite well. Certainly not the PM1 killers that Audiholics was claiming them to be that's for sure.
That's the TLDR of it, here's some of the tracks that I listened to over the last week or so that really stood out to me for various reasons:
Classical is quite fantastic. You get a lot of the presence from the rest of the strings and the violin is very pronounced. I was very impressed with this particular recording in the clarity or, maybe rather the detail you can hear in the strings. Its got texture.
Piano's no joke either with these. You can't quite hear the plunk of the hammer on the strings but maybe that particular player is a bit more light-handed than I ever was (why i was probably partial to Tchaikovsky
).
Now lets get into something a bit newer (we're going to skip over big band for now....haven't been in the mood for glen this last week). While I've always been a fan of Smokey and motown I think these cans really give it their all when you've got more vocals. Now while this particular track between
JT & CK was recorded...well...clear past the 60's and 70's its absolutely fantastic. The same definition (and again, texture) of the guitar can be found with a little help from
Steevie. Female vocals are something that really do sound like something else with these. Its like there's just that little bit of sparkle over a really warm base. Susan Tedeshci is no different and
this particular track has a pretty wholesome sound in itself.
Moving on a bit, lets get into some rock. For no particular reason that I can name, DSoTM is one of my favs to just plop down and listen to.
Time has a great combination of sounds that really emphasize how tight these headphones are. First time listening to "speak to me" i was really impressed with 1) yes that really is a heartbeat now....not a muffled mess and 2) there's a LOT of quieter less imposing sounds in the background that are *suddenly* magically there. Around the same era, you've got John Paul Jones doing his magic with Zeppelin. Seriously, every time I listen to the intro on
"Your time i gonna come" i just get chills. Comparing this to say, the pressing I've got on vinyl (so now closed back cans vs a speaker system) the sound stage definitely isn't as large...i mean...i know you're probably going DUH by this point in time but the sound staging with the Zepp tracks is one thing I've always really enjoyed and I think despite being a closed back sub $300 set of cans they do their faithful duty in trying to reproduce that.
Bonus Zepp because I've got a giant soft spot for them an all their imperfections.
Fear not you prog-rock fans. Fragile is probably one of my favorite records of the era to begin with but I think that
"Roundabout" does a great job with layering the music. You can hear the crispness of the percussion throughout the whole recording. In the beginning the (once more) texture of that guitar is fantastic and as with stuff from james and carole the harmony that they've got between them is great. This one sound just really wraps up everything that is great for me in the cans.
Lastly, for those of you not in favor of electro music turn around now!
Tristam has got to be one of my tops in this category, he's got a great production value and overall a very dynamic sound. This track will exercise the bottom end of those drivers a bit more! Shows that even in a more bass-heavy track there's a lot of control and it doesn't lose any quality in sound in the mids and highs along the way. Reinging it back in a bit, one of my favs off RAM was the opening track
"give life back to music". It has that funky sound that I really enjoyed with the album and the HP2's do a great job with it.
