1. Introduction
   
   1. When I first began my audiophile journey, I never imagined being involved with the hobby would be anything more than just listening to music through high-end headphones. However, after being involved with the hobby for the better part of five years, I’ve learned there are more aspects to the hobby of hi-fi apart from just the gear. What I’ve observed is that being an active member of the audiophile community allows an individual to get deeper insights into the developments occurring within the market. With that being said, my enthusiasm for the hobby has led me to experience something few audiophiles will. After much delay, I was finally given an opportunity to listen to the Sennheiser HE1 system. Having had my eyes on the Orpheus system for quite some time now, being presented the chance to receive a long listening session with the system fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams. To put my experience bluntly, I dwelt amongst a god, only to realize I was a mortal.
      
   2. Once I finally attended my first CanJam back in 2015 I noticed I was a bit of an oddball. It appeared to me that I was the only person there who was under 30 years of age. Actually, after spending two full days at the convention it appeared I was the only person there who was not yet a legal adult. Relative to other members of the audiophile community, I was extremely young. My age has created an internal dilemma which has affected my relationship with the hobby of hi-fi. Having always associated with what is known as the “popular” crowd in school, I was exposed to mainly top 40 music. As many audiophiles know, this type of music is not only poorly mastered but is also highly unpopular within audiophile crowds. Given that bit of background knowledge, it came as no surprise to me to discover that there were very few if any people at CanJam who were familiar with music from the likes of Future or Avicci. With that being said, my musical taste is not exclusive to popular contemporary genres as I also have a fond appreciation for genres like classical and acoustic. In recent years, my musical preferences have actually shifted much more towards these more mature genres. Regardless of my shift in genre preference, a sizable portion of my music library still consists of rap and electronic music. It is for this reason that I find my continued interest in the hobby confusing. As I describe my experience with the HE1 system, I will explain more discretely why this is the case.
      
2. My opportunity and my experience
   
   1. I have the great fortune of living in the Bay Area which means I have the ability to visit the Sennheiser store in San Fransisco whenever I want. The Sennheiser store has been operating for quite some time, however, my busy schedule did not allow me to make trips to the store. Finally, I managed to book an appointment, and I was relieved I was finally able to listen to what had been formally established as the best headphones ever made. I believe it was this exceptionally high expectation that somewhat diminished my overall experience.
      
   2. Experiencing the HE1 doesn’t simply involve listening to the headphones. The significant amount of hype surrounding the headphone would make such a simple experience quite disappointing and pathetic. Luckily, the employees of the store made certain this was not the case. Just to make a statement, the HE1 is in a separate room on the second floor of the building. Only once I was inside the room and the employee had closed the door did I figure I was in for a unique experience. Inside, the room looked much like a living room intended to be used for the sole purpose of listening to headphones. However, before I got to listen to the system, there were a few things that caught my attention. The first of these was the HE90 which nearly made my heart rate explode. Initially, I thought it might be a replica, however, the employee confirmed it was indeed a real system. Unfortunately, it was not plugged into anything so I was not able to listen to the HE90, but I was able to try them on. On the same table, there was also a Custom HD 800 plugged into a custom HDV800. Both had a black and red color scheme which appeared interesting in my opinion. I’m sure such a color scheme would appeal to gamers. Moving along the room there was also a wall filled with EP albums and other nick nacks that are sure to make any aesthetic aficionado’s heart pound. Apart from that, the rest of the room was mostly bare and dark with a shortage of lighting.
      
      
      
      
      
   3. First Impressions: Before putting the headphones on I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what was to come. It is also worth noting that I was given the option of either using my Tidal account or listening to music straight from a turntable. Given the options they had and my musical preferences, I immediately opted to use my Tidal account. As I have done for the past four years, the very first song I played was Within by Daft Punk. Not only is this song well mastered, but it also features a mix of natural and synthetic sounds that are combined quite eloquently. The first movement of the song features piano which gives the song a slow and dark tone. This was one of the few times that the piano section of the song was able to provide me with a sense of dramatic tension, almost as if something tragic had occurred. Not even analyzing the sound, I was already impressed with how authentic the HE1 was able to convey this first section of the song. As the song progressed, I was startled by the use of symbols. When using most other headphones, the transition from piano to cymbals meshes together in a boring and unassuming way. Some may argue that this makes the song sound more coherent, however, with the HE1, the listener knows that there is a fine distinction between these two sections of the song. It lets the listener know the tone of the song has now shifted in a different direction. When I was analyzing the way the cymbals sounded, I was again impressed with the way in which they were presented. Instead of hitting and leaving, there was a long aftermath to the sound. Having heard cymbals in real life, I can confirm the HE1 did provide a more realistic approach. Given this hyper-realistic presentation, I will say there was a noticeable degree of crudeness to the way the cymbals sounded after the initial slam had worn off. To me this sound came off as rusty, however, I will put the blame to this on the recording of the song and not the headphones. I can vaguely remember hearing a similar tonality when I heard this section of the song on a Stax SR-009 through a high-end custom-made amp. Given the massive increase in performance over the aforementioned system, I was not surprised to hear that this sound was much more pronounced on the HE1. The song progressed to a small portion where there is a splash of sparkle. The first time I heard this song through proper headphones, it was this sparkle that really caught my attention. I’ve never heard something sound so pristine, it was truly like listening to diamonds. Listening to this section of the song through the HE1 was exhilarating. It felt like traveling through a space wormhole. I had the sense that it was raining jewelry in my ears. Overall the first song my choice gave me an exceptionally strong first impression of the HE1. Luckily, the client that came after me had canceled his appointment, therefore I now had a full hour of listening. With such a generous time limit, I tried to sift through as many of my favorite songs as I could, trying to encompass as many genres as I could to get a well-rounded feel of the sound of the headphones.
      
   4. General Overview: Having such diverse musical preferences meant I had to try to listen to as many different songs as I could. Even with the full hour, I knew I could only play songs significantly different from each other. Instead of randomly jumping around different songs, I decided to go through a few select songs from different genres. I started with classical, which made the most sense as this genre is known for being mastered exceptionally well and having high levels of dynamic range. The first song I choose for this portion of my listening session was the Piano Sonata No. 14, otherwise known as the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. Compared to most other classical pieces, this song isn’t necessarily known for its audio quality. Nonetheless, it is one of my favorites, and through a pair of performance headphones, this song is able to provide me with a strong sense of emotion. Additionally, good headphones also allow me to visualize a full moon when I listen to the moonlight sonata. Clarity and speed are actually two factors I would consider to be enemies of this piece as the tone of the song is intended to be slow and dramatic. To my amazement, the speed of the HE1 did not interfere at all with the tone of the sonata. I was still able to experience the effervescent quality of the piece that made it all the more enjoyable. The next piece I moved onto was the violin concerto in A minor by Bach. This is a piece that is staggeringly different from the one I had just previously played. For one, it is much more uplifting, but the use of different instruments obviously gives it a divergent character. I would have to evaluate this piece differently as I have actually not heard a violin played in real life. Because of this, it would be practically impossible for me to determine the sense of realism in the piece. Instead, I would have to rely on other objective measures. One common misrepresentation I often hear from higher-end headphones is that violins are over exaggerated with it comes to the upper registers. By this, I mean that there is ample clarity to a violin, but this also makes it sound squeaky. It doesn’t take a violin expert to know this is not the way a violin is supposed to sound. To my pleasure, the HE1 was able to convey the violin faithfully. There were also strings that are often hard to hear even with detailed headphones. Having a high level of clarity certainly helps in hearing the background strings, however, from my observations, it is more important for a headphone to image well in order to clearly make out the strings. More often this is an issue with IEMs and closed-back headphones. The lack of an adequate soundstage makes it difficult to hear the strings in the background. Additionally, with the HE1, the strings sounded as if they were each independently strung while on most other headphones they sound as if they were strung closely together, though not entirely separate. This demonstrated how well the separation was on the HE1. Despite this level of separation, there was not a lack of direction. Headphones that feature large soundstages often run the risk of sounding diffused. In these circumstances, while the music may sound expansive, a close listen reveals there is usually a lack of direction. The listener loses a sense of where everything is. This does not happen with the HE1, so while the soundstage may not be the largest, it is certainly the most accurate one I have heard. It keeps the size of a song accurate rather than artificially making it sound more expansive than it really is. With this piece, I was also able to examine the range of the headphones. While soundstage may measure how expansive the song is as a whole, range measures the proportional distance of either instruments or the artists. When it came to this evaluation, I decided to switch gears and listen to a classic, Hotel California. I’ve heard many audiophiles say that this song is overused, however, I would have to disagree with that. It is apparent Sennheiser uses this song often when it is showcasing its high-end headphones. Regardless of that, I think Sennheiser uses this song for justified reasons. It is a well-recorded song that provides a wide range of different sounds. Similar to Within from Daft Punk, it mixes the natural with the synthetic in a way that is superbly coherent. Just to make the experience more enjoyable, I decided to listen to the acoustic version as I feel this version sounds undoubtedly better. This version is heavier in its use of strings, and as such, I was able to more closely analyze the way in which the HE1 handled separation. Once again I was left extremely impressed with the way it portrayed the use of strings as there is no degree of mushing. This was also the first song I played that features human vocals, however being that this was a live recording, it was hard to evaluate the accuracy of vocals. Nonetheless what I heard sounded not only realistic but also authoritative. The voice of a man who sings his heart out will naturally sound powerful, perhaps even authoritative. With the HE1, I was able to get a strong sense of the singer’s voice when listening to Hotel California. Along with vocals, the song also features cymbals and drums. Altogether this is a rather complex song as I’ve said previously, headphones that have diffuse soundstages will struggle to replicate everything without sounding disorganized. The hyper-accurate soundstage of the HE1 prevents this sort of situation from occurring, and everything sounds orderly. When it comes to reference tracks, there was one more area I hadn't covered yet and that was female vocals. I’ve never been someone who was very fond of such female-exclusive songs, however, there were some that I was able to appreciate. One of these happens to be My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion. This was the main theme of the movie Titanic and has since then become iconic. The song has a good mix of female vocals as well as rumbling bass to add some authority and listening to this song through the HE1 once again proved to be an entirely different experience. Celine’s voice sounded even more angelic on the HE1 than on other high-end systems I’ve heard in the past. Unlike headphones that emphasize the midrange and end up sounding nasal, the HE1 steered away from this approach. Granted, female vocals will always sound better with a mid-range focused sound, but I’m certain that most people will take the versatility of the HE1 over mid-range focus any day. On ordinary headphones and speakers, the song comes off as being desolate, and that it is. Knowing how emotionally charged the movie Titanic was, it always seemed odd to me that they would compose such a simple song to be the main theme. As soon as I listened to this song on the HE1, I quickly realized that there was much more underneath the surface to this song than I had originally thought. Apart from just a gloomy tone, there were also hints of hope. To many of those reading this, the description may sound odd, but it is truly one of those things that have to be heard in person in order to be understood. I became slightly emotional after listening to My Heart Will Go On, so I decided to end the first part of my analysis by listening to Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley. This is a song that speaks volume in that it is both mastered well and carries a heavy set of emotions with it. This was really the first song where I was able to analyze male vocals, and I’m glad I chose this song as I was able to hear how different vocals sound as they change in volume. The song progressively becomes louder, so I was able to observe how the HE1 reacted to changes in volume and once again, it performed marvelously. As a side note, the immense detail also allowed me to hear Jeff lick his lips every time he was about to sing. Although this is a nuance I do not care much for, I’m sure there are audiophiles out there who will be thrilled to know they can hear such subtle nuances with the HE1. As the song came to a close I decided to take a short break before proceeding to the second part of my evaluation. I considered the first part of the evaluation to be an exposure to the full potential the Orpheus had to offer. This is the reason why I played my favorite reference tracks on it. However, like I’ve said several times at the beginning of this narrative, my tastes diverge from the usual classical and acoustic that are so common amongst audiophiles. Despite having an affinity for these genres and despite being well immersed in the hobby, I still have to contend with the fact that I deeply enjoy contemporary genres of music as well. As I did previously, I took a deep breath before I once again began to evaluate the sound quality of my favorite songs.
      
   5. Personal Dilemma: For the past year one artist who has captured my attention quite a bit has been NAV. He is a Canadian rapper who evokes a style that is similar to that of other Canadian superstars like Drake and the Weekend. His pilot song, Myself, has rapidly climbed to the top of my playlists and has solidified itself as being one of my favorite songs of all time. The song, as well as the rest of the album, somewhat resembles the album Thriller which was released by Micheal Jackson back in the 80s. Myself has a very dark tone that some would even say makes the song sound mystical, and I would have to agree with those descriptions. Given the vibe this song is able to provide, I simply couldn’t resist not listening to it. However, by then I had entered a love phase with the HE1 and had forgotten about the possibility that there might be some songs that just weren’t made to be played through such an exquisite headphone. I eagerly played the song and even turned the volume up to get a full feel for how it would sound. The first minute or so was fine as there was little going on. But as soon as the song changed pace, that's when I was reminded of my personal dilemma with the hobby. I was so startled by the change in sound I slightly jumped out of my chair. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a voice sound as raspy or harsh as I did when I played Myself. Most people would have stopped listening, however, I was determined to listen to the whole song. Doing so proved to be torture, and I would say was the equivalent of grinding your eardrums with sandpaper. It was painful and even slightly terrifying to hear such a sound. It was even more disappointing to know it was coming from one of my favorite songs. I quickly moved onto the next song which I thought would fair better; I soon found out that I was mistaken. The next song I chose was Butterfly Effect by Travis Scott. Although this is a newer song, it has become one of my references for testing the levels of bass in a headphone. From my previous experience with audiophile headphones, when playing this song one of two things happen. Either they fail to portray the bass convincingly, or they give the perception that the sound is falling apart. The latter description seems odd, however, it is worth noting this only occurs when playing the song through multi-balanced armature IEMs. The bottom line is that audiophile grade headphones often struggle to replicate such copious quantities of bass. Given the high failure rate headphones have with this song, I was actually surprised to hear that the HE1 was able to replicate the full force of the bass without any issues. What was more impressive was the HE1 was able to provide as much bass as it did given that it is an electrostatic model. So as a confirmation from someone who listens to music with high levels of bass, the HE1 is certainly not lacking in lower frequencies. Aside from the bass, the song did have a little bit more to offer. The heavy use of autotune means this was a good song to further examine the separation capabilities of the HE1. Although the HE1 essentially ripped apart this song, it did prove it was the master of audio separation in the process. With this analysis, I felt I needed one more rap song just so I could get a full feel for how well the genre would perform with such a high-grade pair of headphones. For this last portion of the analysis, I decided to use the song Wonderful, also by Travis Scott. I felt this was a good song to use as it also featured The Weekend, another popular artist who is known for the authenticity in his vocals. Unlike the other two songs, this one starts much faster, thus there was no sense of startlement as the song progressed. Aside from really enjoying this song, there is an important reason for using this one for the analysis. This song happens to be the most sibilant song I have in my entire library. It is so sibilant that even with “flat” headphones and the equalizer set on treble reducer, I am still able to hear above-average levels of sibilance. To no surprise, this song was extremely sibilant, but there was an interesting twist. Through the HE1, this was not the most sibilant that I have heard this song. In order to spare my ears some pain, I changed to a different song as soon as the Weekend was done with his main verse. What I gathered from this was that the HE1 is not a sibilant headphone, however, if there is sibilance in the recording, then it will be shown with full force. With the rap songs out of the way, I proceeded to analyze some of my EDM tracks. The first one I choose was Countdown by Hardwell. To put it simply, if a headphone fails to reproduce this song faithfully then there are two things wrong with the headphone. Either it has low levels of sloppy bass, or the treble is elevated to the point where listening to this song becomes torture. Now knowing the HE1 did not lack in bass, I was not worried about the lower frequencies being sacrificed. The bass hit both hard and swiftly, showcasing the true speed the HE1 drivers are capable of. However, this being an EDM song, the track was overall very hot, meaning there were tons of peaks as well as sibilant passages. Again, I’ve heard an overall harsher tonality from this song when listening to it on other headphones. Although there was still an abundance of harshness, I’m more willing to believe this was from the recording and not a fault of the headphones. After listening to this song, the affirmation that the HE1 does not fair well with contemporary genres continued to grow. I wasn’t ready to give up yet, however as I still had a few more tracks to test. One of these was the Hey Brother by Avicci. Although this is also in the electronic/dance genre of music, it utilizes a style completely different from the previous song. In contrast, this song is a lot more natural with a greater use of real instruments and vocals. I expected this song to sound less harsh and indeed it did. That didn’t mean everything was alleviated as the HE1 still revealed the hoards of distortion present in the song. Overall, even this song sounded too grainy to be pleasurable on the HE1. Already deprived of my enthusiasm, I decided I would try one more song before concluding my analysis. The final song I chose was Perplexing Pegasus by Rae Sremmurd. This is an interesting song as even with other highly revealing headphones, I struggle to hear any hints of harshness. In addition, this song also features a beefy bass background that reveals the depravity of lower frequencies in many high-end headphones. In the bass department, the HE1 did not disappoint with this song and even exceeded my expectations. Not only was I able to sense the punch of the midbass, but I also got a good feel for the sub-bass. Indeed many headphones, regardless of price, fail to bring up the sub-bass in this song and as a result, it ends up sounding flat most of the time. I was delighted to hear that the HE1 was able to faithfully execute the lower frequencies. The higher frequencies confirmed my long-held suspicion about this song. My suspicion was that this song was deprived of any sort of detail. Listening to it on the HE1 confirmed the lack of detail because if I could not hear it through the HE1, then that must mean it is simply not there. Set aside that logical fallacy to this statement, I am simply explaining what I hear, or better yet, what I didn’t hear. And with the end of that song, so came an end to my listening session, and I then proceeded to the interview portion of my project.
      
3. Pure Sound Analysis
   
   1. It would be quite a disservice for me to write this without providing a detailed analysis solely on the sound. For those who wish to know how the HE1 sounds and nothing else, I will be writing a detailed description of it in this section. I will cover the standard layout of going from bass to treble and will also cover soundstage. Again if you are only interested in knowing how the HE1 sounds, then skip everything else and just read this section.
      
   2. General Overview: I will describe the sound of the HE1 in a way sure to exacerbate the opinions of many audiophiles reading this. So how does it sound? With the HE1 you don’t hear the headphones, only the music. To the average reader this sounds cliche and makes little sense, so I will elaborate. When listening to the HE1, you are able to hear music in its entirety. This means you hear very little from the headphones and receive more from the music itself. If the goal of a headphone is to attain audio purity, which would create a path towards perfect audio reproduction, then the HE1 is the closest to achieving this goal by far. Ideally, why would anyone want to hear anything else besides their music? Some will argue that different tonalities add character to the music, however, I would have to disagree with this statement. I will say when compared to other world-class headphones like Sennheiser’s own HD800 and the Stax SR-009, the HE1 does sound marginally warmer. This does not mean the headphone is warm sounding, I’m just making the statement from a relative perspective. Most people would only make such a claim if they had the two mentioned headphones on hand for a direct comparison. Apart from that, I highly doubt anyone would make the claim that the HE1 is a warm sounding headphone. Having said that, I also want to rule out the notion that it is an analytic headphone. This is far from the truth as the HE1 does not constrain the music in any way, it simply allows it to perform to its full potential. Without getting political, it is the libertarian of headphones.
      
   3. Lower frequencies: If there is bass in the track, then the HE1 will present it to its full potential, but nothing more than that. Despite that, I still advise bassheads to steer away from this headphone as it will not provide the heart-pounding, ground-shaking, earth-shattering quantities of bass such listeners may be accustomed to. On a more positive note, I’m almost certain anyone who is not a bass head will enjoy the lower frequencies on these. Knowing bass is a subject of contention within the audiophile community, I often use different types of bass to see how well a headphone stacks up. I use a mix of quality bass, crude bass, as well as hard bass and physical bass. Audiophiles enjoy a plethora of genres, and that's not even factoring in different types of media like video games and movies. For this reason, I implement different types of bass in my listening sessions. I will start by explaining what quality bass sounds like from the HE1. The track I used for this was Doing it Right by Daft Punk. I can’t think of a better track that features such good quality for both sub and mid-bass. Starting from the sub-bass, there is an exceptional sense of physicality, almost as if you could touch the music. Although not quite as effervescent as some of the leading planar magnetics, the HE1 easily holds its ground in this area. The slightly drier tonality does lend the HE1 to sounding more articulate. With these, it is easier to make it what little detail there is in the sub-ass region. In the upper bass, there is a strong and swift physicality, most analogous to a swift punch to the face. The HE1 not only punches fast but equally hard as well. While listening to the song, I was not able to observe any sort of sloppiness in the bass, however, later bass tests would show me how well the HE1 fared when presented with less controlled bass. Right after this track was over I decided to try the song Butterfly Effect by Travis Scott, to see how the HE1 handled tracks significantly more bassy. As I have mentioned before, Butterfly Effect is one of those tracks that can weed out bass-shy headphones, therefore I felt it was a great track use. I started off by listening at around 30% volume and here everything was fantastic, apart from the treble that was scraping my eardrums. There was no distortion or sloppiness whatsoever, which was to be expected. The bass in this track is entirely artificial so I did not expect to receive any feeling of a physical presence. I was able to hear some digital processing that was most likely used when composing the song. Peering that deep into the music startled me, though it did put a small grin on my face. What happened next might sound troubling as it was completely unexpected. Having solidified the notion that the HE1 was impervious to lower frequency distortion, I began to raise the volume just to see how differently the bass would sound. With a complete disregard for the comfort of my ears, I briefly raised the volume to 75%. With this particular track, I was able to catch a glimpse of the HE1 struggling to reproduce the copious quantities of bass, while at the same time maintaining a degree of order. No, the HE1 did not become sloppy with the bass and neither was there audible distortion, however, I heard what appeared to be a hollow sound. An anthropomorphic metaphor would be that the drivers of the HE1 were becoming exhausted. Without jumping to any immediate conclusion, I suspect if I had raised the volume by just five more notches, I might have been able to hear minute levels of distortion. Again, I will not make any confirmation, that statement is just pure speculation. I doubt anyone buying this set of headphones will listen to music as bass-heavy as the track I tested it with, much less listen to such music at high volumes. Regardless I still think this small observation was something to take note of. Noticing this prompted me to try a track featured in a film. I decided to use the track Cornfield Chase from Interstellar. This track is both physically powerful as well as emotionally potent. It features the type of intense sub-bass not present in regular music. It is the type of bass that with a good home theater system, will make the floor shake. When listening to this song through speakers, I could feel the low frequencies permeate through the room. Obviously, I was going to get a different experience from a pair of headphones. The song starts off slow, but this leisurely pace did let me get another glimpse at how well-constructed the soundstage of the HE1 is. Once the bass started, my jaw began to drop. I don’t mean to spew out a constant stream of superlatives, but the lower frequencies here were extraordinary. It is not simply that the HE1 was able to provide a scrumptious amount of bass, but it was able to convey the feeling this song has when played through a proper set of speakers. Like with my theater experience, the bass on the HE1 was able to envelop me, allowing me to get the sense I was inside of the song. Unfortunately, I did not have any triple-A games with me to see how well the HE1 would fare with lower frequencies in-game soundtracks. However, I would assume gaming soundtracks would be very similar to movie soundtracks, so it is safe to assume gaming soundtracks would sound equally as good on the HE1. My last bass test would demonstrate how well the HE1 handled fast and hard bass. This type of bass is most prominent in genres like electronic or pop. The song I chose for this test was Countdown by Hardwell. Right from the start this song smacks you in the face. With this song, it is easy to evaluate the bass control a headphone has. On a subpar pair, this song will sound immediately sloppy in the bass region. On most high-end headphones that overemphasize the treble, this song sounds incredibly harsh, verging on being unlistenable. Well, although the higher frequencies on this song did not bring comfort to my ears, the lower frequencies left me very pleased. I was able to observe how the bass in this track was layered, meaning there were different types of bass overlapping each other. Most headphones struggle to make this separation, however, the HE1 was able to dissect this portion of the song like a pair medical-grade forceps. Through this extreme level of separation, the HE1 still maintained the hard punch that the bass on this song has. For a brief moment, I took the headphones off, and interestingly, from a distance this portion of the song sounding as if the headphone was popping. This just goes to show how hard the bass in this song is. I suspect through cheap speakers or headphones, the bass would sound as if it was popping. I have also heard this through some single balanced armature IEMs, so I was quite glad the HE1 didn’t ruin the bass in this song. While the punch was not as physical as it is on speakers, it was certainly on par with what you would get from a world-class planar. My conclusion about the bass after listening to all these songs was that it was the correct type of bass that I had heard. Although it does not sound as physical as speakers or some planars, it still portrayed the bass in the most correct way I have yet heard. With that being said, my final thoughts on the bass is that is powerful when it needs to be. It won’t rattle your bones, but it also won’t leave you wanting more -- unless of course, you are a basshead. Amongst those who have more mature taste in musical genres, the HE1 will exceed expectations.
      
   4. Middle Frequencies: The mids often get overlooked in the evaluation of a headphones’ sound quality. It was impossible for me to ignore the mids in the HE1, not because they were overemphasized, but because there was nothing to drown them out. Similar to bass, there are also varying degrees of mid-range frequencies. Cellos are a mid-range centric sound, yet they sound completely different from female vocals. In order to evaluate the mids fairly, I also listened to different songs in order to observe how the HE1 handles all types of mid-centric sounds. The first song I chose for this test was Bach’s cello suite no. 1 in G major. This song is exclusively cello so I felt it was a good track to use when evaluating mids. The best way to describe this song through the HE1 was that it sounded organic. It was as if I could feel the wood of the cello up against my ears. In a more technical description, the mids sounded clear. This clarity is due mainly to having no obstruction from either the bass or the treble. You can hear the cello that comes immediately out at you, but at the same time, you can hear the decay of the cello that fallows. Having heard a cello played in actuality, the HE1 was extremely fair to how a real cello sounds. The lower mids added the needed authority that makes this piece sound emotionally deep. Moving up to the upper mids, the HE1 made higher registers of the cello sound pristine. Apart from that, there wasn’t much I could examine from this piece other than that the mids from a cello were both authoritative and clear. The next song I choose was I Love You Always Forever by Donna Lewis. Like other female vocalists from the 1990s, Donna’s voice sounds angelic. This is true regardless of what headphone is used, but with the HE1, her voice is elevated to another level. Although this description will make little sense to anyone reading, I would say that through the HE1, her voice sounded like I was listening to a beam of light. To elaborate, listening to her was the equivalent of listening to a strand of high-grade silk. Though her voice was exceptionally clear, in this case, the clarity of her voice was less relevant as the smoothness of her voice took over. It was the type of silky smoothness that makes a person fall back in their chairs. After this song was over I decided to try another similar song, not for evaluation, but simply for enjoyment sake. The next song I tried was My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion. In terms of sound and style this song is very similar to the previous one, however, there is more of a sense of space with this song. What I mean is that opposed to sounding as if it was recorded in a studio, My Heart Will Go On sounds like it was recorded in a symphony hall. There is simply a larger sense of space with this song that makes it more suitable for testing open-back headphones. Sure enough, with this song, Celine’s voice sounds as if it was shooting off into the distance. It creates a large atmosphere that I think captures the emotion she is trying to convey in the song. Celine’s voice is also slighter deeper than Donna’s so this let me hear how well the HE1 portrayed different types of female voices. Like Donna, Celine sounded clear and pristine while at the same time being supremely smooth. And that description quickly summarizes how well the HE1 can convey female vocals. But female vocals weren’t the only types of vocals I tested. Of course, I also had to see how well male vocals sounded. It’s easy for many “audiophile” headphones to sound good with female vocals. All these headphones need to do is get rid of bass and elevate the upper mids. Sure this is a crude and dismissive description, but it is, unfortunately, the truth. Male vocals, on the other hand, are harder to reproduce because they require some heft from lower frequencies, while also maintaining clarity. For this test, I used the one song I’m sure all audiophiles have heard at this point. Yes, I am referring to Hotel California. Although this song is good for measuring many things in a headphone, I used it exclusively for the evaluation of male vocals on the HE1. I will disclose that for this test I used the acoustic version of the song in order to get more of a feel for male vocals. Getting to the core of the matter, the HE1 portrayed the male vocals in this song as good as I wanted it to. The lower registers of the singer's voice was as authoritative as need be which in the back of my mind, let me know it was indeed a man who was singing. The detail in the vocals matters too, and I was able to hear plenty of detail as well. The detail in this song was actually startling as I was able to hear the changing tonality in the singer’s voice. On top of that, I was able to hear the subtle raspiness on his voice as well. Keep in mind I was hearing all of these on top of everything else that was going on in the track. So apart from dominating male vocals, the HE1 once again proved it was a master at separation. I tried one more song to get a solid grasp on how well it rendered male vocals. I moved onto the song Doing it Right by Daft Punk. This song features the artist Panda Bear who is the singer of the song. His voice is different enough from the singer in Hotel California, so I am able to evaluate how the HE1 handles different types of male vocals. His voice is on the lighter end, so it benefits more from the high-frequency detail available on the HE1. For the most part, Panda Bear’s voice sounds extremely clean, similar to Celine’s voice. There are brief moments where he starts singing, and during these parts, I am able to hear the puckering of his lips. I will disclose I was able to hear this when I turned the volume up to 75%. It also helped that this song is very well mastered. Despite the high level of detail in his voice, there was no point where I felt the lower frequency heft was not being well portrayed. Panda’s voice was undeniably a man’s voice, and that was what convinced me that the HE1 doesn’t make sacrifices when it comes to rendering either female or male vocals. With that last song coming to an end, I confidently told myself that like the lower frequencies, the mids are also faithfully recreated through the HE1. Sure there might be mid-centric, bassless headphones that really make female vocals “pop”, but if you are someone who is after the more realistic portrayal of not just vocals, but all middle frequencies, then the HE1 is the cream of the crop in this regard. As I said at the beginning of this section, the mids on the HE1 are not excellent because they are, but instead because there is nothing to overpower them. As a result, they are able to shine without coming off as overly brash. I say that personally, these are my favorite types of mid-frequencies.
      
   5. High-frequencies: We have made it to the high-frequencies, which I often say is what makes or break a headphone. This statement is, of course, inclusive of all audio gear. People can say they don’t enjoy copious quantities of bass, but they can handle it. They can also say they don’t like mids that are too forward sounding, but they can handle this as well. This line of coping doesn’t apply to well for treble. To put it simply, too much treble is easily off-putting and will deter listeners more than either bass or mids. Nowhere is there more contention in sound quality than in this area of sound. Because of this, I had to evaluate this portion of the HE1’s sound as best as I could in order to avoid any misleading characterizations. With that being said, I will now describe the treble on the HE1 as accurately as I can. When it comes to testing the treble on any headphone, the first song I turn towards is Within from Daft Punk. Some may think this is an odd choice for this type of test; however, I disagree. Apart from the use of cymbals, there are also segments in the song where there is a stream of sparkle thrown in. This is a finishing touch that makes the entire song sound dark and luscious, yet immensely detailed at the same time. This isn’t the type of detail that is common amongst most songs. It’s the type of detail that needs a high-powered microscope to be appreciated. The HE1 is one of these microscopes that lets you peer deep into every particle in the track. For those who would like an analysis of more natural sounds, this song may not be sufficient when describing the detail retrieval capabilities of this headphone. Keeping this in mind, I turned to a piece that is less synthetic. The next track I chose is called We Three Kings, the instrumental version. This track features mostly string instruments, so it is more akin to what an ordinary person would think of when the idea of audio detail is presented to them. Through almost every headphone I’ve tried this song sounds very hot, and that is because it is. With so much detail thrown into the mix, it is nearly impossible to not characterize this song as anything but hot. On a normal volume setting, this song did not sound hot through the HE1. I did hear tons of detail, but nothing that would make me cringe. What is most fascinating about this song is that apart from just pure resolution, it also showcases the separation capabilities of the HE1 as well as the soundstage.
      Unlike other headphones, including the venerable HD800, the detail here doesn’t make the HE1 sound diffuse. Instead, I am able to clearly distinguish where every sound is coming from. Yes, the HD800 and other headphones like it may sound wider, or more open, but they certainly lack the staging capabilities of the HE1. This is just one cue that let me know that the HE1 does not go over the top with treble, but instead is nuanced in how it presents the available detail present in a song. The next song I chose was The Stable Song, by Gregory Alan Isakov. For those who might be aware of this song, it may seem strange to have picked this song for the treble evaluation, however, I did not use the original recording. Instead, I opted for the 2016 version of the song that is mastered significantly better. Like the previous song, there is enough raw detail here, but also a good level of expansion that makes the entire song sound like a journey through a vinyl record. It’s the type of resolution you have to look for instead of being the type directly shoved into your face. When looking through this song, it is evident there is more detail laying underneath the haziness of background. Through most headphones, this is not audible. “Neutral” or sterile sounding headphones have a tendency to kill the sound signature of this song, thus not allowing you to hear all the detail in the track. Because the HE1 doesn’t have the brute sharpness of some of these headphones, it is much easier to hear the underlying tones of this song. And this is what I wanted to explain the most. Detail isn’t just about listening to what is immediately noticeable to you. It is about being able to hear everything and then piece it all together in a way that makes a song sounds cogent. This translates into being able to see, or in this case, hear bigger picture. On the HE1, this is possible as it shows you everything that there is and nothing less. For tracks that are mastered well, this is a massive positive. But for those tracks in every audiophile’s library that may not quite be up to par with the rest in their library, the HE1 is the equivalent of Satan. There are songs I tested which have what I call “crude” treble. This is the type of treble that may make muddy sound car stereos sound clear, however, when played through high-end headphones, makes listening to the song sound excruciatingly painful. I’ve previously mentioned that one of these types of songs is one by the name of Wonderful, by Travis Scott. On any ordinary headphone, you might be fooled into thinking this song is well mastered, however, the HE1 reveals this song for what it really is. Through the HE1 songs like these sound like lava, an extremely hot mess. Apart from the lack of true micro-details, whatever treble there is in the song is synthetic, lending it to sounding artificial and very compressed. The end result of a song like this is that it just sounds plain terrible. Not bad, but quite frankly terrible. With the volume knob set above 35%, songs like these are unlistenable. Essentially, any song within the top 100 will be sonically destroyed by the detail retrieval the HE1 has to offer. This isn’t exclusive to just these types of songs, however. Through the HE1, I was surprised to hear that Micheal Jackson’s album, Thriller, isn’t as well mastered as most people have made it out to be. Even albums like these sound too brash. I’m going to go on the third rail and also say older album from the likes of the Beatles also sound bad on the HE1. With that being said, I will again make the clarification that the HE1 does not go over the top with the treble. It is by no means a treble-heavy headphone, rather is simply shows all the data available on a track. Some people enjoy hearing everything in a song, but then again, most of these people happen to listen to what most people would interpret as noise rather than actual music. If you own Mozart’s entire music collection on CD, or if you only listen to jazz on a Tidal premium account, or if you only listen to the RAM album by Daft Punk, then the treble provided by the HE1 will not only be highly engaging, but well worth the money. I think by this point people reading this will get where I’m going with this. The treble is fantastic, easily the best I’ve ever heard, no contest. In your face detail doesn’t compare to the level of nuance that the HE1 is capable of providing. The detail on the HE1 is akin to philosophical pundit Dr. Jordan Peterson. At a first glance, everything may not jump straight towards you, but given enough time and a close reexamination, the entire picture will become visible to you. The treble on the HE1 reveals the truth, and as many people know, the truth is not always pleasant. Great when it works in your favor but has the potential to decimate.
      
   6. Soundstage: This is an open headphone, therefore an evaluation of the soundstage is necessary. I’ve heard far too many audiophiles equate the size of a headphone’s soundstage with the quality of it. Contrary to this belief, this isn’t how the quality of the soundstage is examined. Sure the size of a headphone’s soundstage is important to keep in mind, but it is not all there is to it. Direction, placement, and separation are other important aspects to keep mind of. The problem is when reviewing headphones, many only listen to music and narrow genres of music at that. Films and video games are also out there and offer a unique insight into how the soundstage of a headphone may fair under these conditions. Unfortunately, I could not test video game audio as I had no console to pair the HE1 to. However, I doubt anyone would play a game while using the HE1. The idea sounds absurd, but it is a test someone in the future will eventually have to make. What I can say is that video games, especially the shooter genre, require levels of soundstage accuracy in order to make the experience more immersive. Players are placed inside of a virtual world, and as such, there are multiple noises coming from multiple directions all at once. Cheap stereo headphones clearly struggle when placed under these conditions, which is why many attempts to use digital surround sound to alleviate this issue. Other headphones like the Sennheiser HD800 fair much better but still don’t come near the level of separation a 5.1 speaker system is able to provide. The same can be said about movies. There is simply much more going on and not just any headphone is able to accurately transmit all of this data at once without sounding cloudy. I did play the Avengers Infinity War trailer through Youtube; however, given that Youtube isn’t the holy grail of sound quality, I will discard my analysis of this. For this evaluation, my only real option was to stick to music, and this worked out in the end. For this test, there was one song I was very eager to listen to. This song was Touch, also by Daft Punk. Quite a unique song that places the listener in a mystical outer space setting. With enough imagination, listeners might be able to fool themselves into thinking they are actually in outer space. That is how well the soundstage in this song is. And this is just with ordinary headphones. Through the HE1, the soundstage of this song is elevated to astronomical levels. The first portion of the song is more for seeing how big of a space the HE1’s soundstage can convey. There is actually little to no separation involved in this portion of the song. Moving along though, the song becomes increasingly more complex as more instruments and sounds are added in. The HE1 holds its ground and never becomes smeared. There are parts of the song where it sounds as if I were in outer space, but there are also parts of the song where I could get a glimpse of the size of the recording studio. The part most impressive was a part where there are drums playing in the background. There are very brief moments between the drum beats where I could almost hear the sound bounce off the walls. This allowed me to get an idea as to how big the recording room was. Not very big, but an impressive feat nonetheless. I decided to move along and test songs that were more grounded in reality. Really what I mean by this is I wanted to test songs that didn’t involve a heavy use of synthetic sounds. The next song I tried was The Stable Song by Gregory Alan Isakov. As I mentioned in the treble analysis, this song is riddled with nuances not heard on most headphones, including ones self-proclaimed as being highly detailed. I personally find this song to be one of the best to test soundstage as a good headphone will give you the impression that this song was played outdoors. That was the impression I received from the HE1, and it was the best portrayal of the song that I’ve ever heard. It truly brought out the vibe this song is intended to create. Atmospheric is the best way to describe the soundstage of this song. It places the listener not in a studio with the artist, but within a wide-open field in the presence of the artist. You can almost get a feel for how far the singer is from you, and to be able to achieve this feeling is no ordinary technical feat. There was one more song I decided to listen to before wrapping up my evaluation, and that song was none other than Winter by Antonio Vivaldi. I can’t think of another song I enjoy more with open-back headphones. It is certainly not the most complex, but in my opinion, it is one of the best for measuring perception. I am referring to spacing and direction this regard. On a more diffuse open-back headphone, a song like this will sound foggy. Not lacking in detail, but there is no sense of control or direction. Everything is in the picture all at once, but without control, hence the comparison to fog. Imagine staring at a giant movie screen but only noticing the light and the occasional shift in color. Through most headphones that is how this piece sounds. With the HE1 being so well at audio separation, I am able to get a sense of direction from this song. Clearly, the audio is being directed towards me, or whomever the listener may be. Having such an effect creates a feeling of entitlement as if the song was created for the individual listener. With a more romantic classical genre piece, this might be enough to make someone blush, but with Vivaldi’s Winter, it places the listener amidst a scene of swift action. The direction is linear as opposed to indefinite. The benefit of this is that the listener gets more enjoyment out of the track. If all the information is being directed towards them, then there will be more to hear and enjoy. As far as spatial awareness, the HE1 faired excellent with this track. While there is no way for the listener to know exactly how large the room of the recording is, it is possible to get a rough estimate of this. Not in numbers, but simply in imaginative terms. The recording obviously wasn’t done outdoors, but instead in a rather large-sized recording studio. This perception of size will largely depend on the track being played, but on a masterpiece like Vivaldi’s Winter, the full potential of the HE1’s soundstage is unleashed.
      
   7. Final thoughts on sound: We’ve come to the end of the sound analysis, which at the end of the day, is why the HE1 was made in the first place. Design, build, and even the status of owning an HE1, are all factors Sennheiser took into account when making this masterpiece of a headphone. Inevitably, however, people will look up to it for one main reason, and that reason is its audio quality. They are the best headphones I have ever heard. There is nothing else I’ve heard that rivals them, and I’ve heard nearly every top of the line rig there is. The problem with the HE1 is that it is a masterpiece that requires equally crafted music to match. It doesn’t take bad recordings and chew them up, instead, it rejects bad recordings altogether. If you attempt to listen to anything subpar, then you will be subjected not just to physical ear pain, but also to emotional disappointment. The disappointment stems from the realization that several tracks, and several genres, will be rejected by the magnificence of the HE1’s sound. At the beginning of this long review, I stated that I dwelt amongst a god, only to realize I was a mortal. The HE1, is a god, hence the name Orpheus, god of music. Even for those who have the financial means to own this setup, musical tastes matter as well. The “hood-rich” rapper will never be able to enjoy these headphones, nor will and up-and-coming political pundit, and not even a world-renowned athlete. This headphone was not made for those who have managed to rise to the top, but for those who have always resided in the clouds of heaven. If you are within the narrow bracket of people for whom this headphone was intended for, then you will enjoy a sound unparalleled to anything else available right now.
      
4. Interview and Hidden Information
   
   1. Interview: After my listening session with the HE1 was over, I decided to proceed with the interview portion of my project. I only had a limited set of questions to ask, but they were quality questions nonetheless. The questions centered around how well Sennheiser was doing as a company, given the direction they have been heading in for the past several years. Unlike other reputable audio companies, I think that Sennheiser is willing to produce equipment that both sounds good and is appealing to the general public. We saw this with the introduction of the Momentum lineup back in 2012 and later with the Urbanite series. Although these lineups have not had the success that other mainstream brands have had, they sure brought some serious competition into the market. Prior to 2012, there were plenty of celebrity-endorsed flashy headphones that sounded like utter crap. On the other side of the camp, there were headphones that sounded terrific but looked like science fair projects. There was really no middle ground until brands like Sennheiser and Sony, to name a few, began to combine form and function. This move was a smart move on Sennheiser's part as it allowed them to expand the size of their audience. Given this bit of background information, I believe that Sennheiser is one of the few reputable headphone companies that is fine with stepping out of their comfort zone in order to explore new territories. This type of reasoning is what more audio companies should try to emulate as this is the type of thinking that leads to new innovations. From my conversation with the Sennheiser employee, it is clear to me that Sennheiser is intent on continuing their outreach towards different types of customers. The reason why this is important is that if reputable brands like Sennheiser start to increase their outreach, then it is inevitable that more people will be exposed to quality audio. Logically and if the situation is right, people who are exposed to higher-quality audio will have the potential to become audiophiles. This was certainly the vision that Sennheiser had in mind when they opened their store in San Fransisco. By having a store in such a densely packed urban environment, they will easily be able to attract more customers. However, there is an issue with Sennheiser’s plan and that it due to what I believe is an age conflict. Although Sennheiser easily has the potential to become the next big audio brand, how they promote their name is not coming off to well with younger audiences. And to this, I can point to their Pink Floyd collaboration. Sennheiser thought it would be a good idea to have their top-of-the-line Momentum model endorsed by Pink Floyd. Had this move been done back in the 1960s or 70s in a more homogenous society, then perhaps it would have been a successful move. Unfortatntly for Sennheiser, they did this in the 21st century and in a globalized economy. Apart from being an aged band, people in super-diverse nations like the U.S and the U.K, will not appreciate bands like Pink Floyd as they once did. Apart from the endorsements, while more mature listeners might appreciate the Momentum’s design, I know for a fact, being someone who is under the age of 20, that most people younger than me will not be as passionate about the design. The solution to this would be for Sennheiser to get inspiration from younger minds. They could have taken help from design companies like BMW or gotten endorsements from the likes of Drake or Ariana Grande. What I am saying is that as a society, we are vastly different from how the world was back in the middle of the century. As a result, Sennheiser has to advanced not just technologically, but also culturally if they wish to survive in an already competitive market.
      
   2. The second half of the interview was centered more around the HE1 itself. My basic question was why did Sennheiser even bother to make something like it when they already had the HE90. The simple answer from the employee was that Sennheiser simply wanted to top what they already had. As technology improves and other companies begin to pose a threat to the established reputation that Sennheiser has, they are compelled to improve as well. It took approximately 20 years for something to top the HE90, an impressive amount of time, but in the end, something did manage to dethrone what became known as the king of headphones. With the HE1, Sennheiser once again wanted to make something that would remain the best that there is, for a considerable amount of time. Technology is advancing at a rate that is unprecedented and it is unlikely that the HE1 will last on the throne for as long as the HE90 did. After all, there is already a direct competitor to the HE1 as I write this. For the time being, I will emphasize that the HE1 is objectively the best headphone in the world right now. Even if you disagree with me and you hate the way it sounds, there is no denying that other headphones will not sound as polished as the HE1. As I later mention later in my review, the HE1 is a statement product and Sennheiser didn’t just make it with the intent of it sounding incredible, but also with the intention of it leaving a lasting legacy. Even after decades of new technologies being introduced into the market, the HE1 will continue to be a marvelous item. Aside from just the sound quality, the build quality, design, and even the price and exclusivity will help to elevate it to a status that very few headphones, let alone other products can enjoy. At least for now, Sennheiser have succeeded in making a product that will endure years of fame. This is because apart from making a headphone, Sennheiser has also succeeded in producing a work of art. As most people know, once something is deemed as art, it is destined to become timeless. I’m certain that years from now people will enjoy the HE1 as much as they do today. Having no limits, led to the creation of a headphone that has become a legend amongst the audiophile community.
      
      
      
      
   3. Extras: There were some exciting extras to this project that were entirely unexpected. I mentioned earlier in this review that when I walked into the listening room, one of the first items that I saw was a HE90. Not just the headphones, but the entire system. Though not connected to anything, it was still a pleasant surprise to finally set my eyes and hands on a HE90. Not many exist, so being able to touch one is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Next to the HE90, there was a custom HD800 and HDV800. Both had a black and red color scheme that I’m sure youtubers from the likes of MKBHD will enjoy. Though I had seen the HD800 several times before, I had never seen a custom one, so this too was a pleasant surprise. By far the most exciting bit of information that I gathered from this project were documents that pertain to the HE1. These included both specifications and measurements that appears to have been signed by a real person. As far as I’m aware Sennheiser does not have any specifications for the HE1 online and there are also no measurements. It seems unclear to me why Sennheiser would not publish the specifications for the HE1 given that it is their best creation to date. I’m sure Sennheiser has their own reasons, however from my perspective publishing these specifications would sure cause a ripple in the audiophile community. Essentially I see no real reason to keep the specs hidden from the general public, but I suppose that there is no real reason to publish them as well aside from pure amazement. What was even more exciting than this was the signed frequency response graph that I saw. The employee told me that this along with the specifications came included when someone purchased an HE1. It is no surprise to me why no one has revealed such documents online. Just from looking at the graph, I’m sure an amateur audiophile will get a solid idea of how the HE1 will sound. Along with measurements of the HE1, there is also a frequency graph of the HE90 within the same plane. From the looks of it, it appears that the HE1 has slightly more bass than the HE90, with the lower treble being slightly more subdued and the upper treble just a hair above the HE90. Given this graph, one can expect the two systems to sound similar, and indeed they do. The HE1 sounds like a modern version of the HE90, having more adequate bass and a treble that is more liquid than airy or thin. Lastly, there is also a graph that measured the specific frequency response of the HE1 unit that I was listening to. The graph looks cruder than the other one, however, it does include the signatures of both Dr. Andreas Sennheier and Daniel Sennheiser. A nice finishing touch to an already outstanding package. I doubt most people have seen or were even aware that such documentation existed, So I’m certain that there will be some out there who are excited that they can now directly compare their measurements with those of Sennheiser. I would advise people to take these measurements and specifications with a grain of salt. In the past brands like Sony have been known to exaggerate these sorts of things in order to arouse their base. I trust Sennheiser, however, I still think it is important for a third-party to conduct measurements of their own, for comparison sakes. Now that Tyll from Innerfidelity has retired, someone else needs to find the courage and budget to measure the HE1. It is not a luxury of entertainment, but a necessity for the market to remain competitive.
      
5. Design and Build: When the HE1 was initially announced, I was surprised to hear that many people hated the design. Upon the initial announcements, I fell in love with the design. As someone who massively enjoys classical and baroque art and design, the design of the HE1 made me gasp. It combines elements of the modern along with those of the past. The end result is a final look that while new, will remain timeless for years to come. Although I am someone who also enjoys space-age designs like those of the HD800, I personally feel like the listening environment also shapes the listening experience. As such, some headphone designs may feel out of place. An HD800, despite its technical feats, would appear out of place inside of a neoclassical style home. The same can’t quite be said about the HE1; it simply looks marvelous wherever it is placed. The cable is thick and coated in fabric, but I think I, along with many others, would have preferred seeing a more attractive cable to match with the overall aesthetics of the system. This is only a minor gripe of mine and on the other hand, I think having a basic cable removes any additional distractions. On the right side of the system is where the vacuum tubes are placed. I’m sure most people have seen by now that when powering on the system, the tubes move upwards. In video footage, this appears very intriguing. In person, this mechanism only makes the system seem even more astonishing. Along with these tubes, there is also a glossy black hatch that covers the actual headphones. Like the tubes, when you turn the system on, this hatch props open, revealing the headphones. Once this is open, the headphones are revealed in all their glory. The headphones themselves are large, quite a bit larger than the original HE90. They are not heavy, however, and the weight on them feels very evenly distributed. From what I could tell, the outer design is mostly aluminum, with hints of high-quality plastic in the headband. The earcups are interesting as on the outside they are leather, while on the inside they are made out of some kind of microsuede material. In the hands, the headphones feel substantial without feeling too heavy. They certainly do not feel cheap like many other electrostats do. All of this sure adds to the aesthetic superiority of the system, but does any of this lend itself to being functional? In almost every regard, yes. The tubes retreat inside the casing when not in use in order to prevent any potential damage, while the hatch remains closed to prevent damage and dust from ruining the headphones. The heavy marble base helps to prevent any resonance that might interfere with the purity of the sound. Even subtle nuances like the hybrid earpads add to the experience. They provide all the comfort and hygiene of suede earpads, while also providing the luxurious feel of leather earpads. I only wore the headphones for approximately an hour, but even so, I felt no discomfort whatsoever. I suppose people with weaker necks might feel some prolonged discomfort with listening sessions exceeding four hours, but this is a stretch. There was one area where did notice an issue. I have a rare condition known as red-ear syndrome, which means my ears become painstakingly hot when provoked. A simple tap on my ears can trigger a “heat rush”, which would make wearing headphones, especially closed-back headphones, very uncomfortable. The HE1 headphones happen to have amplifiers in the earcups themselves, and my heightened sensitivity was able to detect an accumulation of heat by the end of my listening session. As I’ve said, this is is a rare condition, but nonetheless, those who have ears sensitive to heat may find these to be uncomfortable. Other than that, comfort was top-notch with these, and I think only a sliver of people will find anything to complain about. Some may be concerned about whether the thick cable may weigh down the headphones. Luckily, this doesn’t happen as the headphones do a phenomenal job at distributing weight evenly across the head. With all that being said, I think these are beautiful headphones that will look impressive for many years to come. That, along with the tremendous comfort that they provide, means these headphones look and feel fantastic.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Conclusion: Before making any judgments on the HE1, people first have to understand what it is. Is it just another audiophile-grade headphone? No, it certainly isn’t. Is it a technical accomplishment? This is partially true; Sennheiser did devote tons of time, energy, and money into creating something sonically impressive. But even this question or indirect statement is insufficient to explain what the HE1 truly is. In hindsight, the HE1 is a masterpiece of a statement. It doesn’t just exist for the purpose of making a bold claim, it exists to prove it is the best headphone the world has ever seen. It exists to prove it is the best at what it does, and anything else will fall short. Attempts to rival it’s dominance simply fail to succeed. For the time being, nothing can stand toe to toe with the system. After making this observation and understanding what the HE1 truly is, one can’t help but ask the question of, “Is it really worth it?”. I will spare readers an extra five pages of reading and say that this will ultimately depend on the listener. I’m sure there are many audiophiles reading this who already have their pitchforks and torches ready in an attempt to prevent me from ever making a review like this again. I have already established the HE1 is no ordinary headphone, and due to its status as a statement product, it cannot be judged in the same way as other headphones. It must be judged as its own category, something that is difficult to do. Throughout this piece, I have stated this system is aimed towards audiophiles with mountains of wealth. Some audiophiles have made the claim that this system is only intended for mega-rich athlete celebrities, but I debunked this idea in the sound analysis. If you are a wealthy audiophile who enjoys music from the like of Antonio Vivaldi or Miles Davis, then the HE1 will absolutely be worth every penny, or in its case, every $100 bill. Most of us, however, are ordinary people and are not in contention to own something as beautifully crafted as the HE1. We live in a society where you are free to do with your money as you please, but as many esteemed philosophers of the past have stated, money can’t buy happiness, and if you don’t fit the demographic, then the HE1 will not bring any pleasure into your life, nor will it provide you music with life. As a final conclusion I will say my experience with the HE1 made me fall in love, but unfortunately, it is a love that cannot be.
   

Hello, my name is Oscar and this is my review of the Creative Aurvana In-Ear 3 Plus. Creative sent these to me as part of a tour and I did not pay for anything, nor am I in any way affiliated with the company other than for this review.
I had for a while been wanting to get a listen at these, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to purchase them without hesitation. You see, where I come from buying and then returning is really frowned upon. While it doesn’t bother me in the least, I have gotten into disputes with my own family over the issue. Over this past year the tensions we’ve had over this issue have settled down, yet they were still not willing to let me continue with buying, then returning. I was lucky enough to have been selected by Creative to review this pair of earphones, so finally I got my chance at a formal listen.
All listening on this review was done on an iPhone 5s with a mix of lossy and lossless files. The lossy files are from itunes downloads while the lossless ones come from ALAC music rips as well as lossless streaming from Tidal. I’ll indicate which types of files I used in the sound section of the review.
When I received the earphones I was left very impressed with the box in which they came. I’ve owned other earphones around the same price such as the Sennheiser Momentum in-ear and the Apple In-Ear Headphones and the presentation on the Aurvana 3 simply blows that of the other two away. For a $150 pair of earphones, these sure do look a lot more like the packaging that a $500 pair would come in. Even the $300 Shure se425 don’t come in a presentation this spectacular. Once you get over how nice the outside of the box looks, you’ll want to get into the goodies that come inside. Inside the plastic box you’ll find a semi-hard carrying pouch, four different pairs of eartips (three silicone and one pair of foam), a cleaning tool, an airplane adapter, and the usual pieces of documentation such as the manual. The case is nice and small so it isn’t obtrusive, but at the same time it’s large enough to store both the earphones and all the eartips. Both the silicone and foam tips are amazing as they all do a spectacular job at blocking out external noise. The included cleaning tool is great for all you folks who have tons of earwax and refuse to clean it with your hands. Not sure why Creative decided to throw in an airplane adapter, I mean who really uses these nowadays. It would have been nice if Creative had offered something like quarter inch adapter instead as the use of those is much more common. But overall, what comes in the box and the box itself, are all very nice and Creative deserves some type of recognition for this, I say best packaging of the year.
When looking at these it’s clear that they aren't the usual earphone design which is worn down the ear. These are the type that must be worn over the ear and then down again through the back of the ear. If this sounds complicated don’t worry, it’s actually much easier than it sounds. The aesthetic part of the design is one of my favorite aspects about the earphone. They come in this dark, metallic brown that makes them look as if they were designed to be worn by an affluent gentleman. But wait, the handsome looks don’t stop there. Even when going down the cable, it’s obvious that Creative put some thought into making this an attractive set of monitors. It follows the same dark brown color scheme, but what's interesting about the cable on this set of earphones is that it comes with a fabric cover rather than a rubber or plastic one commonly used among cheaper earphones. At the other end of the cable is a 90 degree gold plated jack which fits into even the thickest smartphone case I’ve put it through. So this design of this earphone looks nice and feels equally nice, does that mean it’s without fault? Actually, no; the microphone and smartphone controls are probably the one part about the design that I really had to criticize. Most earphone that feature these features have them as one part, but for some reason Creative decided to split these into two different parts. This means that the mic is on one part of the cable while the controls are further down the cable. I understand that Creative may have wanted to get the mic closer to the mouth for better speech during phone calls, but they could have just moved both together. The control also has some issues. Unlike other earphones, the control on these doesn’t click up or down to change the volume. Instead it uses a slider to adjust the volume. Some might ask why this would be an issue at all, but it’s easy to see why. With a traditional volume controller the user has more control over how much he or she raises the volume. With this volume control however, the volume is harder to control as the control just slides around. What this means is accidental increments in the volume are more prone to happen. This can be especially dangerous when listening to louder music genres. And mind you, unlike other controllers, the volume on these earphones doesn’t control the volume of the device you're listening to. So if the volume on your smartphone is up all the way and the volume on the earphones is down all the way, accidentally sliding the volume rocker up all the way will trigger some serious ear pain. Moving onto isolation, all I can say is wow! I’ve always been a person in favor of in-ear monitors, so I know what good isolation feels like. Using these with both the small eartips and the foam ones, I can’t just stop and awe at how well these isolate. I’ve used Etymotics and I can easily say that these beat these when it comes to isolation. With no music playing it becomes very hard to hear any people around you. Once you start to play music through the earphones, you can easily start to forget that people are even around you. Well if you close your eyes you really will feel as though there are no people around you. The chatter of people is something that most earphone are capable of blocking out, but the real test of isolation comes to when you use these out on the busy streets of town. Even when walking down the busiest street in my city during rush hour, hearing any noise other than my music was something difficult to do. I was pleased as to how I was able to walk down these busy streets and not have to worry about raising the volume. Don’t worry though, this isolation doesn’t interfere with the comfort of the earphones. I found myself being able to wear them for hours at a time without even noticing that I had them on. In the end these turned out to be an ergonomic champ as they’re attractive to look at, feature amazing isolation, and can last comfortably for hours. The only part about the design I had to complain about would be the in-line control/mic.
Now we get into the sound which is the most interesting part of this review, as well as the hardest part for me to do. In the past about 95% of the earphones I’ve used have been the dynamic driver type, so I was used to the type of sound that they produced. Up until last year I had never tried any balanced armature earphones. The first pair of balanced armature phones that I tried were the Apple In-ear headphones which I was left somewhat disappointed with. At the time I thought of myself as a treble head, and even though the sound of the Apple earphones was bright, it wasn’t the usual type of bright sound that I was used to. It was odd to me that even though they sounded bright they lacked micro detail and equally lacked low bass. Initially I thought they were mid-centric, but to call an earphone that lacks both high treble and low bass mid centric is misleading. It’s not that the mids were highly elevated, but it was just about the only part of the sound spectrum that actually sounded decent. Since then I’ve heard much more high end armature sets like the Shure se846 and the Campfire Audio Jupiter and those two, especially the Jupiter, left me with my mouth open. Those two impressed me very much and now use them as my reference when evaluating other earphones, and even full-sized headphones. So my two favorite earphones are armature based, does that mean that I now suddenly have a preference for armature phones. My answer to that question is a big NO, as I still prefer the sound of a dynamic driver earphone, especially when it comes to cheaper sets. I do use the Campfire Audio Jupiter as my reference for sound/build quality, but that’s a $1300 earphone so a comparison between that and the Aurvana 3 would be a stupid one. The only earphone I’ve listened to that’s close to the price of $150 for which the Aurvana lists for, is the Sennheiser Momentum In-ear, which sadly left me disappointed. I’m more compelled to do a comparison with the TTpod T-1 as I feel those earphones have a much more competitive sound, especially for the price. Yes the TTpods are about $120 cheaper, but price is sometimes irrelevant as it makes people think that expensive always means better. Ok so finally now I’ll get on with the sound, but let me say that for the price, I was not impressed.

• General Sound Impression: The way I’d generalize the sound with one word is “weak”. When I say this I mean to say that the sound, upon a short first listen, won’t grab your attention. Most people nowadays are either impressed when hearing elevated bass or treble. Even I who prefers a neutral sound, would be more impressed to hear elevated bass that I would mids. For most of the music I listen to I found myself wanting to not use these earphones as they make most of my music sound dull. Not all is bad, when it came to listening to male vocals, cello, and some older rock songs, I was left pleased with what I heard.
• Bass: To most people there is only bass, but to many audiophiles, bass is often separated into two parts. This being sub-bass and mid-bass. After having the great chance of being able to hear planar headphones like the Audeze LCD-X and the Mr. Speakers Ether, I now realize what quality sub-bass sounds like.  After hearing those headphones, I was able to find earphones like the Sennheiser ie800 and the TTpod T-1 that were able to satisfy my expectations of sub-bass. The Aurvana come equipped with two drivers, one being for treble and mids, and one being dedicated to bass. I knew that this being an armature set wasn’t going to reach as low as the dynamic earphones I’ve heard. I did expect these however to throw some good punch when it came to the bass. Well this didn’t happen. As usual the first track I tested was Doin’ it Right by Daft Punk(ALAC lossless). This song has some of the cleanest sub-bass I’ve ever heard so which is why I always is it as my first test track. Once the bass kicked in I knew that the Aurvana were clearly struggling to reproduce not only mid-bass, but also sub-bass. To add to the disappointment that I was already feeling, I heard the treble as equally rolled off. So overall most of the song did sound pretty anemic with no excitement. The only part that did sound good was the vocal part of the song, but to me this song is more about the sound tune than the singer, so I was left disappointed, but other may not. Next up I tried another bass track, this one more intense and from a rap album. The track I used for this next test was Don’t Hate the Playa, by Tyga (itunes download lossy). What I feel is that most people who review headphones on Head-fi generally skip out on genres like rap or hip/hop just because they don’t like them. Well I think that reviewers are making a big mistake by doing this. In my experience no other genre, not even electronic, can compare when it comes to heavy bass. In fact the bassiest tracks I often see get used during reviews is The Knife Silent Shout, but even this track is eclipsed by the sheer rumble that is presented with Don’t Hate the Playa. Ok, so how do the Aurvana fair when it comes to this? They honestly do very poorly on this track. On a typical dynamic driver earphone like the TTpod T-1 or the Soundmagic ES18, the bass actually sounds the way it was intended to be played. Unlike most other songs from different genres, this song wasn’t meant to be played at either normal listening levels or bass levels. No, this song was meant to rumble you out of your seat when listening to it at higher volumes. So in some ways I can understand why earphones might struggle to reproduce this song faithfully, but that’s actually not the case. Other earphones like the Sony XBA-Z5, Sennheiser ie800, TTpod T-1, and even the Apple In-ear headphones did a much better job at portraying the low bass notes with this track. Really, with the Aurvana earphones it literally feels as though half of the song is missing. So far I’ve tested the type of bass that rumbles and is known for being slow. Most people who know armature earphones know that slow visceral bass is something that balanced armatures just aren't good at. So when put up against a track that features fast bass hits, how does it perform? Unsurprisingly it still performs poorly. For this test I used the track Countdown by Hardwell (itunes download, lossy). The opening of the tracks sounded alright, but once the bass started to hit, everything just fell apart. The bass hits through the Aurvana just sounded slow and dull with very little in terms of bass slam. With all the tracks I’ve used I can firmly say that these earphones just weren’t mad with bass in mind. I used tracks that tested both the sub-bass and the mid-bass and in the end I came out very disappointed with what I heard. Before moving onto the mids and treble portion of the review I wanted to assert that I’m not a bass head who’s been brainwashed by Beats. My preference for sound is neutral, but warm. The two headphones that really sound the way I want them to are the Stax SR-007 and the Mr. Speakers Ether, and if you read any review on those you’ll see that neither one of those is noted for being bass-heavy. In fact some long time Head-fiers have even said that those two headphones lack bass. So if you think I’m being too hard on these about the bass I’m not as I’m in preference for neutral bass. Overall if bass is your thing, you might want to steer clear of these.
• Mids: This is the one part of the sound that kept surprising me, but in a good way. Normally I’m not someone who gets excited when it comes to the mids, but this earphone changed some of that. The first track I used to check out this mids was Touch by Daft Punk (ALAC lossless). In my opinion this track has got to have some of the most enchanting male vocals I’ve ever heard. Every time I hear the vocal part of the song I just melt away. Now is the Aurvana capable of melting my ears the way other earphones have when it comes to this song? That would be a definite yes, and I’ll even say that these portray the vocals better than I’ve heard on other earphones of around the same price. With these I can feel more of the emotion the singer is putting out while he performs his verse. Overall his voice sounds buttery and more dominant in the mix, a good thing. Up next I tried The Stable Song by Gregory Alan (Tidal Hifi lossless). I know how this type of song is actually supposed to sound like as I’ve heard performances like these live in person. While I really do admire how Gregory’s voice sounds like through these phones, the rest of the song sounds off. The strings especially sounds splashy and washed out. It’s not just that the strings themselves can’t be easily distinguished from one another, but they sound overall like a hot mess. I thought that male vocals sounded special on these phones, so naturally I thought female vocals would receive the same grace, but no. Most headphones that are noted for their female vocals have one thing in common; they all have an elevated lower treble. These earphones however, don’t which lends female vocals to have a slight veil over them. On the track My Heart will go on by Celine (ALAC lossless), her voice doesn’t sound as brilliant as I had hoped for. I’m not saying I wanted a bright sound to make this track sound good, but I was slightly let down. I mean even on other no-bright sounding earphones like the Sennheiser Momentum In-ear, her voice still sounds more engaging. My last test came out as a surprise for me as I was neither planning on doing it or being as impressed as I was. I was listening to some Bach on Tidal late at night and decided that it was best I should use earphones instead of my speakers. I had lended all my other phones so the only ones I had with me were the Aurvana. Boy was I glad to be having those that night. I had sorted a mix of Cello tracks by Bach into a playlist and listened to that until I had to go sleep.  Before using the Aurvana with this playlist I had prefered to listen to these tracks on my speakers as they gave the tracks a more open presentation. Well, when it came to hearing these tracks through the Aurvana earphones I came out very pleased indeed. It’s this type of buttery warmth from the earphones that made the cellos all the more addictive to listening to. On other earphones like the TTpod T-1, cello's sound too sharp, but with the Aurvana they’re just right. If I had to choose a segment of the audio of these earphones, it would definitely be the mids. Basically if you like the sound of lower mids rather than upper mids, then this earphone would be a very good option.
• Treble: Ahh, we get on with the treble, the part of the sound that usually makes it or breaks it when it comes to deciding on whether to buy a headphone or not. It’s usually the brightness of a headphone that turns people off, but luckily the Aurvana don’t fall into this category. The treble on this earphone is easy on the ears, but does lack micro detail. Being 16 years old and always have taken care of my hearing I prefer treble like this, but I do still think it lacks upper treble, this is the treble that lets you hear things you’ve never heard before. It’s the lower treble that can get annoying. The first track I had to try out when testing the treble was Within by Daft Punk (ALAC lossless). Currently this song is in my top ten for two reasons; it just sounds majestic and it the detail in the song is outstanding. From the cymbals clashing to the sparkle, I just cant get over about how amazing this song sounds. Often times if a headphone can’t reproduce this song correctly, I can usually assume it’s not a very good headphone. Ok, so how did it go for the Aurvana when playing this track through them? Umm, well, not too good. I’ve already stated that this earphone is A-shaped meaning that it emphasizes the mids and lacks in both bass and treble. This track just sounds really washed out on the Aurvana, and I’m someone who’s sensitive to treble, I mean come on I thought the HD600 had too much lower treble. One track isn’t enough however to really test the treble on an earphone so I fired up Tidal and listened to the remastered version of Hotel California (Tidal lossless). WOW! Results were very different this time, I mean very different. The strings, electric guitar, and cymbals sounded perfectly clear. This was surprising, but then again this track is bright, too bright for me in fact that when I listen to it I reduce the treble. But nonetheless I was quite astonished at the result that I decided to try another bright recording. The next one I tried was We Three Kings (Tidal lossless), one that I still regard as the brightest recording I’ve ever heard. Having heard this track through headphones and earphones like the Audio Technica AD700x, TTpod T-1, and the Sennheiser hd280 pro, I was pleased with what I heard. Even though two of those headphones were on the brighter side of neutral and made this track sound overall brighter, I didn’t feel that I was missing out on anything while listening through the Aurvana. I guess if you listen predominantly to bright recordings and don’t have any hearing loss then I guess the treble wouldn’t be an issue. For most other recordings I do think that people will sense a general lack of air. Many earphones have either a low or high treble emphasis, but the Aurvana has neither of the two which lends it to sound dull. The lack of air doesn’t affect it as much as you would think when it comes to sound stage size, though it does when speaking in terms of positioning. In conclusion, like the bass, these weren’t made to deliver detail. But like I said if you listen to brighter recordings and have very little hearing loss, then you may actually be satisfied with the amount of treble there is. I would be to, but unfortunately when you listen to the Stax sr-009 on a $8000 custom made tube amp (cough, Frank, cough), you’ll never think anything else sounds detailed; just kidding.
• Sound stage and Dynamics: Being that this is a balanced armature set I was almost dead certain that the sound stage on these would be very poor. I was surprised to hear that these had a fairly open sound for an earphone. With the track Tales from the Vienna Woods (ALAC lossless), I never felt like the music was being closed in my head by a wall. It sounded as free as it would on speakers. So it did sound open, but was this necessarily a good thing? On that I’d like to mention that while the sound of these is quite open for an earphone, the actual quality of the sound stage isn’t all that great. When listening to the track Touch by Daft Punk (ALAC lossless), everything sounds mushed together with no clear sense of separation. It’s like trying to hear one person talk with 5 other people trying to talk to you all at the same time. It’s maddening, especially with more complex passages like these. As you can tell by reading the review, it’s obvious that what these earphones really lack the most as far as sound is dynamics as they handle most things poorly. The only two genres that it performs adequately on is acoustic and classic rock. Anything else and these just fall apart.

When I was first selected to do this review I was very excited to get to listening to the earphones and giving them a listen. For I while I had my eyes on them as almost every review described them as warm, but detailed. Since my listen to both the Stax sr-007 and the Mrspeakers Ether I had come to the conclusion that my true preferred sound signature was warm, yet neutral. Having heard these headphones and a number of other earphones I’ve gotten a pretty good idea at what’s neutral and what’s not. I’ve been able to identify too bassy, from warm, and too lean as bright. That being said the sound of the Aurvana was quite different to anything I’ve ever heard. Upon my first listen nothing really hit me, yet I was easily able to tell that the sound of these was by no means neutral. This was the first time where I had to sit down and analyse the sound to be able to distinguish where Creative was going with these earphones. It took me almost 2 days of listening to be able to understand what I was listening to, and in the end I came to the conclusion that these weren’t for me. Whole writing this review however I rarely thought of what my own personal wants were, rather I tried to write this review from the perspective of other people. I know various people who have different tastes in sound than I and I’ve also heard headphones with signatures that appeal to people other than I. So I would consider this review to be a universal one rather than a personal one, at least for the sonic portion of this review. In my opinion everything else about these earphones was great. I liked the design, found these to be very comfortable, and just couldn’t get over how nice of a package these came in. But ultimately when buying a pair of headphones or earphones, it’s the sound that determines whether keeping them is worth it. To me the sound of these didn’t convince me. That’s not to say that these are bad earphones, but I listen to different genres of music, mostly bassier ones, and frankly with these I just couldn’t enjoy 2 thirds the music I listen to. I’m sure people who listen predominantly to acoustic or classic rock. or just bright recordings in general, these would be great earphones as far as sound goes. Your ear will tell if a pair of earphones is right for you and mine tells me that these aren't for me.

Introduction
Before this review begins I would like to let all you readers know my audio path, from where I started to where I am now. This somewhat of a lengthy summary so you can skip it and go straight to the review if you'd like. 
My audio story
Like pretty much every other human on this earth, I never really bothered with sound quality. Yes music has always been part of my life, but I never had the equipment to truly enjoy it. Right around the 6th grade the amount of time i spent listening to music rose to new heights. At this time I only listened to music at home on youtube as I didn't have any portable media player to take on the go. For Christmas of 2011 I received an ipod touch 4g and i could now listen to music anywhere. I had never downloaded music before as I didn't feel it necessary, I mean I could always go on youtube and look up what I wanted. Like most 12 year olds, I got free music from an app on my computer. This was where I first began to notice a difference in the quality of sound. Everything just sounded cleaner and without noise in the background. I was impressed, but it still didn't draw me into the audiophile world. Around April of 2012 my cousin came to my house and gave me some Sony earphones, ( not earbuds ). I put them on, but immediately took them off as it felt very strange putting something that far inside my ear for the first time. After losing my earpods I once again turned to those earphones and this time I got over the fit. Well after playing just one song I was blown away by how clear everything sounded, this was where my audiophile journey truly began. After being so amused by my $30 earphones I began to understand why someone would pay $300 for a pair of Beats. The funny thing was that no matter which model I tried, the sound of Beats never amused me. This confused me as I thought that something of that price was sure to blow my socks off. One day I googled : world's best headphone, and I was stunned to know that Beats were actually some of the worst headphones on the market and that the true champions were the Sennheiser hd800. Over the next few months I did tons of research and discovered all of the REAL audio brands. Finally on Christmas of 2012 I decided to get a pair of Sennheiser hd 280 pro. This was my first real headphone and would be my reference pint for the next year. Once again in 2013 I continued my research and kept on learning new things about audio, like amps, dacs, and even cables. I moved to a different high school for my freshman year due to problems I encountered with the people at my old district. At this new school I made many new friends, many more than I had at my old school. Due to this I started to need portable headphones as I was on the go much more often. I didn't really know where to look as I wasn't too familiar with iems yet. Well. one day I went with my cousin to Fry's Electronics and there was a pair of DNA iems for only $50, half off from $100. There wasn't any information on these regarding the sound, there was only on pair left and the price was something I just couldn't resist. I had no money on me, but luckily my cousin was generous enough to buy them for me, these were his Christmas present to me. For the price I got them at, I was more than pleased with the sq. Only 2 months passed before they were stolen from me. In less than a week however I found the guy who took them and got him suspended for stealing. I would have kept them and if I had I wouldn't be looking at iems all day like I do now. But the reason I couldn't keep them was that i had recently gone to a party and didn't get my friend anything. She helped me find the guy who took them from me and I told her if I did find them that I would give them to her. Lucky for her and I, they were found and it felt great giving her a present because I was pretty much the only one who hadn't. Immediately after giving her those, I began doing heavy research on iems and all other things about headphones, but mainly iems. During this time I discovered many of the well regarded ones, which included the Sony ex1000, Shure se535, Klipsch x11, Sennheiser ie800, Etymotic er4 and it as also during this time that I got to know about ciems. There were too many options to chose from and a lot of them were way out of my budget, so I knew that it would be a very long time before I would decide on which one to buy. By now I was really getting into the whole hifi business. the title of "best" changes every once in a while, and it had been two years since I asked google what the best headphone in the world was, so once again I googled that. This time my mouth dropped wide open. Stax sr-009 electrostatic headphones, $5000, $12000 for a proper system. Never did I think a headphone could get that expensive. A new phase in my journey began and this was where I learned about different driver technology and how much more expensive it could make a headphone or a speaker. I took all of this seriously however, but whenever I saw a $2000 on the internet I just laughed. After I learned about why somethings are as expensive as they are I moved on to yet another phase in my journey and this was where I examined audio processing, 16-bit, lossless, uncompressed, 24-bit, raw samples. This last part of the journey was hands down the most complicated to understand, but I felt proud to have understood all this stuff. During July of 2014 I bought a fiio e7 for $8 from a garage sale, I'm so glad the person didn't know what they were selling otherwise he would have sold it for a much higher price. The difference in sound was something that I really did noticed when I hooked up my 280 pros to the fiio. By late July I had made my decision to buy the Apple in ear phones, the reasons for that were that I really wanted to own a pair of BA earphones, they seemed to have the sound signature that I liked which was with a lean one with an emphasis on treble, also they matched nicely with my iphone 5s. Before I bought them every review I came across said that they really lacked bass, to my surprise the didn't lack bass at all, but they did lack treble sparkle which is why I returned them only a few weeks after getting them. I had $30 earphones that had better treble than those, no way was I keeping them. It would be months before I would buy another set. Finally the time came once again where I had to decide on what to get. For a while I had trouble deciding on whether I should get the Shure se425 or the Eymotic er4. The Shures were more comfortable, low profile fit, and had more bass which while I don't really care for, is needed since I listen to a lot of rap and electronic music. the Etymotic had a treble response that I wished for, it was very accurate, probably isolated better, could improve with an amp, and had the option of custom earpieces. These two options were tearing me apart, but then I came across the Audio Technica ath im02, they combined every good thing from both the Etymotics and the Shures, and the best part was that they were only around $150 on amazon. I was settled and was ready to buy, except there was one more problem. Yes, I had $350 in cash but there was no place near where I live where they could be purchased. the only way to get them would have to be through the internet, and to buy them from there a credit card or something similar is needed, at the time I didn't have anything like that. I asked my parents hoping that they would buy it for me if I gave them the money. My parents, and everyone around me has no appreciation for good sound quality so to them the idea of buying earphones for $150 just seemed outrageous. It was no surprise to me when they told me no. My only other option I had in mind were either the Shure se 215 or the Sennheiser momentum in ear. Only because the momentums had more treble was why I chose them over the Shures. So here I am 3 years after getting into the hifi hobby, ready to do my first review. 
Review 
1. Packaging: The packaging on these is pretty standard for something of this price. 
Once opening them the carrying case is inside some foam protection. The foam also has a little compartment where the extra ear tips are housed. Like all products, there is a manual included 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Other than that there's not much else to discuss, pretty simple packaging nothing fancy.
 
2. Design/build: At first these may not seem like they're well built due to the plastic housing. Upon closer inspection you'll notice that these are actually substantial and even have a stainless steel tip. As you move down, the cable quality is good. It a black/red elliptical cable that doesn't feel too thin or too thick. Overall good build quality. Designs are always a preference thing, but in my opinion these look great. They have a shiny Sennheiser logo, a red/black color scheme, and a convenient right angle jack. My only gripe with the design is that there is only one color option. 
 

 
 
 
3. Sound: Finally, the part you've all been waiting for. Note my reference point for sound is the hd280 pro which is a studio monitor with a "flat" sound. I'v since sold them but the way they sounded is still very fresh in my mind. I will rate the sound for what it is and how it is. My preferences will be almost absent from this review. All listening was done on my iphone 5s and fiio e7 with a mix of itunes downloaded music and apple lossless cd rips. 
Bass: The bass was the first thing I noticed when I first put them on. Its thunderous and thumpin , and ever  so slightly messy. After a week of burn in the messiness went away, but the big fat bass stayed. for rap and dubstep this works really well. It gives these genres the pounding bass that they deserve. Tracks like Dont hate the playa by Tyga sound intense and makes your eardrums rattle. Doing it right by Daft punk really shows the bass decay in these. As mentioned before, burn in removes any messiness that would occasionally spill into the lower mids. The bass may not be such good thing with strings which at lower volumes can really be drowned out. This is the type of bass that really suits modern genres like rap, electronic, or pop. I think the average consumer would really enjoy the ass on these.
 
Mids: This is the weakest aspect to the sound. If you've heard anything else higher end, you'l immediately notice that the midrange is recessed. Its obvious, but they're not completely absent or lacking like they are with other mainstream earphones of this price. Listening to Touch by Daft Punk shows how the extra bass gives authority to male vocals. With female vocal these still sound great, but could be better. Not the strong point of these earphones, good enough for most average listeners.
Treble: The treble on these saves them from sounding muddy. It clearly has a sculpted trebled that sounds bright. The lower treble gives them a lively signature that works well with modern genres. Strings sound clear and separate and Daft Punk's Within shows the amount of sparkle that these can put out. Only the highest treble region is smoothed out and lacks the micro detail that other earphones may have.  All in all the treble on these is good, its smooth with no sibilance, just be aware that if you're a treble head they may not provide the last bit of detail that you wish for. Separation and sound stage are both decent. They don't feel completely in your head like other earphones do. Isolation is rather poor on these, they muffle some noise but don't block it out. 
Final thoughts: I bought these not because I wanted them, rather because I really wanted a good pair of earphones and had no other option in mind. I will be selling these, but I'm sure that they'll go to a better place afterwards. If anybody's interested in buying them my email is oscartamayo2010@outlook.com. I'll be selling them for $90 and I'm willing to go as low as $80. Hope this review was helpful, my next one wont be so long.