Havit HV-H91DJ
The Introduction
These are are the 2nd set of headphones sent to me by Havit for reviewing. I have a third headset pending , which I will tell you about once I’ve given it a listen.
These are DJ headphones, they have cups that swivel out if you fancy spinning discs with them. They also have a mic on the cable that can control the music from your smartphone, pause , next and back functions.
They look stylish in an Autumn brown finish and they are very very cheap on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HAVIT-HV-H91DJ-Professional-Headphones-Microphone/dp/B00IOEFHHA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1449176271&sr=1-1&keywords=hv91
But do they sound any good?
The answer is yes! These headphones sound good straight out of the box - they need no more EQing than my Sennheiser HD800s or HiFiMan HE-6s ; this means they are not overly coloured in their sound signature by a ruthless boomy bass coarse mids or shrill highs. There is nothing to fear from these £20 headphones sound wise.
In fact , there is a lot to celebrate here , Havit , once their name is out there will surely make other manufacturers up their game. I thought the bluetooth H2555BT model I looked at last week
http://www.head-fi.org/products/havit-hv-h2555bt-nfc-hd-stereo-bluetooth-3-0-wired-wireless-headset-with-touch-control-12-hours-of-hands-free-talking-and-14-hours-wireless-music-streaming-with-potent-bass-crystal-audio-built-in-mic-black/reviews/14593
was a great product for the price. This outperforms the 2555BT on sound quality , of course we don’t have the wireless capability here.
The fit
Because the DJs fold up and to the left and right we have an added benefit here over the 2555BTs - a better fit onto the ears.
The cups don’t feel inflexible and are definitely not as tight as the BTs.
The fit is over the ears rather than on the ears. My ears did not completely fit inside the cups, my ear lobes were outside the cups. I don’t have very big ears so I suspect that others will be in the same situation.
The clamp effect of the HV91s is noticeable. They do clamp tight - after 6 hours (!) my ears were complaining a little. But not enough to need to take them off.
They last 6 hours before becoming uncomfortable because Havit have looked at comfort in detail with these phones. The band has a decent width mock leather material over 90% of the headband - there is nothing to pinch the side of your head,
something which makes me feel I’m being squashed in.
And the Havit’s are reassuringly light , there is no chance of any downward pressure from these. The only pressure will come from the side pressure of the cups and this is manageable.
The pads are a comfortable fit although they are thin
, of course due to the comfort factors of the weight the headband and the left right up down flex of the cups. The pads get quite warm after a few hours of wearing indoors - perfect for those cool Autumn evenings!
These headphones do not have the fit of a £20 headphone - they punch above their weight in this category.
The DJs look elegant - only 3 colours are used - a golden black and brown , a white logo on each cup and a rubberised matt black for everything else.
There is a pleasant mottled black and brown finish on the top of the headband.
This gives a pleasant feel to the handling of the top of the headphones.
The function button is colour matched to the cable and is small and discrete.
There has clearly been a lot of thought gone into making these phones look as good as they sound - they present a welcome departure from most of the silver and black designs of my existing
phone collection. Silver and black is boring!
Should these phones be spotted being worn in the street and why not?- they isolate and stay in place really well, they will be recognised as something different from the standard beats look. The Havit logo is tastefully emblazoned in white
so some brand awareness is likely to get out there.
On good looks alone I hope punters will be attracted to these phones , they look as good as they sound.
The Design
As DJ headphones , the HV91s need to have both cups swivel independently , those requests for that special song could come from the left or right…
But the fact they fold upwards means they can be folded away to half their size for easy storage.
The flex in the cups also allows for a much more precise fit - the fit can be adjusted 4 ways increasing isolation , tonal response and long term comfort.
The clamping effect keeps the cups in the right place on the move and can be adjusted on and off for conversations in a second.
The rubberised matt black finish around the cups is a scratch and dirt/stain free setup by the look of it. This is where the majority of the handling will take place and will ensure the HV91 keep it’s good looks for a long time to come.
The Sound
I tested these on everything from a phone
to a virtual speaker system being pushed through a 50 Watts per Channel fully A class power Amplifier
worth arguably 200 times the retail value of the Havit HV91s.
I did this because I wanted to see when the HV91 would fall over, or if it would fall over.....
All of my music players are EQ’d to the sound signature I prefer.
This sound signature fits my musical tastes fairly well across the spectrum of classical to metal. Most of my headphone collection is able to cope with the standard EQ without needing further adjustment - a bassy phone will sound bassier but not enough to need EQing back, for example.
Note II through USB Audio Player Pro
On my phone , through the headphone out socket (rarely used nowadays), the sound is big. The soundstage is reasonably wide , the instruments do not bleed into each other in a nasty loud mess. The voice is easy to follow through the track, the drums have plenty of depth and energy to them and the highs are not rolled off enough that micro details are not present. Are these really £20? I keep thinking there must be some mistake…..
Onto the Mojo.
Chord Mojo through Vox player
A £399 Dac/Amp of some repute. A game changer in the portable audio end of the market in my opinion. Which does it's best to overwhelm the HV91. The phones start to get twitchy enough in the bass to pull the bass response back to flat up to the 512 Hz range.
Anyone familiar with Adele? Despite the setback for tickets in either London or Birmingham I put on “Hello” as everyone must know this song by now. Adele soars in this song, the more revealing nature of the Mojo made a change of EQ to a 9.5 Db boost in the 8K and 16K regions and some slight trimming of the 1K 2K and 4K ranges.
Playing through Adele’s latest album , “25” further , the acoustic Send My Love sounded great. “I Miss You”, with a much fuller feel than the latter 2 tracks displayed the hypnotic drum beat and the large soundstage with the subtle percussive sounds well enough to give a good feel of the atmosphere.
From the sublime to the ridiculous….
Chord Mojo through Vox Player Through Out of Your Head Virtual Speaker Software
I have just purchased a Virtual Speaker Technology
developed by fellow headfier Darin Fong(@darinf). I can now tell you what a £20 headphone can sound like when partnered with a Virtual Speaker which retails for £227,000!!!!!
Acapella: Spharon ($325,000/pair)
They have two huge horns for the tweeter and mid range. The bass has four 15inch woofers per channel. The speakers are 7.5 feet tall and weigh 1,364 pounds each!
This is a first for me in terms of software like this and a much deeper review is needed to explain more. Suffice it to say that various preconceptions of how a headphone should sound need to be dealt with before such software can be truly appreciated.
I am through that stage now and I can lean back and listen to what a millionaire’s system might sound like; without the expense and without the room treatment and without the neighbours doing a “here’s Johnny!”
when I listen to Adele’s “Water Under the Bridge” at this volume.
The sound signature is from the Speakers now and not from the headphones which is a difficult concept to grasp. What this means is that all EQ is turned off and the Out of Your Head software has a recorded sound signature that has been adjusted and calibrated for the room the measurements were taken from.
What we effectively get is a set of £20 headphones that now think they are £227,000 speakers being played through a system that can handle 7.5 feet tall blocks of concrete! The bass has changed not by a small amount……
Finally, from the ridiculous to the plain crazy.
The 24 96 25 album
- through the Mojo- through the virtual speaker software-and into the heart of the mini beast….
The mini beast is a 50 watt per channel power amplifier built in this country by my talented friend Dillan.(@dill3000).
It is based on a First Watt F6 design given to the DIY community by Nelson Pass of First Watt and Pass Labs. The F6 retails at $3500 ; Dillan ,being Dillan, has modified the design by changing out some of the components. The components he uses are arguably of superior sound quality so they’re in and I’m the winner!
Obviously something this powerful needs attenuation ; Dillan built me a box to use that with. The HiFiMan attenuator box was just not going to be good enough for me and my wonderful headphones. I bet he never thought I’d use a £20 headphone on it…..
Ok , the volume is now at 2%! The bass is threatening to pull my HV91s off my ears…..I need to switch to my favourite speakers
Acoustic Zen: Adagio Speakers Experimental
Prototype speakers based on the Acoustic Zen Adagio Jr. speakers, but they are MUCH better. 7.1 speaker configuration.
All I Ask is track 10 of Adele’s 25. Piano and voice, lots of voice. The sound is rich ; the headphone works well as a play though device.
Yes I know ; it was a stupid thing to do for a set of £20 phones , but the more stupid it is the more fun it seems to do it! And as I can do it , I will do it!
Conclusion
These are a great set of £20 phones, would make a great present for some lucky person. But, if you go on amazon looking
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HAVIT-HV-H91DJ-Professional-Headphones-Microphone/dp/B00IOEFHHA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449179256&sr=8-1&keywords=hv91dj
I would advise get 2-treat yourself!
The Introduction
These are are the 2nd set of headphones sent to me by Havit for reviewing. I have a third headset pending , which I will tell you about once I’ve given it a listen.
These are DJ headphones, they have cups that swivel out if you fancy spinning discs with them. They also have a mic on the cable that can control the music from your smartphone, pause , next and back functions.
They look stylish in an Autumn brown finish and they are very very cheap on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HAVIT-HV-H91DJ-Professional-Headphones-Microphone/dp/B00IOEFHHA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1449176271&sr=1-1&keywords=hv91
But do they sound any good?
The answer is yes! These headphones sound good straight out of the box - they need no more EQing than my Sennheiser HD800s or HiFiMan HE-6s ; this means they are not overly coloured in their sound signature by a ruthless boomy bass coarse mids or shrill highs. There is nothing to fear from these £20 headphones sound wise.
In fact , there is a lot to celebrate here , Havit , once their name is out there will surely make other manufacturers up their game. I thought the bluetooth H2555BT model I looked at last week
http://www.head-fi.org/products/havit-hv-h2555bt-nfc-hd-stereo-bluetooth-3-0-wired-wireless-headset-with-touch-control-12-hours-of-hands-free-talking-and-14-hours-wireless-music-streaming-with-potent-bass-crystal-audio-built-in-mic-black/reviews/14593
was a great product for the price. This outperforms the 2555BT on sound quality , of course we don’t have the wireless capability here.
The fit
Because the DJs fold up and to the left and right we have an added benefit here over the 2555BTs - a better fit onto the ears.
The cups don’t feel inflexible and are definitely not as tight as the BTs.
The fit is over the ears rather than on the ears. My ears did not completely fit inside the cups, my ear lobes were outside the cups. I don’t have very big ears so I suspect that others will be in the same situation.
The clamp effect of the HV91s is noticeable. They do clamp tight - after 6 hours (!) my ears were complaining a little. But not enough to need to take them off.
They last 6 hours before becoming uncomfortable because Havit have looked at comfort in detail with these phones. The band has a decent width mock leather material over 90% of the headband - there is nothing to pinch the side of your head,
something which makes me feel I’m being squashed in.
And the Havit’s are reassuringly light , there is no chance of any downward pressure from these. The only pressure will come from the side pressure of the cups and this is manageable.
The pads are a comfortable fit although they are thin
, of course due to the comfort factors of the weight the headband and the left right up down flex of the cups. The pads get quite warm after a few hours of wearing indoors - perfect for those cool Autumn evenings!
These headphones do not have the fit of a £20 headphone - they punch above their weight in this category.
The look
The DJs look elegant - only 3 colours are used - a golden black and brown , a white logo on each cup and a rubberised matt black for everything else.
There is a pleasant mottled black and brown finish on the top of the headband.
This gives a pleasant feel to the handling of the top of the headphones.
The function button is colour matched to the cable and is small and discrete.
There has clearly been a lot of thought gone into making these phones look as good as they sound - they present a welcome departure from most of the silver and black designs of my existing
phone collection. Silver and black is boring!
Should these phones be spotted being worn in the street and why not?- they isolate and stay in place really well, they will be recognised as something different from the standard beats look. The Havit logo is tastefully emblazoned in white
so some brand awareness is likely to get out there.
On good looks alone I hope punters will be attracted to these phones , they look as good as they sound.
The Design
As DJ headphones , the HV91s need to have both cups swivel independently , those requests for that special song could come from the left or right…
But the fact they fold upwards means they can be folded away to half their size for easy storage.
The flex in the cups also allows for a much more precise fit - the fit can be adjusted 4 ways increasing isolation , tonal response and long term comfort.
The clamping effect keeps the cups in the right place on the move and can be adjusted on and off for conversations in a second.
The rubberised matt black finish around the cups is a scratch and dirt/stain free setup by the look of it. This is where the majority of the handling will take place and will ensure the HV91 keep it’s good looks for a long time to come.
The Sound
I tested these on everything from a phone
to a virtual speaker system being pushed through a 50 Watts per Channel fully A class power Amplifier
worth arguably 200 times the retail value of the Havit HV91s.
I did this because I wanted to see when the HV91 would fall over, or if it would fall over.....
All of my music players are EQ’d to the sound signature I prefer.
This sound signature fits my musical tastes fairly well across the spectrum of classical to metal. Most of my headphone collection is able to cope with the standard EQ without needing further adjustment - a bassy phone will sound bassier but not enough to need EQing back, for example.
Note II through USB Audio Player Pro
On my phone , through the headphone out socket (rarely used nowadays), the sound is big. The soundstage is reasonably wide , the instruments do not bleed into each other in a nasty loud mess. The voice is easy to follow through the track, the drums have plenty of depth and energy to them and the highs are not rolled off enough that micro details are not present. Are these really £20? I keep thinking there must be some mistake…..
Onto the Mojo.
Chord Mojo through Vox player
A £399 Dac/Amp of some repute. A game changer in the portable audio end of the market in my opinion. Which does it's best to overwhelm the HV91. The phones start to get twitchy enough in the bass to pull the bass response back to flat up to the 512 Hz range.
Anyone familiar with Adele? Despite the setback for tickets in either London or Birmingham I put on “Hello” as everyone must know this song by now. Adele soars in this song, the more revealing nature of the Mojo made a change of EQ to a 9.5 Db boost in the 8K and 16K regions and some slight trimming of the 1K 2K and 4K ranges.
Playing through Adele’s latest album , “25” further , the acoustic Send My Love sounded great. “I Miss You”, with a much fuller feel than the latter 2 tracks displayed the hypnotic drum beat and the large soundstage with the subtle percussive sounds well enough to give a good feel of the atmosphere.
From the sublime to the ridiculous….
Chord Mojo through Vox Player Through Out of Your Head Virtual Speaker Software
I have just purchased a Virtual Speaker Technology
developed by fellow headfier Darin Fong(@darinf). I can now tell you what a £20 headphone can sound like when partnered with a Virtual Speaker which retails for £227,000!!!!!
Acapella: Spharon ($325,000/pair)
They have two huge horns for the tweeter and mid range. The bass has four 15inch woofers per channel. The speakers are 7.5 feet tall and weigh 1,364 pounds each!
This is a first for me in terms of software like this and a much deeper review is needed to explain more. Suffice it to say that various preconceptions of how a headphone should sound need to be dealt with before such software can be truly appreciated.
I am through that stage now and I can lean back and listen to what a millionaire’s system might sound like; without the expense and without the room treatment and without the neighbours doing a “here’s Johnny!”
when I listen to Adele’s “Water Under the Bridge” at this volume.
The sound signature is from the Speakers now and not from the headphones which is a difficult concept to grasp. What this means is that all EQ is turned off and the Out of Your Head software has a recorded sound signature that has been adjusted and calibrated for the room the measurements were taken from.
What we effectively get is a set of £20 headphones that now think they are £227,000 speakers being played through a system that can handle 7.5 feet tall blocks of concrete! The bass has changed not by a small amount……
Finally, from the ridiculous to the plain crazy.
The 24 96 25 album
- through the Mojo- through the virtual speaker software-and into the heart of the mini beast….
The mini beast is a 50 watt per channel power amplifier built in this country by my talented friend Dillan.(@dill3000).
It is based on a First Watt F6 design given to the DIY community by Nelson Pass of First Watt and Pass Labs. The F6 retails at $3500 ; Dillan ,being Dillan, has modified the design by changing out some of the components. The components he uses are arguably of superior sound quality so they’re in and I’m the winner!
Obviously something this powerful needs attenuation ; Dillan built me a box to use that with. The HiFiMan attenuator box was just not going to be good enough for me and my wonderful headphones. I bet he never thought I’d use a £20 headphone on it…..
Ok , the volume is now at 2%! The bass is threatening to pull my HV91s off my ears…..I need to switch to my favourite speakers
Acoustic Zen: Adagio Speakers Experimental
Prototype speakers based on the Acoustic Zen Adagio Jr. speakers, but they are MUCH better. 7.1 speaker configuration.
All I Ask is track 10 of Adele’s 25. Piano and voice, lots of voice. The sound is rich ; the headphone works well as a play though device.
Yes I know ; it was a stupid thing to do for a set of £20 phones , but the more stupid it is the more fun it seems to do it! And as I can do it , I will do it!
Conclusion
These are a great set of £20 phones, would make a great present for some lucky person. But, if you go on amazon looking
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HAVIT-HV-H91DJ-Professional-Headphones-Microphone/dp/B00IOEFHHA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449179256&sr=8-1&keywords=hv91dj
I would advise get 2-treat yourself!
