I first heard of the Tungsten’s from several friends at a local Schiit Meet in Pittsboro, North Carolina. At the time I didn’t think much of the comments since I already have several really good headphones in house. But one friend kept telling me that I was missing the “boat” and I had to listen to these planars. About the same time another friend asked me to repair a rather high end dac and wanted to pay me for it. As a friend I said no, then he said I have some headphones you might want to listen to….and one was his set of Tungsten DS headphones from Mod House. So, I got to listen to his Tungsten’s for a week as “payment” for the repair job! Sweet!
The Tungsten's a friend loaned me!
It took a week for me to determine that these planars are indeed a very special headphone. I have three dynamic headphones and three planars. So, I really don’t need another set of planars, or so I thought. I placed my order like many others and the wait started. These headphones are in great demand, that should tell you something about their quality. The wait time has really gone to a several months waiting period. Mod House from my understanding is a small business in Pennsylvania and Ryan Dietz does most of the manufacture and assembly with help from family members and friends. So, the build process is slow. Assembled in a small Pennsylvania town of Lititz. 3d printed parts, 24K Gold driver assemblies! The story or development of the Tungsten's are published on the Mod House Audio website. A very interesting read.
Testing with many amps. Using the Pre-Amp of Pass Labs HPA-1 to drive a 6CA7 Van Alstine Speaker Amp. Excellent!
Ryan has recently sent out updates on his efforts to reduce the wait times for the Tungsten's. Unfortunately, he and his family have experienced several really unfortunate things that have affected the delivery dates of Tungsten's. Some of these things are very personal and family related. I do know he is working hard on making this better! Nuff Said.
I had the good fortune to obtain a demo set of DS Tungsten's. A one off that is very blue in color (I call is Smurf Blue!). Seems Ryan had a B-stock set that he relegated to a Demo set. As always, I am not being paid for this review. All the comments are from my experience and YMMV. Ryan has made himself available to me for any questions I had. By the way the color has nothing to do with the sound! (smile).
Abit of a side note, Ryan credits his wife Katie, his friend Matt, Skedra for Viking Weave cables and Zach from ZMF in assisting over the years in making Tungsten a reality. Great team. Good to see folks already well established helping others out. Thanks. Smile.
Demo Set - Wild Color!
Build Quality:
Some have commented on this in that they look home-made and aren’t as “polished” as other TOTL headphones. I get that. Tungsten’s to me have an industrial vibe to them. A kind of retro look and feel. I really like this. The pair I have are very well put together. Easy to adjust. Comfortable to wear. A spring steel band that can be bent a tad if you need to adjust to make the fit to your head. I found the fit to be perfect for me. Most of these headphones are made and assembled by Ryan. Some reviewers mentioned the clamping force was a tad too much for them and bent them some to have less clamping force. I used them fully in the down position. Heavy ? Well they are 520 grams. My ADX 5000 are 320 grams. So, in comparison yes, but they carry their weight very well IMO. They have a small leather type headband strap (Alcantara) that helps with this. I wore these for several hours with no issues.
One of my test stacks.
A really neat thing that I do like about these headphones is the way Ryan has recessed the 3.5 mm headphone jacks into the driver mountings. They help guide the “barrels” of your cables nicely into the jacks. These connections are not the most robust or sturdy on most headphones where they are hanging out there in the air. Simple design, but to me more a carefully thought-out design. These openings will accommodate up to 10mm diameter, a barrel of 9mm or larger is suggested. One reason Ryan recommends Viking Weave and Double Helix Cables.
I really like the way these plug in.
Tungsten’s have stainless steel rods that allow adjusting the drivers to fit various ear / heads and should hold up for years. By the way the parts are made out of MJF Nylon 12.
You can tell these were 3D printed. A slightly coarse feel and look. NOT an issue here. Industrial Look.
Carrying Case: A simple grey pelican type case. Foam filled. Inside the case are the headphones some foam separators, a small metal printed credit card style plate with the serial number and other pertinent headphone information and the Viking Weave cable.
Headphone cable: Wow! What a refreshing surprise. A real copper Litz cable from Viking Weave Cables. XLR – 4 pin. Its 6 ft long. It’s a GEBO (X) cable that uses PVC dielectric with 22 awg core and 22 awg shield of OFC copper. A very nice touch for a TOTL headphone. Other terminations are available, and the wiring for the cable uses the standard pinout so you can use this cable with other headphones! No weird wiring schemes here. I tried several other standard headphone cables in the Tungsten's which worked just fine as well as using the Viking Weave cable in other headphones.
Very nice touch to get a high quality copper OFC cable.
Looks aren't everything, its what's inside as well! But this IMO is a very refreshing look. Clean. Unbreakable. Nylon.
Earpads. If you read Ryan's information on his website the choice of earpads were a very important consideration. I think the driver and its geometry and location in the mountings are very important. Secondly the earpads have an enormous affect on the sound quality and otherwise. The physicality’s of wearing headphones can make a really big difference in the outcome. Just place your hands over your open back headphones, quite a difference in sound! So, the type of material, the thickness of the pads and the shape of the pads can affect the sound signature. After much testing and feedback Mod House settled in on ZMF Caldera Hybrid pads for single sided Tungsten's and ZMF Caldera Ultra-Perf pads for the double-sided drivers. The unit I have had the Ultra-Perf pads. IMO a very good choice for this tuning.
The BEST pad mounting scheme. Simple. It just works VERY well.
Drivers:
Now this is the heart of this headphone. 24 K gold is used. After years of testing Ryan with a variety of materials he made this choice. Interesting. In choosing gold wires, unlike many planars the impedance becomes significantly higher than “normal”. Couple this with most amps decline in power at higher impedances makes choosing an amplifier, well “ya gotta think about this a bit more”. I had a loaner several months ago and was able to try, many amps with those tungsten’s. It became apparent that many amps will drive the tungsten’s ok. But as always some seemed to just work better than others. I discuss this below in detail. Using thin custom magnets that are more acoustically transparent according to Mod House this allows for a more uniform magnetic field that provides for a higher performance. In other words it helps make the “magic” of what Tungsten's are. And they do have magic traits! When I hear drums being hit with a wooden stick, it often sounds like the material in a drum is in the tungsten, uncanny realistic to me. So, we have higher impedance than most and lower sensitivity. Which leads me to say the only really negative thing about the Tungsten’s are its sensitivity specifications. 76 dB/mw and 78dB/mw for single - and double-sided versions respectively. The impedance is 135 ohm and 155 Ohm average respectively. Most planars are lower than this. So what does this mean to you. Well compared to most any other headphone they are harder to drive to reach various SPLs. Also, they require more voltage at these impedances. You may notice most headphone amplifiers have power ratings that deliver more power at lower impedances. Like 32 ohms or so. As the impedance increases the power ratings seem to be less in most amps. And then there is the often-confusing voltage vs current discussion. This is not intended to be a physics lesson in voltage and current distribution. The key thing here to remember is these headphones need more power than easier to drive headphones. A closer look at this it’s been determined that with these headphones you need more voltage at their rated impedance than current. Typically, I listen from 75 to 85 dB or so. I constantly adjust my volume knob on amps to my desired level. A voltage around 20 volts seems to be a sweet spot for us listeners at these levels. If you are a quiet listener, you can get away with a much lower voltage. If you’re a real high level listener (Danger!! Don’t do this) you would need 30 volts or more!! Many tungsten owners (zealots!) tout that you have to have a speaker amp. I disagree. Yes they can work and work very well with a speaker amp. But they are not needed for most of us. An amp that can put out 20 volts at these impedances will suffice just fine IMO. Some folks feed their amps with a dac output more than the normal 2.0 volts. You cannot defy the laws of physics, by trying to feed an amp with a hot dac. This only gets you so far. Only if your amp has the "capability" of outputting the desired voltage. Selecting an amplifier with tungsten’s is something you need to consider. Carefully.
The "Magic" Part!
Amplifiers I used are Schiit Mjolnir 3, Schiit Vali 3, Schiit Midgard, Vioelectric V281 SE, Soekris 2541 Dac amplifier section, Pass Labs HPA-1. More on this below.
V281 LE, Pass Labs HPA-1, Schiit Midgard (A real surprise!), Holo Cyan 2, Schiit Modius E and Soekris 2541
Listening experience:
Nothing short of exceptional especially for a planar headphone. There are so many planars out there all over the price performance spectrum. At $2,000 these are not inexpensive but not as expensive as others that they are often compared to. Friends with Susvaras, Utopias, Abyss, D8000 Pros etc. tell me that “Tungsten’s often are better in some attributes. Its absolutely crazy that the Tungsten holds its own against all of these and possibly beats them in several aspects.” High praise. Do they live up to it with my listening. Simple answer: Yes they do.
Headphones I use are HD650, ADX5000, HE1000SE, Rad 0, D8000 Pro, ZMF Verite Closed Backs. All great headphones in their own right. But Tungsten's have moved all these down just a notch!.
The amplifiers I used had a direct impact to my listening experience. After listening with all these amps my order of preference is: Vioelectric V281 LE, Schiit Midgard, Schiit Mjolinr 3, Pass Labs HPA-1. Why? Read on.
Note: (The "experience" with these amps are with Tungsten's. With other headphones the results may be different).
For a $219 amp from Schiit Audio, the Midgard has been one of my "reference" or go to SS amps. It has a lot of power and is a wonderful discrete SS amp designed by Jason Stoddard. It did a really decent job in driving the Tungsten's. Solid. Yes, you have to use HIGH gain, and the volume has to be cranked up to 3 pm. More than that the SPLS get painful. If your on a budget this amp will do nicely especially if your not a really loud listener. More on this pairing can be found with a good electrical theory explanation as to why Midgard works well with the Tungsten's on the net. You can Google this or PM me for the technical information. It verified what I was experiencing with Schiits Midgard. If you're on a tight budget the Schiit Midgard will do nicely!
The Mjolnir 3, is a beast of a Class A amp from Schiit Audio as well. It does drive the Tungsten's very well. IMO not as good to my liking as the much less expensive Midgard. HIGH gain, volume around noon and its loud. The overall sound signature to me is it’s a tad warmer to my liking in this pairing. I like a clean and transparent sound. Clarity is an overall consideration to me. I don’t like Veils of any kind. Some Tungsten owners do not think this pairing is the best. Unless you actually listen yourself this amp may be to "you" liking.
Pass Labs is a 3.5 watt / 32 ohm Class A beast. Wonderful design. Expensive. But does not have the EMF to drive the Tungsten's well. Up to 70-75 dB but it runs out of gas, Sad. I have had this amp here for years and with most all other headphones its superlative.
Which leaves the Vioelectic 281 LE. Based on a 2014 design from Lake People. In the search for an amp that would have a high voltage swing at the Tungsten impedance. This amp kept popping up on my radar. Lake People after many requests decided to make another 100 of these units. All sold quickly. Another 100 are being built and sold via Power Holdings. They are coming in slowly, but you can pre-order. I stumbled over a demo unit and I snapped it up. Its been in house for a few weeks. It drives anything I have with ease. It was purchased expressly to drive the Tungsten's, and it does very, very well. I run the V281 LE with +6dB of gain. The volume control is set around the desired 12 noon position. Only a few recordings made at low levels makes me move the volume much higher. The big difference between this and the Midgard with the Tungsten's is an immediate wider, open and more well-defined soundstage to my ears. Almost like cranking up the volume without cranking up the volume. It’s a wonderful transparent clear sound. About as good as I ever have heard. I am sure that its voltage at the impedance is part of the magic. I know other Tungsten zealots like other amps a well. That’s fine. You can search the web and see the others. Price wise the V281 Se is I believe $2699.99 retail. But I will say if you buy this amp you really don’t need anything else.
NOTE: I did use my 6CA7 35 watt RMS per channel speaker amp. It works very well. Very similar to the V281 LE. Honestly, I do not see any reason to use it over the V281 LE and vice versa.
My Sweet Spot Amp.
Other amps worthy of mention that many folks really like are: LordGwyn Aegis, Auris Nirvana, Decaware ZMF Reference OTL, Glen OTL, and CFA-3. As always YMMV. We all hear differently.
So now you know my favorite amp to use with Tungsten's. How do they sound to me. Well just superb.
The strong traits are clarity, when driven well. Revealing, when driven well. The tonality and timbre are IMO exceptional. Tungsten’s produce an even natural sound. Realism is a good word to describe the sound. The resolution is also exceptional, very good. If its in the recording your going to hear It. With enough power on board the overall dynamic response can be explosive. The dynamic range exhibited is first class. At times is scary realistic.
I am not going to contrast all my other headphones in detail against Tungsten's. If you're looking at a $2,000 headphone hopefully you already have a good base of knowledge. The only thing I can say in conclusion is: If you buy a set if Tungsten's, just get an amplifier that will drive them well and you will not be unhappy. IMO and of course YMMV.
Tungsten's with Optional HEX Style Grills - Provides a Slight Tuning Change.
Conclusion:
I started this experience stating that I did not think I needed another headphone. Doing this for so many years I really know what I like and can afford. Well, I am glad that I was gently pressured in to listening to these headphones. I thank that person.
What a real all-around special headphone the Tungsten is. Assembled in the USA in a small town of Lititz, Pennsylvania by a person who had a dream of making a headphone that he thought would be one the best transducers out there.
Well Ryan hit the ball out of the park, Tungsten is an exceptional all around planar with exquisite tonality and balance. It may not have the technicalities as some but it has soul, is musical, and honest. It is a revealing and articulate headphone. In the price category I think it is the best out there sonically.
Many owners opine how well Tungsten's do against Susvaras, Abyss, Utopia etc. For a basically a homemade 3D printed headphone to compete in this arena is simply amazing.
Make sure you carefully choose an amplifier that will do Tungsten justice, and you will be rewarded.
I hope Mod House will be able to improve future deliveries, there are a lot of folks just chomping at the bit so to speak for a Tungsten experience.
Alex
There is much discussion around what it takes to "properly"drive these headphones, but I find them enjoyable even with less than properly spec'd amplifiers. Heck, they even sound great to me with the couple of tube amps I've tried them on (Woo Audio WA6-SE and Feliks Euforia). Much of this will come down to how loudly you plan to listen to them.
Currently using my Tungsten DS with a Wells Audio Milo, which I haven't seen discussed much, and it drives them quite well with plenty of headroom to spare.