All righty, here are my more in-depth impressions of the MYSPHERE 3.
INTRDUCTION
Firstly, I want to thank @hrklg01 for letting me use the MYSPHERE 3 in my own listening environment for a very generous 3 weeks. Meeting Mr. Renner at CanJam at RMAF in 2017 was really fun, and it's cool to be able to meet the guy behind the legendary AKG K1000.
I first heard the K1000 in 2012 and was really impressed with its ability to image and produce a convincing soundstage presentation. The Bottlehead Corporation in Seattle uses a K1000 as their reference headphone and hearing it on their reel-to-reel rigs was always a pleasure to listen to. I've always wondered if there would be a successor to the K1000 since it's so highly regarded, and hard to come by.
29 years after the initial release of the K1000, a successor has finally been released: MYSPHERE 3. Like the K1000, these headphones (or earspeakers) have sound pieces that don't go around your ears, but rather either rest on them or are angled away from your ears.
Some of you may have seen my video review of the MYSPHERE 3 already.
ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Since I did get too listen to this in my own listening environment, it's important to know the whole system:
I chose single-ended because it's a more accessible output.
I also used the Pulse X Infinity's line-outputs with:
DESIGN: 4.5/5 and COMFORT: 3/5
I'll start my review with the design, build quality, and comfort. Why? As soon as you take the MYSPHERE 3 out of the case, you can immediately feel and observe the premium materials this headphone uses and how different its design is. I've never held a headphone that felt more solid and robust as the MYSPHERE 3. Given its price, I think the MYSPHERE 3 sets a new, high-bar standard for how any headphones in this price range and beyond should be designed. It seriously puts some other headphones' build quality to shame.
The headband is made of a spring steel-feeling material that's both able to be stretched and doesn't feel like it will break. As much as I like MrSpeaker's headphone designs, the NiTinol headband feels like it could snap at any moment even though it likely won't. The headband is also sandblasted (or something of the sort) to be matte finished so it isn't a fingerprint magnet, nor super reflective and shiny. The MYSPHERE logo on the top of the headband is laser etched onto the metal, not stamped like other popular headphones.
The removable padding that attaches to the inside of the headband is probably the weakest part of the headphone's design, and that's why I lowered the MYSPHERE's ratings from 5.0 to 4.5. For one, I find the padding to be on the lean side. This headphone might be uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time because of: 1) the lack of supple padding and 2) depending on the shape of your head, there might be some pressure points on your head because of the headband's design. For me, reason #1 wasn't an issue, but reason #2 was and the headband put pressure on the area of my head directly above my ears. Stretching out the headband helped a bit with the pressure relief, but it still wasn't gone and this is why I'd give the comfort level a 3 out of 5.
Although the inside of the headband has fiberglass-looking plastic attached to the steel frame, the padding itself is held to the frame by regular plastic tabs. These tabs felt a bit flimsy to me since (at least on this sample unit) they were loose enough to let the SOUNDFRAMES be removed from the magnetic rails without having to remove the padding first. You can actually see this at 2:44 in the video above, where I have to grip the padding to the frame.
Speaking of the SOUNDFRAMES, they add to the incredible build quality of these headphones. The magnetically-attached SOUNDFRAMES carry the audio signals through the pins that connect to the frame, which carries the audio signal symmetrically to the other SOUNDFRAME. This, again, is the first time I've seen a headphone use this kind of technology and it's really interesting to see. The SOUNDFRAMES themselves are likewise solidly built and they have magnetically-attached mesh earpads. The glass-fiber drivers are protected by a water-resistant mesh material, and all the space around the drivers are made to be acoustically transparent and open. The SOUNDFRAMES feel heavy in the hand and upon taking the earpads off, one can see that they have a very solid build to them with a metal outer frame that's filled with a hard material that almost looks like it's been 3D printed with metal (3rd photo below).
An interesting thing to note is that some of the MYSPHERE 3's design is patented; a smart move. I tried looking through Google Patents to see if I could find anything, and possibly explain here, but alas, I didn't find any information.
Each side of the headband has a 4-pole female 3.5 mm TRRS jack, so you can easily have the MYSPHERE 3 cabled in a balanced configuration (L+, L-, R+, R-) or single-ended (L+, R+, ground, ground). In this sample unit, a short 3.5 mm single-ended, long 3.5 mm single-ended, long XLR balanced, and short 2.5 mm balanced cable were included in the case.
The MYSPHERE 3 is rated at 96 dB SPL/mW of power (for both the MYSPHERE 3.1 and 3.2), so this can easily be driven with portable gear. Devices offering even just 2 mW (pushing the MYSPHERE 3 to 99 dB SPL) at 110 Ω aren't too hard to come by (or the equivalent voltage to have 80 mW at 32 Ω).
SOUND QUALITY: 4.5/5
I'll first describe the sound differences as you open and close the SOUNDFRAMES on your head. When you have them closed, the imaging sounds like a typical open-back headphone in that it sounds pretty spacious and airy, but sounds are still very much in your head. There haven't been any headphone that can convey sounds being outside of my head apart from the STAX SR-Σ Pro and the AKG K1000. However, as you turn the SOUNDFRAMES more and more outward, the imaging becomes increasingly more out of your head. When the SOUNDFRAMES are open at the maximum point, it very much sounds like you're listening to a pair of near-field speakers; it's pretty cool to hear, and I encourage others to experiment with the openness. When listening to self-recorded binaural recordings, I got the impression that I was listening to binaural sounds on a speaker setup, which I have heard before. It defeats the purpose of a binaural recording, but it's interesting to be able to hear that kind of effect from a headphone setup. One can get a similar-ish sound from a crossfeed effect.
On the other hand, when you have the SOUNDFRAMES more open, you also lose more of the bass frequencies, which is to be expected. These are non-sealing headphones, so the bass response easily rolls off the farther apart the drivers are from your ears. I listen to mainly pop, electronic, R&B, soul, jazz, and classic rock songs, so I prefer to have a more prominent bass response. The SOUNDFRAMES positioned so that they were about 1/3 open gave me the best balance of bass roll-off and imaging. With the few orchestral tracks I listen to though, I opened the SOUNDFRAMES more just because that sense of space and imaging is wonderful to hear for those types of recordings. That being said, I found the treble to sound more sizzley and grainy, and the upper-midrange to sound too bright as the SOUNDFRAMES were opened up. This, too, likely has to do with the distance the drivers are from your ears; the farther apart the drivers are from your ears, the less fidelity you get.
As convenient as YouTube is, it doesn't do the binaural recordings justice since YouTube's video conversion cuts off all frequencies above ~15 kHz. Here are the original FLAC files that were used for the video (volume-matched with ReplayGain, so the SOUNDFRAMES open sample has a higher noise floor).
https://mega.nz/#!uRZyCKqJ!n6qpwCSzJ8vlSKvQ4MGhuOjVwJw4Cx8W_9vLw6CKy4w [SOUNDFRAMES closed]
https://mega.nz/#!GJZ0mQQa!a3EfO8KWXcQyXW_a1BEit8CU5mQ5xJZrOklJygkJO7s [SOUNDFRAMES 1/3 open]
https://mega.nz/#!qYZCHQZD!0-HYhTV3UyZ1byjdV_T2YVtXqVWc_1Pj9zQVrWq_QZU [SOUNDFRAMES open]
The second thing I'll describe are the different SOUNDFRAME options one has when purchasing the MYSPHERE 3:
MYSPHERE 3.1 is meant to be used with amplifiers that have a HIGH output impedance, such as some tube amps like the WA8. Using it with amps of low output impedance makes the drivers over-damped and thus results in a bright and harsh sound, which sounds terrible with hotly mastered music. I'm not 100% certain on the explanation for why the lower-impedance SOUNDFRAME is over-damped, but that's what I was told from Mr. Renner. I can say for certain though that on the WA8, the MYSPHERE 3.1 sounded superb with soul and R&B music.
MYSPHERE 3.2 is meant to be used with amplifiers that have a LOW output impedance, like most solid state amps out there. That being said, the MYSPHERE 3.2 doesn't sound bad with amps of high output impedance either. Compared to the MYSPHERE 3.1 on the WA8, the MYSPHERE 3.2 sounded a bit leaner overall in terms of its sound signature and I didn't enjoy it quite as much with my music. On the solid state amplifiers I used with the MYSPHERE 3.2, I pretty much enjoyed every song I threw at the system.
With all of that explained, I'll move on to my main sound impressions with the MYSPHERE 3.2 at the 1/3 open position.
I'll start off with the bass. The bass is fairly well-extended and has a good presence in the overall sound signature; I would say it's fairly neutral-sounding, but more on the warm side. It sounds very clean and textured for a dynamic headphone, but I think planar magnetic enthusiasts would be missing out on impact if they switched to the MYSPHERE 3. I much prefer the MYSPHERE 3's bass response over that of the Utopia or HD800/800S, for example (except for the Utopia on the Benchmark HPA-4). I generally like the Focal Clear as a dynamic headphone, but the MYSPHERE 3 made the Clear's bass sound like mud in comparison.
Moving on to the midrange, it too sounded fairly neutral to me, with the upper-midrange only sounding a tad bit bright. Sometimes female vocals would sound a little more pronounced than what I would consider neutral, but they never came off as being shouty (like my SR-207), bright (like the HD800), or sibilant (like the Utopia for me). It's kind of like a presence peak for a microphone. Instruments or vocals that emphasize the lower-midrange sound absolutely wonderful through the MYSPHERE 3. The weight from the bass frequencies carries into the midrange without making it sound muddled, and gives the midrange a nice timbre.
Going up the frequencies into the treble, I find the treble to be quite smooth. There aren't any very prominent peaks that I could hear, but there is a slight presence peak at around 10 kHz that gives it some sparkle. Extension is also very good as drums and hi-hats had good texture. Compared to some electrostatic headphones out there, the treble didn't quite sound as grain-free to me, but for what it is as a dynamic headphone, it definitely belongs in the top tier of headphones. Like electrostatic headphones though, I felt comfortable turning up the volume on recordings and I didn't hear any sort of breakup or distortion of the drivers. I was able to enjoy music at loud volume levels without having the sound be piercing to my ears, which is not a common trait of headphones in my experience.
Switching it up and moving to the instrument separation, soundstage, and imaging abilities of the MYSPHERE 3, I definitely think these are all strong points for the headphone. Listening to self-recorded binaural recordings, imaging and instrument separation sounded very life-like, more so than my regular arsenal of headphones. Perhaps it's due to the angling of the drivers relative to my ears, but everything just sounded so clear to me in terms of analyzing tracks. Going through my usual array of test tracks, instruments are well-separated and placed around my head. Even while gaming with fast-paced first-person shooters like Overwatch, I seemed to perform better than average since spacial cues were more obvious to me.
VALUE: 4/5
This is an entirely subjective rating, but I'll include this section anyway. I'll just state that I don't have $4000 lying around to justify purchasing this headphone, or any headphone in this price range for that matter. I'm guessing a lot of people are in the same position.
That being said, considering the MYSPHERE's incredible sound for a dynamic driver, ability to customize the sound with the angling and positioning of the SOUNDFRAMES, and overall design, this headphone is a fairly easy recommendation for me considering the other headphones in this price bracket. For the money you're paying, I think the MYSPHERE 3 is an exemplary piece of engineering.
Even from just the design of the unit, it definitely stands out from any other headphone out there. I absolutely love the fact that you can dismantle the whole thing for portable storage, and re-assemble it in less than 30 seconds. Relating to portability, the high sensitivity of the MYSPHERE makes it a good candidate to use with portable gear, something the original K1000 definitely could not achieve.
My only concern for this headphone is the comfort, and I do think this headphone will be a hit-or-miss because of it. It's not the most comfortable headphone out there, and especially so compared to some of the other headphone choices people have. Similar to the JPS Labs Abyss headphones, I would highly recommend people give this headphone a try for proper fitting. A headphone is no good if you can't stand wearing it.
DESIGN: 4.5/5
COMFORT: 3/5
SOUND QUALITY: 4.5/5
VALUE: 4/5
OVERALL SCORE: 16/20 = 4/5
Thank you for taking the time to read through, or watch, my review!
INTRDUCTION
Firstly, I want to thank @hrklg01 for letting me use the MYSPHERE 3 in my own listening environment for a very generous 3 weeks. Meeting Mr. Renner at CanJam at RMAF in 2017 was really fun, and it's cool to be able to meet the guy behind the legendary AKG K1000.
I first heard the K1000 in 2012 and was really impressed with its ability to image and produce a convincing soundstage presentation. The Bottlehead Corporation in Seattle uses a K1000 as their reference headphone and hearing it on their reel-to-reel rigs was always a pleasure to listen to. I've always wondered if there would be a successor to the K1000 since it's so highly regarded, and hard to come by.
29 years after the initial release of the K1000, a successor has finally been released: MYSPHERE 3. Like the K1000, these headphones (or earspeakers) have sound pieces that don't go around your ears, but rather either rest on them or are angled away from your ears.
Some of you may have seen my video review of the MYSPHERE 3 already.
ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Since I did get too listen to this in my own listening environment, it's important to know the whole system:
- JRriver Media Center 24
- iFi Audio iUSB 3.0
- Supra USB cable
- Schiit Eitr
- LH Labs Pulse X Infinity powered by their Linear Power Supply 4
- Included 3.5 mm/6.3 mm cable with the MYSPHERE 3
I chose single-ended because it's a more accessible output.
I also used the Pulse X Infinity's line-outputs with:
- Gilmore Lite
- Massdrop THX AAA 789
- Woo Audio WA8 3 triode output
DESIGN: 4.5/5 and COMFORT: 3/5
I'll start my review with the design, build quality, and comfort. Why? As soon as you take the MYSPHERE 3 out of the case, you can immediately feel and observe the premium materials this headphone uses and how different its design is. I've never held a headphone that felt more solid and robust as the MYSPHERE 3. Given its price, I think the MYSPHERE 3 sets a new, high-bar standard for how any headphones in this price range and beyond should be designed. It seriously puts some other headphones' build quality to shame.
The headband is made of a spring steel-feeling material that's both able to be stretched and doesn't feel like it will break. As much as I like MrSpeaker's headphone designs, the NiTinol headband feels like it could snap at any moment even though it likely won't. The headband is also sandblasted (or something of the sort) to be matte finished so it isn't a fingerprint magnet, nor super reflective and shiny. The MYSPHERE logo on the top of the headband is laser etched onto the metal, not stamped like other popular headphones.
The removable padding that attaches to the inside of the headband is probably the weakest part of the headphone's design, and that's why I lowered the MYSPHERE's ratings from 5.0 to 4.5. For one, I find the padding to be on the lean side. This headphone might be uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time because of: 1) the lack of supple padding and 2) depending on the shape of your head, there might be some pressure points on your head because of the headband's design. For me, reason #1 wasn't an issue, but reason #2 was and the headband put pressure on the area of my head directly above my ears. Stretching out the headband helped a bit with the pressure relief, but it still wasn't gone and this is why I'd give the comfort level a 3 out of 5.
Although the inside of the headband has fiberglass-looking plastic attached to the steel frame, the padding itself is held to the frame by regular plastic tabs. These tabs felt a bit flimsy to me since (at least on this sample unit) they were loose enough to let the SOUNDFRAMES be removed from the magnetic rails without having to remove the padding first. You can actually see this at 2:44 in the video above, where I have to grip the padding to the frame.
Speaking of the SOUNDFRAMES, they add to the incredible build quality of these headphones. The magnetically-attached SOUNDFRAMES carry the audio signals through the pins that connect to the frame, which carries the audio signal symmetrically to the other SOUNDFRAME. This, again, is the first time I've seen a headphone use this kind of technology and it's really interesting to see. The SOUNDFRAMES themselves are likewise solidly built and they have magnetically-attached mesh earpads. The glass-fiber drivers are protected by a water-resistant mesh material, and all the space around the drivers are made to be acoustically transparent and open. The SOUNDFRAMES feel heavy in the hand and upon taking the earpads off, one can see that they have a very solid build to them with a metal outer frame that's filled with a hard material that almost looks like it's been 3D printed with metal (3rd photo below).
An interesting thing to note is that some of the MYSPHERE 3's design is patented; a smart move. I tried looking through Google Patents to see if I could find anything, and possibly explain here, but alas, I didn't find any information.
Each side of the headband has a 4-pole female 3.5 mm TRRS jack, so you can easily have the MYSPHERE 3 cabled in a balanced configuration (L+, L-, R+, R-) or single-ended (L+, R+, ground, ground). In this sample unit, a short 3.5 mm single-ended, long 3.5 mm single-ended, long XLR balanced, and short 2.5 mm balanced cable were included in the case.
The MYSPHERE 3 is rated at 96 dB SPL/mW of power (for both the MYSPHERE 3.1 and 3.2), so this can easily be driven with portable gear. Devices offering even just 2 mW (pushing the MYSPHERE 3 to 99 dB SPL) at 110 Ω aren't too hard to come by (or the equivalent voltage to have 80 mW at 32 Ω).
SOUND QUALITY: 4.5/5
I'll first describe the sound differences as you open and close the SOUNDFRAMES on your head. When you have them closed, the imaging sounds like a typical open-back headphone in that it sounds pretty spacious and airy, but sounds are still very much in your head. There haven't been any headphone that can convey sounds being outside of my head apart from the STAX SR-Σ Pro and the AKG K1000. However, as you turn the SOUNDFRAMES more and more outward, the imaging becomes increasingly more out of your head. When the SOUNDFRAMES are open at the maximum point, it very much sounds like you're listening to a pair of near-field speakers; it's pretty cool to hear, and I encourage others to experiment with the openness. When listening to self-recorded binaural recordings, I got the impression that I was listening to binaural sounds on a speaker setup, which I have heard before. It defeats the purpose of a binaural recording, but it's interesting to be able to hear that kind of effect from a headphone setup. One can get a similar-ish sound from a crossfeed effect.
On the other hand, when you have the SOUNDFRAMES more open, you also lose more of the bass frequencies, which is to be expected. These are non-sealing headphones, so the bass response easily rolls off the farther apart the drivers are from your ears. I listen to mainly pop, electronic, R&B, soul, jazz, and classic rock songs, so I prefer to have a more prominent bass response. The SOUNDFRAMES positioned so that they were about 1/3 open gave me the best balance of bass roll-off and imaging. With the few orchestral tracks I listen to though, I opened the SOUNDFRAMES more just because that sense of space and imaging is wonderful to hear for those types of recordings. That being said, I found the treble to sound more sizzley and grainy, and the upper-midrange to sound too bright as the SOUNDFRAMES were opened up. This, too, likely has to do with the distance the drivers are from your ears; the farther apart the drivers are from your ears, the less fidelity you get.
As convenient as YouTube is, it doesn't do the binaural recordings justice since YouTube's video conversion cuts off all frequencies above ~15 kHz. Here are the original FLAC files that were used for the video (volume-matched with ReplayGain, so the SOUNDFRAMES open sample has a higher noise floor).
https://mega.nz/#!uRZyCKqJ!n6qpwCSzJ8vlSKvQ4MGhuOjVwJw4Cx8W_9vLw6CKy4w [SOUNDFRAMES closed]
https://mega.nz/#!GJZ0mQQa!a3EfO8KWXcQyXW_a1BEit8CU5mQ5xJZrOklJygkJO7s [SOUNDFRAMES 1/3 open]
https://mega.nz/#!qYZCHQZD!0-HYhTV3UyZ1byjdV_T2YVtXqVWc_1Pj9zQVrWq_QZU [SOUNDFRAMES open]
The second thing I'll describe are the different SOUNDFRAME options one has when purchasing the MYSPHERE 3:
- MYSPHERE 3.1 [15 Ω]
- MYSPHERE 3.2 [110 Ω]
MYSPHERE 3.1 is meant to be used with amplifiers that have a HIGH output impedance, such as some tube amps like the WA8. Using it with amps of low output impedance makes the drivers over-damped and thus results in a bright and harsh sound, which sounds terrible with hotly mastered music. I'm not 100% certain on the explanation for why the lower-impedance SOUNDFRAME is over-damped, but that's what I was told from Mr. Renner. I can say for certain though that on the WA8, the MYSPHERE 3.1 sounded superb with soul and R&B music.
MYSPHERE 3.2 is meant to be used with amplifiers that have a LOW output impedance, like most solid state amps out there. That being said, the MYSPHERE 3.2 doesn't sound bad with amps of high output impedance either. Compared to the MYSPHERE 3.1 on the WA8, the MYSPHERE 3.2 sounded a bit leaner overall in terms of its sound signature and I didn't enjoy it quite as much with my music. On the solid state amplifiers I used with the MYSPHERE 3.2, I pretty much enjoyed every song I threw at the system.
With all of that explained, I'll move on to my main sound impressions with the MYSPHERE 3.2 at the 1/3 open position.
I'll start off with the bass. The bass is fairly well-extended and has a good presence in the overall sound signature; I would say it's fairly neutral-sounding, but more on the warm side. It sounds very clean and textured for a dynamic headphone, but I think planar magnetic enthusiasts would be missing out on impact if they switched to the MYSPHERE 3. I much prefer the MYSPHERE 3's bass response over that of the Utopia or HD800/800S, for example (except for the Utopia on the Benchmark HPA-4). I generally like the Focal Clear as a dynamic headphone, but the MYSPHERE 3 made the Clear's bass sound like mud in comparison.
Moving on to the midrange, it too sounded fairly neutral to me, with the upper-midrange only sounding a tad bit bright. Sometimes female vocals would sound a little more pronounced than what I would consider neutral, but they never came off as being shouty (like my SR-207), bright (like the HD800), or sibilant (like the Utopia for me). It's kind of like a presence peak for a microphone. Instruments or vocals that emphasize the lower-midrange sound absolutely wonderful through the MYSPHERE 3. The weight from the bass frequencies carries into the midrange without making it sound muddled, and gives the midrange a nice timbre.
Going up the frequencies into the treble, I find the treble to be quite smooth. There aren't any very prominent peaks that I could hear, but there is a slight presence peak at around 10 kHz that gives it some sparkle. Extension is also very good as drums and hi-hats had good texture. Compared to some electrostatic headphones out there, the treble didn't quite sound as grain-free to me, but for what it is as a dynamic headphone, it definitely belongs in the top tier of headphones. Like electrostatic headphones though, I felt comfortable turning up the volume on recordings and I didn't hear any sort of breakup or distortion of the drivers. I was able to enjoy music at loud volume levels without having the sound be piercing to my ears, which is not a common trait of headphones in my experience.
Switching it up and moving to the instrument separation, soundstage, and imaging abilities of the MYSPHERE 3, I definitely think these are all strong points for the headphone. Listening to self-recorded binaural recordings, imaging and instrument separation sounded very life-like, more so than my regular arsenal of headphones. Perhaps it's due to the angling of the drivers relative to my ears, but everything just sounded so clear to me in terms of analyzing tracks. Going through my usual array of test tracks, instruments are well-separated and placed around my head. Even while gaming with fast-paced first-person shooters like Overwatch, I seemed to perform better than average since spacial cues were more obvious to me.
VALUE: 4/5
This is an entirely subjective rating, but I'll include this section anyway. I'll just state that I don't have $4000 lying around to justify purchasing this headphone, or any headphone in this price range for that matter. I'm guessing a lot of people are in the same position.
That being said, considering the MYSPHERE's incredible sound for a dynamic driver, ability to customize the sound with the angling and positioning of the SOUNDFRAMES, and overall design, this headphone is a fairly easy recommendation for me considering the other headphones in this price bracket. For the money you're paying, I think the MYSPHERE 3 is an exemplary piece of engineering.
Even from just the design of the unit, it definitely stands out from any other headphone out there. I absolutely love the fact that you can dismantle the whole thing for portable storage, and re-assemble it in less than 30 seconds. Relating to portability, the high sensitivity of the MYSPHERE makes it a good candidate to use with portable gear, something the original K1000 definitely could not achieve.
My only concern for this headphone is the comfort, and I do think this headphone will be a hit-or-miss because of it. It's not the most comfortable headphone out there, and especially so compared to some of the other headphone choices people have. Similar to the JPS Labs Abyss headphones, I would highly recommend people give this headphone a try for proper fitting. A headphone is no good if you can't stand wearing it.
DESIGN: 4.5/5
COMFORT: 3/5
SOUND QUALITY: 4.5/5
VALUE: 4/5
OVERALL SCORE: 16/20 = 4/5
Thank you for taking the time to read through, or watch, my review!
Did I mention that you should try the B pads!