ROSESELSA Distant Mountain

★ Introduction :-

Currently, everyone is more or less familiar with the chinese audio brand rosetechnics or roseselsa. Although they are a fairly new chi-fi brand, they have already released a number of offerings in the market which have received fairly positive feedback. I had previously tried some of their budget offerings which seemed to be good for the price. Roseselsa recently launched a vintage headphone called Distant Mountai n in their entry level line up and created a huge response in the international market. I have been using this headphone for more than two weeks and today I'm going to share my detailed opinion about it. At the same time i'm going to clarify how equitable for its asking price (within 70$) category.

★ Disclaimer :-

This unit was sent to me directly from Rosetechnics for review purpose. I had no financial agreement with them to promote their product. As always the entire opinion of this review is completely my personal.

★ Box content at a glance:-

The unboxing experience of this vintage headphone was quite satisfying. Of course, rosetechnics always tries to provide good accessories with their products and this one is no exception. I'm saying here that they have provided the best accessories here but considering the price, there is not much room to complain. The Distant mountain headphone comes in a very spacious box of white colour. Out of the box headphones come with two pairs of foam pads, nylon braided mmcx single end terminated with mic supported cable, a waifu art template and lastly an unnecessary user manual guide.

1. Distant mountain headphone ×1
2. Stock nylon braided mmcx cable ×1
3. Waifu art template ×1
4. Two kind of ear pads
5. User manual guide × 1

Distant mountain is a set of 32Ω impedance whose sensitivity level is 115dB, so not very powerful amplification is needed to drive it, I got decent loudness from the phone's 3.5mm port, but if a good quality dac amp or portable player is used, then it gets scaled up with the sources (neutral-warm)and becomes better sounding.

★ Design, Build Quality & Comfort :-

Its design is reminiscent of the vintage design language of the early 20s, where roseselsa has tried to bring out such old styles in a new way. This vintage headphone has a touch of premium looking throughout. The entire cnc-machined headband & earcup area has been given a very smooth with slight shiny finishing. Looking at the entire headband, you will see that it is completely surrounded by a type of lambskin that helps proper clamp force as well as contributing to comfort. While using it in my daily life, I felt a little doubtful whether it was pure lambskin or not. However, initially it didn't seem like a big issue to me, in fact, it made its retro look much more attractive.So it can be said that it is quite attractive along with solid build quality and roseselsa really deserves praise in this aspect.

Let's talk about comfort, I would say it is in a bit of a hit or miss condition. Many folks personally do not want to get used to such on-ear retro type headphones, especially because the comfort is not as expected. I have not noticed any exception in the case of this vintage headphone. Although it fits my ear cups fairly well, I can safely say that the clamp force will be a bit uncomfortable during long-term use. Along with the stock pad, it also comes with a pair of extra donut pads as special pads which are capable of giving a slightly better experience than the regular one, at least with minor changes in isolation. On the other hand, its stock cable also contributed well in the comfort section as I didn't see any extra bulk added from it and the braid was decent enough. However, the downside was definitely that the quality of the inbuilt mic with this mmx cable is below average and the cable rubs against the shirt creating microphonics which is really annoying in my daily use.

★ Sound Aspect :-

The Distant Mountain headphone is basically a mild U shape profile where the sub bass emphasis was more than the mid bass. On the other hand, the presence of treble region was also good. However, the characteristics of the sound are largely related to the earpad. First of all, the quantity of sub bass in its regular foam pad is more compared to mid bass but the presence is not completely absent. Due to the rumble of the sub bass, the mid bass is largely covered and there was a noticeable lack of impact & texture. The lower midrange is affected by the sub bass, which makes the recession seem less, but the natural timbre of the vocal is lost, although it seems a bit dull to me, and it becomes quite difficult to identify the placement of other instruments with the vocal. The treble section, especially the upper treble, has a bit of a roll-off and the detail retrieval of the lower treble was at a mediocre level. Technicalities are also not very impressive with this foam pads.

On the other hand, the donut pad makes a significant difference in sound. The tonality is on the brighter side, although the bass is more impactful than the previous ear pads. In the bass section, it is ideally sub bass focused as the mid bass presence is a bit more noticeable than before, but it naturally takes a back seat.This time the recession of the mid region is more noticeable than before and makes the upper mids more clean & forward, making the vocal section fall a bit on the lifeless side. Because in addition to the thinness in the male vocal, the 2-3khz peak often brings shoutyness while lending extra energy to the female vocal. The extension of the treble is much better than before and there is also a change in the case of detail retrieval.

Although the energy of 5khz here makes the lower treble a bit splashy which makes the sparkle feature slightly fatiguing. However, its technical ability benefits the most. The sound stage seems a little more open and the sound presentation can be said to be out of your head. Even though the stage depth was improved, the width needed to be wider. Apart from that, the imaging capability is quite good with this donut pad but the problem is its mic quality during gaming. Tonality & timbre accuracy is not its strength by any means and my expectations were higher. Many may dislike its sound due to the timbre issue. On the other hand, macro & micro detail offers a much leaner presentation so there is not much more to say in this regard.

★ Conclusion :-

This vintage headphone from Rosetechnics will be a favorite of many for its design and aesthetics wise. Although, its sound quality lacks engaging factors. But there's no way to keep it behind in terms of price ratio even considering all aspects. Moreover, I think it could be ideal for the majority of folks who like to have something unique pieced in their arsenal. I might not highly recommend it to many folks for its comfort, but if those who buy it also use an after market pad and a decent upgrade cable, they will be more satisfied with it, there is no doubt about it. So if someone want to buy something in this price category they can put distant mountain on their wish list.

I've provided the purchase link below for everyone convenience

Roseselsa Distant Mountain (Link isn’t affiliated)

Roseselsa Distant Mountain: A classic-style cool look...



Intro:
Previously I would like to say thank you very much to Roseselsa for sending this unit for me to review. In this review, I used the full stock of accessories obtained from the cable & earpads foam unit. As for the source, I used FIIO KA15.


Lastly, I want to emphasize, honestly this is my first experience using this type of headphone so I don't have many preferences or experiences but I will make an honest review from my experience in using it for several days. So if there are any shortcomings, please understand.


Completeness :
For completeness, honestly it is very interesting & enthusiastic because for me every time I try a product from Roseselsa, they are always not stingy about completeness. This is always my first plus point for every Roseselsa product. For the completeness of the Roseselsa Distant Mountain itself, the following is obtained:
1. Headphone Unit.
2. 2 Pairs of Foam (1 pair of full foam & 1 pair of donut foam).
3. MMCX cable with MIC.
4. 1 acrylic character "WAIFU"
5. 1 dongle (Should have gotten this, but my unit didn't get it because it was out of stock after I confirmed it with Roseselsa)



Overall, the completeness that is obtained is very interesting and the unboxing feel is also interesting because the shape of the box is large & the small parts of the accessories are well considered in their placement, so it feels like it's not an expensive or limited item.


Build Quality:
For the build, no comment, this can be said to feel good from the headphones which are fairly solid made of a sturdy iron or steel frame, the leather part also doesn't look cheap & the overall finishing is also neat. As for the quality of the cable, it is also okay, coated with sleeves, flexible & not microphonic. Then for the foam, it is also comfortable, there is no impression that makes it uncomfortable when used for a long time.


Overall, for me, the build quality is good for its price class.


Sound Quality:
- Bass
The first when I use full foam, the bass has a medium quantity & feels quite balanced between the subbass & midbass. For the subbass, it has an extension that is still okay, it still feels quite deep although not very deep & the rumble still feels quite okay. For the midbass, it feels quite solid but unfortunately the texture feels less good, and the control doesn't feel that good. The speed of the bass feels medium, not too fast.


While for the use of the donut foam, the bass doesn't feel as big as the full foam. The bass also feels a little tighter, the bass control is also a little better & the speed also feels better. The only minus if you use the donut foam, the subbass doesn't feel as deep & the midbass isn't as smooth as if you use the full foam.


- Mid/Vocal
For the mid, if you use full foam, it has the right weight with its position right in the middle. For the vocal presentation, it can be said that it is quite balanced between the male and female vocals. The male vocals have the right weight, not too thick and not too thin. For the female vocals, the weight is also right, but for me personally, the vocals feel less energetic and like they are held back or like they are not free enough.


Now, if you use the donut foam, the female vocals feel better. They feel more energetic and freer, not held back like when using full foam. In addition, the vocals also feel clearer and a little more forward. But on the other hand, the weight feels thinner, which means that the male vocals are not as good as when using full foam.


- Treble
For the treble, actually, for using both foams, the results don't feel much different because basically the treble part tends to have a smooth presentation with a treble extension that is not that good or tends to roll off. So I don't recommend using full foam for those who still need treble because using full foam makes the treble presentation worse than the donut foam. But for those who are sensitive to treble, I think it's okay to use full foam.


- Technical
For technical, from the soundstage, it still feels quite wide while for depth & height it feels sufficient. Then for the separation it's still quite okay, it still feels quite neat even though in certain songs that are busy sometimes it still feels piled up. For clarity & resolution, it still feels quite good when using donut foam, especially in the mid/vocals area, it still feels quite clear & clean.


Finally, for the details, it feels a bit less good, like something is missing compared to when I use IEM, like the details are better on my IEM.

View attachment 1000003941.webp

Conclusion: Roseselsa Distant Mountain is one of the products that is still relatively new from Roseselsa Silence. With its cool appearance with a retro classic design, it yep people. In addition, the sound presented is still arguably enjoyable even though it is not very good. Just for casual everyday use, this should be enough to enjoy, especially since it also does not require a complicated source, just with a DAC dongle, you can enjoy it. So for the price of around a million, I quite recommend trying this headphone, especially for those who like the design & for casual everyday use.

ROSESELSA also known as ROSE TECHNICS is one of the latest audio companies that really stands out in the portable audio market as they have a diverse offerings from TWS up to the headphone amp dongles. And now we have the latest product from them and this is quite different from their usual vend.



This is ROSESELSA Distant Mountain also known as Harukana Yama (Harukana = faraway, far-off and Yama = Mountain or in some transliteration, Demon King of the Netherworld) is an on-ear type of headphone that shares the same form factor with the highly acclaimed classics like Koss Portas, Sony MDRs and Sennheiser PX series. Its overall design takes some inspiration from vintage on-ear headphone style which will invoke some nostalgia factor to some folks reminiscing their audio enthusiasm in those eras.




UNBOXING AND INCLUSIONS:

The Distant Mountain is pretty well-packed with accessories for an on-ear headphone as it includes some inclusion that could be utilised. It was packed in a large flat square packaging box with some product illustrations on the front and side part, while at the back, it had some printed product highlights with list of inclusions



The contents inside have their own
compartment.



The headphone itself takes the largest space on its internal box and it was firmly securely on the light card box attachment. It has a full foam earpad




Here are rest of the accessories.



A MMCX-connector detachable 2-core silver-plated cable with nylon-sheated insulator cable with 3.5mm termination plug.




An extra pair of donut foam earpads





A DSP Hi-Fi dongle with Conexant DAC chip inside




Bonus: A resin product mascot standee for holding the headphone.



The earpad foams are somehow of a decent quality although still a bit thin if it was compared to third party ones like from the Yaxis which offers better fitting and comfort as it rests well to the pinnas without adding some wear fatigue on the helix and tragus part from long listening sessions.




BUILD QUALITY:

The build quality of the Distant Mountain is quite well-constructed and materials that were used here are of good quality. It has a stainless steel headband which gives a better tensile strength while having a good flexibility on it, and it was wrapped with lambskin leather to give that premium look. We can alter the head beam length via its bottom part with a satisfying and tactual fine level of adjustment according to your head size and to alleviate some tight cramp on the ears. But to be honest, even on the maximum level of loose adjustment, it still gives me that soreness due to compressed clamp fitting for a long usage




The ear cavity shells are made of CNC-
milled aluminium alloy that were anodised and buffed to give the glossy texture surface. Inside of those shells sports a 40mm dynamic driver with a composite diaphragm that underwent a topological process, and we all know the topology diaphragms are type of transducer membranes that were coated with nano-particles materials and as it was applied, it give those irregular geometric patterns it will offer a better control on handling those sound waves for less distortion while improving the clarity and detailed on its overall sound quality.



The stock cable has an in-mic console with a single button for receiving calls and basic media control for playback. The 3.5mm single-ended plug is still universally compatible with devices that still have this analogue connectivity feature.



Upon ordering, you can choose two colourway options; either a black one or brown one.


OVERALL TONAL PERFORMANCE:

Depending on the earpads that will be used on this headphone, the full earpads will give a warm U-shaped sound profile and while the donut earpads deliver a more V-shaped with a brighter sound profile.



FULL EARPADS

It has punchy and tactile bass response which will be enough to some bass-clef instruments and deep male vocals but it has some noticeable bass bleed that smudges towards the midrange. The midrange of this one has a warm, rich and weighty sound on the vocals and instruments in which this type of tuning will be more suitable to male vocals and some instruments like brasses and percussions. But there are some caveats as this one will sound a bit veiled and dampened as it loses some crispness and energy as I noticed it on the female vocals and woodwinds. The treble response of this one is rather smooth and relaxed that some of its airy extension is rather modest and a bit dampened sparkle but there's a silver lining on this one as this will be more conducive to treble-sensitive folk who are very susceptive to upper-mids and presence peaks.

DONUT EARPADS

It has more rumbly sub bass presence while the mid bass texture was lessened a bit to give a bit cleaner and segregated bass response that gives more resonance and canorous on some deep male vocals and instruments particularly on string and some percussives. As for its midrange, apparently its overall presentation is noticeably more recessed and also quite hollowed, but unlike the Full Earpads mode, it sounds more gleaming and energetic as it gives the sense of openness, more gleaming and crispness which are more beneficial to female vocals and on instruments like woodwinds and strings but again there are some reservations about as it adds more sharper, fiery, spiciness, metallic and too coppery sound on the tonal colours on some vocals and instruments. The treble part sounds more bright with some improvements on its airy extension that we will notice a more intense glistening, more shimmering and a tad perceiving sounds on glockenspiels, celestas and cymbals respectively.


SOUNDSTAGE, IMAGING & OTHER TECHNICALITIES:

On its perceived sound/speaker stage size, the full earpads will give that intimate head room that makes the width, depth and height sounds a bit narrower and congested that also affects other technical aspects like layering, separation and to some extent, resolution capability particularly on micro-dynamics as lessens the sharper definition on retrieving some micro-details, grains and nuances on note textures like reverb tails and vocal ends.

Meanwhile on the donut earpads mode, it somehow improves the width and height of its head stage as it has a moderate wideness on lateral span size and some added height ceiling on it. It also gives that concave-like stereo imaging presentation with decently layered soundscape with acceptable separation between vocals, instruments along with some of its section placement in which will be more helpful to enjoy some live recordings of symphonic orchestral pieces. It has a solid macro-dynamics as it is able to highlight the varying degree of loudness levels on both the choral passages and instrumental lines, while its micro-details seems to have a sharper definition on exhibiting some micro-details and subtleties like notational attacks of instruments, reverb tails and vocal ends that were extracted from an audio track.

The driver coherency of this one is relatively very responsive on delivering fast transient response on bass section while having a clear and detailed sound on the midrange and treble regions without any sort of phasing issues or distortions.



As for its power requirement, while this headphone was rated to be a low impedance one, it still needs some sources with better output rating to utilize its overall sound performance. And so, the best devices that this set should be paired with are the headphone DAC/Amp dongles with proven DAC chips and high quality headphone amp module, DAPs ( at least on medium or high gain mode output and desktop DAC/Amp dongle.


PEER COMPARISONS:

KOSS PORTA KPH40

Aside from the DISTANT MOUNTAIN, this is the only on-ear headphone that I currently have until the arrival of the latter set.

• An entry-level headphone from a classic audio brand and like the DISTANT MOUNTAIN, it is also an on-ear type of earphone.
• It has a utilitarian and minimalist design as it has a slimmer profile and is lighter to wear which is better for long listening sessions and it doesn't give me a tight clamping that will be detrimental to my outer ears.
• The cable is rather fixed on this one and it has flat texture on it but it has a feature that we can interchange via detaching its splitter section in which is the half part of length of the cable.
• When it comes to its overall tonality, this one shares a similar tonal profile from its cousins which has its own charm especially if you are very familiar with Koss’ in-house tuning, a mild U-shaped sound with balanced-warmish tonality which sounds pretty analogue sounding but in a good way.
• It has more mid-bass texture to give more roundness and punchiness on the grooves on some bass instruments, a lush, rich and warmer yet clean midrange that makes the vocals and instruments sounds more natural and clear, smooth and pleasant treble response.
• Technical performance of this one is quite competent as it projects a fairly roomy head room on its sound/speaker stage and a good resolution capabilities.
• This set requires a bit more power output as it was rated to have 60 ohms on its power output.

SENNHEISER PX100II

I used to own this one as I bought it at a discount sale price around mid 2010s. One of the few Senny sets I have along with HD515 and HD25.

• An old entry-model from highly reputable German audio brand, Sennheiser.
• It has a slimmer profile with swivel ear pieces and foldable headband.
• The cable is rather fixed on this one as it also has a thinner texture of its overall build.
• It has a U-shaped sound with warmish-balanced tonality which is quite a tonal contrast to the midrangers and flagship sets that Senny's are known for its balanced-neutral sound signatures.
• This one has more mid-bass focused bass response as it sounds more punchy and impactful but it produces some bass bleed leakage that delivers a warmer and rich tones on the midrange presentation and a bit dark and relaxed treble response that it doesn't have an energetic and crisp due to its dampened and veiled presentation that somehow affects the resolution.
• The technical aspects of this one is rather modest from a fairly roomy head stage, less well-defined on layering and separation, and less resolving on its resolution capability.
• This set is actually pretty easy to drive. Some of my Nokia phones are able to amplify this set effortlessly at optimal performance.

As I conclude this product assessment, it shows that ROSESELSA shows its versatility as an audio company as it delivers a good headphone at reasonable price that will be satisfying to some audio enthusiasts due to its appealing looking and also tonal performance. Its overall design exudes vintage-feel that harkens back the good old days of portable analogue audio from the 80’s and ROSESELSA put some effort by using some good quality materials and components to construct this listening headpiece.

There are some polishing touches that this set needs particularly on its limited physical features like earpieces that can't do any swivel motion and also on some of its tuning aspects that still need some refinement. But overall, this headphone is still a comparatively good set that can be recommended to some audio enthusiasts looking for coloured and engaging tuning.

The ROSESELSA/ROSE TECHNIC DISTANT MOUNTAIN/HARUKANA YAMI is now available on HIFIGO, I just provided a non-affiliated link below if you are interested in purchasing this product.

LINK:
https://hifigo.com/products/roseselsa-distant-mountain

SPECIFICATION:

MODEL: ROSESELSA DISTANT MOUNTAIN
IMPEDANCE: 32Ω
SENSITIVITY: 105dB
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 20Hz - 20kHz
CABLE LENGTH: 1.2m
PIN TYPE: MMCX-TYPE CONNECTOR
PLUG TYPE: 3.5mm
DRIVER UNIT(S): 40mm DYNAMIC DRIVER


TRACKS TESTED: ( * = 16-bit FLAC, ** = 24-bit FLAC, *'* = MQA, '*' = DSD, *'= .WAV)

Alison Krauss -When You Say Nothing At All *
Jade Wiedlin - Blue Kiss**
Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks **
Mountain - Mississippi Queen *
Queen - Killer Queen **
Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*
Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'
Sergio Mendes- Never Gonna Let You Go '*'
Pearl Jam - Daughter **
Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *
Assassin - Fight (To Stop The Tyranny)*
Celtic Frost- Visual Aggression *
New Order - Blue Monday *
The Corrs- What Can I do (unplugged version) *
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child *
The Madness- Buggy Trousers *
Metallica - Motorbreath **
Mariah Carey- Always Be My Baby *
Destiny's Child - Say My Name *
Malice Mizer- Au Revoir *
Mozart - Lacrimosa *
New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Dvorak- Symphony 9 " From the New World." *
Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (Sting cover)*
Michael Jackson - Give In To Me *
Exciter - Violence and Force *
Diana Krall - Stop This World **
Debbie Gibson - Foolish Beat *'*
The Sisters of Mercy – Lucretia My Reflection**
Suzanne Vega – Luka **
Lauren Christy – Steep *
Ottoman Mehter - Hucum Marsi *
Diana Damrau - Mozart: Die Zauberflöte*
Type O Negative - Black No.1 *
Felix Ayo - Vivaldi: Presto **
Three Tenors - Nessum Dorma *
Mercyful Fate - Witches' Dance *

P.S.

I am not affiliated to ROSESELSA nor receive any monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

Once again, I would like to send my gratitude to TEAM HIFIGO for providing this review unit. I truly appreciate their generosity and trust towards me and other reviewers.

Introduction​

ROSESELSA, formerly known as Rose Technics, isn’t a new brand in the Chi-Fi landscape. They have produced and sold many IEMs but this is the first time they come out with a pair of on-ear headphones.
Let’s see how they perform and how they fare against similar products.

SPOILER: THEY COULD BE AN EASY 4.5/5 BUT THERE ARE A FEW THINGS THAT KILL ONE STAR OUT OF FIVE (WHICH CAN BE EASILY FIXED).

Disclaimer: the ROSESELSA Distant Mountain were sent to me by HiFiGO so that I could write an honest review. This review represents my personal opinion on the set, it isn't promotional or paid content and I don’t get any revenue from the sales of this product.
At the time of the review, the ROSESELSA Distant Mountain were sold for $64.99 at HiFiGO.

Click to expand...

Technical Specifications​

• Driver Configuration → 1 x 40mm Dynamic Driver
• Impedance → 32 Ω
• Spec-sheet Frequency Response → 20Hz-20kHz
• Sensitivity → 115 dB
• Cable → 1.25m braided cable with MMCX connectors
• Plug Type → 3.5mm

RZ200M dongle specs:

• Plug Type: 3.5mm to Type C
• Chip: ALC5686 Decoder Chip
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR): 124 dB
• Total Harmonic Distortion (THD): -95 dB
• PCM Sampling Rate: 32bits/384KHz
• Frequency Response Range: 20Hz – 20000Hz
• Dynamic Range: 113 dB
• Output Load: 3.0V – 5.5V
• Output Power: 22.5mW @ 32Ω

Packaging​

The packaging of the ROSESELSA Distant Mountain looks very good and well designed. It contains:

• The ROSESELSA Distant Mountain
• A pair of Donut Pads (this is the first time I see donut pads of this size)
• The RZ200M Type-C dongle
• A plastic anime gadget (a lot of brands are including something like this nowadays, even though I don’t think it’s a useful addition)
• User manual

Design, Build Quality, Comfort and Isolation​

The Distant Mountain are very solid, they feel premium in the hands and they also look very unique also thanks to the well managed combinations between the materials (metal, plastic and pleather) and colors.
The headband is adjustable and feels sturdy while adjusting it and the two drivers are hidden by a metal mesh. The driver shells are perforated leading to an open-back design.



Comfort is so-so, they feel super safe on the head and I haven’t experienced any situation in which they were falling off my head. However, the two pads don’t have any headroom to slightly move horizontally or vertically, so they basically push on the ears while remaining flat with no swivel at all (and this can cause some discomfort after some time), and the pressure is mostly concentrated on the lower part of the earpieces. Not only that, this can also cause sound differences depending on how they sit on the ears and this may vary from user to user.



Isolation is not a thing when speaking about on-ear headphones, and the Distant Mountain are no exception: they don’t isolate from the surrounding environment so you can hear everything around and everyone can catch what’s being reproduced. I bet that I will be able to fully appreciate them for my daily commuting during summer season thanks to their breathable pads.

The cable is not fixed (good thing) and in fact MMCX connectors have been used.

Cable​

The cable is detachable and it looks and feels very good. It was very hard for me to connect it before the first usage, so be careful as you may break it if you don’t have enough patience. Once connected, though, it’s super solid and I am happy that ROSESELSA designed the Distant Mountain with a detachable cable.
There’s a remote control and microphone on the cable as well, so you can use it for calls and similar tasks.

Sound​

GEAR USED FOR THE TEST

• DAC: Topping E30
• AMP: Topping L30, Fiio A3
• Mobile phones: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Xiaomi Mi A3, Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
• Moondrop May’s DSP cable with PEQ=0
• Dongle: Apple Type-C dongle, Fosi DS2, Hidizs XO, RZ200M dongle
• Portable DAPs: Benjie S8/AGPTEK M30B
• Bluetooth Adapters: KBEAR S1, KZ AZ10
• Other sources: Presonus AudioBox iONE, Elgato Wave XLR

Amplifier needed?
The ROSESELSA Distant Mountain don’t strictly need amplification, even though some proper amplification can help with the overall dynamics. I suggest pairing them with a warm source since they’re a bit bright overall, as this would provide for a richer low-end (counterbalancing the brightness).

Let’s speak about the sound.
Straight to the point, the ROSESELSA Distant Mountain have one big issue: the 2.5k peak.
It kinda seems like ROSESELSA tried to tune these just like they would do with IEMs but the fact is that the ear-gain is very delicate when it comes to on-ear headphones.
The result is a set that doesn’t sound “terrible” but the overall signature isn’t natural and comes across as slightly thinner than average and unnatural in terms of timbre.
The bass is punchy and has some proper weight (especially considering the fact that these are open-back on-ear headphones), the detail retrieval and overall resolution are very good and the treble has some good sparkle. It’s a fun V-shaped set actually, and it could really rule this price range, but as soon as the volume increases the upper midrange becomes more and more prominent, the female vocals start sounding more nasal and shoutier and the sound becomes thinner and loses some body.
I am not saying that they sound “bad” per se, but the tuning is characterized by a strange timbre and tonality that I’m sure many won’t find appealing.

The soundstage is on the intimate side and the imaging is pretty good considering the very tight space in which every instrument or singer plays.

What have I done for my personal listening sessions?
I have set a personal equalization profile with PK@2500Hz and 2 as Q (Quality Factor) and set a -9dB value to correct the upper-midrange, and with this small refinement I was able to enjoy female vocals without completely shutting them off and without making them too lean to be enjoyable, and all of this while retaining the good value proposition of the Distant Mountain when it comes to other frequencies.
Another thing I’ve done (which I quite liked) was playing with low-end and upper-end EQ, and noticed that these take EQ very well so I will probably use these with my own preset even though I am not a big fan of EQ. I was able to hear some sub-bass also, which is something that I had never experienced with a pair of on-ear headphones.

What about the donut pads?
Don’t use them. The sound is already very forward as it is, the donut pads make the headphones sound more forward in the upper mids and treble and also tame the bass so you get an even thinner response, with less body and more shout.

What about the included dongle?
It's very good for the money (a few dollars more for the variant with the included dongle), it's more powerful than the european version of the Apple dongle and sounds pretty clean as well. I have better dongles around but it comes for less than 10$ and I can't really find true cons.

Are they something I would use considering my taste and preferences?
Not without EQ. I like some forwardness in the upper midrange but this is too much for me also. When I activate my personal EQ profile I quite like the way these sound, and I am also progressively reducing the pressure of the pads by stretching them over some books: this old trick reduces the overall clamp and makes them more comfortable to wear.

Sound​

ROSESELSA Distant Mountain vs Koss KSC75

The KSC75 are more comfortable, more natural and neutral sounding out of the box. The Distant Mountain, if properly equalized, offer better technical performance, a “fuller” sound and they also take EQ in a more effective way.
When it comes to build quality, cable, packaging and accessories, the Distant Mountain offer a lot more even though you’ll have to pay more than two times the price of the KSC75 in order to get it.
I personally love my KSC75 but when equalized and “stretched over books” the Distant Mountain can offer a bit more overall, especially in terms of overall resolution, and they also feel sturdier and less delicate to carry outside.

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ROSESELSA Distant Mountain vs Koss KPH30i

The KPH30i sound darker, more compressed and less resolving but also A LOT more relaxed and easy-going. The timbre and tonality aren’t natural on any of them, so this also comes down to personal preferences.
The Distant Mountain have better detail retrieval, better air and sparkle, superior resolution but they sound thinner and shoutier than the KPH30i.
Soundstage isn’t very different, imaging is better on the Distant Mountain.
Build quality is ages better on the Distant Mountain, and the same applies to comfort, accessories and overall packaging. However, comfort goes to the KPH30i hands down.

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Final Thoughts​

The ROSESELSA Distant Mountain showed some issues and these probably depend on the fact that these are the first on-ear headphones that ROSESELSA releases. The upper-midrange tuning has some evident issues that are easily fixable with an effortless and easy EQ, but this is not going to justify the out-of-the-box tuning. However, I can actually see the value here and it’s pretty obvious that with a few refinements here and there these could have been a true hit.
That's what I mean in the title: sometimes you gotta stand on your toes and try to do that little push that provides for the better view.

If you are willing to download a simple EQ app to tone down the 2.5kHz, and if you are also willing to wait a few days for the Distant Mountain to stretch a bit over books, these will be a super sturdy, good looking and good sounding bargain with very good technical chops and a fun, punchy sound. If you want a plug’n play set with proper out-of-the-box tuning and stellar comfort, instead, the good old KSC75 and similar products still provide more bang for your buck.

Rose Technics - Distant Mountain

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For the non-readers...

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Disclaimer & Introduction

Rose Technics or Roseselsa generously provided me this Distant Mountain sample for the purpose of this review.

Anyone who follows me knows that I have a difficult relationship with on-ear headphones and portable earphones because most of them are either uncomfortable or have too many other shortcomings, and I can assure you that it’s not for a lack of trying.

To be frank, I don’t use earphones regularly any more.
They don’t isolate city noise on my commute to work, they are very leaky so they’re useless for quiet indoor situations and I’ve found so many of them have too many quirks or oddities for them to become part of my regular listening cycle.

Take the Koss PortaPro for example. Great little earphone, but the sliding headband loves to occasionally pinch hair at the top of your head.
Or the Sennheiser PMX-100, a hybrid ear-hook type with the same great sound as the PX100, but extremely uncool.
Let’s take a look at the Distant Mountain and see how it fairs, particularly against these two.

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Build, Design & Ergonomics

To get straight to the point, there is no escaping that the Distant Mountain has been beautifully designed.

If you go through the entire history of non-sealing, foam-ear-pad, Walkmen-type earphones from Audio Technica, AKG, AIWA, Technics, Nakamichi, Pioneer, JVC, Sony, and Yamaha, only a tiny handful of models comes anywhere close to this level of simplicity and style, and I think it’s among the prettiest earphones ever made.


What it lacks in ultimate simplicity it makes up for in style and extremely high build quality; there isn’t a single piece of plastic in the chassis and these feel like a premium, high-end product.

The gold accents are incredibly quite resistant to fingerprints.
The adjustment sliders are implemented thoughtfully.
MMCX sockets are included allow for easy replacement and any combination of cables to suit your style.



The metal parts are beautifully machined and integrate together almost seamlessly, which is where the only obvious flaw in the build can be observed; there is a fairly large tolerance where the headband slots into the earphones, so there is some wobble, but considering the strength and density of these metal parts and that the adjustment remains snappy enough and holds well, I don’t see this as a big enough problem to mark it down.



The fabric headset cable is fine.
It doesn’t exactly feel high-end, but neither is it scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The button on the cable behaves as a remote for pause and next track, depending on how many times you press it, and the microphone quality is actually really quite poor, making it the worst part of this product.

However redundant it might be, there is padding under the skeepskin leather headband, and by the feel of it, I believe they’ve opted for a thicker type of skeepskin that should at least be more hard wearing than the type usually chosen for ear pads.



Ergonomics are always going to be subjective, so I’ll just give my own experience.

The sound of these earphones doesn’t change much wherever you wear it over your ears, so I was able to wear these quite a bit more forward than usual, adding some pressure more forwards towards my face, which improved the wearing comfort vastly.

But to reach that point where I was actually satisfied did require bending the headband a little.

This is the only singular part of the design where I can mark it down just a tiny notch – the earphone parts have no swivel.
Around half of the others (historically speaking) have some kind of ball joint or single axis rotation, so here you might have to bend the headband until the angle of the pads matches the curve of your skull and ears.

To be fair, this was fairly trivial for me as I’ve done this sort of thing quite a few times with other headphones and don’t see it as an obstacle any more, but for first-time buyers, this can be extremely off-putting and not a simple task.

If you do find you need to bend yours, just remember to bend both sides simultaneously, unless of course you’ve got an asymmetrical head


I don’t normally delve too deeply in the unboxing experience on this channel, but Rose Technics has consistently provided little hits of dopamine in the unboxing experience, the same goes for their QT-X IEM I reviewed last year.

The magnetic lid unfolds revealing the Distant & Mountain Accessories, the spare EarPads (one word) and the printed tracing paper over the headphone.


In the Accessories compartment are two boxes, one for the cable, and one for the ‘Giveaway’ which in this case was some kind of magical, red-haired, waifu who is sitting on a floating Rose, which no doubt is directly related to the brand name.


I would have preferred if she at least had some kind of function like a headphone stand, or at least as some kind of mystical ward against demons or Beats by Dre...

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The Sound

These, funnily enough, have a kind of ‘distant’ sound going on…

The tuning is overall moderately dark with it’s fairly deep bass kick, veiled treble and slight upper midrange vocal peak, which altogether sort of makes you want to turn the volume down a bit and just relax.
As it goes with most earphones, the bass hits hardest somewhere around 100hz, so some electronic music can get slightly fatiguing after a while, but that’s extremely dependent on the type of bass sound used.



While the overall tone is objectively incorrect with it’s darker tone, the timbre never sounds obviously broken, only like everything is pushed further away.
I would say it’s the antithesis of the best Sony Walkmen earphones of the 80’s which had their strongest focus on upper mids and treble, with huge amounts of detail and almost no body to the sound with bass being an afterthought.

The tuning is done very tastefully, and I particularly found low-fi type music extremely enjoyable and relaxing.

(miniDSP EARS is not great at measuring anything other than full-sized headphones - bass sounds stronger than shown, peak at 4KHz is not that strong, treble is less rolled-off)


For example, in the first week of testing these, I went out to pick up some new leather ear pads for my STAX SR-Λ from the post office, so I put these on and started playing the E.VAX album.
Not only did I feel like some kind of fashionista nerd with my retro styled earphones, but this combination with the music was just an absolute vibe.
The foam pads almost completely reduced wind noise and I could clearly hear traffic and outside noises which made me feel like I was walking around with my own background soundtrack.

Somehow in the recent past, I’ve been dedicating my energy to finding great closed-back headphones and IEMs, all in the quest for superior isolation, and I forgot the feeling of mixing music with reality; and somehow that also brought me joy.

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Comparisons

As I mentioned earlier I’d like to compare these directly to two giants of the earphone world from Koss and Sennheiser.

It doesn’t take more than a moment to hear that the Distant Mountain is overall darker and has a focus on bass and upper mids.

The PortaPro is the most fun and direct sounding of the three. In that regard, it is more like a Grado, where everything sounds present and more energetic, but it is clear that it lacks bass extension and deep slam. It has a strong focus on upper bass.


The PMX100, which has fundamentally the same sound as the legendary PX100, has the classic smooth Sennheiser sound.
Technically it sounds more neutral than the PortaPro and Distant Mountain and has the most obviously correct timbre.
One could argue it is less fun than the other two, but that’s often the sacrifice you make for more pure audio reproduction.

The Distant Mountain obviously has the deepest and most textured bass.
I knew the bass was good for an earphone but this is actual step up in class.

I have never ever heard an earphone do sub-bass until now.

They take EQ extremely well and even handle bass boosts with ease, delivering just about the deepest, strongest bass you can get out of an earphone.
The upper mids do have a slight gain around 4KHz, but it’s more tastefully tuned than what you sometimes hear in IEMs and helps prevent vocals becoming drowned out and from sounding too smoothed out which adds some fun and musicality to the sound.

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Conclusions

When I take these out, I boost the sub-bass (depending on noise levels), bring down that 4KHz peak a touch and boost the treble a smidge, depending on the recording.

Of course, that’s just my preference.
Out of the box, it has a tasteful tuning that is both smooth and warm but never lets the vocals get drowned out of the mix, altogether implemented in one of the best-built and prettiest earphones ever made.

Contrary to my expectations, it ticks almost every single box while adding it’s own personality and flair at an unusually affordable price.

It stands completely apart from any other earphone that came before it and so I find myself in the rare position to give this a very strong recommendation.