SJY Starry Night

Hey there,
This is my review of the SJY Starry Night V2

--- Edit 23. November 2023:
FOR ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS AFTER HAVING THIS THING FOR ROUGHLY 1 YEAR, PLEASE SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN! ---

Lets begin with the reason why this headphone caught our eye, it's the looks in combination with it being a closed back planar. Closed back planars are hard to perfect, and every one i've heard had some quirks, some of them absolute dealbreakers.
The Audeze LCD-XC with its extremely shouty and aggressive midrange, DCA headphones with their perfect tonal balance but their sheer lack of dynamics, or the Kennerton Rögnir with its huge soundstage and big fun factor, but wonky midrange which lead to metallic sounding voices. The closed back Sundara is a boomy experience, imagine closing an open, airy window and adding a thick curtain, Hifiman did it a disgrace calling this model "Sundara". The short time i listened to the Audivina at Munich i was quite impressed with its sound, but the build quality was very lackluster and it isolated poorly, still, i would like to check this one out in detail for the sound, but Hifiman closed backs look goofy.

There really are not that many closed back planars on the market, even bigger and successful headphone companies struggle to get it right, and when something new pops up that looks like the Starry Night, of course i'm interested.

The first batch was entirely green, which was not that enticing to me. When i saw the red finished ones, it peaked my interest and i wanted one. When i opened the page one morning and there was a singular black/gold stabilized, i could not control myself any longer.

Here it is, it just looks absolutely stunning:




The other side doesn't look that bad either:


It's simply on another level. The only headphone company that competes is ZMF with their special edition lineup (ZMF november).


Ok, now that we got that out of the way, TELL ME, HOW DOES IT SOUND?

It's very good. But it's not "unbelievable impressive" stunningly good. It won't blow your mind if you have heard multi kilobuck headphones with technicalities that are the peak of what this hobby can sound like. It also will not resolve as much details as a Susvara only because it's almost as hard to drive as one. On the other hand, it doesn't do anything wrong, which is rare for a closed back planar as i stated before.

I have to state something:
I have not that much experience with headphones under 1k (i sold my Sundara and 6XX some time ago), and even less experience with closed back headphones under 1k. I had the Elegia, probably 2 1/2 years ago, and yes, i think that the Starry Night would absolutely blow it out of the water for everything except dynamics. So, if it sounds like i trash the technicalities, no, that i don't want to, it sounds very good, but if you listen to a Susvara daily with a 1266 as your "dynamics king", then you will not be easily impressed.

Its tuning is neutral, maybe upper-mid-centric. It extends very well in both directions without boosting or overemphazising the treble. The bass is flat, it's there, it does its job and it's well controlled and extends deep. It is not bumped up, so if you love big emphasized bass, this headphone is not for you.
The treble is also very solid, it retains sparkle and enough air without overdoing it, it doesn't reach the quantity of Hifiman's open back treble. It is never sounding dull or uninteresting. When powered correctly, this headphone has no sign of sharpness in the S and T consonant regions.
The star of the show are the mids. Male vocals (especially ones that are lower) sound only "nice" and even get sometimes lost a bit in the background the lower they go. Female and higher male vocals on the other hand do sound very rich and well separated from the background.
The only tonal disappointment for me was, while turning the volume up more than i probably should, that some female vocals and certain longer guitar strings do sound very aggressive and right in your face (best example: Three Doors Down - Kryptonite, 4th sound at the beginning). I have to say, that was in the vast minority of songs i tested, maybe one out of one hundred, while cranking the volume a bit more.
I suspect that's because of the small bump inside the pina gain at 2k, here is the graph so you don't have to search for it:

Fortunately, this 2k bump is not big and the following 3k region is recessed, i am sensitive to 3k peaks and the Starry Night does a perfect job in that region.
At first i thought the Starry Night was overly aggressive, which it is not. I am more accustomed to a more laid-back pina gain with the Susvara, my daily driver. Maybe my burn in and cable swap also helped, but i would certainly not say that this headphone is too aggressive sounding.
I personally stopped using EQ a while ago, but i can live with (and enjoy) some quirks a headphone has, as long as there are no big dealbreakers for me.

The technicalities are good, but if you want to get the most amount of details for the money, you should look elsewhere, it's not an open back Hifiman. It still is a planar though, so it keeps the high speed and the clarity on a good level across the board. The soundstage is rather small, but i was shocked how pinpoint and precise the imaging was at times. The dynamics are also ok. It's not a dead fish like the DCA stuff i've heard, but it's also far away from kicking you in stomach. It can slap a good amount, but it won't punch as hard as a Focal.
For its price and being a closed back, the sound of the Starry Night is absolutely fantastic.

Let's discuss some non sound related stuff:
The isolation is quite good! It is not closed back Beyerdynamic good, but it really is not far off. It's way better than so called "closed backs" where you wonder why they even bothered (hello HD820).
The comfort is very good, it's weight is 511g (without the cable), and it's distributed well. Both the pads and the headband are cushioned well. The clampforce is also perfect, not HD800 flabby and not HD650 constrained. The protein pads can probably get a bit hot in the summer, but they are extremely comfortable:


The build reminds me of Denon, but it has not reached their quality (yet), which is understandable since it's a project turned into something big. I have to say, i wish there was no small gap in the headband adjustment (it's basically lose at this point), it doesn't bother me that much since i'm not using the smallest adjustment, but it would look a bit nicer than it does now:



The cable is a 2m 3.5mm unbalanced one, it's actually nice, but it's a bit too long for me so i use a different one (dual 3.5mm headphones LETSGO!):


No 3.5mm -> 6.3mm adapter but we all have enough of those, right?

I get that unbalanced amps are more common, but this headphone is hard to drive. How hard? Well...
It is not Susvara level, but it's also not that much easier. If you have no beefy headphone amplifier, i can see using speaker amps with it. Luckily for me, the Ferrum Oor & Hypsos do no break a sweat, hence i have them for my Sus and 1266.

I have to tackle one more thing, and it isn't pretty.
Two days after receiving it, the right driver lost 80% of its volume. I triple checked the cable, and a few moments later it was allright again. One day later, it happened again, this time a cable check didn't help. Because i didn't want to send this thing all the way back from Germany to America, i wondered if i could fix it myself, hoping that it only was a lose screw or something similiar.
So, i removed the pads, which is extremely easy (attaching them too!)



The four screws in the corners do hold the green cover onto the cup. Removing them was easy. After checking the other four screws on the front, i found that they were fine, so i turned the thing around (picture from the website, that's why the wires are missing).

That's the backside of the 3d printed base in which the driver itsself is embedded.
I could actually hear a difference in the volume while pressing both sides of the base together and playing music, so i thought i was on the right track.
And, after checking, i found that one screw was quite a bit more loose than the others, so i tightened it up a just slightly and assembled the Starry Night again.

Boom - fixed.
Equal volume in both ears, thank god it was so easy, the whole process did take roughly five minutes.


Conclusion:
I really do like this headphone. The aesthethics are of course the star. The technicalities are decent enough for anyone to enjoy it, especially because it's a great allrounder that lacks major flaws in any aspect. If you have a beefy amp and are searching for a closed back (planar) under 1k, i recommend the Starry Night. The volume drop was an unfortunate thing, but i got it resolved quickly and easily.
I would strongly recommend it, if the neutral sound signature sounds like your type and you're looking for the best cup appearance and finding one design that you really love, all cups are unique and different.

The only headphone that i could see getting, and parting my way with the Starry Night, is a stabilized closed back Caldera, which is a) not even out yet (that will take some time) and b) will cost a lot more cash.
There is no real competition to the Starry Night when it comes to looks in this price segment, and it's a really solid sounding closed back planar!

I would have given it 0.5 stars more without the QC issues, that way it gets 4.5/5, which is still fantastic since i normally don't like to generate hype.

There will be an open back, the SJY Moonlight, with a pure silver driver. It also looks fantastic, i will await some impressions / frequency response graphs. I could see myself getting one if the technicalities are better, or if it does something special (which i like and don't have). To be fair, my open back collection is very hard to beat.

Nevertheless, he nailed making a closed back planar, doing an open version that sounds even better should be easy in comparison!


--- Update after having the Starry Night for almost a year: ---
I significantly reduced my headphone collection and this thing stayed! I had the Utopia as my aggressive neutral / midforward headphone and now the Starry Night took that job. Its sound pairs really well with certain genres or music. You might think it is more tiring and fatiguing with a pushed up midrange and voices right up close. Yes, i agree. BUT, sometimes you exactly want that. I have some albums where the singer is originally too much in the background, the Starry Night totally fixes that. In some songs a very close up singer is fantastic, for example Anette Askvik - Thema. Her voice is very soothing and relaxing, and with the Starry Night she is right up next to your ear, the incoming saxophone takes over the voice later in the song and acts like one, it also gets pushed forward, whether you like that or not, that's the nature of it.
Another big example is hip hop, i'm basically only listening to Eminem. He has a bit higher pitched voice and when he raps it just sounds like he's standing half a meter away. He's aggresively spitting his rhymes towards your face, exactly what i want in this case. Most of the time in his songs there are also no guitars involved which can't be also pushed forward, and in the few songs where there are (e.g. "Superman"), they are in the background anyway and they don't disturb the rap god.
Because the soundstage is not small (for a closed back) and the Starry Night is well extended in both directions, you don't get the HD650 experience in losing (treble and bass) information and have that experience that everything is very close to you.
Another thing is amp pairing. This thing has a very low impedance and is hard to drive, but oh boy, it does sound exceptionally good out of a tube amp. In the best case you have an OTC (output transformer coupled) amp where you can reduce the gain to have no background hiss. The Feliks Audio Envy does that. I have a slight background noise on medium and high gain, but on low gain the Starry Night is dead quiet, and the Envy has even more than enough power on low gain. This amp truly brings out the best in the Starry Night, zero sharp consonant sounds while still retaining the mid-forward nature. If you have an OTC tube amp - i highly recommend pairing it with the SN. With an OTL (output transformer less) you most likely get (too much) background noise, but you might want to experiment with it. Sadly OTC amps get very expensive.
Also, another thing: I had no issues anymore with any lose connectors or anything, after fixing the screws myself once right before writing this review, this thing does what it is supposed to without any problems.
In summary: I will keep this thing because i enjoy its presentation and it pairs very well with my system.

Thanks for reading!