TL;DR: Excellent neutral planar headphones that are worth some consideration
Overview
First time leaving a review but been a long-time member with a very, very recent resurgence back into this lovely (wallet draining hobby).
Having picked up and demo’d a variety of headphones (from the big players like Sennheiser to the small boutiques like JM Audio), I figured I’d leave my impressions of a set that I don’t think has as much traction as one would expect (likely for a variety of reasons including timing around the holidays).
My primary comparison will be against the Dan Clark Aeon Closed X that I have (which isn’t necessarily as fair of a comparison considering the open back vs closed back design) but I think I’ve had enough time with my Aeons to have a good enough detailed breakdown.
Disclaimers: I did actually meet Jeffrey (of SJY Audio) at SoCal CanJam and demo’d both the Umi and the Horizon there. This review is all my own subjective opinion.
Build Quality and Comfort
Unboxing it, it was just the headphones and the cable. Ignore the messy background.
Build quality for these are great. The grill, the headband and the adjustment slider all feel extremely solid. I absolutely adore how they look but I’m also a sucker for borderline industrial looks (like the Sony Z1R will always hold a place in my heart for looks. Same with you old set of JM Opus X Summits) so YMMV.
The standard cable are usually dual 3.5mm to XLR but I got in touch with Jeffrey and he sent me dual 3.5mm to 3.5mm (I have my own 1/4" adapters). The cable feels good too; almost a bit loose and flimsy feeling but they untangle and stay straight well even if the ear cups swivel a lot.
The headphones are EXTREMELY light. You know that Ned Flanders meme? Those are these. They don’t feel like you have anything on and are probably one of the most comfortable sets considering how large the drivers are.
That brings me to probably my only concern with these. Because of how light they are, despite how solid the build is, they feel borderline flimsy because of how much they can swivel around. Once they’re on your head, it’s amazing but if you’re handling them loosely, they kind of can spin around and get caught up. This is probably my only nitpick.
Ultimately, I think the comfort is right there with the Dan Clark line up like the Aeons where they disappear once they’re on your head and would never hurt your neck if you listened to music all day with them. Nitpick aside, I think it’s by design to keep them this light for long listening periods.
Sound:
But, how do they sound? Like planars. Thanks for reading, good night everybody.
But, seriously, I really enjoyed listening to them when I had a chance to try them out at SoCal CanJam (along with the Horizon flagships) so I was very curious about using them for a longer time especially at my own set up. Here’s the Umi graph that SJY has previously posted.
Gear: These were used to listen to a handful of vinyls off and through a streamer.
Vinyl chain: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo -> Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 -> JDS Labs OL Switcher -> Geshelli Labs Archel 3 Pro.
Streamed Music chain: WiiM Mini -> JDS Labs Atom DAC+ -> JDS Labs OL Switcher -> Geshelli Labs Archel 3 Pro.
Lows: In this case, the bass is solid but not the star. Based on the sheer size of the driver (96mm), they’re very capable of providing the bass where the track calls for it. But, if the track doesn’t call for it, it’s not going to be the star of the show.
This isn’t too far off from my other experience with mid-priced planars such as the Aeons Closed X. I’ve also listened to the Hifiman 400se, Hifiman Sundara and the Audeze MM-100 and they show similar characteristics where a track that really wants to emphasize the bass will have the impact/slam but otherwise it follows it’s neutral tuning.
The bass, though, is extremely detailed, and the Umi really take well to EQ. With tone control in the Archel 3 Pro and put at 2:00, it maintains that high level of detail but really does bring the bass to a satisfying level.
Mids: While the soundstage isn’t as wide as you’d expect, the music is extremely open. The vocals tend to be presented up front but they’re very lush/rich especially on good recordings. As I’ve reiterated, the detail, clarity and precision are the stars of the show overall and that extends very well to the mids.
I think the female vocals tend to be the strongest point (Fleetwood Mac – Dreams as an example) but the male vocals are no slouch either. I actually tend to prefer the vocals on the Umi vs the Aeons Closed X. The Closed X tend to present vocals further away while the Umi pulls them in a bit but give them a wide open’ness to them. I’m not the best at describing the mids/highs, admittedly, but I’m very satisfied with the mids on these.
Treble: The sound is extremely airy but, even though it doesn’t follow the curve on the upper treble, there is no fatigue. My understanding is that the Umi are supposed to be on the brighter side than the graph but there’s never any sibilance. It’s just smooth, clean, detailed (gosh I feel like I’m repeating words a lot) and, compared to the Aeon Closed X, feels like the energy is very well controlled.
Even when I’m EQing with the extra bass, it never feels like anything gets lost.
Etc.: While the soundstage isn’t as large as you’d expect from their open-back design, the sound is still extremely open and the Imaging and separation are superb. They’re extremely on point on these marks which are where these excel compared to the rest of the competition. They’re just so detailed and there are, at times, where it feels like it’s just feeding you the music as it’s recorded or intended to be heard. While that may sound like it would be dull or lifeless, they’ve got some character to them while maintaining that reference level.
Dynamics are only OK but it’s expected with my experience with some other planars like the Dan Clarks. I can get more dynamics out of these, though, vs the Aeon Closed X especially on some very busy tracks. They may not provide the same level of dynamics as others I’ve tried but they’re good enough to not be as distracting.
I think they perform well above their price range and you’d need to get into like the Arya levels to find headphones that do a lot of these other aspects as well.
Other Things to be aware of:
These are harder to drive than my Dan Clark. With the Aeons, I’m around, on high gain on my Archel 3 Pro, 11:30 to 12:00 while I need to be around 2:00 to 3:00 with the Umi. You’re going to need some power. I’m curious if I had an xlr or balanced amp if this would be alleviated but I’m not able to test it this way.
I haven’t tried the Umi yet with my Woo Audio Tube Mini (I’ll update once I have) but I suspect that I’d probably need to up the volume a bit to drive the Umi as well.
Conclusion:
Overall, I really enjoy the Umi. I think they do everything extremely well for a neutral tuned set (and you can basically see that the graph is exactly what you get with these).
While they may not have the most cavernous soundstage like you’d hope/expect with their design, they’re likely going to be one of the most comfortable headphones you could put on and enjoy literally everything about them.
