I was VERY impressed. At Axpona I listened to 17 different headphones and 3 IEMs. Out of the 17 headphones I tried, only 3 really impressed me when it came to bass. Those are the Audeze LCD-2, Audioquest Nighthawk, and last but not least the Taction Kannon.
Disclaimer: I tried the Kannons for around an hour at a headphone convention. I got to choose my own music, but this still isn't an ideal critical listening environment. Please keep this in mind as you read my impressions/review.
I suppose I'll start with a little bit about myself. My name is Joe and I am a chronic basshead. I crave bass impact first and extension second. This is not to say that I don't value detail, soundstage, clear mids and crisp highs too, but without a doubt those are all secondary to me when compared to bass. My preferred sound signature is warm with a bass boost.
When it comes to music, I mostly listen to
rap, old school
dubstep, and
jazz.
The Taction driver is a very interesting idea but to be honest most of the engineering is over my head. If you are interested in the specifics of the Taction Kannon, check out their
kickstarter here for more information.
Build Quality/Comfort
The Kannons build quality is nothing to write home about. They have a mostly plastic construction and feel sturdy in hand, but light on your head. I don't know how the clamp will feel out of the box but the three pairs I tried all had a comfortable and adequate amount of clamp for me.
My main gripe with the comfort is the stock pads. They are similar to ATH-M50 pads if a little thicker. I have slightly larger than average ears and the inside of the pads touched the bottom and top of my ear which I could see getting very annoying with extended use. I think these headphones would benefit a lot from thicker and larger pads.
Some people were concerned about the longevity of the Taction driver, so I contacted James Biggs, CTO of Taction. Here is his response:
Hi Joe, service lifetime is a good question for any new technology.
The short answer is that we don't expect our Taction transducers to impact the overall service lifetime of the headphones. That's because the suspension of the tactile modules is made from stainless steel flexures, not polymer, so there is no issue with the mechanism becoming brittle, which is the usual cause of death for conventional subwoofers.
Treble and Mids
These headphones have a warm tilt with a spike at 10k but I can't say I noticed the spike in my time listening to them. The treble was pleasant and well presented with no sibilance. If I had to compare the tonality to a headphone I have spent a lot of time with it would have to be the HD598. However, I would say the Kannons have a slightly better mid to treble balance overall.
The weakest part of these headphones is the detail and soundstage. The soundstage is *slightly* better than M50 but it still very much lacks. Compared to my main closed back headphone (the DT770) the soundstage is disappointing.
Detail is on tier with my DT770s, which is not great but not horrible. To be honest I don't have a great frame of reference for a detailed headphone as I've never spent extended time with a very detailed headphone.
Bass
While on the search for the perfect bass heavy cans a problem that popped up over and over again was the lower frequencies would bleed into the mids and in extreme cases the highs. I am extremely happy to say this is not a problem with the Kannons. I don't exactly know why, but I assume it is because the Taction driver takes over mostly in the frequencies that are more felt than heard. Either way, they did a great job with the tuning in regards to bass/mid balance.
The bass extended as deep as my music would make it. I have a series of bass testing tracks I tried on the Kannons (Digital Mystikz - Anti-War Dub, Kahn/Commodo/Gants - Unmistakable, Kendrick Lamar - M.A.A.D. City, and finally Wiz Khalifa - On My Level) that cover the whole range of bass frequencies. The Kannons had no problems playing through the range very well, without any audible distortion or dips in any of the frequencies.
Now for the most important part - the bass impact. The word I kept thinking of while listening to these was "insane". You can turn the Taction driver up and down to fit your tastes, but I kept it all the way up most of the time. The bass literally made my nose visibly shake. You could see the cable vibrate as the driver played the low bass notes. It was unlike anything I've ever heard in a headphone, and I loved every second of it.
Conclusion
These are fun headphones. Are they perfectly tuned and accurate? No, not at all. The detail and soundstage are lacking, but the bass is what makes these shine. The extension and impact are unequaled in my opinion. They don't get drowned out with muddy bass even at the highest setting. At the lowest setting they add a tasteful kick that I'm pretty sure anybody could like. I will be buying these as soon as I can.
I wish every headphone had a Taction driver or something similar.
Another Kickstarter link for good measure: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2053327139/kannon-headphones-accurate-bass-you-can-feel
