[Shane D]

The Ambrosia is a new headphone from Nectar Sound down in Georgia, USA.

Nectar is a small one man operation and the headphones are hand made by one guy, at this point. He started out making Electrostatic headphones called the HiveX that have been really well received.

Next up was a planar called the Bee. It was not quite as warmly received. I own these and I really like them.

This thread is about his newest headphone, the Ambrosia. It is a dynamic driver with a 50MM driver. The headphone is rated at 32 Ohms and they are very easy to drive.

These are light and very comfortable. He has chosen to use Brainwaves earpads. This has the same frame and cups as the Bee's, which works for me. I should also mention that these are Very open back. Think of the HD6X level of openess. My wife can Shazam the sound from several feet away.

The sound really changed for me on its first day in the house, depending on the amp.

First up, the mids are great and the treble is more than enough for me. With my first amp, the Schiit Valhalla 2, they sounded a little bass light in the first few hours. After a while I changed over to the Little Dot MK9. The sound got a little thicker and a little bassier. I was playing rock and things were sounding really good.

Just before ending my listening session, I moved up to the iFi Pro iCAN. I had to IMMEDIATELY drop the gain, the volume and the bass boost.(Yesterday was Senn HD660S2's)

They sounded much better, much bassier and my head was bobbin'.
Then I moved over the Violectric V220. Again, the sound was blowing me away.

I am still in the shiny new toy phase, but I am super impressed with these.

I use a Schiit Bifrost 2 for a DAC.

I should also mention the very reasonable price of $499.00.

One last point on the Bee's and the Ambrosia's: the inputs are 3.5mm mono. Many folks have several stereo 3.5mm cables laying around, but they will not work with these. I use Hart modular cables and get a TON of use from my stereo 3.5mm cables. However, I had to order a new cable, dual 3.5mm mono's.

 

[Shane D]

I am going to cut and paste this update from another forum, where I wrote it earlier today.

"Just to follow up, I ran these for a week and they sounded good on every amp and in every genre. The last day or two I compared them to the Bee planars. The Bee's need a stronger amp to really stretch their legs. The Ambrosia's were good off any of my amps.

The Bee's have a very thick bass, hit or miss mids and recessed treble, IMO. With certain music, they are excellent, but with a minority of my music, they sound wrong or wonky. Some almost sounds distorted, others sound like the song is being played out of a fishbowl. I have never heard any other headphone do this.

The Ambrosia's sound more open and brighter than the Bee's. But with certain blues and rock music, the Ambrosia's seems light or bright compared to the Bee's.

The Ambrosia's have sharper, cleaner bass. It is not dominant, but great when called upon.
The mids are lots of fun! Not Grado mids, but I would compare them to iBasso SR2's. They both have great bass, great mids and recessed treble, IMO.

I think the vast majority of buyers would prefer the Ambrosia's. I am maybe going to sell the Bee's. But, with the right music...

I would highly recommend the Bee's as a used buy, if you like bass. I just had a guy ask about how they do with Electronica. The closest I have, I think, is Bob Moses and DWIG. They sounded Really good to me.

I like the Ambrosia's and would recommend them as an all rounder. They are not Great at any one thing and also not Horrible at any one thing. A nice buy at $499.00US. I will be keeping mine.

And, as a former small business owner, I Love supporting a small business!

A snapshot of my tastes, from a best of 2000's playlist (Bee's running off iFi Pro iCAN and Ambrosia running off Violectric V220).:

1) Nothing Compares to you. Sucked on Bee's, but great on Ambrosia.
2) Hard Sun. Bee's really ground it out with Eddy Vedder.
3) Fade Into You. Bee's were just too dark for this song.
4) Everybody hurts. Ambrosia's sounded cleaner and wider.
5) What It's Like. Bee's were digging deep and rockin'!
6) White Flag. Dido's voice sounded good on the Bees, but I preferred the Ambrosia overall.
7) Who Will Save your Soul? Barely hear the vocals on the Bee's.

Just some opinions on my experience"

 

[iFi audio]

The headphone is rated at 32 Ohms and they are very easy to drive.

Interesting, thanks for flagging! What is their sensitivity?

 

[Shane D]

Interesting, thanks for flagging! What is their sensitivity?

I am not sure. I went through his website and our emails and find no mention of it at all. I would guess roughly high 90's. I found them very easy to drive with all my amps, in low gain.
And the Pro iCAN with a bit of bass boost was Very nice!

 

[iFi audio]

And the Pro iCAN with a bit of bass boost was Very nice!

Thanks!

I am not sure. I went through his website and our emails and find no mention of it at all. I would guess roughly high 90's. I found them very easy to drive with all my amps, in low gain.

Low gain and high SPL achieved early seems like 95dB+ indeed. Thanks!

 

[Miiksu]

Interesting, thanks for flagging! What is their sensitivity?

They are same driver as Aurorus Audio Borealis.

My take away from these. Frequency response is excellent. Tonal balance is very good but not excellent. Because I did a small mod to these to lower upper frequencies a bit. Midrange is also excellent. But bass is only "very good" because they lack a tiny bit of sub bass. Channel balance is excellent too.

Green is original and red is modified.

Channel matching. A very small dip at upper frequencies. It's barely audible when sweeping.

I only added a steel mesh to the front. Density of 200.


And my old branded silver transparent cable. Quite lucky that Sajeev decided to go with 3.5mm plugs

 

[Shane D]

They are same driver as Aurorus Audio Borealis.

My take away from these. Frequency response is excellent. Tonal balance is very good but not excellent. Because I did a small mod to these to lower upper frequencies a bit. Midrange is also excellent. But bass is only "very good" because they lack a tiny bit of sub bass. Channel balance is excellent too.

Green is original and red is modified.


I only added a steel mesh to the front. Density of 200.


And my old branded silver transparent cable. Quite lucky that Sajeev decided to go with 3.5mm plugs

I was surprised by the 3.5mm mono plugs. What other 'phones were you using those with?

 

[Miiksu]

I was surprised by the 3.5mm mono plugs. What other 'phones were you using those with?

Takstar HF580 but I don't use that headphone anymore. I did too many mods for them. Basicly a frengestein atm.. It's also too heavy.

On my setup, the best to drive Ambrosia was Muzishare X7 power amplifier and used 4ohm speaker outputs. Feeded Low gain -14 dB audio signal from HP AMP. iESL impedance 96 Ohm. Full chain is Topping DX7 Pro > L30II > X7 > iESL > HP.

 

[Shane D]

Takstar HF580 but I don't use that headphone anymore. I did too many mods for them. Basicly a frengestein atm.. It's also too heavy.

On my setup, the best to drive Ambrosia was Muzishare X7 power amplifier and used 4ohm speaker outputs. Feeded Low gain -14 dB audio signal from HP AMP. iESL impedance 96 Ohm. Full chain is Topping DX7 Pro > L30II > X7 > iESL > HP.

I find the Ambrosia's great in all my amps. The Bee's however, I only like on my iFi amp.

 

[Miiksu]

I find the Ambrosia's great in all my amps. The Bee's however, I only like on my iFi amp.

Other choices were not bad but when I finally got confidence to try out speaker taps after I changed the driver tube to a better and quieter, to TAD E82CC. I was blown away. Dynamics are so good. Bass is tighter and less boomy. There is nice space between the notes and still maintaining that engaging sound that was coming from X7 HP output or L30II. There is a very small hiss to be heard when the room is completely silent or at night time.

 

[iFi audio]

They are same driver as Aurorus Audio Borealis.

My take away from these. Frequency response is excellent. Tonal balance is very good but not excellent. Because I did a small mod to these to lower upper frequencies a bit. Midrange is also excellent. But bass is only "very good" because they lack a tiny bit of sub bass. Channel balance is excellent too.

Green is original and red is modified.


Channel matching. A very small dip at upper frequencies. It's barely audible when sweeping.


I only added a steel mesh to the front. Density of 200.


And my old branded silver transparent cable. Quite lucky that Sajeev decided to go with 3.5mm plugs

This is very useful, thank you

 

[Miiksu]

I think my measurement device broke. I'll order a new receiver later. Don't worry, it's cheap But this is so far my best listening experience. I changed the original pads to oval angled (inside is perforated). Also added some very low density filters to the back. When I did pad roll to the oval sound was better for my liking but then tonally was bad. This is the reason I added some blocks to the back to give clarity to upper midrange and low treble and not boost the high frequencies. It's very important and does not sound as good without the low density dust filter blocks.

Earpads: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33057605882.html
Correct size is 100mm.

Spoiler: Bad measurement

MicPlug is now working and correct measurement

 

[hatstream]

I've always wanted to try the Ambrosia. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

You can tell based on the looks alone, that this headphone will be fantastic.

 

[Shane D]

I've always wanted to try the Ambrosia. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

You can tell based on the looks alone, that this headphone will be fantastic.

It is a nice full bodied headphone. I haven't used mine in a few weeks. I really do have to pull it out soon.

Pretty attractive price too.

 

[Miiksu]

I've always wanted to try the Ambrosia. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

You can tell based on the looks alone, that this headphone will be fantastic.

It's a very good headphone. Can also be improved to ur liking. Comfort is okay. It's not that light of a headphone. A bit over 480 grams. Clamping force is medium. Comfort gets better with oval earpads but then u have to know what u're doing. It will change frequency response.

It's so good that it does not really need any EQ. But if you are bass head and want more sub bass then you can add it more.