[pluplog]

Look at what came in!

How does it sound? Can't wait to hear your impressions!

 

[xuan87]

Just some quick impressions.

Firstly, the headphones is very very light, and while the constructions are simple, they feel sturdy enough. I'll take some photos later on. My only worry is the pleather ear pads which will eventually peel. Will source for leather ones.

Sound-wise: This definitely veer more towards the neutral, flatish sound signature. I did a short comparison against the Verum One headphones and the Verum sounded slightly warmer in comparison.

The treble can be tiny bit peaky at time, but I don't really detect any sibilance. The bass is what impressed me the most. It's not a bassy headphones, but it reaches deep into the sub bass easily. I love the bass presence which does not leak or overpower the mids.

Overall, it's not a gamechanger or mindblower like the Raal headphones, but it is just a very very good headphones that perform better than its price tag will suggest.

I will try to compare it to the MrSpeakers Ether headphones (bought before the name change).

Side-thought: I wonder if the amp is the one holding back the headphones, might ask the seller if he has plans for a better amp.

 

[svperbia]

Just some quick impressions.

Firstly, the headphones is very very light, and while the constructions are simple, they feel sturdy enough. I'll take some photos later on. My only worry is the pleather ear pads which will eventually peel. Will source for leather ones.

Sound-wise: This definitely veer more towards the neutral, flatish sound signature. I did a short comparison against the Verum One headphones and the Verum sounded slightly warmer in comparison.

The treble can be tiny bit peaky at time, but I don't really detect any sibilance. The bass is what impressed me the most. It's not a bassy headphones, but it reaches deep into the sub bass easily. I love the bass presence which does not leak or overpower the mids.

Overall, it's not a gamechanger or mindblower like the Raal headphones, but it is just a very very good headphones that perform better than its price tag will suggest.

I will try to compare it to the MrSpeakers Ether headphones (bought before the name change).

Side-thought: I wonder if the amp is the one holding back the headphones, might ask the seller if he has plans for a better amp.

Thanks for the detailed impressions, it's very exciting to hear that they work well - I can't wait to receive mine.
When I was reading the taobao description the author put up for the headphones, I had some big suspicions about the author's claims that the ribbon could actually deliver good bass, as I've personally never experienced a ribbon with good bass in my all my time working with DIY speaker parts. It's great to hear validation from you that the bass is indeed good.
I'll be sure to post impressions too once mine arrive, that said I plan to be running mine off of a 50w x2 speaker amp, using a 4ohm resistor in series with each ribbon, in part because I couldn't get the included battery+amp shipped, and in part because 5w x2 did seem a bit low for a ribbon.

Once the headphones arrive, I'll be doing some tests on setting up a resistor box similar to the RAAL's, and running it from a speaker amp. If all goes well, I'll try and get a write up on how to DIY a speaker amp and resistor box (and maybe even get it to work with a 100w usb PD portable battery) for the headphones.

 

[jasswolf]

Looking forward to hearing more about the overall frequency response and where people feel the value lies, as I'm half tempted to build or source an amp locally for these if they scale up into the $1000-$2000 range.

 

[xuan87]

I don't currently own a speaker amp since I'm using active monitors but I'll be interested if anyone manages to squeeze out more performance from these headphones with a different amp. The only thing is that these headphones are so low priced, that it'll defeat the purpose if I pair it with a much more expensive speaker amp lol.

 

[xuan87]

So I asked the seller about the possibility of a resistor box, he replied that there is no need for one. What some users did were to solder a 3W resistor of 4 ohms rating in series with the speaker amp.

Since most speaker/power amps only accept banana plugs, then am I right that one can just create a headphone jack adapter, say RCA female to banana plug male, with the resistor in the middle? Sorry my audio diy knowledge is rudimentary at best but I imagine that might work.

 

[svperbia]

Trying to do something similar to this guy:

Essentially without a resistor, we'd run into some massive impedance mismatch problems, at which point the amp would either fry or shut down by load protection. I get the feeling that even inside the small amp that's provided with the Allen headphones, they're running some small resistors (2 ohm) in series out of the amp to prevent a similar thing from happening (here's the board they use https://www.amazon.com/Amplifier-DROK-PAM8406-Digital-Channel/dp/B077MKQJW2 ).

I'll be using something similar to what the seller is doing, just with a slightly larger board that can handle 50w x2, and then running that into a 4ohm resistor in series with the headset. I chose 50w x2 because DC power supplies that can provide good 120w (24V 5A) are cheap on amazon, and because it keeps the possibility of making a portable amp open, as the USB Type C Power Delivery protocol can allow for portable battery backs that deliver 100W (20V 5A) which I can use to feed the amp on the go.

I've just received notice that my order cleared customs, so hopefully I can have some pictures and more write ups by the end of the week.

 

[xuan87]

I look forward to a detailed write up and photos of your eventual amp!

 

[xuan87]

Came across this and I might get one to test. Will probably cost me only $10 anyway, but I'll need to get the DC supply separately. Accepts USB and Bluetooth.

@svperbia for the left and right output to the amp, how should I solder the resistors? 1 x 1ohm resistor for each cable? So a total of 4ohm combined for all cables?

 

[svperbia]

Came across this and I might get one to test. Will probably cost me only $10 anyway, but I'll need to get the DC supply separately. Accepts USB and Bluetooth.

@svperbia for the left and right output to the amp, how should I solder the resistors? 1 x 1ohm resistor for each cable? So a total of 4ohm combined for all cables?

Probably going to want 4 ohm resistors, as series resistance is additive, each circuit (one for each side) will have a 4.1ohm resistance, which should be within the specified range for most amps.
I am not sure what kind of output power the amp you're picturing can push, but you're going to want to keep that in mind when choosing a resistor to use. Small resistors won't handle much heat and will burn, better to choose a wirewound one like shown in the video I linked earlier (https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Mounted-Aluminum-Wirewound-Resistors/dp/B008ML0LE4/) something like this.

Each side of the headphone can be seen as a circuit, current flowing from positive to negative, through whatever circuit you use to connect them. In your case, that circuit would be a 4 ohm resistor to load match and dissipate heat and the 0.1 ohm ribbon to create the sound, in series.

You're gonna want to attach a banana plug into the positive end, followed by a resistor, followed by the positive side of the ribbon, then wire the negative side of the ribbon back to the negative on the amp. The order of the resistor shouldn't matter in theory, it should be able to come before or after the ribbon without changing the total resistance of the circuit.

I assume the ribbon is wired with a 3.5mm mono, but I don't physically have my headphones yet so I can't guarantee that.
Assuming 3.5mm mono, you have a lot of options in wiring here, you can choose something crude yet easy like this , or if you want to hide the mess of resistors away somewhere and use the standard cables that came with your headphones, you could use something like this to solder leads directly to an output 3.5mm which you can then directly plug your headphones into. In my experience in DIY headphones and repair, I'm fairly comfortable and have found good success with the second option, but this will be my first time using the 3.5mm jacks out of a speaker power amplifier.

I strongly recommend watching and understanding the stuff in this video ( ), as he directly shows wiring and circuit drawings for doing exactly what we're trying to do here on his own diy ribbons. I'd also recommend applying great caution here, and not even attempting it if you're new to circuits and electrical work. Even though this is just a really simple 'resistor in series', being very careful is always good. The amount of power in some of these amps is not negligible, and could easily physically damage the ribbon or yourself.

 

[xuan87]

Probably going to want 4 ohm resistors, as series resistance is additive, each circuit (one for each side) will have a 4.1ohm resistance, which should be within the specified range for most amps.
I am not sure what kind of output power the amp you're picturing can push, but you're going to want to keep that in mind when choosing a resistor to use. Small resistors won't handle much heat and will burn, better to choose a wirewound one like shown in the video I linked earlier (https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Mounted-Aluminum-Wirewound-Resistors/dp/B008ML0LE4/) something like this.

Each side of the headphone can be seen as a circuit, current flowing from positive to negative, through whatever circuit you use to connect them. In your case, that circuit would be a 4 ohm resistor to load match and dissipate heat and the 0.1 ohm ribbon to create the sound, in series.

You're gonna want to attach a banana plug into the positive end, followed by a resistor, followed by the positive side of the ribbon, then wire the negative side of the ribbon back to the negative on the amp. The order of the resistor shouldn't matter in theory, it should be able to come before or after the ribbon without changing the total resistance of the circuit.

I assume the ribbon is wired with a 3.5mm mono, but I don't physically have my headphones yet so I can't guarantee that.
Assuming 3.5mm mono, you have a lot of options in wiring here, you can choose something crude yet easy like this , or if you want to hide the mess of resistors away somewhere and use the standard cables that came with your headphones, you could use something like this to solder leads directly to an output 3.5mm which you can then directly plug your headphones into. In my experience in DIY headphones and repair, I'm fairly comfortable and have found good success with the second option, but this will be my first time using the 3.5mm jacks out of a speaker power amplifier.

I strongly recommend watching and understanding the stuff in this video ( ), as he directly shows wiring and circuit drawings for doing exactly what we're trying to do here on his own diy ribbons. I'd also recommend applying great caution here, and not even attempting it if you're new to circuits and electrical work. Even though this is just a really simple 'resistor in series', being very careful is always good. The amount of power in some of these amps is not negligible, and could easily physically damage the ribbon or yourself.

Argh you're right! I totally forgot about my basic high school level physics about resistance in parallel vs series! Thanks for the reminder on that, as well as the caution on the rest. Will certainly be careful before I attempt any soldering.

 

[svperbia]

Alright, just got the headphones today, and (crudely) set up the amplifier I bought to use.
I'll talk about the amp setup first. 50w per channel on the AMP with a 4ohm resistor is extreme overkill. Feeding it with a line out level signal, I can't push turn the amp's dial more than noon/halfway without things become deafeningly loud.
20 to 30 watts per channel would be a lot more reasonable.
As for the resistors, I chose 2x 4 ohm resistors, each rated for 100w. This is probably also overkill. Even after hours of burning them with loud music, the resistors themselves are very far from burning, in fact they're pretty much room temperature. I was scared that I'd need to wire up a fan for when I put the amp in a box, but it looks like that won't be a problem at all.
The amp components are currently splayed out across my desk. Haven't soldered anything yet - I purchased an aluminum project box enclosure to house everything (and also maybe solve the grounding problems) and will do a permanent setup once that's arrived. It's crude, it's got problems, it's unsafe, but for the very short term it works, and I'll fix it later.


Now for the actual headphones.
First impressions putting them on my head: The pads are truly terrible. As the previous poster mentioned, they're some plastic fake leather thing, and feel really bad to wear. Not painful or anything, just really bad.
Aside from feel, they're really nice to look at. Actually peering into the shell itself, it's fun to see the drivers move around - unlike other headphones, you can very clearly see the ribbons moving around, and how their amplitude of motion changes as the 'loudness' changes.
The frequency response is nice. I ***think*** i hear some distortion at the extreme low bass, and wouldn't feel comfortable pushing these with extreme bass heavy stuff 24/7, but everything else is pretty much perfect. I don't have any high end stuff to compare to (the most expensive setup I've ever listened to was my friend's focal clear and focal dac thing), but I think this beats my Astel and Kern T1P (a 32 ohm variant of the beyerdynamic T1.2, and likely the same driver as the T1.3) by a lot in every category except for comfort, soundstage, and imaging. Stronger bass, about the same in terms of channel imbalances, and the Allen doesn't have the occassional weird treble spikes the beyer has.
Basically, in terms of pure sound, these are my new favorite.

An interesting thing that I noticed is that it feels like the headphones are creating a breeze around me ears - I can physically and very obviously feel the air being moved around by the drivers, something I've never felt with any other device.

Next steps for me are replacing the awful pads on this, and getting my amp fixed up and into a portable chassis. Also hope to try the amp out with a USB C battery pack, power delivery mode can deliver up to 60w for 30wpc, which could make this a cool option for mobile use.

Edit:
Also, really simple circuit setup.
For each channel (L,R), red wire out of positive amp end, into resistor, and resistor wired into the positive (right or left) end of the 3.5mm plug. Then wire the negative end of the 3.5mm back to the negative of the amp.
This works fine, haven't done any damage to the amp, resistor, headphones, or myself yet.

Will make another comment here, and maybe even a full post, after I've got the finishing touches done.

 

[xuan87]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the amp and adapter that you made. Good to know that what I envisioned in mind was exactly what you did.

I can easily buy a small complete power amp at 30W+30W that is portable size but the issue is they're mostly DC powered. I'll be interested to see how you hook up a power bank to your amp.

EDIT: Just a thought, will hooking up a power bank to the amp via a USB-to-DC cable work? Assuming I can find one wihich supports the right voltage (looking at the amp spec, I'll need 12V to get 30W per channel).

 

[Kabeer]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the amp and adapter that you made. Good to know that what I envisioned in mind was exactly what you did.

I can easily buy a small complete power amp at 30W+30W that is portable size but the issue is they're mostly DC powered. I'll be interested to see how you hook up a power bank to your amp.

EDIT: Just a thought, will hooking up a power bank to the amp via a USB-to-DC cable work? Assuming I can find one wihich supports the right voltage (looking at the amp spec, I'll need 12V to get 30W per channel).

You can get USB 5v to 12v step up converters on eBay inexpensively. e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/392874960264

Can you give any examples of small DC powered speaker amps that may be suitable?

Thanks.

 

[svperbia]

I'm not informed enough on the physics of step converters to guarantee they'll work well, and won't affect the audio quality or amp reliability.

I plan on using a power bank because things like USB Power Delivery are rated for up to 120W (24V 5A), and many 'moderately' inexpensive portable batteries can do 12v 5a for 30+30.
For example, this battery does 60W at 20v 3a power delivery output. You should be able to find other options with more searching.

Now as for actually getting the usb c pd output hooked up to the dc powered amp, you'll need a bit more hardware. You'll need something that can communicate and tell the battery the amount of power to supply: those are called usb c PD triggers.
Something like this (https://www.amazon.com/TKDMR-Trigger-Detector-ZY12PDN-terminal/dp/B0824CY988/) or maybe a more convenient all in one solution like this (https://www.amazon.com/Cablecc-Emulator-Trigger-Charge-Laptop/dp/B07PBG4GY6/).

Using these USB triggers is new for me too, so I can't guarantee anything will work. I'll spend a few hours today looking over the reviews and specifications, and will try and choose one that does what I need later.