Good Morning everyone...been listening to the Blues for the better part of a week and have come up with some thoughts.
Ill be getting these packed up and shipped out soon, so they will be on their way to the next participant!
Review:
First Impression:
When I first put them on, playing though a Woo Audio WA7-TP I thought, “huh, not sure about these,” but after a few minutes of listening and the infamous “brain burn in” I began to understand the sound signature I was listening too and started to experience the headphones for what they are…Good, fun and relaxing. I should mention that the headphones that I was comparing these too are the MrSpeakers Aeon Flow Closed backs. I am also using my memory of former headphones including the CA Cascades and Oppo PM’3s.
Impressions:
The Blues are a fun sounding, darkish, headphone that emphasizes the low end, extending ever so slightly into the sub-bass region (very song dependent it seems) while retaining crisp highs. I prefer the sonic character of the SS Magni 3 over that of the tubey WA7 and also over the provided HPA4BL DAC/AMP, I assume due to the Blues wanting a brighter amp. The mids are slightly thick sounding, or sucked out, and because of this some vocal performances do not sound natural but instead somewhat distant. I do think that these headphones offer a good fun sound signature that works great with electronic music. These do not seem to favor women’s vocals, leaving them sometimes feeling isolated from the music.
I am not the biggest fan of the color choice, but I will say that it looks much subtler in person than it does in the pictures online and could be considered handsome. I would like to see them in a darker blue…if they were the same shade as the box they would be perfect. Also, as others have said, I do not like the ease at which the exposed wires can get caught and potentially severed.
Side note: I did get a chance to run these with Mrspeakers Ether Pads (old version) which sound very good and too me are more comfortable than the velour pads supplied.
How they Compare:
Oppo PM-3 – The blues are a more comfortable, less neutral version of the PM-3’s. I tend to enjoy a more neutral signature and overall prefer the PM-3’s to the Blues on all aspects except for comfort. I can wear the blues for a long time and somewhat forget they are on my head, not so much with the Oppo’s. Although twice the cost, the Oppos win in the comparison sonically and aesthetically, but not on the comfort level.
CA Cascades – The Cascades were an interesting headphone to me…they are very V-shaped, somewhat to a fault. The Bass on the Cascades is just too much for my liking. The Blues exhibit some of the excessive Bass that I did not enjoy with the Cascades, but the Blues are much more comfortable. The overall signature of the Cascades to me is less desirable to the Blues, but the Blues would benefit from a more pronounced mids (like the Cascades). For the money of the cascades, I would prefer the Blues with a good DAC and Amp like a Schiit Stack.
Mrspeakers Aeon Flow C – The Aeons extend deeper in the bass region, but with overall less bass impact. The Aeons are more comfortable than the Blues and have a more neutral and cohesive sound signature. Direct comparison I find that the Blues are much warmer and more relaxed sounding with somewhat boomy mid bass. To me, the Aeons are more engaging…often I listened to 3 or 4 tracks before remembering that I was supposed to be running a comparison.
Focal Elex – Elex is much more dynamic and fulfilling sounding. The speed and balance is not matched by the Blues. These are my go to dynamic headphones and are easily one of my favorite.
Conclusion:
The takeaway is that the Blues are tuned well and provide listening enjoyment with a very good price to performance ratio. I think some further tuning to bring out the mids would ultimately solve a lot of the issues that I have with them.
I would recommend these to anyone looking for a moderately priced semi-open headphone. They have no serious faults. The mids could be more present, a fact that disappears after extended relaxed listening. To answer your final question, no I do not think I will be picking these up for personal use mostly due to the other headphones that I currently own. I would however consider purchasing these as a gift for a family member who was looking to begin their audio adventure.
