[Kiats]

The preproduction Dharma is sibilant and the vocals sound recessed at the same time ( there must be a dip in the treble but also a spike in the 4-5K area). Which would be the drawbacks. Bass is great - punchy and deep. Midrange is neutral. Treble is extended and the soundstage is big and airy. Comfort is decent.
But unless the drawbacks are fixed in the production version, I can't have these
And I really wanted these to be it...

Interesting... I actually had a chance to listen to the Dharma yesterday at Jaben, Singapore. I'm not sure if it's a pre-production demo unit.

With regard to sibilant trebles, I only found it occasionally. But that I put down to the bad recording of the pop song that was one of the demo tracks. It sounded fine with the Eagles and other music I played. Of course, it undoubtedly needs burn in to take the edge off some of the hard edges.

While it's a nice can, it's not compelling at this stage. I'll revisit once it has been burned in.

What I will say is that the HD800 type socket was too recessed and will be difficult to remove cables. I had a heart stopping moment with the crystal piccolino balanced cable from my HD800.

Which brings me to the next issue I had: the OEM HD800 cable doesn't do it any favours: the same cable that can make the HD800 sound poor is used here too. Once I swapped it out in favour of the crystal cable, the treble was more rounded and calmer while the mids filled out and the vocals not so recessed. And the bass kicked in.

The last observation is that earpads are poor. Too thin and were not the most comfortable around. Looked like some cheap OEM earpads from any shop selling supplies.

While the idea behind the can is good, I think in implementation these chaps are letting their good work on the Drivers and concept down by having these cheap and perhaps not well thought out parts.

Just my thoughts.

 

[raybone0566]

Interesting... I actually had a chance to listen to the Dharma yesterday at Jaben, Singapore. I'm not sure if it's a pre-production demo unit.

With regard to sibilant trebles, I only found it occasionally. But that I put down to the bad recording of the pop song that was one of the demo tracks. It sounded fine with the Eagles and other music I played. Of course, it undoubtedly needs burn in to take the edge off some of the hard edges.

While it's a nice can, it's not compelling at this stage. I'll revisit once it has been burned in.

What I will say is that the HD800 type socket was too recessed and will be difficult to remove cables. I had a heart stopping moment with the crystal piccolino balanced cable from my HD800.

Which brings me to the next issue I had: the OEM HD800 cable doesn't do it any favours: the same cable that can make the HD800 sound poor is used here too. Once I swapped it out in favour of the crystal cable, the treble was more rounded and calmer while the mids filled out and the vocals not so recessed. And the bass kicked in.

The last observation is that earpads are poor. Too thin and were not the most comfortable around. Looked like some cheap OEM earpads from any shop selling supplies.

While the idea behind the can is good, I think in implementation these chaps are letting their good work on the Drivers and concept down by having these cheap and perhaps not well thought out parts.

Just my thoughts.

wonder if these are different units people are getting. The 6 moons review I read the cable was praised and no mention of cheap earcups. He actually gave the dharma an award that's not given out very often.

 

[Kiats]

wonder if these are different units people are getting. The 6 moons review I read the cable was praised and no mention of cheap earcups. He actually gave the dharma an award that's not given out very often.

Or it may just be different expectations.

 

[conquerator2]

We can also assume that differences between production and preproduction are very real

 

[bmichels]

So, will we have to wait for final production to know if the dharma can replace a SR009 by providing the same precision/speed while offering the bass that the SR009 is lacking sometime ? 

 

[Ocellia]

  brief thoughts in stream of consciousness:
 
tolerances are much tighter...  fit and finish very good....  
 
I normally prefer absolute stealth and plain look...  but i really like the 'ENIGMAcoustics' embossed into the leather on the top of the headband... and I also like the toned down barely there nature of the branding on the earcups... it's still there in the right light and angle...  just not screaming at you like before....  very classy...  
 
tightness and clamp around my enormous fat melon is better distributed and consistent...  the suspension strap seems adjusted better and it just naturally lays better and allows the headphone to go on and sit in place easier and better...  difference between soft tooling one off style construction versus hard tooled full production?  who knows..  i like it no matter what is the root cause..
 
most important thing....  they sound even better!!!!  biggest thing noticed is better driver integration.... I can still find the crossover point, but it is definitely more seamless than the most recent production sample...  I was able to directly compare with the sample model because I still have it here (thanks to in an instant finding out the hard way that the human brain is not intended to have foreign matters growing in it... and definitely not intended for said matters to burst and bleed all over its tissues.... not a fun couple weeks recovering, but at least I'm not taking a permanent dirt nap and thankful it wasn't worse that it was).... so didn't have to rely on aural memory to "compare"... got to do direct back to back comparison to confirm I wasn't imagining things...
 
this is a very, very compelling product at its price point....

Shane! Glad you escaped! Hope all is well now.
Puts Hi-Fi madness into perspective!

 

[grizzlybeast]

  So, will we have to wait for final production to know if the dharma can replace a SR009 by providing the same precision/speed while offering the bass that the SR009 is lacking sometime ? 

The Big Sound comparison reports it to be to be clear like a stat just not on the sr009 level. I know that is preproduction but I doubt it will be technically improved, just fine tuned and hopefully better balanced. I am glad I followed Big Sound. The SR009 was never once on anyones top list... I didnt expect that. 

 

[AlanYWM]

IMO, the one I heard is not on the same level as the 009 or even the HE1000. To be fair, this is based on memory and I did not do any side by side comparison. I thought the treble was pretty good but the bass details were not there. This was through the hybird headphone amplifier, Athena A1. I agree that the HD800-type socket was rather difficult to put on/remove the cable. Overall, I would still rate it as a good sounding headphone for its price range.

 

[hitman1]

The Big Sound comparison reports it to be to be clear like a stat just not on the sr009 level. I know that is preproduction but I doubt it will be technically improved, just fine tuned and hopefully better balanced. I am glad I followed Big Sound. The SR009 was never once on anyones top list... I didnt expect that. 

 


Hello: I posted a link for Innerfidelity Big Sound. Is that what you are talking about or some other article? Want to know so i can go find it.

 

[grizzlybeast]

It was one of the innerfidelity big sound articles. I can't remember.

 

[BlakeT]

It was one of the innerfidelity big sound articles. I can't remember.

  
 
Reading through the impressions of the various testers, the SR-009 did not fare well at all.  One professional, Bob Katz seemed to actively dislike the 009 and much preferred the 007.  While these are all simply impressions from different people, you can see a few trends, but overall, the subjective impressions seem all over the map.  Some headphones are referred to as "rolled off" whereas other subjects described that same can as a "detail monster" (LCD 3).
 
In any event, Bob Katz is a recording professional with tons of experience so his opinion might carry just a tad bit more weight than the others' opinions.  Or not... 

 
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/big-sound-2015-biting-bullet-bob-katz#TgrbfIeyP54zThQG.97

 

[Anjolie]

  ^ I don't really listen to that kind of music, so I can't really say.
 
Some final impressions, as I just passed the headphones on to the 8/30 Head-Fi meet at Capital Audio Fest which is this weekend. Anyone who lives in or near the Washington DC area should go check out the meet!

 
First, I'm almost definitely buying a pair of these headphones when they become available (and I have enough money to buy them, of course). Overall I was impressed enough by them out of my budget gear and I could see myself using them for a variety of genres I listen to, like classical, bluegrass/folk, pop/rock, and electronica/trip-hop. And the Stax Lambda is the closest sonic parallel I can think of. Sorry if some people haven't heard a Stax Lambda headphone to get an idea, I just can't think of any other headphones, whether dynamic or planar magnetic, or even electrostatic, that I thought the Dharma remotely resembled.
 
The Dharma had very good clarity to my ears, outclassing the MrSpeakers Ether in that aspect. Much more clear & distinct-sounding, which made it so much better suited for ambient electronica in particular. However, not sure I'd say it really had the best clarity that I've ever heard, as I didn't hear details that I've heard on other headphones like the Sony Qualia 010, Senn HD800, and Stax OII MKI. I think anyone who wants an extremely clear-sounding headphone above all else should look into one of those other headphones instead.
 
The one thing that impressed me most about the Dharma was its combo of an extremely fast impulse response (virtually as fast as an electrostatic headphone) with a strong treble and bass/mid-bass. That really made it engaging to listen to on rhythmically bass-heavy music, like electronica/trip-hop. It also helped that it delivered strong & hard percussive impact, consistently giving drums a strong attack. Very similar to my Audio-Technica AD2000 in that aspect, it consistently ran into drums with a strong yet quick force/impact. And the Dharma was also extremely agile-sounding, just like my AD2000. It was never even a tiny bit plodgy and was always capable of sonically stopping & starting on a dime. Just like with my AD2000, I definitely got the impression of a sonic racquetball—a headphone that was able to spring from one note to the next with zero overhang, just constant forward insistence. In fact, switching over to the MrSpeakers Ether right after listening to the Dharma made the Ether sound slow and plodgy!
 
Comparing the Dharma and Ether on my budget gear, I came away much more impressed by the Dharma and a lesser opinion of the Ether. The Ether just didn't do that much to impress me and I'm no longer interested in buying it.
 
However, with that said, the Dharma still had its flaws to me too, and I'll start with the fit. It just didn't fit my head that well, as it was too loose and didn't exert any pressure on my ears. I practically had to hold it in place to seal the cups against my head. The padded elastic headband component didn't help, as it just stretched and didn't offer any support. Adding extra padding didn't help at all either, as the headband just stretched to accommodate. It made it very frustrating to wear the headphones. I hope ENIGMAcoustics further tweaks the ergonomics of this headphone, because I really like how it sounds but it just didn't fit me properly, and naturally I can't use a headphone that doesn't fit me.
 
And sonically, I wouldn't say its signature is really the best for all kinds of music. I tried some of my metal CDs on it, but it didn't sound good with any of them—In Flames' The Jester Race, Machine Head's Through The Ashes of Empires, and Periphery's Juggernaut Alpha. I ran out of time to investigate why, so I can't comment further than that. The soundstaging certainly didn't help though, as I'm of the mindset that large open soundstages just don't mesh well with metal in general.
 
I'm also not sure that people who listen to vocal-heavy music will really like the Dharma either, as that part of the mid-range consistently lacked body, particularly when it came to male vocals. 3D's vocals on Massive Attack's "Inertia Creeps" just didn't have the presence that they do on my AD2000. Jazz may also be a genre that the Dharma might not do so well with (I never listened to any of my jazz CDs with it either, just ran out of time).
 
But as far as I'm concerned, I think I've finally found the perfect complement to my AD2000 in the Dharma. It's equally fast & agile-sounding but has somewhat of an inverted frequency spectrum compared to it, and has much more clarity, which makes it highly suitable for everything I don't use my AD2000 for (which is pretty much everything not either metal or electronica, ambient excepted). The only problem for me will be finding a suitable amp for it, as the Gilmore Lite was pretty obviously not ideal.....
 
Amps: Garage1217 Project Polaris, HeadAmp Gilmore Lite v2 w/ DPS
Source: Schiit Modi 2 Uber via coaxial from a CD transport and USB from my Windows desktop PC

Awesome!  I'm going to save my pennies and dig through everybody's couch cushions for loose change until I can afford them 

 

[grizzlybeast]

It was one of the innerfidelity big sound articles. I can't remember.

  

Reading through the impressions of the various testers, the SR-009 did not fare well at all.  One professional, Bob Katz seemed to actively dislike the 009 and much preferred the 007.  While these are all simply impressions from different people, you can see a few trends, but overall, the subjective impressions seem all over the map.  Some headphones are referred to as "rolled off" whereas other subjects described that same can as a "detail monster" (LCD 3).

In any event, Bob Katz is a recording professional with tons of experience so his opinion might carry just a tad bit more weight than the others' opinions.  Or not... :blink:  

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/big-sound-2015-biting-bullet-bob-katz#TgrbfIeyP54zThQG.97

Relatively speaking the lcd3f actually would prob sound the closest to studio monitors in balance, yet not as weighty in the dynamic in the low end and a bit more lively up top, though not much.

A professional studios idea of neutral and some headphone audiophiles idea of neutral can mean totally different things in regards to bass and treble. One of the Big Sound listeners pointed that out.

I hope the Dharma is balance on the practical side of things. This thin bass and boosted treble stuff is not like any studio I have been in. Yet headphone manufacturers make monitoring headphones in this manner for professionals. I can understand the reasoning behind this tuning and the difficulty of having clear sound along with full bass in a small cup. The Dharma is so intriguing because it seems as if it's design is another crack at solving the problem but so far it reads to be another bright headphone. At least it may have a more realistic bass.
I just hope it's final tuning has a full yet balanced treble and realistic midrange(read to be its weakness)
I signed up for the loaner program and am second to last. By the time I hear them there will be plenty of reviews and impressions but come Dec I'll get to see if these are for me.

Asr's impressions have me pretty stoked though because I listen to similar music. But also bummed because I am a male vocal artist(aspiring to be).

 

[mrfcpa]

(image missing)
 
The empty Woo Audio headphone stand, waiting for the Dharma D1000. To be hacked by Drew Baird at RMAF CanJam 2015 here in Denver on Friday.
 
He just doesn't know it yet

 

[CanDude]

I tried Dharma at AudioConcept in Stockholm today. Wow! Unfortunately I was not allowed to buy the one they have, but Robert will order more Dharmas tonight. I will get one of those when they arrive.
 
The setup in the shop was Tidal > Mac > NADAC > Dharma. So that wasn’t fair... But at least I cannot blame anything on the DAC. The Dharma was not broken in yet, though. They got it this Monday.
 
My first impression was that they sound like one of the shop’s high-end speakers. Bass via mids to treble is very smooth and integrated, nothing stands out. I thought that the treble was somewhat elevated, very extended and smooth. At the same time as everything sounded smooth attacks were razor sharp and distinct. Of course the DAC probably helped here. The sound stage was good, reminiscent of HD800 but not as extreme and wide. The sound is more in your head like a “normal” headphone, with a good center image. Whether it was NADAC and/or Dharma, you got that impression of being able to pinpoint different sounds with excellent separation, you could almost “touch” them.
 
I didn’t notice the bass especially, it was not “boomy” or anything, it was just there. I didn’t get any impression of sub-bass, but that was due to the songs I listened to. However in one song I heard real sub-bass. When I got home I played the same songs in my home setup, using HE-6 and HD800, to compare and verify what I heard in the shop.
 
The midrange was soft, almost “woolly”. Excellent voices with much separation, it was for example easy to separate overdubbed voices and to separate voices in small choirs.
 
The treble was very smooth, detailed and extended. However I thought that the highest treble was elevated compared to what I’m used to. Violins almost had too much treble. But as I said the cans were brand new. Much of these impressions are probably caused by my knowledge of the construction. When I get my Dharma I will probably try to eq them a little bit in the treble.
 
When I got home I discovered that Dharma’s sound signature has much more in common with HD800 than with HE-6. HD800 sounds like a small monitor that tries hard to produce some clean bass while Dharma sounds more like a full-blown speaker.
 
I had one problem though. While the ear cups where reasonably comfortable (like an AKG can), the head strap did put a lot of pressure on top of my head. I have a pretty big head. I wonder if this will change over time, if the rubber bands (or is it some kind of built-in springs?) will wear out so that it will be more comfortable for me. You can perhaps tie up the strap with a piece of string to lessen the strain.
 
Compared with HE-1000, I don’t know... Dharma is more like a “normal” headphone. You can hear it has dynamic drivers.
 
Hmm, a lot of words just for listening to Dharma for half an hour or so in a shop. So don’t pay much attention to this nonsense! This is why I don’t write much at head-fi, someone may actually believe what I write! 

Always listen for yourself.