Airlight
100+ Head-Fier
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- Mar 17, 2014
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I'll try.
So for tonality and timbre I'll use some tracks:
1. Guitar strings and reverberation: Estas Tonne - Internal Flight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGTxqhSN8bE)
2. Metal drums, and metal guitars/bass: Soilwork - Let This River Flow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUxpegDlFPA)
3. Orchestral: Open/Dynamic - James Newton Howard - Those We Don't Speak Of (The Village) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o27nlOUhxjY)
4. Orchestral: - Dense/thick - Don Davis - The Matrix Revolutions - Kidfried (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TuBu1SDut4)
5. Singer and acoustic instruments - Open/Dynamic: Sarah Brightman - Scarborough Fair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKLMYZlbIb8)
All in atleast CD Standard quality.
Film: The Dark Knight Rises - Bane Prologue (Extremely challenging dynamic range, bass frequency complexity, dense soundscape and score).
Havi: Handles upper treble definition very well for 1. The rest of the spectrum is relatively "flat" sounding. Room is very present, but can tend to bleed together slightly into the dry, centered guitar sound. Overall it's a full conesive sound, but the lack of separation between dry guitar and the very rich room reverb can make it seem very "busy" and muddled. Separation and definition comes mainly from the upper treble clicking, which becomes the natural focus point for my ears in grabbing attention.
2 is decently defined in the bass region, once again the focal point for the music becomes the ticking/clicking from hihats and cymbals. The rest of the sound feels quite "strained" and monotone in volume. It has a slight "always on" strained feel, like a singer that doesn't really want to vary their dynamic range to create dips and peaks, and with that some emotion and "bounce" is lost.
3. Great room sound and width, the orchestra can at times sound almost around you. The percussion starting at 0:43 has distinct upper treble definition, however it sounds restrained in the lower half of the spectrum, like someone holding their hand on the drums as they are stuck and muting their natural vibration.
4. This track I picked for a reason, it is recorded well, but fairly mid-centric and very dense and most instruments share spectrum range and so will tend to congeal together when playing simultaneously. The brass at 1:05 has an excellent distinct upper-range rippling. The rest tends to sound shouty and strained. Dropping 3.5K down 3 or so dB with a fairly wide band helps reduce the shouty nature however. Even then the definition is left to the treble, and in a track where there isn't much, most of the material is positioned in areas less able to separate and define. Here the soundstage becomes a hinderance more than a positive, it bleeds into each other and the feeling is of a track sent through tape compression where the upper dynamics are smeared together.
5. Sarah Brightman's vocals are very cohesive and smooth. The treble smoothness really shines. Around 2:01 where the distinct plucky piano(?) comes in, it's defined pretty well in the upper mids and treble, but the orchestra, slight electric guitar accompanyment and the piano, all having similar sounding bodies, are quite hard to tell apart, like they're overly rich in harmonics or overtones, like if you'd run two sounds through the same guitar amplifier and the result being a congealed combination of them both (obviously a complete exaggeration but that's how I best can describe the slight feel they give).
Film-time, and the Havi fares well, the very dynamic film mix comes through fairly well, and even at very chaotic sections with subfrequencies blasting, they don't sound overwhelmed. They still sound relatively held back though, and the separation continues to lie mainly in the treble detail.
Tenore:
1. The Tenores give off a much more relaxed feel over the Havi (The Tenores are quite a bit more pronounced in the bass region), although they are not quite as textured in the lower treble. Still the guitar strings click very well in the upper treble here aswell, the main texture is just a bit mor relaxed. Huge sounding room here aswell. What the Tenores miss in aggressive treble texturing, they actually make up for with a much more open sounding lower register, the bass and lower region isn't actually that much louder "at rest", it's just that it reaches up further when called for, and has a transparent feel, where as the Havi feels a bit thicker.
Despite the lesser texture in the treble, the Tenores to my ears sound alot more cohesive and even.
Moving on to 2., and the Tenores continue to sound more natural over the Havis. They lack the very edgebite for the guitars in the lower treble. However in this track I also find that Tenores start sounding overwhelmed and saturated, at times the treble will provide definition, but at other times they start feeling too slow to properly keep things separated.
3. Also feels fairly relaxed and open, however there is also here a layer of definition missing. The Tenores may be a bit too smooth to properly convey the texture of violins, they do a fairly good job of a natural richness in midtones however. Again the bass sounds open and nothing about them sounds intrusive or "pushy" or "always on".
4. starts and again this is a very challenging track for many headphones. The Tenores do a decent job of conveying a relaxed presentation. Brass can be heard in the treble region, but at 1:05 the Havi are far more textured for the brass, the Tenore is very polite here and doesn't draw as much attention to it.
Soundstage isn't as wide as the Havi, in fact feels quite small since the Tenore can sometimes feel like it looses the definition at the top end.
5. Sarah Brightman has more variation in volume and tonality in the lower mids than the Havi. Moving to the plucky section at 2:01, the piano is easier to make out in the mid register, it feels less restrained and comes through more easily. Again the Tenore feels quite mid-centric and the air isn't really there as apparently as may benefit the soundstage. It feels like the subtle echo and reverb that you'd expect after Brigthman's lines is smoothed out to the point where the high frequencies are filtered away too quickly.
Film: The Tenores shines with a bass that sounds very laid back but suddenly can start taking command with low rumble at the drop of a hat. Not super textured or articulate, but doesn't feel resonant or woofy or "always on". The Tenore continues to provide smooth, but restrained and at times slightly faded treble definition. The body of the sound still manages to keep your attention with good articulation in midrange as Banes voice is heard. It also manages to sound very uncongested and un-saturated even at very busy moments in the soundtrack. If one could take the Tenore and just mix in a touch of the Havi treble articulation and detail, that would be pretty darn sweet.
GR07:
1. The guitar of Estas Tonne starts out sounding very full-bodied with warm low-mids compared to both previous phones. However the GR07 effortlessly starts sending the picking and scraping noises once the intensity picks up. It also manages to convey every click without ever sounding like it's instrusive. It's like it doesn't want to annoy you so it does it as quickly as possible. This makes it sound incredibly clean. The transients are there but they can be so brief you're not sure you actually heard them, and this leads to the GR07s being so incredibly agile and relaxed sounding even while delivering detail, like some have commented this might be perceived as too dry/fast, though I'm not sure I agree since the GR07s are simply doing what the audio waveform is telling them to do.
2. Yeah, so again, considering the price points of these IEMs, the GR07s could be expected to be technically superior. However after I've spent the last 45 minutes listening to the Havi and the Tenore, the GR07 absolutely destroys both of them here. The GR07 manages to sound more detailed than the Havi in the treble, while simultaneously sounding less intrusive and more relaxed. It's ridiculously fast, like quickly crinkling a very dry leaf in your hand. The GR07 never sustains sounds unless told to do so, hihats and cymbals never get an articial "shine" or resonance to them. It's like the treble of the GR07 was played by a dry leaf... if that makes sense. It's incredibly delicate, brittle, and textured.
3. The GR07s manages pretty good room sound and a quite wide presentation aswell. However it isn't as big sounding as the Havi. Unlike the Havi, when the percussion at 0:43 starts, the GR07 bass takes over and percussive elements in the midrange also jump out with great openness. The violin of Hilary Hahn at 2:37 is delicately audible and fluttery despite sitting low in the mix not not being specifically emphasized by the GR07s quite warm sound. The violin is low in volume, but the GR07s pick up every last nuance and is anything but restrained in presenting it.
4. Like track 2, the GR07 is entirely in a league of its own here. The Havi delivered the brass quite well in the treble range, but listening to it you'd not really think the brass had much in mid-range. Now with the GR07 suddenly it sounds like there is a tuba 10 feet from you, the entire range is bubbling with unrestrained movement the difference from the previous 2 is incredibly dramatic.
Now the GR07 is quite warm, and at times the mid-centric mix can sound a bit too full in the 800-1K area, but this soundtrack is one of the most mid-centric soundtracks I have, which is why it's such a good test of separation and dynamics.
5. The inherent treble peaks of the GR07 make it not as absolutely smooth as the Havi, in particular. Vocals, containing quite alot of sustained sounds and prolonged "S" sounds tend to be the most revealing of these peaks on the GR07. Both the Havi and Tenore produce smoother vocals, and smoother sound overall.
Film: The GR07 absolutely destroys this. The clicking of people buckling their seatbelts, the tapping of footsteps in the plane, the snap of the gun during the plane interrogations, they all sound like someone did reverse compression to boost the dynamic range. The sound of the other plane as it looms over the CIA plane, the orchestra stabs as they attack the plane... it's incredibly authoritative. The Havi and the Tenore both sound like there's cotton wool between you and the driver.
Conclusions: The Tenore is a bit inversed from the Havi. The Tenore is smoothed out and not overly dynamic in the Treble, but has a quite unrestrained, open, uncompressed mid and lowrange. The Havi has great treble detail (probably from one of its dual drivers handling that specifically), but the other driver sounds like it's working behind something, like there's a veil or obstruction in front preventing complete clarity and movement.
This is from about 90 minutes of listening and writing.
I'm using a couple of Classic Edition GR07s. I will say that if you like the Havi or own it, the GR07 probably won't be any more sibilant. From the example above from The Dark Knight Rises, when Bane is talking in the plane in the beginning ("Crashing this plane.. With no survivors!") I felt the Havi was almsot as sibilant at some of those S sections. The GR07 in general is also more relaxed in the treble, so when the sibilance hits it's more of a tall peak that rises up temporarily, and even the sibilance often somehow manages to sound textured and detailed. The GR07 aren't really sibilant, they just are so unrestrained that most other headphones simply aren't able to deliver the S sound as unrestrained as the GR07.
Sorry if this is turning into the GR07 thread. This thread is about the Havi after all, but hopefully the above info might be useful in some way. Feel free to ask anything else and I'll try to be helpful.
Good luck!
good to hear you liked them!
