A few initial impressions and thoughts. The sound is hard to describe because of the way it’s being transmitted. These don’t sound like dynamics or planars to me. They truly sound like a mutant of both. They sound 65% planar and 35% dynamic.
They have much better sub bass than the 800S. These can definitely go low without roll off. The mid bass is hard to pin down so far. On some tracks, there is definitely more mid bass punch than the 800S, but on other tracks it sounds more linear. I can’t pin this down yet this early.
The treble is incredible! It sounds smooth and detailed at the same time. So far, I love it.
There is definitely a mid boost somewhere around 1-3 K. On some tracks it makes vocals sound phenomenal. But on some tracks it can make vocals sound a little shouty. This is the only thing I don’t like about their sound so far. I’d rather my upper mids be completely flat with no boost at all. But these are VERY early impressions.
The imaging is fantastic. I’ll leave it at that for now.
The soundstage is messing me up, coming from the 800S. I’m going to need some brain burn in to fully appreciate what these can do. I’ll do my best to describe an aspect of it.
There’s a track called, “Sons and Daughters” by Allman Brown. It’s a track that will excite those that love vocals. It sounds fantastic on my 800S and HEDDphone. But the 800S makes the soundstage sound wide for the entire song. The HEDDphone says, “check out my interpretation”. It is much more intimate in the beginning when the song is just vocals and guitar. But the song escalates later on and comes to a large crescendo near the end. The HEDDphone soundstage progressively widens and expands as the song adds more instruments and vocal layering. By the final crescendo the stage seems to be as wide and vast as the 800S! Weird and cool. Also, the vocals sound absolutely sublime with the HEDDphone on this track.
I can’t fully comprehend the stage yet, because I haven’t had enough time with them yet. But I can definitely say it’s not small. The stage is not going to sound claustrophobic like the Utopia (or any Focal, to be honest).
I get why some people say these sound less “open” even though the stage is wide and expansive and the fact that they’re clearly an open back. I think it has to do with these having very good damping, combined with the very fast speed of the drivers. These don’t have long reverbs or excessive decay. For sure these are very open! I can hear everything around me when I wear them.
As for power, I honestly think feeding these any less than 3 watts is going to be detrimental to their sound. YMMV.
More to come later. I’ve got work to do
