Well, I have over 100 hours on the Devas, and it's been interesting. They are not perfect, but pretty darn good. From a build perspective, I think they are decently built. The cups are large, and they have a very free moving swivel. I wouldn't throw these around, just handle them properly and take care of them. They are built for at least an average to large size head. I have a small head, and I have to adjust them almost all the way down. Thankfully, the headband is very well padded, so I am able to let it rest on my head without issue. However, they can and do move a bit as I move my head, with not quite enough clamping force. I didn't buy these to run in them, or work out in the yard... I have headphones for that, lol. Overall, they are very comfortable for even extended listening sessions.
So, how do they sound? Let me first repeat, these need time and usage to break in. No matter how you use these, wired, BT, whatever, the sound will become smoother and more integrated from top to bottom as they age. Also, let me say that the sound quality of the Devas is somewhat dependent on what is running them and how you're playing it. For example, the BT sounds shockingly good and detailed, up to a certain volume. The Bluemini is well-suited for them, but it runs out of steam beyond a reasonable volume. It will play quite loud, but the sound becomes very thin and peaky, especially in the upper midrange to mid treble. This can add a lot of unwanted sibilance and sizzle very quickly. But, take the volume back to a reasonable level, and the sound becomes more neutral and full across the frequency range. Your ears will thank you in more ways than one. Especially when using the LDAC bluetooth protocol, the Devas are extremely revealing of details. Listening to a ripped, compressed, transferred, beaten, bruised, ruined version from my phone of Supertramp's Breakfast in America album, I heard details, a lot of them, that I had never heard before, ever. That's a neat trick, as I grew up listening to that album. I can't imagine how many times I've heard those songs, but I have apparently been missing all kinds of midrange and treble details. It was like hearing it for the first time. You gotta love it when your old music has new life breathed into it.
The volume issue, not just with the Bluemini but also plugging them direct into phone or computer, reveals an important fact about the Devas: they are not necessarily power, but current hungry headphones. They can be played loudly from virtually any device, but the sound becomes thin, threadbare, and peaky from a device with very little current capability. This means that effectively pairing them with a headphone amp would depend less on the wattage output of the amp, but more on the amp's current capability to push signal through difficult and uneven electrical loads. The good news is that most headphone amps were developed to deal with the more difficult resistance loads a high-end pair of headphones will often present to the amp. I have plugged mine into 2 different portable DAC/amps (an old total bithead and a Nuforce Udac), and into 2 desktop amps (a Schiit Asgard 2 and an old tube Little Dot 2+), and these headphones will quickly reveal the differences in character between each amp. For what's it worth, I preferred the Asgard 2 by far. I could play them as loud as I wanted to with any of the amps, but the combo of SACD and Asgard, hooked up with MIT interconnects and PS audio power cables for every component, was awesome, as it should be. Interestingly, I found the sound to be best when the Asgard is set to its low gain setting. High gain was not really needed for volume, as I never even turned it to 12 o'clock, and these headphones are so revealing they can display the distortion effects of adding unnecessary gain into the equation. My HD650s require the extra gain, and until now, I had never heard the Asgard sound less than incredibly clean.
No matter what you're playing them through, their overall character remains the same... revealing, clean, a little to the cool side of neutral. Starting in the bass, I find it to be decently extended and very tonal, if just a bit shy of strength sometimes. At the end of Fleetwood Mac's iconic The Chain, the featured bass guitar at the end of the song is amazing. There is the clear higher pitched sound of the finger pluck, followed by a satisfying low growl and eventual fade. Not just the first pluck, every pluck. The bass is wonderfully fast. Far too many headphones just sound like a series of low grunts, these display how complex even a single pluck of the string can be. They have the same effect for drum beats, and high pitch strike followed by the deeper, tonal reverberance. With electronic music, most would prefer the bass a little stronger, but you can't really find fault with the clarity. On Outkast's The Way You Move, there is a 3-part descending tone as its bass line. Many headphones will lose track of this when the music becomes complex, but with these you can clearly track all 3 parts of the bass throughout the song. Most of the headphones that wouldn't lose track severely overdo the bass, and it bleeds into and overtakes much of the song. Once again, not the Devas, clean and extended and exacting.
The midrange and treble is where these really shine. So incredibly detailed and nuanced! And dynamic, too, both in the macro- and micro- sense. Listen to Elton John's The King Must Die from Live in Australia, and you'll understand what I mean. Let's see... Elton, his piano, a full rock band, and a full-size world class orchestra. There couldn't be a much more difficult test for a pair of headphones. Plug your Devas into your favorite amp, turn it up to concert volume, and just enjoy. They will play every note with precision and detail, and the dynamic swells of the music put you practically in the audience. The Devas nailed this torture test. As complex as the music is, I love the contribution a single tambourine makes at both quiet and full-on moments in the song. Give it a listen! Now, having said all that... the treble is immensely detailed, and it will become very "hot" and shouty in a heartbeat, depending on the power and signal you're feeding it. Because it leans on the cool side of neutral, the treble can be overbearing at times. I don't mind this so much, as long as the treble doesn't become sibilant and splashy. With the Devas, you always walk a fine line there, but it's a revelation in detail when the treble is clean.
The soundstaging, which is a magical illusion that the sound doesn't actually emanate from a driver a couple of inches from your eardrum, is pretty good. Most of the sound seems to come from its own clear, distinct space, and the separation between is very clear. For vocals, main vocals (depending of recording quality, of course), are completely separated, and easily tracked, from background vocals. Even during duets, the main vocalists remain very separated. Being top heavy, instruments like cymbals can sometimes sound like they came directly from the drivers. To be fair, a lot of cans will do this, so... At times, the soundstaging will throw you, though. Throughout Matt Nathanson's At the Point live album, you can clearly hear the small, drinks served type venue in which album is recorded. Because of the level of detailing, you can hear every chair moved, drinks being sat on tables, doors in the distance being opened, and people interjecting throughout, and the open soundstaging will make you look around your room for the sound because it didn't sound like it came from the recording at all.
Overall, I would call the Devas a terrific bargain, given the quality of their sound and versatility. Most of us, including me, have spent more than $300 on a pair of headphones and gotten much less satisfaction. I know I'm having fun with my pair!
Hoping there is going to be atleast repleacement pads. The pads wont last too long.
