Lunatic
100+ Head-Fier
I know there is a thread on these HiFiMAN closed-back headphones already but I was a bit put off by how many mocking posts that are in there so I decided to post a separate one here. This is exactly as it’s called in the topic: My own quick impressions of both the HiFiMAN HE-R10 Planar and Dynamic models (I will call them R10P and R10D in this post just for the sake of simplicity although they’re not by any means official names).
First things first, I’ve been a long-time user of HiFiMAN headphones and DAPs. In my main home headphones setup, two of my reference headphones are the HiFiMAN Susvara and Focal Utopia. I also have the HE1000 V2, MrSpeakers Ether C Flow, Foster TH900, AKG K872 as well as the Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless Copper in my headphones collection. I’ve always longed for a great pair of closed-back headphones so I can use them in the office or at home without disturbing people around me but so far I haven’t found a pair that can truly satisfy my ears, in sound or comfortability. So you can understand my curiosity upon hearing the news of the HiFiMAN HE-R10 models. Thanks to HiFiMAN, I had the chance of audition engineering samples of both the R10P and the R10D over the period of 1.5 days before they were sent on the way to the audio show in Shanghai this coming weekend.
Now I must admit I’ve never owned or properly heard the Sony MDR-R10 headphones and I have no real urge to compare these new products with a product that came out in 1989. However, before I turned my attention to the R10P and the R10D, I did spend a brief time listening to a pair of MDR-R10s in, shall I say, not-so-great conditions. As you can tell from the looks:
As all three headphones arrived with 6.35 single-ended connectors I did most of my listening with the Linear Tube Audio MicroZOTL2 desktop amp, the source mainly being line-out from the HiFiMAN HM1000 in USB DAC mode fed by a MacBook Pro 2019 running Audirvana. I used a 4.4 balanced to RCA cable to connect the HM1000 to the MicroZOTL2.
I gave a quick listen to the worn and torn MDR-R10 and they sounded very neutral with everything you could ask for in a high-end reference headphones but this particular pair also sounded a bit too plain vanilla, or rather uninvolved. I always preferred my gear to sound neutral rather than colored but I also like them to have some character. Perhaps this pair of the Sony is showing its age so I wouldn’t treat this as an ideal sample to learn the true capabilities of the MDR-R10.
Now onto the new HiFiMAN closed-back cans. Right off the bat the R10P sounded full of life with a bit of that in-your-face impact thanks to the close-back design. As a Susvara user I know very well how power-hungry they can be. At home I use a full-balanced Venture Electronics Defiant amp with separate power supply to drive the Susvara to satisfactory levels. With the 1W-rated MicroZOTL2 even at maximum volume it’s not enough for the Susvara. So I was very pleasantly surprised that the R10P delivered great results at roughly 11am - 12pm positions on the volume knob. The R10D, by comparison, needs only 9am to get enough volume. What does this mean? This means the R10P, despite being a planar magnetic closed-back design, can be driven by some portable DAPs and amps nicely! To test this, I tried using three DAPs at hand: HiFiMAN HM1000, DTR1 Prelude and Cowon Plenue L using their 3.5mm single-ended output with a 3.5-to-6.35 adapter. The result was that all of the three could drive the R10P at satisfactory levels at high gain mode. The DTR1 was the most impressive here, getting punchy and lively sound out of the R10P at 45 out of 60 of maximum volume at high gain mode. The Plenue L needed around 115-120 out of 140 of maximum volume. Do keep in mind that the samples I heard only had single-ended cables. If they had balanced cables and 4.4mm plugs the HM1000 and the Plenue L (or other DAPs with balanced output) would most definitely be able to drive the R10P better. With this kind of sensitivity plus the close-back design, I can finally move around the room wearing a pair of planar cans with a portable source without worrying about others complaining about how badly my headphones leak sound, whereas my beloved Susvara has to be tethered to my desktop setup 100% of the time.
So how do the R10P sound when driven by the desktop amp? Quite awesome and about as good as closed-back headphones go. They have extremely accurate reproduction of instrument timbre with one of the most realistic piano sound I have heard. Sound stage is clearly defined with good instrument separation. Bass has great energy with a kind of pressure that’s unique to the closed wooden design. Organ or double-bass are reproduced with visceral power. The whole mid-range are packed with density and good definition with orchestra sounding close and with a ton of micro details. The highs are perhaps the only area where I could wish for a more refined characteristics, with the R10P sounding a bit on the aggressive side but it’s by no means harsh. I hope the final retail version could improve in this area and give us a more airy treble. Switching source gears helps a little, with the Plenue L providing a smoother highs than the HM1000. So how do they compare to the Susvara? Switching over to the open-back planar flagship immediately gives a more distant sound stage yet the whole thing has more breathing air around the instruments or the orchestra. It’s like floating from the front-row seat in the concert hall back to the 10th row. Or switching from a vintage Mercury Living Presence recording to a RCA Living Stereo disc, if you know what I mean... I am sure some prefers the closer presentation while others prefer sitting back a bit and enjoying the show. Susvara are still my reference planar headphones because of their more natural sound staging, more extended treble and that feel of air around everything but the R10P might be the choice if you are listening to music that requires more impact, more in-your-face thrill and thumping yet still realistic bass. After the R10P, I brought out the MrSpeakers Ether C Flow, my only other pair of closed-back planar cans. I am sorry to report that there was no comparison. The R10P run circles around them across the board. The Ether C Flow sounded a bit muffled and vailed while being much harder to drive (3pm position on the MicroZOTL2). Compared with other top-of-the-line dynamic closed-back headphones, the R10P have that super fast transient that only planar designs provide but they don’t lack even one bit of bass.
Switching from the R10P to the R10D proved to be a bit difficult. But you know that’s what is going to happen when you first listen to something then turn to its little brother right? To be honest, despite the similarity in looks and the name, I think the R10P and the R10D are two completely different beasts. The R10D sound more lightweight and even feel a little bit of “hollow” in the mid-range if you have to compare them with their much higher-priced planar sibling. Due to the mid-range with less density the R10D have a treble that feels highly resolving and clear. Compared with the MDR-R10 they sound slightly less neutral, with a boosted bass that’s most noticeable. I don’t know if its this particular sample but the bass feels a bit boomy. Bass-heads might love this upon first hearing but ultimately to my ears this is not accurate. Let’s hope that we get some improvements in this area. [See update at the end of this post] The R10D reproduce chamber, jazz and vocals quite well, only starting to sound less controlled when playing large-scale, complex music such as symphonies.
How comfortable are they? The good news is that both are quite lightweight and comfortable to wear over a long period of time, with very little clamping on one’s head. The planar pair feel just a little heavier than the dynamic but compared with the Ether C Flow they feel much lighter. I also asked my son whether he could hear what music I was listening to and it took him to get close to me to be able to hear the music that was leaking.
So to sum it up, with the R10P, we potentially have one of the best close-back headphones available today. They’re surprisingly efficient and easy to drive, lightweight and comfortable to wear. If some extra extended treble gets thrown in the retail version I’d be happy to buy these and stop my quest for the perfect close-back cans in a while. Or will I ever stop?
[Update 8/15]
I have relayed my findings of the slight boomy bass of the R10D to HiFiMAN when I returned the samples. Today while busy with the headphones show in Shanghai, they told me today that they could hear the issue and that none of the other samples of the R10D had the same issue. They would send this pair back to the factory for further inspection.
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