Gave the Corina a third try at HeadAmp on the BHSE. DAC was the Chord Hugo TT2. I made sure to listen to the Corina first so that other headphones wouldn't color my impressions, as my mind goes into "comparison mode" after the first headphone. Thus I tried to give the Corina my best and fairest shot.
The bass is much better than I remember it being on the 3ES. The bass was tight and plentiful in quantity, though still having an odd, damped effect on its impact. Dulled, like covering something with a cloth before hitting it with a hammer. The decay of bass notes and drums didn't have the same level of truncation as what I heard on the Stealth and Aeon 2 Noire, so that's good. It really does need current to bring out its bass. The 3ES made its bass weak and limp - soft in impact and low in volume. Considering that Dan Clark uses the BHSE in-house for development, I'm glad I got to hear it "the way it's meant to be played".
The midrange was tonally even. Vocals were quite rich - but not in an exaggerated way - and dominant in the overall soundscape. The Corina is a very mids-focused headphone. I'm generally very tolerant of weird midranges, so I'm not the best judge of whether a midrange is "right" or not. But there is nothing weird or out of place about how the Corina rendered the mids as far as I could tell.
The treble is somewhat recessed, but I wouldn't characterize the headphone as dark. There's still detail, even if it's only "mentioned in passing", like you'll hear a tinkle of a cymbal hit instead of the long "Tshhh" decay. So all of the note detail in the music is still there, you just need to look for it. It's certainly unobtrusive and it doesn't suffer from the problem of transients having certain treble components overemphasized like can happen on the Susvara or the SR-L700mk2. But it can also come across as dull as there's less sparkle with cymbals and less pronounced decay of strings.
The imaging was very even as well (you can see a pattern here). Elements of sound were distributed evenly at roughly the same distance in an arc around me. Think of a heavily curved ultrawide monitor; that's sort of the effect I got for how the Corina rendered sound spatially. There was good distance - it's wasn't a crowded or closed-in presentation - but it also didn't give that sense of open space. It's like all of the sounds were confined in this bubble, like a helmet I was wearing around my head.
All in all, the Corina is a very good headphone. On the right amplification, it has solid bass, a well-tuned midrange, good treble detail without glare or harshness, and an even spatial presentation. It somewhat mitigates the "Dan Clark timbre" with truncated trailing ends of notes, but can still be dull in bass impact and dull in terms of treble sparkle and air. Comfort was decent, though that is particular to head size and shape.
The real problem I had with the Corina is that it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists in a market with other electrostatics. And I had the SR-X9000 to compare with it on the same chain. And there is no situation where I would choose to listen to the Corina when the X9000 is available. The X9000 was far more engaging than the Corina, in addition to be lighter and more comfortable. The most noticeable difference was that the X9000 was much more spacious, with elements being layered, rather than just being spaced along an arc. That sense of confinement of sound was basically not there on the X9K and the result of that layering and spaciousness is that the sound was quite relaxed for me despite there being much more treble. I'm in the group whose brains interpret elevated treble as spaciousness and air, and for me, a spacious presentation is a big part of what makes a headphone sound relaxed. I don't find the Corina relaxed, it sounds dull and constricted, and that spatial constriction makes me feel like the sounds are encroaching on my "headspace", at least in comparison to the X9000's spaciousness. Again, it's not like the Corina has tiny soundstage, it's in relation to the X9000 that it falls behind.
Another consequence of the X9000's more sparkly tuning is that the sound is more "open", which for me is a composite metric that combines spatial distance of a sound with how the sound and its decay is rendered. I've previously used the analogy of a squirt bottle (focused) vs and aerosol spray (open): the squirt bottle produces a tight stream of water that hits its target while the aerosol produces a mist that dissipates into the air. The X9000 (and the Shangri-La Jr I have at home) are more like the aerosol where notes sound like they dissipate into the background rather than coming at me and ending. That probably has to do with the damped decay and reverb of notes on the Corina and other DCA headphones. I think openness is good, and it's a trait that I value a lot in my preference evaluations.
The other difference that I noted was that Corina vocals can sometimes have this "close-miked" quality, like you're the microphone in a sound-dampened recording room. That's probably an accurate reproduction of what's in the track and mix, but I prefer how the X9000 renders those same vocals with a "sweeter" sound, with a bit of extra reverb and some tasteful accents to parts of the sound.
I like analogies, so I'll close with one. To me, the Corina is well-executed, but very "uptight". Think of a person who does well at work or school or whatever, but is obsessed with following all of the rules and doing everything right. Always wears a perfectly wrinkle-free shirt that's nicely tucked into their formal pants, is always in a hurry so that they're always a minute early to everything, and always insists on protocol being followed. All business, all the time. That's the Corina. The X9000 is the person who's just as competent, but has personality and funny habits or interests. Relaxed and easy-going, makes a social gaffe every so often, but gets things done when they need to be done and they have the creativity to improvise and innovate when the situation calls for it. There's a place and need in this world for the first type of person. But I'd much rather have the second type as a co-worker, and possibly a friend. The Corina is built to follow the rules, to reproduce only what the signal tells it to. It's by-the-numbers. The X9000 is more interpretive, and as a result, it can go beyond what's in the track to create a far more compelling rendition of music.
we need answers!
