I had the pleasure of listening to them at LTX courtesy of headphones.com
I waited for about an hour an a half, and unfortunately their booth was right next to the main stage with a show going on. Plus due to the length of the line, we were limited to 4 minutes. However I think I have an ok general idea of what they offer to some degree at least.
They were at the end of the table after a lineup of different headphones. This included Focal Utopia, Elex, and Bathys. Hifiman Edition X V2, Raals, and hd550s. (Someone brought their "beater" Stax as well.)
The first thing you notice is the solid marble of course. Extremely solid. Unbelievably well built.
The headphones themselves were average weight and didn't feel any different than another high-end can. They had lighter than average clamp force.
But how did they sound?
Well, I first put them on and flipped on a lossless file of Boston remastered version..... And?
Meh.
Yep you read that right. However, given them 30 more seconds, and oh boy that's very very very far from the whole story. What really happened, I was actually infact hit by a stunning lack of gimmick or "house sound" instead. They aren't buttery smooth like a hifiman, no peircing highs and midbass of a Focal, no crazy soundstage like a Abyss. No boost to 10k range to artificially increase sound stage. Instead I was hit what sounded to my ears... Nothing. In the best way possible.
After you got used to the uncoloured frequency curve (to my ears) you then start pulling apart the layers apon layers of depth, detail, space, imaging these cans give you. I always thought my 4xx had amazing sound stage and unbeatable instrument seperation, or my Ether CX giving very detailed yet inoffensive texture with the lowest distortion with incredible imaging. But when you can hear every single detail of every single instrument completely seperately while playing at the same time, it's a different feeling. The sound of the wood of the drummer's stick hitting the ride and bouncing off, but yet not being overpowered, or overpowering any other aspect of the detail of the music at the same time is something special. You only have to change your mental focus to uncover ever little tiny bit of details of anything else you wish in the track.
The soundstage wasn't "wide" or "narrow", but what it felt like, I was just simply listening to the music. Extremely difficult to describe.
And I only realize how different level they are when I got back home to my Ether CX. I immediately played the same song, and skipped ahead to that magical drummer stick ride moment... However this time it sounded muddled and blended together. On Either CX......
Do I feel like the ruined my $1000 cans for me? Honestly not at all. I now appreciate how good the Ethers are. But I can now easily hear their flaws.
Are they worth $60k? Who knows. If you are chasing nothing but the most transparent and immersive reproduction, then maybe. In my opinion they are the best sound reproduction I've ever heard full stop. Speakers, cans, iems; anything. If I was rich (like I mean RICH) I could see a proposition. But if you are looking for a certain flavour one brand might have, you'd better go for those, I'm not sure if your average Grato fan would like them the same as I did.
To me, these are my personal perfect headphone. I will probably never be able to own them, but I'm very happy I got to try them
(Sidenote: I also discovered how much Focals are absolutely not my thing, and how much I love hifimans. And the electrostatic magic is real on the Stax)
