[Ithilstone]

Why don't people make some decent electrostatic system at a reasonable price like under 3k to get more people using it?
The way all these vendor price these things make Stax look like steal and these new comers will never gain meaningful market share (already a tiny market).

But they do... Hifiman Jade II

 

[BreadMaster]

But they do... Hifiman Jade II

Eww no..just no

V2 incoming..

 

[Ithilstone]

Eww no..just no

V2 incoming..

And how long did you spent with them?

Yes V2 will come I am sure at some point and no one denies it and suggesting JII I merely answered kodreaming question

BTW hidden profile, like yours, often tells a story and since you have nothing constructive to say for now fall into T category

 

[musicday]

Looks beautiful but can it decode DSD512 native?

 

[Turn-It-Down]

Why don't people make some decent electrostatic system at a reasonable price like under 3k to get more people using it?

To be fair, HiFi Man has the Jade II electrostatic system for $2500. And you can get a few Stax+condensers for less than that.

 

[Pastwa]

I hope this statement product eventually leads to development of other more affordable unit down the line for others. The first break through is always expensive, what they make of it is the key.

The problem is that they had released before Aperio the Sonoma system at 5000$ which was a very mediocre product both in terms of its built quality and sonically. Now the price has quadrupled but is it worth it ? I seriously doubt it. Aperio is most likely slightly better, but not by that much.

 

[bmichels]

The problem is that they had released before Aperio the Sonoma system at 5000$ which was a very mediocre product both in terms of its built quality and sonically. Now the price has quadrupled but is it worth it ? I seriously doubt it. Aperio is most likely slightly better, but not by that much.

Indeed, I heard few times the Sonoma system at 5000$ and was each time very disapointed. Really many steps down from my BHSE + Stax SR009s !

So... I have doubt that this 24.000 € will be a revelation considerinhg how bad was their previous design.

 

[Pale Rider]

The problem is that they had released before Aperio the Sonoma system at 5000$ which was a very mediocre product both in terms of its built quality and sonically. Now the price has quadrupled but is it worth it ? I seriously doubt it. Aperio is most likely slightly better, but not by that much.

Indeed, I heard few times the Sonoma system at 5000$ and was each time very disapointed. Really many steps down from my BHSE + Stax SR009s !
So... I have doubt that this 24.000 € will be a revelation considerinhg how bad was their previous design.

I agree that the M1 did not live up to my hopes. But I don't think its build quality was bad, and I have a very difficult time calling it a "mediocre product." Better product quality in my view than the Susvara I paid similar coin for. At $5k, it is not as good as my 009/T2 combo, but did you really expect it to be? C'mon, get serious. At the price I have invested in my Stax, I should not expect a $5k Sonoma—including DAC!—to be its equal.

Given the favorable press, I am hopeful for the Aperio and what it might mean for trickle-down to a Sonoma M2.

 

[GoldenSound]

So I heard the Bravura and Aperio at Munich and was VERY impressed.
This was my first time hearing any Warwick acoustics stuff and I went into it not at all knowing what to expect, and left the room eager to spend some proper time with them.

Martin has kindly loaned me the Aperio Black and the Bravura for review, and I wanted to share some initial thoughts after spending 24h with them.
Please keep in mind, these are very much early impressions, and I'll have more thorough thoughts in the final video review for both.


Firstly, I've always been quite mixed on Estats. I WANT to like them, I really really do as the resolution they can offer is certainly above other driver types in my opinion, and there are a fair few estats that have come very close to being something I'd want, but they almost always suffered from at least one and usually a few of the issues below which prevented me from being willing to spend significant money on them:

- Upper midrange honk and/or etchiness
- Picky timbre (some stuff being excellent and others being awful)
- Limp and unengaging lowend
- Not particularly great staging (mostly an issue with the lambda series)

I did actually own the Stax Lambda Signature for some time, and I ended up selling it because despite being the most RESOLVING and detailed headphone I'd ever heard, it just sucked at too many other areas for me to want to use it much.

The Stax X9000 however was a bit of a game changer and it did address most of the issues almost entirely, it's a serious step up over any Estat I'd heard previously.
But then...I heard the Aperio.

Oh boy, this takes the crown for most resolving headphone I've tried.
The sheer level of detail this thing can provide is astounding. And it does it without being dry, aggressive, or honestly suffering any major drawbacks at all (besides the price!).

Aperio - The good:

- Fairly certain this is the most resolving headphone I've tried. And whilst many headphones come across instantly as resolving partly due to being very forward in their presentation, the Aperio does it in a much more refined sense, and the longer you spend with them the more you appreciate what they can do here.
It's to an extent that swapping from the Aperio to pretty much any headphone I have here currently, it makes them feel sluggish by comparison. It's that impressive.

- Timbre is excellent. Everything from percussion to piano strings sounds incredibly true to life on these, with an ability to draw out every last detail and bit of texture of an instrument without colouring it. Brass instruments are a particular standout.
There is one slight asterisk here which is mentioned as the first point in 'the bad' section below.

- Lowend, actually really good lowend.
This is probably the biggest negative stereotype of estats, that they 'have no bass' or 'can't slam'. And indeed it's been one of the biggest issues for me when trying (or owning) previous estats.
Some estats like the X9000 improve this to a point where you don't feel you're 'missing' anything, but they aren't really a particularly macrodynamic headphone or one that would be all that engaging for percussion heavy or electronic tracks. And then some like the Audeze CRBN improve this further but are not as refined as the X9000 in other areas (at least from my short time demoing them, I enjoyed them though but X9000 did seem to outclass them in overall technical ability).
The Aperio though are incredibly fast, impactful, and controlled. With deep reaching subbass that can rumble like thunder and hit like a truck. This isn't just 'good for an estat', this is truly excellent period. The drum solo in 'Contact' by daft punk or 'firøye' by pølaroit especially at parts like 5:05 onward is something to behold on these headphones.

- Staging
The spatial presentation of these headphones has a similar ability to the Susvara to put things more clearly in a 3d space than the vast majority of other headphones, whilst also being overall bigger than the Susvara. It's airy but tactile, big but with the ability to be intimate when needed and layer/vary the distance and position of elements very well. For me good spatial presentation is a combination of maximum size of stage, and ability to place things convincingly in a particular location within it.
Stuff like the HD800 is great at the former but not the latter, Susvara is great at the latter but just ok at the former. The Aperio excels with both.

Aperio - The Bad:

- In regards to timbre, only slight asterisk here is that on some vocals you can hear a tiny bit of the 1-2khz 'honk' that many estats have, but really only to a very small degree. About the same as the X9000 in this regard, and both the X9000 and this MASSIVELY improve on that area from all the other estats I've tried, enough that it's only really something that you can tell is there if you listen for it explicitly and directly compare to a planar or something.

- It's far beyond the realm of affordability for the majority of people

- Fit/Clamp
The Aperio are very comfortable overall, but somewhat clampy and this may bother some people. I've not had an issue with wearing them for long periods of time and in fact have been using them for about 8hrs during my workday, but it depends how sensitive to clamp you are. I also have a MASSIVE head (have to wear these on the max adjustment and honestly a notch bigger would be ideal) so part of this could just be my enormous noggin but worth mentioning.

- Vol Control
I don't typically listen too loud, and the Aperio vol adjustment steps are not linear the whole way through. It does the following steps:
-72dB, -60dB, -48dB, -36dB, -30dB, -24dB, -21dB, -19dB, -17dB, then 1dB steps from then on.
The problem I have is I seem to fall between the -30dB and -19dB range which means the volume adjustment is not all that granular. I can overcome this by setting it to -19dB then using roon DSP vol control for fine adjustment, but it'd be nice to have some further granularity at lower output levels.

Aperio - Summary
Wow, just wow. I prefer these to the Sennheiser HE1, and this is as close to 'perfect' I've heard in an estat and hands down one of the best headphone listening experiences I've had. These are well beyond what I can afford but if I was able to I'd be seriously wanting a pair.



Bravura

I need to spend more time with the Bravura before posting any solid impressions as the Aperio has captivated my attention thus far and I've not given the Bravura enough listening time.
I'll update this post once I've done so.

 

[TDHEAD]

Market drives the price, if no one buys this, and if this unit is just an expensive unit for sake of profit, not the technology and R&D put in it, you should see a significant price drop in the future.
A great example is AK SP1000. Locally when it first came out, they were selling for 4999 AUD, now you can get it for 2000-2999 AUD.

What I'm trying to say is if we can't afford it, don't buy it. If the unit is in fact good, I hope this statement product eventually leads to development of other more affordable unit down the line for others. The first break through is always expensive, what they make of it is the key. If you see just more and more expensive product one after another, than obviously we are not their target audience, and someone is buying it, else no company will just survive on selling 2 units a month.

All valid points....here is another , it's currently on a 3 month backlog to order one.....