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The Hyland Headphones Saturn One, Saturn Two and Jupiter One thread
May 21, 2019 at 11:13 AM Post #31 of 246
beyondthepale35 said:
Yeah, I enjoy having that space, but only to a certain degree. I found myself too many times drifting off following some random bass line or something in the HD800 instead of actually listening to the song haha, guess my ADD doesn't help. I'll let you know how it sounds with my CTH once I get them in, but I'll probably be upgrading my amp at some point.
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Pretty sure my DarkVoice 336SE doesn't like the Saturn One. The treble gets distorted so easily while it doesn't happen with other headphones with similar impedance
 
May 22, 2019 at 10:48 AM Post #32 of 246
I'm not surprised, the Darkvoice's design is definitely meant for high impedance headphones. It struggles to deliver current to lower impedance phones like the Saturns. It's possible these cans have lower sensitivity and that's why there's a difference between your other cans.
 
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May 22, 2019 at 11:11 AM Post #33 of 246
beyondthepale35 said:
I'm not surprised, the Darkvoice's design is definitely meant for high impedance headphones. It struggles to deliver current to lower impedance phones like the Saturns. It's possible these cans have lower sensitivity and that's why there's a difference between your other cans.
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Indeed! Switched back to a less powerful amp and it's all good to go. Just have to be mindful with the gain and volume and it gets distorted quite easily comparing with other low impedance headphones. A tweak on EQ is also helpful.

I've been trying with these 4 amping options without EQ tweaking :

1. Driving direct with RME ADI-2 DAC

2. RME to DV336 SE

3. RME to Audio-Gd NFB-1

4. RME to Massdrop LCX

It turns out option 4 has the best balance is terms of voice level without distorting the bass / treble.
 
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May 29, 2019 at 11:34 AM Post #36 of 246
My Saturn One should be arriving within the week! Really stoked!
 
May 29, 2019 at 12:09 PM Post #38 of 246
beyondthepale35 said:
Sweet! Mine should be going out the door before Friday, looks like I'm getting a pair in Sapele. Guess us Florida boys are cornering the market since I'm in St. Pete.
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It is common knowledge that Florida Head-Fi'ers have the best taste in audio gear!! :loud_sound:
 
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May 31, 2019 at 10:45 PM Post #40 of 246
I had a chance to listen to my Saturn One for about two weeks now. Others have already done a good job describing its sound signature so I am going to give my first impression briefly. Hopefully it will help others who is thinking about purchasing it. First of all, this headphone was built by someone who cares deeply about the quality. Any way you look at it, it is top notch job from build materials and workmanship. I will be proud to compare this headphone to any other TOTL headphones out there. This one has the zebrano wood cup with dark stain. It uses same type of Grado cushions and it has some similarity to Grado style but its sound signature is different. When it comes to Grado headphones, I almost always prefer to use G cushion style but with Saturn One, I slightly prefer to use L-cushion style. As far as comfort, I can wear this all day long without any discomfort. By the way, this headphone is really, I mean really open with lots of sound leaking out thus this is strictly at home headphone for me.

One of the welcome surprising for me was that this headphone goes extremely well with portable setup. I was listening with Fiio X5 2nd generation with Pico Power setup and it gave me big smile from simple mp3 files all the way into FLAC files. Someone mentioned that this one has slight elevated bass but to my ears, it has well balanced sound from top to bottom with sound stage just right amount, not too wide nor too narrow. Even though it is 32 ohm impedance, I much prefer to listen with proper amps. I do not recommend using this headphone on the go due to so much leaking sound but you can definitely bring this portable setup to listen at hotel and literally enjoy your hifi sound away from home.

For my desktop duty, I was using mainly Emotiva DC-1 > Headroom Home balanced with max amp module for both computer/USB and CD(California Audio Lab for transport) playing duty. I tried both SE cable and balanced cable for this setup. If I have to pick only one cable, I slightly prefer balanced cable vs SE cable. What a joy to listen to this setup. First night that I had a chance to listen, I didn't get any work done due to listening one song after another from all kinds of genre which include classical, jazz, blues, classic rock, pop, new age, even country, you name it and this setup sounded excellent. Eventually I will rotate my other collections of headphone but for now I am having too much fun. If you have any hybrid amp in your arsenal, try one with this headphone. This headphone sounded smooth with authority when I used Headroom Millett Hybrid amp but I haven't had a chance to listen to tube amp yet. I usually use my tube amp during the winter to use as portable space heater as added benefit. :)

In conclusion, to say that I am happy with my purchase is understatement. To me, Saturn One sits right in the middle of diminishing return value. For under $500, you can have limited one of kind hand-made quality headphone. Sure there are plenty headphones out there for better/different sounding but you have to pay considerably more for that privilege, matter of fact, much much more. However, if you prefer rather warm sounding and/or hard pounding bass level, this headphone is probably not for you. Even though the sound signature of this headphone is slightly different than Grado, if you love Grado sound like I do, this will do very nicely for you. By the way, Alex, the maker of the Saturn One, will answer any question that you might have or accommodate any special modification to the headphone if he can very quickly. He answered my questions promptly without any delay.
 
Jun 1, 2019 at 9:20 AM Post #42 of 246
Mine should be arriving Monday or Tuesday according to tracking. Time has passed so sloooowly while waiting for them to appear on my doorstep!

UPDATE:

My Saturn 1's arrived today and I have to say that they truly exhibit masterful craftsmanship and the sound quality is even better than I had hoped for. I am now listening to some of my favorite Tidal Master MQA albums via my DX200/Amp5. To say that the sound is outstanding in all respects would be an understatement!
 
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Jun 6, 2019 at 2:10 PM Post #44 of 246
Well got an unexpected package today! Shipping was much quicker than I thought, here's a few hastily taken photos with a definitely too shallow depth of field. Time for some actual listening...



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