The Lithium Alkali Thread

[Monsterzero]

I've been fortunate to spend the last week with the brand new Lithium Alkali headphone. The Alkali is an interesting high impedance headphone as it is a 3D printed and hand assembled in the USA headphone. The Alakali comes in two different impedance versions, 300 and 600 ohms. I'm waiting to hear the official sensitivity, but it requires significantly less volume than my ZMF headphones on all of my amps, so it is quite effecient.

The Alkali is the brainchild of Head Fi member and owner of Lithium Headphones, Dan Ruby aka @DeweyCH

The Lithium Alkali is available now at the Lithium Headphones website. It retails for $599.00 usd.

I will be spending more time with it over the next few weeks and I will be doing a full video review on my YouTube channel.

What I can say at the moment is the Alkali is a balanced, warm, engaging, musical headphone with lovely timbre and a beautiful midrange.

More info to come!

 

[Monsterzero]

<reserved>

 

[Strayngs]

I will be doing a review here on head-fi on the pair I ordered as well. Looking forward to getting some good time with them!

 

[Monsterzero]

Getting ready to put the Alkali through the paces.

 

[theredmantra]

Mine just came in. I wanted to share some pictures but can’t review the sound until I have a reasonable amount of listening time in.

I bought the 600ohm drivers and went with a custom blue/purple color shift paint. I’m one record deep and excited to see how these do with my “eclectic” collection of music

 

[Wes S]

Hey there @DeweyCH I am super interested in these, and would love to know if there are differences in sound between the 300 and 600 ohm, and what would be the advantage of going with one over the other? Thanks for you time!

 

[AnyDave]

I’m curious about these as well. Will have to check them out at some point.

 

[dbull12]

Can't wait to start seeing reviews of these! They've been on my shortlist since I had a couple minutes with them at CanJam Chicago. I'd be really curious to see comparisons to the Auteur Classic (realizing those are almost 3x the price) and the Neumann NDH 30 since those seem to be receiving a ton of hype around the $600 range.

 

[Monsterzero]

Can't wait to start seeing reviews of these! They've been on my shortlist since I had a couple minutes with them at CanJam Chicago. I'd be really curious to see comparisons to the Auteur Classic (realizing those are almost 3x the price) and the Neumann NDH 30 since those seem to be receiving a ton of hype around the $600 range.

I will try and remember to do an Alkali vs. Auteur Classic comparison in my review.

 

[dbull12]

I will try and remember to do an Alkali vs. Auteur Classic comparison in my review.

That would be amazing, thank you! This might be asking too much but also if you end up trying the Alkalis with your Piety it would be great to hear if you feel the Piety has better synergy with the Alkali or the Auteur Classic.

 

[ardbeg1975]

Was traveling when my 600 ohm Alkali arrived at my office (and thus my new to the hobby coworker got an early preview) and just yesterday I was able to give them a first listen off the 300 ohm tap on my Mogwai. Very early impression is that they are punching above their price class in sonics. More to come.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Any comments on soundstage?

 

[ardbeg1975]

Surprisingly wide based on the tracks I was testing with. But my tube amps tend to accentuate width / space as well.

 

[stephenkostas]

Just spent a few hours with Lithium Akali + A&K CA1000 & Feliks Euforia Evo (I know... not entirely fair).
Initial Impressions:

• Good staging – width, depth the ability to present distant objects well
• Solid imaging – everything feels cohesive and in the right place
• Excellent texture in drums (big highlight for me)
• Feels tight and articulate – strong attack and decay leans faster
• Great tonal balance for classic rock, jazz, alternative, and progressive rock/metal
• Bass is slightly rolled off – less engaging with modern hip-hop, electronic

So my "first impressions" playlist was: Abbey Road Side 2 (the more I listen to the better – ended up listening to the whole thing with Akali), "Doing it Right" and "Contact" off Daft Punk RAM, John Coltrane: Blue Train (again, I just turn it on and stop when I get tired and I listened to quite a bit before I moved on), Pink Floyd "Time" and "Great Gig," Coldplay "Trouble," Kanye "Power," Steven Wilson "Drive Home," Post Malone "Rockstar" and "Sunflower," Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream," and Linkin Park "Fighting Myself."

Absolutely loved the full collection of rock and jazz on here, and when I'm listening purely for enjoyment, you're going to see Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree come up on my playlists a lot more than Kanye West and Post Malone. Even the Linkin Park - which leans more modern/electronic - sounded great. Getting the deeper bass you'd want for hip hop and the more electronic end of things will probably need some EQ. I haven't had a chance to test EQ, so I can't say how it takes that.

Just wanted to note: Bloom isn't currently carrying Lithium Akali, so you'll still want to get them direct from the source: https://lithiumheadphones.com/. After I talked to Dan at CanJam he generously sent me a set to check out, and I'm super pumped about these at the moment. We're hoping to do a full review and video with an in depth comparison with the Meze 109 Pro and HIFIMAN Ananda Nano.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Just spent a few hours with Lithium Akali + A&K CA1000 & Feliks Euforia Evo (I know... not entirely fair).
Initial Impressions:

• Good staging – width, depth the ability to present distant objects well
• Solid imaging – everything feels cohesive and in the right place
• Excellent texture in drums (big highlight for me)
• Feels tight and articulate – strong attack and decay leans faster
• Great tonal balance for classic rock, jazz, alternative, and progressive rock/metal
• Bass is slightly rolled off – less engaging with modern hip-hop, electronic

So my "first impressions" playlist was: Abbey Road Side 2 (the more I listen to the better – ended up listening to the whole thing with Akali), "Doing it Right" and "Contact" off Daft Punk RAM, John Coltrane: Blue Train (again, I just turn it on and stop when I get tired and I listened to quite a bit before I moved on), Pink Floyd "Time" and "Great Gig," Coldplay "Trouble," Kanye "Power," Steven Wilson "Drive Home," Post Malone "Rockstar" and "Sunflower," Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream," and Linkin Park "Fighting Myself."

Absolutely loved the full collection of rock and jazz on here, and when I'm listening purely for enjoyment, you're going to see Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree come up on my playlists a lot more than Kanye West and Post Malone. Even the Linkin Park - which leans more modern/electronic - sounded great. Getting the deeper bass you'd want for hip hop and the more electronic end of things will probably need some EQ. I haven't had a chance to test EQ, so I can't say how it takes that.

Just wanted to note: Bloom isn't currently carrying Lithium Akali, so you'll still want to get them direct from the source: https://lithiumheadphones.com/. After I talked to Dan at CanJam he generously sent me a set to check out, and I'm super pumped about these at the moment. We're hoping to do a full review and video with an in depth comparison with the Meze 109 Pro and HIFIMAN Ananda Nano.

Would love to see a frequency response as well.