@goldwerger
Had to go re-read your review of DS as I was asked to share thoughts (privately) by the owner and I've been having a tough time trying to put something to paper. My HP experience is relatively small, notably so for open backs with LCD-5 being the only main contender and that was a couple of years ago now.
Stage was the first thing I noted and in a positive way for myself, when a headphone, IEM, whatever stretches the image too wide it makes the picture loose cohesion and it's one of my deal breakers for a transducer. If there's any hint of artificial stretch, eg, if the instrument size don't fill the stage with scale to suit the width then it's a big turn off for me. I was quite surprised to find these kept everything in what I'd call a normal balanced width. First stand out.
Second was depth. I love live studio recordings rather than each instrument laid down on it's own and depth really comes into play regarding placement where everyone is in the studio. A lot of people like to get a "live" experience, for me I want to be stood in the studio with the full band all in their own booths / corners and experience the album / track as it was laid down. Some notable bands that had excellent engineers to achieve this being Led Zep, Them Crooked Vultures, Raconteurs etc (first 3 that sprung to mind as stand outs writing this). PF "Money" with vocals / drums / guitar and that sax, awesome. DS pull this off superbly.
Imaging. Hand in hand with the above two points, within the stage every instrument (or piece of (drum kit)) has exceptional placement. Maybe mind tricks / placebo as I'm not quite sure how the recording can be engineered so precisely to pass that downstream but DS pull it off with ease. The other thing that really caught my ear with these for imaging was on PF "On the run". There's a lot of left / right, right/ left wizardry going on with this track as and most will be familiar with it. Sometimes that transition looses the image at the centre point, or there's a step between channels. DS have superb continuity with the fading and also on the trails staging where the sound doesn't seem to get cut off before it fully fades, you get this great centre image height and a lovely conical fade off either side until cut.
Separation. Again, perfect score for me. I can either listen to the sum of the parts or just the parts themselves. Even when things get busy there's not one part of the FR that over shadows another and muddies the waters, and that also ties in with not having exaggerated stage width (everyone always seems to rave about "OMG these are so wide!"), you've got great separation within the confines of a "natural" stage width rather than having to pull everything apart to achieve that. Kudos.
Timbre. I'm still trying to figure this one out as I've been rolling tubes the past few days specifically for Storm but DS have jumped in every so often. Maybe it's just brain adjustment needed going to an open back HP from having used IEM's and closed backs for so long, finding the right tube pairing, assessing in my mind what's tonally correct or not, I'm not feeling settled yet to make a call. Edit: 3-4hrs in with Taks / RCA Red base 5962's on the Envy - Gilmour Live in Gdansk, nothing better than a good live recording to test somethings ability on timbre vs engineered / tweaked stuff. DS absolutely rocking it. Just made my wife sit down to listen to the start of Shine On, she listened to all 12 minutes of it and then all 9 minutes of comfortably Numb then I had to point out her wine glass was empty so I could get them back on my head. Perspective, even with artists she actually listens to, she usually doesn't last a full track on my rig.
Resolution. Again, really good. Such an honest headphone in most regards IMO and what you feed them is what you get. There's maybe a "slight" softness to note's but I could easily put that down to the generic factory produced cable that's been supplied with them or just a by product of the system currently being used.
Tonality. This is probably the make or break for most. I know some have said there's a slight warmth to them but for me I'm finding that hard to judge as I've got no real benchmark to go on and tubes make a big difference on that front but I'll pin my colours to the mast and say they very much er on the side of neutral. That might change as my HP experience grows.
That's about as much as I've got on these, I'd say to sum them up, they're a very "honest" headphone with TOTL technical ability. There's no standout area to my ears, they've got great balance from top to bottom with the technical ability to back them up. Not sure if I'd go so far to say they're a reference set but I don't think they'd be too far off the mark at their price point. Again, want to highlight my lack of experience with HP's relative to a reference statement but I'd say for the money you really couldn't go far wrong unless you need a HP that accentuates a specific area whether that be within tonality or technical presentation.
Side note:
Build quality is really nice, only nit picky criticism there is the coating texture on the headband. Very comfortable, adjustment is secure (they stay in place / no slipping (are these a ZMF design??)), no crazy clamping, weighty but 4hrs later still quite happy with them on my head.
Cable isn't the one that comes with DS, looks like factory production 3.5mm from whatever major manufacturer. Definitely want to hear these again with Skedras cable.
All listening done with Antipodes K50 G4, Jorma AES, Bricasti M21 set to Ladder / Minimum phase / -14dB, Jorma Statement, Feliks Audio Envy on Mid gain / 11 o'clock running Takatsuki 300B's & RCA Red Base (Eagle) 5692's.
I'll be ordering my own pair on the next drop and giving Seb a shout for a Goldwerger spec cable.
