ICYMI Joshua Valour posted this review on the Warwick Bravura a few days ago.
It's a fair review. He's spot on for most except for one (15:46 mark): you can’t build a system around any headphone let alone the Empyrean II that can surpass the Bravura (unless you’re a basshead). I own the Empyrean II and it’s great for travel and well suited for pretty much all genres but it’s not as spectacular as the Bravura for the majority of songs that I enjoy no matter what DAC or amp I pair it with.
I also somewhat disagree with him and others when they say that you’re kinda stuck with the SQ of the Bravura as it’s proprietary. Yes, there’s no way around switching the amp, DAC or headphone cables but know that the Bravura's great in every other aspect, and that the sub-bass is actually scalable if you can make upgrades to your chain (source, power components, etc.). It took me an additional $7K CAD ($4.5K USD) to get there but not only did the sub-bass bloom from a 3/10 to an 8/10, which is unprecedented for an e-stat...but the mid-bass that I thought was perfect went from an A+ to the S+ tier. I kid you not, it's better than even the HE-1 in that aspect.
Also a common and legitimate complaint and one that I experienced early on is the gain feeling anemic when cranking the volume knob. That for me now is no longer an issue -- naked, I had to go at least 1 o'clock whereas now I'm content at 10 o'clock with most songs. Yes, you'll need to spend $$$ for that improvement but it exceeds what I got from a Susvara on a TOTL chain and you're probably saving at least $10K. I've yet to test the Aperio but it may come close to it. It’s why I've sold nearly every can & gear I owned as I can’t get to enjoy them as well.
I'm still in the midst of making more upgrades but I'll share with you guys later on what I've done so far to improve the Bravura. Soundstage, imaging, separation, timbre...what was great before is at an another level now.
Thanks for sharing the review. It’s interesting to hear how someone approaches a headphone assessment. In this case this really meant an assessment of a system (the combination of the headphones, the amplification/energizer/the DAC and the headphone cable).
I watched the review twice – carefully. I don’t watch that many reviews online.
The notion there will be advantages and disadvantages in a headphone / system – this is reasonable and true to everything. There are no perfect headphones / no perfect system. Even though the expression ‘endgame’ is fairly well anchored in the audio equipment / recorded music listening market.
The build quality of the Bravura / Sonoma system gets a high ‘score’ – except for the heavy cable, clamp-force of the headphones and one or two other details of the headphone design.
The heaviness of the cables undoubtedly has something to do with the high level of voltage the cable is dealing with – that’s my guess – but I’m not that good technically. Someone else could explain why my guess is wide of the mark – if it is.
The reviewer used the word “unfortunately” in connection with the Bravura/Sonoma being a proprietary system. This feels odd – given that is absolutely at the heart of this Warwick Acoustics offering – an AIO system – unique in a number of ways – technologically speaking as well as its sound signature / tuning.
This matter of an AIO system and sound signature was of interest to me when I bought my Bravura. I ordered it based on a short experience at the 2023 Munich High-End show – followed by a more involved listening evening with 2 friends.
I ended up being highly motivated to bringing the system into my recorded music listening world. So I did. But I also shot a few questions at Martin Roberts (Warwick’s Director of Headphone Business Unit).
The Questions and answers:
1.What was the origin / inspiration behind the Bravura/Sonoma system? –
“So we started in 2015… We wanted a product in market that delivered the ultimate in natural and accurate reproduction of an original recording and could showcase our technology as we also tried to get interest in Automotive. We decided that a High-End headphone system was the way to go, personal audio that could take the listener on a musical journey and with the right tracks make their hairs stand on end and bring tears to their eyes. The Sonoma Model One was born and then with more developments of the HPEL transducers after 3 years we upgraded to the BRAVURA headphone but kept the Sonoma Amp as it just delivers everything we want it to.”
2.What were the reasons behind having the Bravura/Sonoma as a ‘closed-system’ – in the sense of not allowing a by-pass of the internal DAC? To be clear – I don’t have a problem with this point – but you know some ‘audiophiles’ moan about that one. –
“We wanted a closed system as we believe we have designed something from the ground up that works in perfect harmony and performs to the best it could. By having an open system you allow people to mess with that harmony and ‘ground up’ perfection which went against our original design philosophy and values.”
As people who know about the Warwick thing know – they did create the Aperio system – which DOES include the possibility of messing with the house tuning and combination of elements – allowing the owner to introduce their own DAC and other analogue / digital differences are available. Albeit for around 30K euro more.
Back to the review – the reviewer encourages Warwick to make a headphone compatible with the Stax system – or an energizer compatible with the Stax headphone (presumably). I find this misses the essential nature of the Warwick project. But of course – it’s always nice when one solution works for a number of sitautions – the different headphone cables are testament to this.
I have an issue – too – with the rather empahsised point about the price. The 7K USD was up on the screen large and in bold – with the commenatry “insanely high” (price). It was like a RED ALERT / WARNING.
On the other hand the price tag for the headphones was indicated as being 2K – which leaves 5 K for the cable, amp-energizer and DAC.
The reviewer mentioned a couple of times that some of “best systems out there” could be had for less (far less?) than this 7K – and again saying that is “just about as high as it can get for an ultra high-end solid regular HP system”. The Abyss AB 1266 goes for 7.5K euro and the Diana TC goes for 5.5 K euro in Europe. This doesn’t leave any money for the DAC/AMP and cables in the first case and 1.5K in the second case. Which doesn’t correlate to the reviewers pricing scheme.
Maybe I’m picking hairs or being a bit on the pedantic side – but the over emphasis on the 7K for a complete system irritated me.
Then – the reviewer mentioned liking options – presunmably for different DACs and HPAs – and I would imagine this involves higher investments too (it usually does but doesn’t have to mean 6K on a DAC and HPA – but easily can).
When I heard “don’t get mad at me for the costs – I didn’t set the price” – something didn’t feel right.
Then regarding the otherwise perfect energizer – “it could be heavier” – seriously?
And then “you’re stuck with whatever sound it produces” – well yes. It’s an AIO system. That’s the whole point. But certainly, if the sound isn’t to one’s liking – it’s a no brainer. And there was a technical mistake – because with the Bravura system we cannot hook it up to different DACS (with their own flavours) – the internal processing will not allow this ‘messing’ with the tuning.
I think a reviewer has a responsibility to be as accurate with such details as possible. Research and checking / fact checking is important. As I mentioned though – I’m not that good technically, and have to work hard at understanding things.
Regarding the SOUND of the system – some inconsistencies formed a significant thread throughout the analysis. On the one hand the treble (presenation and management) is “near perfect” – similar to the Diana TC and the speed is high – (comparable to the Diana TC too) – on the other hand the bass response (or specifically the lower bass repsonse) gets a 3 out of 10. A Hifiman Sundara does better lower bass. The mid bass gets a 10 out of 10 though.
On my BRAVURA playlist I begin with ‘Drive the Nail’ (Mogwai), followed by Esbjörn Svensson’s ‘From Gagarin’s Point of View’ – ‘Closer’ by Kings of Leon, The Cinematic Orchestra’s ‘Dawn’ – Diana Krall’s ‘How deep is the ocean’ – Polyphia’s ‘Playing God’, Lena del Rey’s ‘White Dress’, Jon Hopkin’s ‘We disappear’ is on there too as well as some other bass heavy stuff – it all plays wonderfully on my Bravura. But I accept if we are looking at stuff like Quok’s ‘Breathing’, Dillard’s ‘New World’, Trentemöller’s ‘The very last resort’, Peekaboo’s ‘Colossal’ – stuff with a pronounced employment of sub bass / deep bass ingredients – I’ll probably have a dedciated session using my HE6Sev2 or TH900 – etc. No headphones or system is the absolute perfect solution for all frequencies – even ‘jack of all trades’ will have their limits.
I feel the reviewer is unnecessarily assigning the Bravura system to a rather narrow musical listening preference band. Or at least his analysis doesn’t correspond to my own recorded music listening experiences (so far) on the Bravura.
BUT this is a subjective thing. I accept that.
I don’t get the impression Warwick (with the Bravura) were aiming at a target group who only listen to (or mostly listen to) acoustic music / music that has little engaghment with bass (in all its frequencies). Quite the opposite – in my opinion – the tuning of the Bravura is startlingly agile and this is one of the things that continue sto amaze me – that each piec eof music I experience feels remarkably accomodated by the system – as if each thime there was a small tweak involved – to make me feel each piece was unique.
Yes – I am a pretty convinced user of the Bravura system – so bias is built into my comments.
I respect the reviewer for attempting to assess the Brvura system – but I feel he shot wide of the mark and the cost / price aspect was plain and simple innacurate. I don’t believe it’s necessary to spend massive sums of mone to be able to have excellent music listening experiences. I also feel the price of audio equipment is often way to high – but demand and a willingness to pay – this pushes up the prices to staggering levels.
I can and do listen to music using my 80 euro secondhand pair of Beyerdyanmic DT880 (the early 80s model) – I can keep the HPA budget down to under 150 euro (my little dot I+) – my DACs aren’t the upper range ones – anything from a 500 euro Metrum Amethyst to my 900 euro R1 NOS – so nothing wallet busting. And with this I really enjoy the music listening experience.
Getting the Bravura WAS a big deal for me – I had to sell a couple of headphones and pieces of equipment – and save up a bit. The 7K has been worth it. I got myíne second hand so it wasn’t all of that 7K BUT I believe the new asking price is acceptable and a great investment. I paid 2.5K for my Violectric V550 – and I am 100+ percent happy with this. I love the Violectric sound. I paid 700 euro for the MHDT Pagoda R-2R NOS DAC – and absolutely love it and how it works with the V550. New – this set-up would be 4K. So then I’d have 3K for a pair of headphones. Or 2. Plenty of options and variations.
But having the Bravura isn’t about the money – alone – it’s about having an amazing music listening experience every single session. Without fail I end up listening for longer than planned. It’s that good. Every time.
![DSC_0485[1].JPG](https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/12210005.jpg)
with I guess Audirvana. they really shine when connected to a great source like an Auralic or something the same. I know it because I listened to with audirvana and then switched to a better source(Auralic). It’s much different and the sound is so much better.
