Can you give some examples which music you prefer with Atrium and which music you prefers with VC and why? Would be greatly appreciated. I am person who owns VC and follows this thread with interest. I listens to a lot of different music and would like to complement the VC with an open headphone (or go all in with VC but find an endgame amp).
Sorry in advance for the longer reply. I've solicited so many recommendations from this forum and the headphones forum, and I haven't shared too many personal impressions because I'm relatively new to the hobby. So this is my way of embracing an opportunity to give back!
I intend to go into greater detail in the eventual Atrium review that I write, but the quick and dirty breakdown is as follows:
VC > Atrium for hip-hop (including reggaeton and the genre fluid music that artists like Bad Bunny and Arca make); electronic (mostly house, acid, IDM, dubstep, alternative R&B, and industrial hip-hop); and contemporary R&B (e.g. Frank Ocean, Jazmine Sullivan, or Kehlani). The holographic character of the VC is just magic with these genres. For hip-hop, in particular, I’m not sure I’ve heard a headphone that does the genre more justice. The VC is punchier than the Atrium. It has slightly more resolution than the Atrium. Those qualities pair really well with hip-hop and these other genres. That said, the staging on the Atrium, which I find to be both a bit wider and taller than that of the VC can create for a super cool effect on some hip-hop tracks. The drama that the Atrium can create (or accentuate) is absolutely infectious. For example, the instrumental on Nicki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap” is PHENOMENAL on the Atrium. Kendrick Lamar’s recent track “The Heart Part 5” also sounds better to me on the Atrium. The Kendrick track is funky, the kind of rap song that could be reproduced as effectively or even more so using live instruments. So my preference for the Atrium in this respect is actually consistent with the explanation continued below.
Atrium > VC for jazz (bop, modal, fusion, post bop, avant garde, etc.); older R&B with live instrumentation (think Motown, Stax, and Atlantic Records); reggae (roots and dancehall); rock (my taste here runs the gamut from folk to much heavier stuff . . . easier to name artists than subgenres because there are so many – Joni Mitchell, Big Thief/Adrienne Lenker, Fleet Foxes, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads, Jehnny Beth’s band Savages, Low, Swans, Gojira, Mdou Moctar, etc.); and classical/orchestral music (the usual stuff, but also Caroline Shaw, the 2021 Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and LSO album Promises). I’m just echoing others in this thread, but the mids are delightful on the Atrium. The timbre also feels a bit more natural to me on the Atrium than the VC. I also think the open back design of the Atrium makes the instrument separation a bit better than the VC. They are very close, but I think more dense passages in a jazz track like “Lad’s Dance” by the Mihaly Dresch Quartet featuring saxophonist Chris Potter just sounds cleaner and more engaging.
It’s a live recording too, and I feel like I’m right there when listening on the Atrium. A fair amount of jazz I love and want to listen to isn’t well recorded, and I find the Atrium a bit more forgiving of subpar recordings than the VC, though honestly the VC isn’t as uncompromising as other headphones I’ve listened to like the Utopia.
VC = Atrium for pop and its myriad subgenres and sub-subgenres. In general, I think it’s good to call as much music “pop” as possible. And I say that recognizing fully that sometimes drawing fine distinctions in genre is useful. This post may be a case in point. Beethoven isn’t pop, sure. But most rappers, for example, probably should count as “pop” these days, same for R&B and a lot of electronic music and some rock/indie. And what work is genre doing in most contexts when we divide music along those lines anyway? Ok, I'll spare you my rant on genre. Here, when I say “pop” I’m thinking chamber pop like much of Vampire Weekend’s catalogue or the Dirty Projectors. But I’m also thinking of pop like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Adele, Jessie Ware, Charli XCX, to name a few. This also includes “pop” music made by musicians based in countries outside the U.S. Lido Pimienta’s last album
Miss Colombia is one of my favorites of the past few years, and I enjoy it the same on both the Atrium and VC. Same for Charlotte Adigéry and BOLIS PUPUL’s recent album
Topical Dancer.
In fact, while the above reflects which headphone I’d prefer for each genre, both headphones are extremely versatile and would be excellent headphones if you can only get one.
Two caveats: (1) I’ve only had the Atrium for less than a week. If burn-in is real, they may sound even better/different in a couple weeks. So these preferences could change, though I doubt they will. The Atrium sounds amazing to me already. (2) I’ve used “>”, “<”, and “=” purely as a shorthand. I love both equally. I keep my Auteur at work, and I listen using a Mojo 2. When I’m home with my desktop rig, in theory I will alternate between the VC and the Atrium. In reality, it’s Atrium all the time for the time being!!