Reviews by tutetibiimperes
Thank you to Questyle for providing the CMA Fifteen unit for the demo tour and giving me the opportunity to test it out in my home.
I've been curious about Questyle products for a while, having often read about them, but have never had the chance to hear any of their gear until now.
Through my review period my source was a Bluesound Node 2i using Apple Music Lossless and FLAC CD rips on USB stick for music.
Build And Features
Picking up the CMA Fifteen from the local UPS office I was surprised at how heavy the box was. Getting it home and setting it up it became clear all of that weight was in the unit. The CMA Fifteen is medium-sized (see comparison above with the Schiit Ragnarok 2) but very heavy for the size. It exudes quality in the hands, and that follows to the switchgear on the front of the unit which all feels solid and clicks with precision.
On the front you see support for a wide variety of sample rates, a switch to use it as a pure DAC or as a DAC/Amp, and a Bias Control switch that changes the point at which the unit crosses from Class A to Class AB (I did my testing with the bias set towards more Class A). Headphone outputs cover all of the bases with a Pentaconn jack, a 1/4" single ended jack, and a 4-Pin XLR jack.
On the back you see digital inputs in the form of UBS, Optical Digital, Coaxial Digital, and unbalanced analog in. Outputs to use the unit as only a DAC include both balanced and unbalanced options. There's also a Bluetooth receiver.
I'd personally have rather seen balanced inputs than unbalanced, even if that meant removing the unbalanced outputs to make space.
The power transformer is built into the unit, for people who like that (I'm personally agnostic about built-in power supplies vs those that use a barrel connector and a breakout box).
One particularly baffling design decision was placing the gain control on the bottom of the unit, which due to the rather short supplied power cord, meant that switching gain meant having to unplug the unit to flip it over and switch the gain. Having four separate switches instead of one universal switch that could be placed on the front and activate a relay or something to switch gain also struck me as odd.
In practice it turned out to not be as big of a deal as I'd have thought though, as due to the tremendous output power of this unit I never had to take it out of low gain.
A greatly appreciate feature is a remote control. Since my stack sits across the room from where I sit remote control functionality is a must-have. The unit is plastic with a faux-metal finish, but feels solid. One thing that I don't like about it is that it's apparently the same unit that ships with all Questyle products and thus has buttons for features the CMA Fifteen does not have. For the price of this unit I'd like to see a dedicated remote control with only the buttons that directly relate to the unit.
One other quibble I had with the remote control is that the amount of increase/decrease you get with each tap of the volume button was too much, leading to headphones being either slightly too soft or slightly too loud.
Listening Impressions
I tried the CMA Fifteen out with a variety of headphones that I own, some of which it showed excellent synergy with (details below). One big limitation of having everything integrated into one unit however is that I couldn't use EQ while using the built-in DAC, as in my setup that's normally supplied by my RME ADI-2 DAC. I tested the unit using both the built-in DAC as well as using the analog inputs to use my RME ADI-2 as the DAC.
The power output of the CMA Fifteen seemed to also be much greater than I would have expected from the published specifications. I never had to take the unit out of low gain, even with power hungry headphones like my HE6se, and even then never had to turn the volume knob past the halfway point. On many headphones just two or three clicks from the silent position on the volume knob gave me more than enough volume.
One issue I did encounter is that when using Apple Music Lossless as a source the DAC section on the CMA Fifteen would occasionally lose sync, leading to the music stuttering in and out for a bit before locking back in. I'd experienced this once before when testing the Cyrus ONE HD DAC/AMP, which also uses an ESS chip, so this may be an ESS related issue. I've never experienced with my AKM based RME ADI-2 DAC or with my previous speaker preamp/DAC the Emotiva PT-100 which uses an Analog Devices DAC chip.
Sennheiser HD6XX
The Sennheiser HD6 series of headphones are known to scale well with better electronics, and out of the CMA Fifteen was the best I've ever heard it. Bass had some legitimate slam to it, treble and upper midrange were clear, and there seemed to be smidge more definition to the soundstage than I typically hear with it.
Fostex TH909
These are one of my newest additions and at only 25 Ohm and 100db sensitivity they're easy headphones to drive. These showed one of my quibbles with the unit - even on low gain the difference between one volume click and the next was the difference between a bit too quiet and a bit too loud. The 128 step volume knob on my usual Schiit Ragnarok 2 amp gives far finer control over volume level.
Aside from the volume issue however these sounded great with the unit, showing that it's adept at handling both low and high impedance loads. Bass was strong and treble sparkly just how these should sound.
Hifiman HE6se
One of the most notoriously difficult headphones out there to drive, with a lot of owners preferring to use full-on speaker amps, I was skeptical about the CMA Fifteen's ability to drive these satisfactorily.
As it turns out my skepticism was entirely unwarranted, as even on low gain with the volume knob shy of 12 O'Clock the CMA Fifteen made the HE6se sing, with deep slamming bass and great definition to the sound. There must be some magic sauce in this current-mode amplification, because on paper I never would have expected it to do so well.
In fact, while I usually use EQ with the HE6se, I could be totally satisfied with it just out of the CMA Fifteen.
Audeze LCD-5
Speaking of EQ, while I absolutely love the LCD-5, it's resolution being unparalleled, it's a headphone that I need some EQ to really love. Since my normal setup has EQ baked in that's not a problem, most headphones sound better with EQ IMO and the RME ADI-2 DAC makes it easy to save individual EQ profiles for each of them.
Since I couldn't EQ using the built-in DAC on the CMA Fifteen the experience with the LCD-5 was disappointing. They sounded extremely clean and detailed of course, but that deep thunderous bass and extra bite in the lower treble that I get with EQ was missing.
Switching to using the CMA Fifteen as just an amp being fed from my RME ADI-2 DAC via the unbalanced analog inputs however and those issues vanished - with the CMA Fifteen providing tons of clean power and bringing the LCD-5 to life wonderfully.
Beyerdynamic T1.2
I wanted to test this because it's a very high impedance headphone, and one I haven't gotten around to buying a balanced cable for yet. Using the unbalanced 1/4" output on the front of the CMA Fifteen the unit had absolutely no problem driving these, again only a few notches on the volume knob is all it took.
One of my favorite things about the T1.2 is the extreme precision of its imaging. That came through easily with the CMA Fifteen. It became clear to me that this is an amp that doesn't try to alter the sound, you just get a clear window into the music and the capabilities of your headphone.
Comparisons
My primary DAC and Amp setup is the RME ADI-2 DAC fed into the Schiit Ragnarok 2 amp. While the Schiit is enormous, it also packs an enormous punch, and since I also use it as a speaker amp it's nice to have everything in one box.
On the DAC side I can't say I could hear a clear difference between my RME ADI-2 DAC and the DAC chip inside of the CMA Fifteen. The RME however does have a multitude of additional features such as parametric EQ, crossfeed, a spectrum analyzer, and macro-keys on the remote that the CMA Fifteen DAC does not have.
On the Amp side, while subtle, I do believe the CMA Fifteen sounds a bit cleaner with a blacker background compared to the Rag 2. Points in the Rag 2's favor though include a dedicated purpose-built remote control that feels better in the hand due to being milled from solid aluminum, and a much better volume control knob, a 128-step resister ladder with much more fine-tuning capability and guaranteed perfect channel matching from the very softest to the very loudest volumes.
Conclusions
The CMA Fifteen is a high quality product that impressed me with its performance and built quality. For anyone looking for a premium high-performance all-in-one unit it's something that deserves their consideration.
For my personal use case since I need to use a different DAC to provide EQ having a built-in DAC and only unbalanced analog inputs makes this a somewhat poor fit.
However the amp section greatly impressed me, and should Questyle release a product like this without the built-in DAC, so a 'just an amp' version, with XLR balanced inputs (and maybe one or two pairs of XLR outputs so it can be used as a preamp for other things, similar to the Benchmark HPA4) I'd be extremely interested.
I've been curious about Questyle products for a while, having often read about them, but have never had the chance to hear any of their gear until now.
Through my review period my source was a Bluesound Node 2i using Apple Music Lossless and FLAC CD rips on USB stick for music.
Build And Features
Picking up the CMA Fifteen from the local UPS office I was surprised at how heavy the box was. Getting it home and setting it up it became clear all of that weight was in the unit. The CMA Fifteen is medium-sized (see comparison above with the Schiit Ragnarok 2) but very heavy for the size. It exudes quality in the hands, and that follows to the switchgear on the front of the unit which all feels solid and clicks with precision.
On the front you see support for a wide variety of sample rates, a switch to use it as a pure DAC or as a DAC/Amp, and a Bias Control switch that changes the point at which the unit crosses from Class A to Class AB (I did my testing with the bias set towards more Class A). Headphone outputs cover all of the bases with a Pentaconn jack, a 1/4" single ended jack, and a 4-Pin XLR jack.
On the back you see digital inputs in the form of UBS, Optical Digital, Coaxial Digital, and unbalanced analog in. Outputs to use the unit as only a DAC include both balanced and unbalanced options. There's also a Bluetooth receiver.
I'd personally have rather seen balanced inputs than unbalanced, even if that meant removing the unbalanced outputs to make space.
The power transformer is built into the unit, for people who like that (I'm personally agnostic about built-in power supplies vs those that use a barrel connector and a breakout box).
One particularly baffling design decision was placing the gain control on the bottom of the unit, which due to the rather short supplied power cord, meant that switching gain meant having to unplug the unit to flip it over and switch the gain. Having four separate switches instead of one universal switch that could be placed on the front and activate a relay or something to switch gain also struck me as odd.
In practice it turned out to not be as big of a deal as I'd have thought though, as due to the tremendous output power of this unit I never had to take it out of low gain.
A greatly appreciate feature is a remote control. Since my stack sits across the room from where I sit remote control functionality is a must-have. The unit is plastic with a faux-metal finish, but feels solid. One thing that I don't like about it is that it's apparently the same unit that ships with all Questyle products and thus has buttons for features the CMA Fifteen does not have. For the price of this unit I'd like to see a dedicated remote control with only the buttons that directly relate to the unit.
One other quibble I had with the remote control is that the amount of increase/decrease you get with each tap of the volume button was too much, leading to headphones being either slightly too soft or slightly too loud.
Listening Impressions
I tried the CMA Fifteen out with a variety of headphones that I own, some of which it showed excellent synergy with (details below). One big limitation of having everything integrated into one unit however is that I couldn't use EQ while using the built-in DAC, as in my setup that's normally supplied by my RME ADI-2 DAC. I tested the unit using both the built-in DAC as well as using the analog inputs to use my RME ADI-2 as the DAC.
The power output of the CMA Fifteen seemed to also be much greater than I would have expected from the published specifications. I never had to take the unit out of low gain, even with power hungry headphones like my HE6se, and even then never had to turn the volume knob past the halfway point. On many headphones just two or three clicks from the silent position on the volume knob gave me more than enough volume.
One issue I did encounter is that when using Apple Music Lossless as a source the DAC section on the CMA Fifteen would occasionally lose sync, leading to the music stuttering in and out for a bit before locking back in. I'd experienced this once before when testing the Cyrus ONE HD DAC/AMP, which also uses an ESS chip, so this may be an ESS related issue. I've never experienced with my AKM based RME ADI-2 DAC or with my previous speaker preamp/DAC the Emotiva PT-100 which uses an Analog Devices DAC chip.
Sennheiser HD6XX
The Sennheiser HD6 series of headphones are known to scale well with better electronics, and out of the CMA Fifteen was the best I've ever heard it. Bass had some legitimate slam to it, treble and upper midrange were clear, and there seemed to be smidge more definition to the soundstage than I typically hear with it.
Fostex TH909
These are one of my newest additions and at only 25 Ohm and 100db sensitivity they're easy headphones to drive. These showed one of my quibbles with the unit - even on low gain the difference between one volume click and the next was the difference between a bit too quiet and a bit too loud. The 128 step volume knob on my usual Schiit Ragnarok 2 amp gives far finer control over volume level.
Aside from the volume issue however these sounded great with the unit, showing that it's adept at handling both low and high impedance loads. Bass was strong and treble sparkly just how these should sound.
Hifiman HE6se
One of the most notoriously difficult headphones out there to drive, with a lot of owners preferring to use full-on speaker amps, I was skeptical about the CMA Fifteen's ability to drive these satisfactorily.
As it turns out my skepticism was entirely unwarranted, as even on low gain with the volume knob shy of 12 O'Clock the CMA Fifteen made the HE6se sing, with deep slamming bass and great definition to the sound. There must be some magic sauce in this current-mode amplification, because on paper I never would have expected it to do so well.
In fact, while I usually use EQ with the HE6se, I could be totally satisfied with it just out of the CMA Fifteen.
Audeze LCD-5
Speaking of EQ, while I absolutely love the LCD-5, it's resolution being unparalleled, it's a headphone that I need some EQ to really love. Since my normal setup has EQ baked in that's not a problem, most headphones sound better with EQ IMO and the RME ADI-2 DAC makes it easy to save individual EQ profiles for each of them.
Since I couldn't EQ using the built-in DAC on the CMA Fifteen the experience with the LCD-5 was disappointing. They sounded extremely clean and detailed of course, but that deep thunderous bass and extra bite in the lower treble that I get with EQ was missing.
Switching to using the CMA Fifteen as just an amp being fed from my RME ADI-2 DAC via the unbalanced analog inputs however and those issues vanished - with the CMA Fifteen providing tons of clean power and bringing the LCD-5 to life wonderfully.
Beyerdynamic T1.2
I wanted to test this because it's a very high impedance headphone, and one I haven't gotten around to buying a balanced cable for yet. Using the unbalanced 1/4" output on the front of the CMA Fifteen the unit had absolutely no problem driving these, again only a few notches on the volume knob is all it took.
One of my favorite things about the T1.2 is the extreme precision of its imaging. That came through easily with the CMA Fifteen. It became clear to me that this is an amp that doesn't try to alter the sound, you just get a clear window into the music and the capabilities of your headphone.
Comparisons
My primary DAC and Amp setup is the RME ADI-2 DAC fed into the Schiit Ragnarok 2 amp. While the Schiit is enormous, it also packs an enormous punch, and since I also use it as a speaker amp it's nice to have everything in one box.
On the DAC side I can't say I could hear a clear difference between my RME ADI-2 DAC and the DAC chip inside of the CMA Fifteen. The RME however does have a multitude of additional features such as parametric EQ, crossfeed, a spectrum analyzer, and macro-keys on the remote that the CMA Fifteen DAC does not have.
On the Amp side, while subtle, I do believe the CMA Fifteen sounds a bit cleaner with a blacker background compared to the Rag 2. Points in the Rag 2's favor though include a dedicated purpose-built remote control that feels better in the hand due to being milled from solid aluminum, and a much better volume control knob, a 128-step resister ladder with much more fine-tuning capability and guaranteed perfect channel matching from the very softest to the very loudest volumes.
Conclusions
The CMA Fifteen is a high quality product that impressed me with its performance and built quality. For anyone looking for a premium high-performance all-in-one unit it's something that deserves their consideration.
For my personal use case since I need to use a different DAC to provide EQ having a built-in DAC and only unbalanced analog inputs makes this a somewhat poor fit.
However the amp section greatly impressed me, and should Questyle release a product like this without the built-in DAC, so a 'just an amp' version, with XLR balanced inputs (and maybe one or two pairs of XLR outputs so it can be used as a preamp for other things, similar to the Benchmark HPA4) I'd be extremely interested.
Thank you to Sennheiser for sponsoring this tour and allowing me to spend two weeks with the HD820. This has been the longest experience I've had with an 8-series headphone from Sennheiser, having previously only experienced the HD820 and HD800S briefly at Axpona in 2018.
Associated Equipment
Source: Bluesound Node 2i with Apple Music Lossless and FLAC CD rips off of USB stick
DAC: RME ADI-2 DAC
Amps: Schiit Ragnarok 2, Bravo V2
Build, Presentation, and Accessories
The HD820 is made predominantly of plastic, but plastic often gets a bad rap. High quality plastic, such as what's used in the HD820, can feel as premium as wood or metal, and that is absolutely the case here. There is no creaking or unpleasant flexing, this headphone feels solid like it will last for decades if taken care of.
The headphone comes in a high quality cardboard display box with foam cutouts that hold it securely. At this price point a true lockable storage/travel case would be a welcome addition however.
The pads are of a hybrid design with a velour surface that touches the face with leather surrounds. They're much larger than what comes on many headphones which came as a welcome surprise, making this one of the few headphones where my ears did not rub up against the inside of the pads while in use. Clamp force is also rather light, which combined with their light weight make these exceptionally comfortable headphones.
The more notable design feature on the HD820 are the gorilla-glass panels on the outside of each cup. Designed to reflect the backwave in such a way that it doesn't create destructive interference, they're also look quite striking giving the HD820 a very futuristic aesthetic, though they are fingerprint magnets.
The major complaint I have about the design of the headphone is with the proprietary Sennheiser headphone connectors. While Sennheiser is far from alone in using proprietary jacks, these connectors require more force to remove than should be necessary, and they make finding alternative cables more expensive. Going with a mini-XLR on the headphone end would provide just as secure a connection and also give much greater flexibility when it comes to aftermarket cables.
The cables that do ship with the headphone feel high quality, pleasingly thick with a nice cloth wrap, and are of excellent length, both being 3m. One problem, at least IMO, was the decision to ship a balanced cable with a 4.4mm Pentaconn connector instead of the much more common 4-pin XLR termination. While I can see the appeal for a Pentaconn connector on mobile DAPs, it has no business appearing on desktop products, and the 3m balanced cable is clearly not intended for mobile use.
Sennheiser used to include 4-pin XLR terminated cables on their products, and IMO this is something they should do again, or at least offer it as an option. At the price of this headphone it should even be possible to include three cables - perhaps a 3m 1/4" terminated cable, a 3m 4-pin XLR terminated cable, and a 1m Pentaconn terminated cable for mobile use.
Sound
The HD820 is notorious for having a rather unique frequency response, so I was very curious to hear it for an extended period with my own ears.
What immediately struck me was how detailed the sound was, some of the most detailed sound I've heard from a dynamic driver headphone. The soundstage is also wider than any other closed back I've heard, with imaging that's sharp and focused, creating a nice three dimensional sound field that can place instruments and voices in front of, above, behind, below, and to either side of the head.
Bass
The bass response out of the box is more prominent than many other headphones. There's a solid sub-bass emphasis that gives a nice amount of rumble to tracks with EDM bass or pipe organ, as well as a mid-bass hump that gives drums impact.
While on the above-average side when it comes to detail in the bass region, I did hear it occasionally become boomy and a bit hollow sounding depending on the track. On music that has complex production combined with a boosted bass track found in some modern pop such as BVNDIT's Jungle the bass could become uncontrolled and overshadow other elements of the production.
I also noticed that in certain acoustic tracks, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station's The Road is a Lover certain notes in the bass line would be emphasized over others, giving a somewhat uneven response.
Midrange
Midrange performance was excellent, with some of the most beautifully rendered male vocals I've heard on any headphone. One of the tracks on the Sennheiser supplied HD820 playlist, Chris Jones' No Sanctuary Here was new to me but left me speechless from how spacious and realistic the voices were rendered.
Another Sennheiser provided track, Manha de Carnaval, showed excellent timbre in the guitars with great detail in the finger action on the strings.
One area that I felt could use some improvement was in how female vocals were presented. On tracks such as Dreamcatcher's Locked Inside a Door or Hwasa's LMM the focal line felt more distant and less prominent than I'd ideally prefer. This may be an artifact of the tuning meant to create a more spacious sound, however.
Treble
I have no complaints with the treble response. Listening to Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue, Charles Ives Symphony No. 2, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade the upper harmonics of the strings and brass all felt airy and open and never wandered into harshness.
Soundstage and Imaging
These are the raisons d'être of these headphones. The open-back HD800 and HD800S are widely known for their performance when it comes to a huge wide-open soundstage, and Sennheiser has done an admirable job of translating that into a closed-back headphone. While I wouldn't say it beats all open backs I've heard, it does beat a good many, which is a phenomenal accomplishment for any closed back headphone.
Imaging, while not quite as phenomenal as some headphones I've heard such as the Audeze LCD-5 or Beyerdynamic T1.2, is still very strong, leading to some fun moments in pop tracks and a realistic sense of space in orchestral works.
Pairings
While I ran the HD820 predominantly off of my Schiit Ragnarok 2, I did give it a whirl directly out of the headphone jack from my RME ADI-2 DAC as well as through a budget tube hybrid amp I happen to own, the Bravo V2.
I could not hear a major difference between the Ragnarok 2 and the RME's direct headphone amp on this headphone, likely because it's rather sensitive and doesn't require major current to get it going, though I would say bass and dynamics out of the Ragnarok 2 were superior.
The Bravo V2 resulted in a loss of fine detail but added a sharper edge to some music, making the HD820s feel more aggressive to a degree. While this was pleasant I felt that the loss of detail wasn't a worthwhile tradeoff.
Comparisons
Dan Clark Audio Ether CX
Another premium closed-back design with a high-quality futuristic lightweight design, and another that excels for a closed back when it comes to an expansive soundstage, the similarities end about there.
While the HD820 has an esoteric frequency response designed by Sennheiser to highlight music in a unique way, the Ether CX is devoutly neutral. While the HD820 is a high impedance design that can happily chow down on some tubes, the Ether CX is a very low impedance current-hungry design.
Stock vs Stock the HD820 has a more friendly tuning, as the Ether CX comes across as extremely bass light without EQ. The Ether CX brings female vocals more forward compared to the HD820, and when EQ'd can easily reproduce the same amount of bass quantity as the HD820, with added control and quicker decay as well.
In terms of build quality I'd call them comparable, whether high quality plastic and glass in the case of the HD820 or carbon fiber and high quality pleather in the case of the Ether CX, both feel premium in their own way.
Comfort however goes to the HD820, with it's larger more breathable cups, and less fiddly headband.
Focal Celestee
Focal's high-fashion premium closed back offering is striking in a very different way from the HD820, which plays to the more Teutonic aesthetic of form following function.
The Focal is an easier headphone to drive, easily being driven by an Apple Dongle from a mobile phone to volume levels beyond what would be safe, and has a more pleasing frequency response out of the box to my ears, being smoother overall with a tasteful bass emphasis combined with a smooth and forward upper midrange.
Comfort is comparable, the extra room in the HD820 pads is nice, but Focal's high quality leather hybrid pads are buttery soft, and Focal's headband design has always been one of my favorites.
Where the HD820 shines heads and shoulders above the Focal is in terms of its spacious sound. The Celestee is intimate to a fault. While excellent for pop tracks, it falls apart when asked to play orchestral music of atmospheric live jazz, areas where the HD820 shines.
Audio Technica WP900
Perhaps a slightly less obvious comparison as the WP900 is designed as a portable solution first and foremost, they're both premium closed back designs, taking different routes to get there, with the HD820 focusing on the hi-tech and the WP900 focusing on old-world craftsmanship.
There's a similarity between the two when it comes to the bass, with both having a boost above normal, though the WP900's bass boost is a broader plateau without the dips found in the HD820.
The WP900 also excels when it comes to upper midrange and treble, presenting a forward and clarion-clear vocal presentation with a pleasant amount of zing and edge to female vocals, brass, guitars, and strings.
The HD820 presents a much larger soundstage, the WP900 is rather intimate in that regard, and also beats the Audio Technica in terms of comfort, those huge pads and wide headband being easily preferable to the just-large-enough-to-not-be-on-ear pads and super-thin headband on the WP900.
Conclusions
I enjoyed my time with the HD820, leaving quite impressed with Sennheiser's engineering skills to create a closed back that can isolate you from atmospheric noise, and isolate those around you from what you're listening to, while still delivering the spacious sound of an open back headphone.
The bespoke tuning, however, does occasionally run into trouble with certain songs and certain genres, seemingly being more at home with less-busy tracks.
If you predominantly listen to acoustic, orchestral, jazz, and simpler-produced pop tracks and need a closed back headphone this one deserves a solid look.
Associated Equipment
Source: Bluesound Node 2i with Apple Music Lossless and FLAC CD rips off of USB stick
DAC: RME ADI-2 DAC
Amps: Schiit Ragnarok 2, Bravo V2
Build, Presentation, and Accessories
The HD820 is made predominantly of plastic, but plastic often gets a bad rap. High quality plastic, such as what's used in the HD820, can feel as premium as wood or metal, and that is absolutely the case here. There is no creaking or unpleasant flexing, this headphone feels solid like it will last for decades if taken care of.
The headphone comes in a high quality cardboard display box with foam cutouts that hold it securely. At this price point a true lockable storage/travel case would be a welcome addition however.
The pads are of a hybrid design with a velour surface that touches the face with leather surrounds. They're much larger than what comes on many headphones which came as a welcome surprise, making this one of the few headphones where my ears did not rub up against the inside of the pads while in use. Clamp force is also rather light, which combined with their light weight make these exceptionally comfortable headphones.
The more notable design feature on the HD820 are the gorilla-glass panels on the outside of each cup. Designed to reflect the backwave in such a way that it doesn't create destructive interference, they're also look quite striking giving the HD820 a very futuristic aesthetic, though they are fingerprint magnets.
The major complaint I have about the design of the headphone is with the proprietary Sennheiser headphone connectors. While Sennheiser is far from alone in using proprietary jacks, these connectors require more force to remove than should be necessary, and they make finding alternative cables more expensive. Going with a mini-XLR on the headphone end would provide just as secure a connection and also give much greater flexibility when it comes to aftermarket cables.
The cables that do ship with the headphone feel high quality, pleasingly thick with a nice cloth wrap, and are of excellent length, both being 3m. One problem, at least IMO, was the decision to ship a balanced cable with a 4.4mm Pentaconn connector instead of the much more common 4-pin XLR termination. While I can see the appeal for a Pentaconn connector on mobile DAPs, it has no business appearing on desktop products, and the 3m balanced cable is clearly not intended for mobile use.
Sennheiser used to include 4-pin XLR terminated cables on their products, and IMO this is something they should do again, or at least offer it as an option. At the price of this headphone it should even be possible to include three cables - perhaps a 3m 1/4" terminated cable, a 3m 4-pin XLR terminated cable, and a 1m Pentaconn terminated cable for mobile use.
Sound
The HD820 is notorious for having a rather unique frequency response, so I was very curious to hear it for an extended period with my own ears.
What immediately struck me was how detailed the sound was, some of the most detailed sound I've heard from a dynamic driver headphone. The soundstage is also wider than any other closed back I've heard, with imaging that's sharp and focused, creating a nice three dimensional sound field that can place instruments and voices in front of, above, behind, below, and to either side of the head.
Bass
The bass response out of the box is more prominent than many other headphones. There's a solid sub-bass emphasis that gives a nice amount of rumble to tracks with EDM bass or pipe organ, as well as a mid-bass hump that gives drums impact.
While on the above-average side when it comes to detail in the bass region, I did hear it occasionally become boomy and a bit hollow sounding depending on the track. On music that has complex production combined with a boosted bass track found in some modern pop such as BVNDIT's Jungle the bass could become uncontrolled and overshadow other elements of the production.
I also noticed that in certain acoustic tracks, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station's The Road is a Lover certain notes in the bass line would be emphasized over others, giving a somewhat uneven response.
Midrange
Midrange performance was excellent, with some of the most beautifully rendered male vocals I've heard on any headphone. One of the tracks on the Sennheiser supplied HD820 playlist, Chris Jones' No Sanctuary Here was new to me but left me speechless from how spacious and realistic the voices were rendered.
Another Sennheiser provided track, Manha de Carnaval, showed excellent timbre in the guitars with great detail in the finger action on the strings.
One area that I felt could use some improvement was in how female vocals were presented. On tracks such as Dreamcatcher's Locked Inside a Door or Hwasa's LMM the focal line felt more distant and less prominent than I'd ideally prefer. This may be an artifact of the tuning meant to create a more spacious sound, however.
Treble
I have no complaints with the treble response. Listening to Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue, Charles Ives Symphony No. 2, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade the upper harmonics of the strings and brass all felt airy and open and never wandered into harshness.
Soundstage and Imaging
These are the raisons d'être of these headphones. The open-back HD800 and HD800S are widely known for their performance when it comes to a huge wide-open soundstage, and Sennheiser has done an admirable job of translating that into a closed-back headphone. While I wouldn't say it beats all open backs I've heard, it does beat a good many, which is a phenomenal accomplishment for any closed back headphone.
Imaging, while not quite as phenomenal as some headphones I've heard such as the Audeze LCD-5 or Beyerdynamic T1.2, is still very strong, leading to some fun moments in pop tracks and a realistic sense of space in orchestral works.
Pairings
While I ran the HD820 predominantly off of my Schiit Ragnarok 2, I did give it a whirl directly out of the headphone jack from my RME ADI-2 DAC as well as through a budget tube hybrid amp I happen to own, the Bravo V2.
I could not hear a major difference between the Ragnarok 2 and the RME's direct headphone amp on this headphone, likely because it's rather sensitive and doesn't require major current to get it going, though I would say bass and dynamics out of the Ragnarok 2 were superior.
The Bravo V2 resulted in a loss of fine detail but added a sharper edge to some music, making the HD820s feel more aggressive to a degree. While this was pleasant I felt that the loss of detail wasn't a worthwhile tradeoff.
Comparisons
Dan Clark Audio Ether CX
Another premium closed-back design with a high-quality futuristic lightweight design, and another that excels for a closed back when it comes to an expansive soundstage, the similarities end about there.
While the HD820 has an esoteric frequency response designed by Sennheiser to highlight music in a unique way, the Ether CX is devoutly neutral. While the HD820 is a high impedance design that can happily chow down on some tubes, the Ether CX is a very low impedance current-hungry design.
Stock vs Stock the HD820 has a more friendly tuning, as the Ether CX comes across as extremely bass light without EQ. The Ether CX brings female vocals more forward compared to the HD820, and when EQ'd can easily reproduce the same amount of bass quantity as the HD820, with added control and quicker decay as well.
In terms of build quality I'd call them comparable, whether high quality plastic and glass in the case of the HD820 or carbon fiber and high quality pleather in the case of the Ether CX, both feel premium in their own way.
Comfort however goes to the HD820, with it's larger more breathable cups, and less fiddly headband.
Focal Celestee
Focal's high-fashion premium closed back offering is striking in a very different way from the HD820, which plays to the more Teutonic aesthetic of form following function.
The Focal is an easier headphone to drive, easily being driven by an Apple Dongle from a mobile phone to volume levels beyond what would be safe, and has a more pleasing frequency response out of the box to my ears, being smoother overall with a tasteful bass emphasis combined with a smooth and forward upper midrange.
Comfort is comparable, the extra room in the HD820 pads is nice, but Focal's high quality leather hybrid pads are buttery soft, and Focal's headband design has always been one of my favorites.
Where the HD820 shines heads and shoulders above the Focal is in terms of its spacious sound. The Celestee is intimate to a fault. While excellent for pop tracks, it falls apart when asked to play orchestral music of atmospheric live jazz, areas where the HD820 shines.
Audio Technica WP900
Perhaps a slightly less obvious comparison as the WP900 is designed as a portable solution first and foremost, they're both premium closed back designs, taking different routes to get there, with the HD820 focusing on the hi-tech and the WP900 focusing on old-world craftsmanship.
There's a similarity between the two when it comes to the bass, with both having a boost above normal, though the WP900's bass boost is a broader plateau without the dips found in the HD820.
The WP900 also excels when it comes to upper midrange and treble, presenting a forward and clarion-clear vocal presentation with a pleasant amount of zing and edge to female vocals, brass, guitars, and strings.
The HD820 presents a much larger soundstage, the WP900 is rather intimate in that regard, and also beats the Audio Technica in terms of comfort, those huge pads and wide headband being easily preferable to the just-large-enough-to-not-be-on-ear pads and super-thin headband on the WP900.
Conclusions
I enjoyed my time with the HD820, leaving quite impressed with Sennheiser's engineering skills to create a closed back that can isolate you from atmospheric noise, and isolate those around you from what you're listening to, while still delivering the spacious sound of an open back headphone.
The bespoke tuning, however, does occasionally run into trouble with certain songs and certain genres, seemingly being more at home with less-busy tracks.
If you predominantly listen to acoustic, orchestral, jazz, and simpler-produced pop tracks and need a closed back headphone this one deserves a solid look.
ralphp@optonline
A very nice and wonderfully written review. I own the HD 820s and I agree with most of the points raised in the review. I was super impressed with tutetibiimperes' writing skills. Bravo!
Thank you to Todd @ TTVJ for sponsoring the review tour of the Audeze LCD-5. I was able to test the headphone on my home setup for a week in exchange for my honest opinions.
Overview
There's a scene in the 2nd season of the television show The Expanse where an alien intelligence deconstructs an entire space-ship into its individual component parts. The Audeze LCD-5 does this to music, exposing every detail, every nuance, every intricate detail in such a way that's breathtaking.
Associated Equipment
Source - Bluesound Node 2i with Apple Music Lossless and FLAC CD Rips on USB Stick
DAC - RME ADI-2 DAC
Amp - Schiit Ragnarok 2
Overview
Build, Presentation, and Comfort
The Audeze LCD-5s come in a high quality aluminum travel case, similar to the previous Audeze Pelican cases, but feeling more premium due to its metal construction. The headphones fit into a beautifully precise laser-cut cutout and are surrounded by copious padding above and below, giving full confidence to take these when traveling without having to worry about the headphones being damaged.
Audeze has swapped their signature wood rings for an acetate ring finished in a lovely tortoise shell pattern. I'm always a sucker for brown, and in the right light the tortoise really pops. I own a pair of LCD-3s that have suffered from the common cracking of the wood rings around the cable connectors, so going to a most robust material that shouldn't suffer such a fate is a move I fully support.
The adjustment rods are now more rectangular than the older style, but work in essentially the same way. The suspension headband has a leather (or leather-like) strap that touches your head, and a beautiful carbon fiber strap on top. While it's not really that important day to day, the leather on the Audeze headband doesn't smell anywhere as nice as the leather on the Meze Empyrean Elite headband.
The cups are a major departure from previous Audeze headphones, with a concave construction that tapers in from the lip. This was reportedly done to help reduce unwanted reflections inside of the cups to produce a purer more detailed sound. The unfortunate part about it is that due to the high clamp force and smaller cups, my ears were mashed up against the inner surface of the pads. Over my week as the headband stretched a bit they did become more comfortable however.
Sound
The official Audeze LCD-5 thread has had a long-running debate since its inception about whether or not these headphones require EQ. I'm personally in the pro-EQ camp for the majority of headphones that I own, and it's rare that I find one that I feel reaches its full potential without it. In order to give the most well-rounded feedback about the LCD-5 I listened to it for several days without EQ, then with just a bass shelf, and finally with a full EQ profile (in my case Oratory1999's EQ Profile, as I've always been very impressed with his work). While just a bass shelf did improve and enhance them, I felt that the full EQ profile was considerably better, so the following are my impressions stock, and with full EQ.
Stock
Bass: Light in impact, but with extremely deep extension, and the most detail I've ever heard in the bass of any headphone. Some rumble and a bit of slam on tracks that were mixed heavy in the bass, but on others with a more neutral production the bass often felt somewhat lacking in quantity. At no point did the bass ever bleed into the midrange or cause any problems for any other area of the frequency response.
Midrange: Hands down the best midrange of any Audeze headphone ever, and in easy contention for the best stock midrange of any headphone I've heard at all, perhaps falling a bit to the HD6XX/650 in overall tuning, but easily besting it by orders of magnitude in detail and speed. Voices come alive with proper harmonics and richness.
Treble: I'm not a treble-head, so it's hard for me to make direct comparisons, but it seemed very detailed and was never sibilant or over-emphasized.
With EQ
Thankfully my RME ADI-2 DAC makes it very easy to apply EQs to various headphones, and to also switch between full-EQ, no-EQ, and just bass boost, all while still listening through quick hot-keys on the remote, so I could switch multiple times per track to really make sure I was hearing what I was hearing.
Bass: With EQ these slam and rumble with the best of them, easily matching or exceeding my LCD-3s, and maintaining the level of detail and accuracy without any bleed even with a copious amount of boost. The texture of the bass in Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo came across perfectly, hearing nuances I'd never heard before, even on $200,000 speakers at audio shows. Switching to some electronic music Propellerhead's Bigger? showed off the bottomless extension and ability to rattle one's cheeks. HA:TFELT's Ain't Nobody is a track I love to test headphones on because it has both deep bass that should slam and punch that occurs at the same time as a yearning vocal line, a great headphone will make that sweet bass feel like it's suffusing your entire being while not letting it intrude on that vocal line, and the LCD-5s pass with flying colors.
Midrange: While the stock midrange performance is strong, with the Oratory EQ it's rounded out without being reduced, giving a bit of boost into the 5-6khz range and into the lower treble, making for a more fulfilling presentation with more bite, edge, and detail. Sara Bareilles' Live at the Variety Playhouse is one of my favorite live albums, and the LCD-5s did an amazing job reproducing her vocal tone while maintaining the sound of the live venue in songs such as Brave. As a long time fan of Mamamoo and their individual works, I'm intimately familiar with all of Solar's Gamsung releases, so reached for Alone People to test timbre and was richly rewarded with a holographic presentation that sounded like she was singing directly into my ears, plus the panning Hammong Organ at the beginning of the track gave a very cool effect with the LCD-5s. Turning to some male vocals I broke out one of my favorite rock albums, House of Freaks' Tantilla a beautiful exercise in how amazing music can be created with minimal production. With When the Hammer Came Down every bit of the stripped-bare rock goodness came through crystal clear.
Treble: I always feel at a loss trying to describe treble. Where does midrange end and treble begin? With the EQ applied the treble is more present and the transition from the midrange into it smoother. Elevations in the lower treble helped provide more intensity that I personally enjoy. I turned to Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 (the Royal Philharmonic recording conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras is a favorite of mine) as it's a piece I'm intimately familiar with having listened to it many dozens of times and performed it in community orchestras in the past. The violins sounded properly airy, the trumpets properly piercing and brash, and the celeste in the final moments of the first movement had the proper sparkle.
Soundstage and Imaging: I personally prefer a more intimate soundstage but with precise imaging, and the LCD-5 is right up my alley in that regard. The soundstage isn't small by any means, but it's not artificially wide as with some other headphones, things are kept inside the head or just outside of it. The imaging is top-notch, rivaling or even exceeding my previous imaging champ, the Beyerdynamic T1.2. Not only can the LCD-5 place sound properly within a single horizontal plane, there's a lot of depth forward and backward, plus top and bottom, it's capable of truly three-dimensional triple-axis placement of music, which combined with its amazing detail retrieval creates some breathtaking moments listening into the mix. Going back to the Propellerheads their song 360 Degrees (Oh Yeah) begins with a skateboarding sound that pans back and forth across the head. With some headphones it just appears on one side and then immediately appears on the other, with the LCD-5 I could hear it cleanly transitioning in three dimensional space around my head.
Comparisons:
Meze Empyrean Elite: The Meze is a beautiful headphone with impeccable craftsmanship and astounding comfort. When it comes to sound however it's rather relaxed and reserved, not coming close to the LCD-5 in terms of detail and precision. The tuning on the Empyrean is more laid-back compared to the more forward LCD-5, which some people will undoubtedly prefer, but during my time I couldn't help but feel it was lacking due to that smoother tuning. Audeze could learn a thing or two from Meze when it comes to comfort, however.
Audeze LCD-3: My first higher-end Audeze that I've owned (I do have an old pair of EL-8 Titaniums). Stock to stock the LCD-5 takes the LCD-3 out behind the woodshed. IMO the LCD-3 absolutely needs EQ to not sound dead and dull. EQ'd close to Harman and compared head to head the LCD-3 is still more lush and fuller sounding in the lower midrange, and (though I generally hate the term) 'organic' in that it smooths things out a bit, details are obscured, but because of that it's also more forgiving. Comfort-wise, I do prefer the LCD-3 to the LCD-5 even with the LCD-3s extra weight. The large earpads and lighter clamp make it a headphone I can wear for hours without ever having to readjust.
Hifiman HE6se V2: While comparing a $600 headphone to a $4,500 headphone may seem unfair, the HE6se can more than hold its own in a specific niche. Stock tuning to stock tuning the HE6se is somewhat similar to the LCD-5 in that it has a forward midrange, though the peak is a bit higher on the HE6se, and it scoops the mid-mids around the 1-2khz region. You don't buy the HE6se to listen to it stock however (at least I didn't). The HE6se is a headphone you buy to swap on the Hifiman round velour pads, and then give it great heaping gobs of bass boost. With a Harman EQ from 1khz up and 12db of bass boost below 105hz the HE6se becomes a hysterically fun and brutal monster of a headphone, providing bass slam that I've never heard anything else come close to matching, including the LCD-5. On the other hand it doesn't match the LCD-5 in terms of details in that bass, nor anywhere else in the frequency response, and sports built quality that's far more in line with its $600 price. Still, it's an amazingly fun headphone for when I want to get all about that bass.
Conclusions: The Audeze LCD-5 comes super close to being the perfect headphone for my tastes, with the biggest issue being the comfort from the extreme clamp of the stock headband. Thankfully Audeze is now shipping them with a larger headband that from reports greatly improves comfort. This is one that I really didn't want to let go at the end of my review tour. Because of that, and I suppose this is my ultimate vote of confidence, I called Todd and placed an order for one for myself.
(this one is still Todd's, but I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of mine so it can take its place. I just left it there long enough to take the picture, I didn't want to scratch it up, I should probably get a headphone stand).
Overview
There's a scene in the 2nd season of the television show The Expanse where an alien intelligence deconstructs an entire space-ship into its individual component parts. The Audeze LCD-5 does this to music, exposing every detail, every nuance, every intricate detail in such a way that's breathtaking.
Associated Equipment
Source - Bluesound Node 2i with Apple Music Lossless and FLAC CD Rips on USB Stick
DAC - RME ADI-2 DAC
Amp - Schiit Ragnarok 2
Overview
Build, Presentation, and Comfort
The Audeze LCD-5s come in a high quality aluminum travel case, similar to the previous Audeze Pelican cases, but feeling more premium due to its metal construction. The headphones fit into a beautifully precise laser-cut cutout and are surrounded by copious padding above and below, giving full confidence to take these when traveling without having to worry about the headphones being damaged.
Audeze has swapped their signature wood rings for an acetate ring finished in a lovely tortoise shell pattern. I'm always a sucker for brown, and in the right light the tortoise really pops. I own a pair of LCD-3s that have suffered from the common cracking of the wood rings around the cable connectors, so going to a most robust material that shouldn't suffer such a fate is a move I fully support.
The adjustment rods are now more rectangular than the older style, but work in essentially the same way. The suspension headband has a leather (or leather-like) strap that touches your head, and a beautiful carbon fiber strap on top. While it's not really that important day to day, the leather on the Audeze headband doesn't smell anywhere as nice as the leather on the Meze Empyrean Elite headband.
The cups are a major departure from previous Audeze headphones, with a concave construction that tapers in from the lip. This was reportedly done to help reduce unwanted reflections inside of the cups to produce a purer more detailed sound. The unfortunate part about it is that due to the high clamp force and smaller cups, my ears were mashed up against the inner surface of the pads. Over my week as the headband stretched a bit they did become more comfortable however.
Sound
The official Audeze LCD-5 thread has had a long-running debate since its inception about whether or not these headphones require EQ. I'm personally in the pro-EQ camp for the majority of headphones that I own, and it's rare that I find one that I feel reaches its full potential without it. In order to give the most well-rounded feedback about the LCD-5 I listened to it for several days without EQ, then with just a bass shelf, and finally with a full EQ profile (in my case Oratory1999's EQ Profile, as I've always been very impressed with his work). While just a bass shelf did improve and enhance them, I felt that the full EQ profile was considerably better, so the following are my impressions stock, and with full EQ.
Stock
Bass: Light in impact, but with extremely deep extension, and the most detail I've ever heard in the bass of any headphone. Some rumble and a bit of slam on tracks that were mixed heavy in the bass, but on others with a more neutral production the bass often felt somewhat lacking in quantity. At no point did the bass ever bleed into the midrange or cause any problems for any other area of the frequency response.
Midrange: Hands down the best midrange of any Audeze headphone ever, and in easy contention for the best stock midrange of any headphone I've heard at all, perhaps falling a bit to the HD6XX/650 in overall tuning, but easily besting it by orders of magnitude in detail and speed. Voices come alive with proper harmonics and richness.
Treble: I'm not a treble-head, so it's hard for me to make direct comparisons, but it seemed very detailed and was never sibilant or over-emphasized.
With EQ
Thankfully my RME ADI-2 DAC makes it very easy to apply EQs to various headphones, and to also switch between full-EQ, no-EQ, and just bass boost, all while still listening through quick hot-keys on the remote, so I could switch multiple times per track to really make sure I was hearing what I was hearing.
Bass: With EQ these slam and rumble with the best of them, easily matching or exceeding my LCD-3s, and maintaining the level of detail and accuracy without any bleed even with a copious amount of boost. The texture of the bass in Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo came across perfectly, hearing nuances I'd never heard before, even on $200,000 speakers at audio shows. Switching to some electronic music Propellerhead's Bigger? showed off the bottomless extension and ability to rattle one's cheeks. HA:TFELT's Ain't Nobody is a track I love to test headphones on because it has both deep bass that should slam and punch that occurs at the same time as a yearning vocal line, a great headphone will make that sweet bass feel like it's suffusing your entire being while not letting it intrude on that vocal line, and the LCD-5s pass with flying colors.
Midrange: While the stock midrange performance is strong, with the Oratory EQ it's rounded out without being reduced, giving a bit of boost into the 5-6khz range and into the lower treble, making for a more fulfilling presentation with more bite, edge, and detail. Sara Bareilles' Live at the Variety Playhouse is one of my favorite live albums, and the LCD-5s did an amazing job reproducing her vocal tone while maintaining the sound of the live venue in songs such as Brave. As a long time fan of Mamamoo and their individual works, I'm intimately familiar with all of Solar's Gamsung releases, so reached for Alone People to test timbre and was richly rewarded with a holographic presentation that sounded like she was singing directly into my ears, plus the panning Hammong Organ at the beginning of the track gave a very cool effect with the LCD-5s. Turning to some male vocals I broke out one of my favorite rock albums, House of Freaks' Tantilla a beautiful exercise in how amazing music can be created with minimal production. With When the Hammer Came Down every bit of the stripped-bare rock goodness came through crystal clear.
Treble: I always feel at a loss trying to describe treble. Where does midrange end and treble begin? With the EQ applied the treble is more present and the transition from the midrange into it smoother. Elevations in the lower treble helped provide more intensity that I personally enjoy. I turned to Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 (the Royal Philharmonic recording conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras is a favorite of mine) as it's a piece I'm intimately familiar with having listened to it many dozens of times and performed it in community orchestras in the past. The violins sounded properly airy, the trumpets properly piercing and brash, and the celeste in the final moments of the first movement had the proper sparkle.
Soundstage and Imaging: I personally prefer a more intimate soundstage but with precise imaging, and the LCD-5 is right up my alley in that regard. The soundstage isn't small by any means, but it's not artificially wide as with some other headphones, things are kept inside the head or just outside of it. The imaging is top-notch, rivaling or even exceeding my previous imaging champ, the Beyerdynamic T1.2. Not only can the LCD-5 place sound properly within a single horizontal plane, there's a lot of depth forward and backward, plus top and bottom, it's capable of truly three-dimensional triple-axis placement of music, which combined with its amazing detail retrieval creates some breathtaking moments listening into the mix. Going back to the Propellerheads their song 360 Degrees (Oh Yeah) begins with a skateboarding sound that pans back and forth across the head. With some headphones it just appears on one side and then immediately appears on the other, with the LCD-5 I could hear it cleanly transitioning in three dimensional space around my head.
Comparisons:
Meze Empyrean Elite: The Meze is a beautiful headphone with impeccable craftsmanship and astounding comfort. When it comes to sound however it's rather relaxed and reserved, not coming close to the LCD-5 in terms of detail and precision. The tuning on the Empyrean is more laid-back compared to the more forward LCD-5, which some people will undoubtedly prefer, but during my time I couldn't help but feel it was lacking due to that smoother tuning. Audeze could learn a thing or two from Meze when it comes to comfort, however.
Audeze LCD-3: My first higher-end Audeze that I've owned (I do have an old pair of EL-8 Titaniums). Stock to stock the LCD-5 takes the LCD-3 out behind the woodshed. IMO the LCD-3 absolutely needs EQ to not sound dead and dull. EQ'd close to Harman and compared head to head the LCD-3 is still more lush and fuller sounding in the lower midrange, and (though I generally hate the term) 'organic' in that it smooths things out a bit, details are obscured, but because of that it's also more forgiving. Comfort-wise, I do prefer the LCD-3 to the LCD-5 even with the LCD-3s extra weight. The large earpads and lighter clamp make it a headphone I can wear for hours without ever having to readjust.
Hifiman HE6se V2: While comparing a $600 headphone to a $4,500 headphone may seem unfair, the HE6se can more than hold its own in a specific niche. Stock tuning to stock tuning the HE6se is somewhat similar to the LCD-5 in that it has a forward midrange, though the peak is a bit higher on the HE6se, and it scoops the mid-mids around the 1-2khz region. You don't buy the HE6se to listen to it stock however (at least I didn't). The HE6se is a headphone you buy to swap on the Hifiman round velour pads, and then give it great heaping gobs of bass boost. With a Harman EQ from 1khz up and 12db of bass boost below 105hz the HE6se becomes a hysterically fun and brutal monster of a headphone, providing bass slam that I've never heard anything else come close to matching, including the LCD-5. On the other hand it doesn't match the LCD-5 in terms of details in that bass, nor anywhere else in the frequency response, and sports built quality that's far more in line with its $600 price. Still, it's an amazingly fun headphone for when I want to get all about that bass.
Conclusions: The Audeze LCD-5 comes super close to being the perfect headphone for my tastes, with the biggest issue being the comfort from the extreme clamp of the stock headband. Thankfully Audeze is now shipping them with a larger headband that from reports greatly improves comfort. This is one that I really didn't want to let go at the end of my review tour. Because of that, and I suppose this is my ultimate vote of confidence, I called Todd and placed an order for one for myself.
(this one is still Todd's, but I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of mine so it can take its place. I just left it there long enough to take the picture, I didn't want to scratch it up, I should probably get a headphone stand).
wolfstar76
Good review, you successfully convinced me to keep trying to mod my HE6SE V2 (still in original stock setting, swapped the pad and removed grill before only to see no difference so far and went back to stock)
I'd like to start off this review by thanking Todd at TTVJ for sponsoring this review tour. I was able to spend a week with the Meze Empyrean Elite in my home with my system with the only expectation that I present a review of my experiences.
On a personal note I have been in the market for a new upgrade for a TOTL headphone, and this one was in the running along with the other new flagships. I had never had the opportunity to listen to a Meze headphone before (other than a pair of Rai Solo IEMs) but I'd always heard good things.
Associated Equipment:
Source: Bluesound Node 2i Streamer (sources being Apple Music Lossless and FLAC CD rips on USB stick)
DAC: RME ADI-2 DAC
Amp: Schiit Ragnarok 2
Build and Comfort:
The Meze Empyrean Elite lives up to its reputation for excellent build quality. It's much lighter than expected, but made predominantly of metal, leather, and other high quality materials. The unit comes in a very slick looking aluminum case that reminded me of something a diamond merchant might wear handcuffed to his wrists on the streets of NYC in a heist movie (though unfortunately the handle of the case is made of rather cheap-feeling plastic that degrades the experience when picking it up the first time, an aluminum or at least leather-wrapped handle would go a long way towards making the unboxing experience feel more premium).
The headphones themselves feature a quite pretty metal lattice design in black with silver aluminum supporting structure. The adjustment rods are of the infinitely-adjustable variety (as opposed to notched) with a friction hold mechanism. It would be nice if Meze would offer this in additional coloways as they have with the regular Empyrean. I've always found the black and copper version of the Empyrean particularly handsome, with the gunmetal version also being quite sharp.
While I enjoyed the ability to adjust the fit without pre-set notches, it also upset my innate desire to have both sides set exactly the same as there were no notches to reference, so I found myself taking them off and on to measure just how far each rod was poking out to make sure I had them even on both sides. People who are less neurotic about such things probably won't have an issue.
The headband is a suspension strap design with cool looking carbon-fiber printing on the support arcs and a real leather strap that smells great.
The default pads are a new leather hybrid exclusive to the Empyrean Elite. They are soft and comfortable with plenty of space so that my ears never rubbed the insides of the pads.
An alternative set of velour pads are included. As you can see these are much thicker than the leather hybrid pads, and the ear opening is smaller. On my face these felt very similar to the velour Auteur or Eikon pads from ZMF. With the thicker pads the headphone does have more clamp force.
One of the cleverest things Meze has come up with is their magnetic pad attachment mechanism. Switching pads is as simple as pulling one set off and popping another one on. Since they're not angled there's no wrong-way to do it. As I'll mention in my sound section, being able to switch pads quickly is very useful here.
Finally, a little touch I really love about the way Meze does things is that they color code right and left channels on their cables. With angled cables as on the Empyrean Elite this isn't strictly necessary, but it's amazingly convenient for their IEMs, and doing it on their headphones gives a nice big of uniform brand design. It's also nice for being able to quickly attach them correctly without trying to squint and see tiny R and L markings.
The cable itself is thick, covered with fabric, and feels very nice in the hands. However, I didn't use it in my testing because it's too short to reach my system from my seat, opting for my 3 meter ZMF OFC balanced cable instead. Making their mini-XLR jacks compatible with the ZMF and Audeze pin-outs opens the door for plenty of replacement cable options.
Sound:
Bass - The Empyrean Elites have a rise above neutral in the bass region (somewhat rare in open back planars) that gives them a full and rich sound. The rise extends up through the mid and upper bass into the lower midrange some, which does give them a bit of a thick sound signature. Bass texture and detail are about average across all of the planars I've listened to, which IMO is an underperformance for the price point, for example losing some of the string texture in Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo. However, they are capable of some actual slam, and gave satisfying performance during the big bass drops in HA:TFELT's Ain't Nobody. Switching to the velour pads instead of the leather hybrid does result in a significant drop-off in bass.
Midrange - Midrange performance can best be expressed as inoffensive and safe. The lower midrange can be a bit thick, but that works well with male vocals such as in Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker. Female vocals on the other hand feel a bit too reserved for my lacking, mainly due to an upper mid-range rise that doesn't rise far enough for my personal tastes. Switching to the velour pads helps here, adding some upper-midrange emphasis and smoothing out the upper-midrange to treble transition. With the velour pads acoustic music in particular really comes alive, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station's Gravity.
Treble - I'll again go with 'inoffensive' which is a good thing IMO, there's plenty of air, and the treble overall feels accurate and enhances songs as it should without ever drawing attention to itself. Once again there is a difference in pads. I'd tentatively call the hybrid pads "Pop Pads" that are great for pop, rock, EDM, and other similar genres, while the velour pads are "Acoustic Pads" which are great for acoustic genres and classical. With the hybrid pads there's a bit of a rockier transition between the upper midrange and treble which (in addition to the extra bass they provide) can add some excitement. With the velour pads these headphones become more mid and treble centric while smoothing the frequency response up top making more more natural timbre of real instruments.
Soundstage and Imaging - Soundstage feels wider than average, while imaging is a bit less precise than average. Listening to orchestral recordings I could imagine the orchestra in front of me when closing my eyes, but I couldn't pin-point exact areas where each section or musician was like I can with the Beyerdynamic T1.2 or the Audeze LCD-5.
Overall Sound Signature and Technicalities - Overall sound signature is very pleasant and 'easy-going'. I didn't feel the need to reach for EQ during my time with these, so in my opinion they're well-tuned for the folks who prefer not to use EQ. They're consumer-friendly with a moderate bass boost and a relaxed upper midrange that will play well with many genres of music and not expose flaws or sibilance in poor recordings. Depending on your personal preferences the technicalities and resolution may be the Achilles Heel of these headphones. Detail retrieval and resolution seem sub-par for the price. I'd rank them similarly to my DCA Aeon Open X in that regard, which is a much more affordable headphone (though the Mezes do have them beat hands down in terms of build and luxurious feel). On the other hand that does make them rather relaxing to listen to, so if you're the type who just wants to lean back and enjoy the music without worrying about hearing every tiny detail and analyzing every element of the production, you may prefer this.
Comparisons:
Audeze LCD-5
This may be the most natural headphone to compare them to as they came out at about the same time and go for very similar prices. I was lucky enough to have the TTVJ LCD-5 tour loaner at the same time as the Meze Empyrean Elites so I was able to do direct comparisons.
Putting on the LCD-5s after listening to the Empyrean Elites gives the impression of a veil being lifted from off of the music. Details suddenly pop out that were missing before, female vocals come alive with rich harmonics and sparkle, bass develops surgical levels of detail and accuracy, and imaging goes from amorphous to razor-sharp.
On the other hand you do lose bass quantity and some slam (without taking EQ into account) going to the LCD-5 from the Empyrean Elite, and comfort takes a major nosedive as well.
For my personal tastes the sound signature and quality of the LCD-5 is overwhelmingly preferable to the Empyrean Elite, but the Empyrean Elite is overwhelmingly more comfortable to actually wear.
Audeze LCD-3
A pair I own, mine are 2015 vintage that received new pads and new drivers from Audeze in 2020. Stock to stock the Empyrean Elite is a much more rounded sound signature, as the Audeze memory foam pads kill the upper midrange response. With EQ the LCD-3s can hold their and even surpass the Empyrean Elites in technicalities, and are about on par in terms of comfort. The EQ'd LCD-3 can also trump the stock sound of the Empyrean Elite in terms of bass slam and detail. It's difficult to talk to much about an EQ'd sound signature vs an EQ'd one, as the Empyrean Elite does absolutely sound better 'out of the box' compared to the LCD-3 before EQ is applied.
Build quality wise the Empyrean Elite does have the edge again, as my LCD-3s, like many other wood-ring Audeze headphones, have developed the small cracks around the area where the wood rings meet the mini-XLR jacks.
Hifiman HE6se V2
Another pair I own, and the pair I purchased the Rag 2 to power, these fall to the Empyreans in Stock sound signature, sounding much leaner and a bit anemic without EQ present.
The Empyrean Elite is also much more comfortable than the HE6se (which has cups that are just a smidge too small) and has much better built quality than the plastic-fantastic Hifiman.
In terms of sound EQ'd the HE6se can hold its own well, offering worlds more slam with blessed with 11db of bass boost below 100hz, and can offer a great amount of zing and edge when boosting up the upper midrange beak to be a broader plateau. In terms of technicalities overall I'd rank them fairly close, with the HE6se pulling ahead by a bit.
Conclusions
Opening, holding, and wearing the Meze Empyrean Elite is a pleasure. It feels as expensive as it is, and it's clear that Meze are masters when it comes to industrial design. In terms of sound quality they're easy to listen to, with no glaring faults. Unfortunately they're also not particularly exciting and don't bring the level of detail to the table that I'd expect from a $4,000 headphone. Listening to them back to back with the LCD-5 brought both the strengths and weaknesses of the Empyrean Elite to the forefront. If someone could design a headphone that's as comfortable as the Empyrean but sounds like the LCD-5 they'd be able to take the industry by storm.
As it is I'm going to call the Meze Empyrean Elite the "Lifestyle Flagship". It's the perfect headphone for anyone who prioritizes design, comfort, and an easy-going relaxed sound signature that sounds great out of the box with no need for EQ.
On a personal note I have been in the market for a new upgrade for a TOTL headphone, and this one was in the running along with the other new flagships. I had never had the opportunity to listen to a Meze headphone before (other than a pair of Rai Solo IEMs) but I'd always heard good things.
Associated Equipment:
Source: Bluesound Node 2i Streamer (sources being Apple Music Lossless and FLAC CD rips on USB stick)
DAC: RME ADI-2 DAC
Amp: Schiit Ragnarok 2
Build and Comfort:
The Meze Empyrean Elite lives up to its reputation for excellent build quality. It's much lighter than expected, but made predominantly of metal, leather, and other high quality materials. The unit comes in a very slick looking aluminum case that reminded me of something a diamond merchant might wear handcuffed to his wrists on the streets of NYC in a heist movie (though unfortunately the handle of the case is made of rather cheap-feeling plastic that degrades the experience when picking it up the first time, an aluminum or at least leather-wrapped handle would go a long way towards making the unboxing experience feel more premium).
The headphones themselves feature a quite pretty metal lattice design in black with silver aluminum supporting structure. The adjustment rods are of the infinitely-adjustable variety (as opposed to notched) with a friction hold mechanism. It would be nice if Meze would offer this in additional coloways as they have with the regular Empyrean. I've always found the black and copper version of the Empyrean particularly handsome, with the gunmetal version also being quite sharp.
While I enjoyed the ability to adjust the fit without pre-set notches, it also upset my innate desire to have both sides set exactly the same as there were no notches to reference, so I found myself taking them off and on to measure just how far each rod was poking out to make sure I had them even on both sides. People who are less neurotic about such things probably won't have an issue.
The headband is a suspension strap design with cool looking carbon-fiber printing on the support arcs and a real leather strap that smells great.
The default pads are a new leather hybrid exclusive to the Empyrean Elite. They are soft and comfortable with plenty of space so that my ears never rubbed the insides of the pads.
An alternative set of velour pads are included. As you can see these are much thicker than the leather hybrid pads, and the ear opening is smaller. On my face these felt very similar to the velour Auteur or Eikon pads from ZMF. With the thicker pads the headphone does have more clamp force.
One of the cleverest things Meze has come up with is their magnetic pad attachment mechanism. Switching pads is as simple as pulling one set off and popping another one on. Since they're not angled there's no wrong-way to do it. As I'll mention in my sound section, being able to switch pads quickly is very useful here.
Finally, a little touch I really love about the way Meze does things is that they color code right and left channels on their cables. With angled cables as on the Empyrean Elite this isn't strictly necessary, but it's amazingly convenient for their IEMs, and doing it on their headphones gives a nice big of uniform brand design. It's also nice for being able to quickly attach them correctly without trying to squint and see tiny R and L markings.
The cable itself is thick, covered with fabric, and feels very nice in the hands. However, I didn't use it in my testing because it's too short to reach my system from my seat, opting for my 3 meter ZMF OFC balanced cable instead. Making their mini-XLR jacks compatible with the ZMF and Audeze pin-outs opens the door for plenty of replacement cable options.
Sound:
Bass - The Empyrean Elites have a rise above neutral in the bass region (somewhat rare in open back planars) that gives them a full and rich sound. The rise extends up through the mid and upper bass into the lower midrange some, which does give them a bit of a thick sound signature. Bass texture and detail are about average across all of the planars I've listened to, which IMO is an underperformance for the price point, for example losing some of the string texture in Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo. However, they are capable of some actual slam, and gave satisfying performance during the big bass drops in HA:TFELT's Ain't Nobody. Switching to the velour pads instead of the leather hybrid does result in a significant drop-off in bass.
Midrange - Midrange performance can best be expressed as inoffensive and safe. The lower midrange can be a bit thick, but that works well with male vocals such as in Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker. Female vocals on the other hand feel a bit too reserved for my lacking, mainly due to an upper mid-range rise that doesn't rise far enough for my personal tastes. Switching to the velour pads helps here, adding some upper-midrange emphasis and smoothing out the upper-midrange to treble transition. With the velour pads acoustic music in particular really comes alive, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station's Gravity.
Treble - I'll again go with 'inoffensive' which is a good thing IMO, there's plenty of air, and the treble overall feels accurate and enhances songs as it should without ever drawing attention to itself. Once again there is a difference in pads. I'd tentatively call the hybrid pads "Pop Pads" that are great for pop, rock, EDM, and other similar genres, while the velour pads are "Acoustic Pads" which are great for acoustic genres and classical. With the hybrid pads there's a bit of a rockier transition between the upper midrange and treble which (in addition to the extra bass they provide) can add some excitement. With the velour pads these headphones become more mid and treble centric while smoothing the frequency response up top making more more natural timbre of real instruments.
Soundstage and Imaging - Soundstage feels wider than average, while imaging is a bit less precise than average. Listening to orchestral recordings I could imagine the orchestra in front of me when closing my eyes, but I couldn't pin-point exact areas where each section or musician was like I can with the Beyerdynamic T1.2 or the Audeze LCD-5.
Overall Sound Signature and Technicalities - Overall sound signature is very pleasant and 'easy-going'. I didn't feel the need to reach for EQ during my time with these, so in my opinion they're well-tuned for the folks who prefer not to use EQ. They're consumer-friendly with a moderate bass boost and a relaxed upper midrange that will play well with many genres of music and not expose flaws or sibilance in poor recordings. Depending on your personal preferences the technicalities and resolution may be the Achilles Heel of these headphones. Detail retrieval and resolution seem sub-par for the price. I'd rank them similarly to my DCA Aeon Open X in that regard, which is a much more affordable headphone (though the Mezes do have them beat hands down in terms of build and luxurious feel). On the other hand that does make them rather relaxing to listen to, so if you're the type who just wants to lean back and enjoy the music without worrying about hearing every tiny detail and analyzing every element of the production, you may prefer this.
Comparisons:
Audeze LCD-5
This may be the most natural headphone to compare them to as they came out at about the same time and go for very similar prices. I was lucky enough to have the TTVJ LCD-5 tour loaner at the same time as the Meze Empyrean Elites so I was able to do direct comparisons.
Putting on the LCD-5s after listening to the Empyrean Elites gives the impression of a veil being lifted from off of the music. Details suddenly pop out that were missing before, female vocals come alive with rich harmonics and sparkle, bass develops surgical levels of detail and accuracy, and imaging goes from amorphous to razor-sharp.
On the other hand you do lose bass quantity and some slam (without taking EQ into account) going to the LCD-5 from the Empyrean Elite, and comfort takes a major nosedive as well.
For my personal tastes the sound signature and quality of the LCD-5 is overwhelmingly preferable to the Empyrean Elite, but the Empyrean Elite is overwhelmingly more comfortable to actually wear.
Audeze LCD-3
A pair I own, mine are 2015 vintage that received new pads and new drivers from Audeze in 2020. Stock to stock the Empyrean Elite is a much more rounded sound signature, as the Audeze memory foam pads kill the upper midrange response. With EQ the LCD-3s can hold their and even surpass the Empyrean Elites in technicalities, and are about on par in terms of comfort. The EQ'd LCD-3 can also trump the stock sound of the Empyrean Elite in terms of bass slam and detail. It's difficult to talk to much about an EQ'd sound signature vs an EQ'd one, as the Empyrean Elite does absolutely sound better 'out of the box' compared to the LCD-3 before EQ is applied.
Build quality wise the Empyrean Elite does have the edge again, as my LCD-3s, like many other wood-ring Audeze headphones, have developed the small cracks around the area where the wood rings meet the mini-XLR jacks.
Hifiman HE6se V2
Another pair I own, and the pair I purchased the Rag 2 to power, these fall to the Empyreans in Stock sound signature, sounding much leaner and a bit anemic without EQ present.
The Empyrean Elite is also much more comfortable than the HE6se (which has cups that are just a smidge too small) and has much better built quality than the plastic-fantastic Hifiman.
In terms of sound EQ'd the HE6se can hold its own well, offering worlds more slam with blessed with 11db of bass boost below 100hz, and can offer a great amount of zing and edge when boosting up the upper midrange beak to be a broader plateau. In terms of technicalities overall I'd rank them fairly close, with the HE6se pulling ahead by a bit.
Conclusions
Opening, holding, and wearing the Meze Empyrean Elite is a pleasure. It feels as expensive as it is, and it's clear that Meze are masters when it comes to industrial design. In terms of sound quality they're easy to listen to, with no glaring faults. Unfortunately they're also not particularly exciting and don't bring the level of detail to the table that I'd expect from a $4,000 headphone. Listening to them back to back with the LCD-5 brought both the strengths and weaknesses of the Empyrean Elite to the forefront. If someone could design a headphone that's as comfortable as the Empyrean but sounds like the LCD-5 they'd be able to take the industry by storm.
As it is I'm going to call the Meze Empyrean Elite the "Lifestyle Flagship". It's the perfect headphone for anyone who prioritizes design, comfort, and an easy-going relaxed sound signature that sounds great out of the box with no need for EQ.
First of all thank you to Todd and TTVJ for sponsoring this loaner tour.
I've primarily been an open-back headphone guy, but I've been growing curious about what the newer products in the closed-back market have to offer. Spending time with the Celestee impressed me in many ways while at the same time confirming some of my reservations about closed-back headphones.
Associated Gear
Bluesound Node 2i
RME ADI-2 DAC
Schiit Raganarok 2
iPad Pro M1
Apple Music Lossless Streaming
FLAC CD Rips on USB
Build/Styling/Packaging/Accessories
I'll start with one of the best things about the Celestee - it's possibly the best looking headphone I've seen, with striking styling in various shades of blue with copper accents. Opening the stylish travel case (that's reminiscent of a high end purse) you're immediately greeted by the smell of high quality leather used in the pads and the headband. Picking the headphones up they're surprisingly light but feel sturdy and well made. I didn't hear any creaking or rattling during my time with them.
The included cable, while very short, is in a matching shade of blue with the copper accents and is very flexible with no cable memory effects that I noticed. The pads are quite soft and have enough room for my ears that they were never irritated rubbing against the insides of the pads. The pads are a hybrid design with leather covering the outside and areas that touch your face, and a cloth ring on the inside. The driver is covered with a copper-colored metal grill that matches the accents on the outside of the headphone and features a foam ring surrounding it, likely to help reduce reflections inside the cup. You can also see Focal's Aluminum-Magnesium 'M Shaped Dome' driver through the metal shield, which is constructed more like the driver in a speaker, with a rigid cone and a rubber surround, as opposed to typical headphone drivers that have tiny mylar domes surrounded by large plastic surrounds. This speaker-like driver seems to be a major contributor to Focal's ability to make headphones with excellent dynamic punch.
On the outside of the cups there's a perforated metal shell around what appears to be leather, and a center-cap featuring the Focal logo which is used as an air-pressure relief vent to prevent pressure buildup when putting the headphones on.
Although it's somewhat difficult to see in photos, the Celestee makes use of several shades of blue, from the deep navy on the rings around the cups, an almost-navy on the cups themselves, to a lighter cobalt or royal blue used in the yokes, accents, and pads.
All in all Focal absolutely nailed the styling on the Celestee as a luxury product. This is a headphone that wouldn't look out of place sitting on a table top in a Beverly Hills mansion.
Sound
Overall I'd describe that sound of these as very clear, focused, and fulfilling. Perhaps my biggest praise for them is that I did not feel the need to apply any EQ to them while listening during my time with them, something that doesn't happen very often with headphones.
Bass
Bass extension is deep with solid performance even in the sub-bass. While it's not Audeze LCD level in its ability to dig into the subterranean frequencies, it holds its own and never felt unfulfilling even on tracks that require solid bass performance. There's a very slight midbass bump, but it ends up being just enough to give them a bit of kick without making them sound warm or muddy.
Whether electronic bass such as in Yello's The Expert, Bass Guitar such as in Steely Dan's Negative Girl, or Orchestral Bass such as in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture, the bass was always quick, punchy when called for, and well defined with excellent timbre and clean delineation between the notes.
Midrange
The Celestee has a small dip in the lower midrange which works to to cleanly separate the bass from the midrange and helps aid in focus for vocals. Upper-Midrange is one of the most important aspects of headphone performance for me as I listen to a lot of female-vocal focused music, and the Celestee performs very well in that regard, holding close to the Harman Curve up through 3Khz, with some drop-off after that (a little more energy up through 5khz would be welcome, but it gets the majority right).
Vocals are forward, with dead-center presentation, and the timbre has enough bite and brilliance to give the upper vocal harmonics some emphasis. Male vocals are also well presented, and without any chestiness or excessive resonance. Detail retrieval in the midrange struck me as well above average, with details in vocal inflection, breath, vibrato and resonance, etc, all being quite audible.
Selected midrange/vocal test tracks included: Alison Krauss & Union Station - Gravity, Solji - Please, IU - Strawberry Moon, Willie Nelson - Stardust
Treble
Treble performance on headphones has never been a big priority of mine - as long as it isn't piercing or completely dead up there I'm OK with it. The Celestee performs completely acceptably in the treble range, nothing stands out to me as good or bad, which is a good thing in my book, the treble exists, there's some air up there, but it doesn't ever make itself center-stage or try to steal the show.
Treble test tracks: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons: Summer III - Presto, Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man
Soundstage and Imaging
Typically areas that are hard for closed-back headphones to perform well in, and the Celestee hits and misses here. Imaging is acceptable, very good even for a closed back, but not close to top of the pack when open backed headphones are considered. I believe the challenge comes from the rather narrow soundstage - it's hard to define a clear image when the soundstage itself is rather small.
I'm not one that cares about a super-wide soundstage, so that's fine for me personally for most music. Pop, rock, acoustic, ballads, etc, all work well within the small soundstage, they sound focused and detailed. Listening to large orchestral works and classical is where it falls apart in terms of soundstage and imaging. While those genres are tough for headphones in general, the Celestee underperforms open backs and many other closed backs when it comes to painting a realistic picture of scale and position when listening to symphonies.
Source Pairings
My main setup is a BlueSound Node 2i fed with Apple Music Lossless and FLAC files on USB stick through an RME ADI-2 DAC and a Schiit Ragnarok 2 amplifier. This setup worked very well (aside from the need for an extension cable) and easily powered the Celestees.
Since this is a closed-back, which seems to indicate that it would be intended for mobile/public use, I also decided to test it out using my iPad Pro M1 with the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm headphone dongle. Surprisingly, I could not hear any difference with the Celestees using this setup compared to my primary one. The Celestee appears to be an extremely efficient headphone, and even using the rather low-powered output of the Apple Dongle there was more than enough volume range on the Celestee, and bass extension and impact did not suffer. This is a headphone that can easily be driven by portable sources.
Quibbles
While I found the Celestee to be a delight overall, there are some areas I could see room for improvement on. The cable is extremely short, which is fine for a product that will be used 'on the go' but is not great for home use, or even office use if you have a large desk and need to roll around a lot. Some Focal headphones come with multiple cables, and at a nearly $1,000 MSRP, Focal could have and should have included a 3m cable along with the shorter one for portable use. There were also instances where I could hear a resonance in the upper-bass range, likely some reflection inside of the cups. Some of that is unavoidable with a closed back headphone of course, and I'm not sure what Focal could do to fix that. The adjustment range of the headphones are also on the smaller side. I was able to get a good fit, but I was on the second-to-last click on the adjustment rods to do so, those with heads larger than mine may face some difficulties.
Comparisons
Beyerdynamic DT177X
Perhaps not a fair comparison given that the Beyerdynamic is a much cheaper headphone, but it's one that I had on hand and could do AB testing so I gave it a go. While the Beyerdynamic is built well in a utilitarian kind of way, it doesn't come close to the Focal in terms of style or luxury quality of materials used. The DT177X feels like it could survive being thrown into a backpack without a case, something I wouldn't do with the Focal, but it's not nearly as pretty and doesn't feel as special in the hands.
In terms of sound quality the Beyerdynamic lacks the upper-midrange extension and detail found in the Celestee, it sounds a bit more dead in that region in comparison, and also has more subdued treble. While the DT177X has copious amounts of bass, the bass on the Focal is more detailed, more defined, with considerably better texture and timbre, the DT177X coming off as a bit more 'one note' in comparison.
Audeze EL8 Titanium
An out-of-production model, but another I had on hand. Build quality on the Audeze is excellent as it is on the Celestee, though style-wise the Focal still wins. The Audeze outperforms the Celestee on bass impact and a tad on sub-bass rumble, and the two are matched well when it comes to midrange performance, with the Audeze perhaps having a bit more going on in the top of the upper-midrange/lower-treble region, and sounding just a bit thinner.
The Celestee does win from a comfort perspective, with the EL8's pads not breathing nearly as well as the Celestee's, and with the Audeze being prone to an annoying crinkle sound from the drivers when you move your head.
Dan Clark Audio Ether CX
This is one I tested quite a while ago, so I am going by memory. The Ether CX was a headphone that absolutely required EQ for me - the bass was way too anemic without it, but it did have a beautiful midrange presentation, and excellent build quality, though going for a more tech-focused look with carbon fiber and exposed headband wire than Focal's Paris Fashion Week approach.
Both are extremely comfortable headphones, and though DCA uses faux-leather in their pads, it's faux-leather of an incredibly high quality that feels better than the real leather used in some brands.
While matched (from memory) in midrange performance, the Celestee pulls ahead again in terms of bass quality, with the Ether CX falling victim to a bit of 'one note syndrome' when the bass is boosted to an acceptable level.
Focal Elex
While this a bit of an apples/oranges comparison considering the Elex is an open back, it's the only Focal headphone that I own (it's actually an Elear with Elex pads, but measurements have shown that's really all an Elex is - an Elear with cosmetic differences and Elex pads), and it's positioned in the same point of Focal's lineup as their entry-level open back.
It could be because my Elear/Elex is a bit older, but it creaks quite a bit, something the Celestee never did. Style-wise I think the Celestee is a clear winner as well, much nicer to look at than the Black/Chrome on the Elear/Elex.
When it comes to sound though, the Celestee falls short compared to its open-back brother. The Elex has considerably more dynamic impact (I'm guessing there's some mechanical air damping happening inside the Celestee), a much more open soundstage, more precise imaging, and doesn't seem to lose anything when it comes to bass performance.
This brings me to....
Conclusions
Who is the Celestee for? It's a beautiful high quality luxury product with excellent sound for a closed back, falling short in a few small areas, but outperforming the competition in many more. While sound isolation is good, I don't know how well it would fare on a plane compared to an ANC headphone (though the sound quality is quite a bit better than any ANC headphone I've heard). For home use an open back would provide better performance, provided you have a quiet space away from people.
Therefore I'm thinking the target is office use, perhaps use in bed next to a partner doing something else, or perhaps a commute on public transportation. Since they can run very well off of even low-powered sources they're quite versatile with what they can be driven from, making them excellent potential road-warrior headphones. Since the case is quite compact it may even make sense for someone to take two sets of headphones on a trip - some Bose or Sony ANCs for the plane ride, and the Celestee for when you get to your destination, the isolation is quite suitable at blocking out AC noise, so should be great for hotel rooms.
I enjoyed my time with the Celestee, and in a final reckoning I'd say they're absolutely worth the price, especially if design and luxury materials are priorities of yours, and you need a closed back headphone.
I've primarily been an open-back headphone guy, but I've been growing curious about what the newer products in the closed-back market have to offer. Spending time with the Celestee impressed me in many ways while at the same time confirming some of my reservations about closed-back headphones.
Associated Gear
Bluesound Node 2i
RME ADI-2 DAC
Schiit Raganarok 2
iPad Pro M1
Apple Music Lossless Streaming
FLAC CD Rips on USB
Build/Styling/Packaging/Accessories
I'll start with one of the best things about the Celestee - it's possibly the best looking headphone I've seen, with striking styling in various shades of blue with copper accents. Opening the stylish travel case (that's reminiscent of a high end purse) you're immediately greeted by the smell of high quality leather used in the pads and the headband. Picking the headphones up they're surprisingly light but feel sturdy and well made. I didn't hear any creaking or rattling during my time with them.
The included cable, while very short, is in a matching shade of blue with the copper accents and is very flexible with no cable memory effects that I noticed. The pads are quite soft and have enough room for my ears that they were never irritated rubbing against the insides of the pads. The pads are a hybrid design with leather covering the outside and areas that touch your face, and a cloth ring on the inside. The driver is covered with a copper-colored metal grill that matches the accents on the outside of the headphone and features a foam ring surrounding it, likely to help reduce reflections inside the cup. You can also see Focal's Aluminum-Magnesium 'M Shaped Dome' driver through the metal shield, which is constructed more like the driver in a speaker, with a rigid cone and a rubber surround, as opposed to typical headphone drivers that have tiny mylar domes surrounded by large plastic surrounds. This speaker-like driver seems to be a major contributor to Focal's ability to make headphones with excellent dynamic punch.
On the outside of the cups there's a perforated metal shell around what appears to be leather, and a center-cap featuring the Focal logo which is used as an air-pressure relief vent to prevent pressure buildup when putting the headphones on.
Although it's somewhat difficult to see in photos, the Celestee makes use of several shades of blue, from the deep navy on the rings around the cups, an almost-navy on the cups themselves, to a lighter cobalt or royal blue used in the yokes, accents, and pads.
All in all Focal absolutely nailed the styling on the Celestee as a luxury product. This is a headphone that wouldn't look out of place sitting on a table top in a Beverly Hills mansion.
Sound
Overall I'd describe that sound of these as very clear, focused, and fulfilling. Perhaps my biggest praise for them is that I did not feel the need to apply any EQ to them while listening during my time with them, something that doesn't happen very often with headphones.
Bass
Bass extension is deep with solid performance even in the sub-bass. While it's not Audeze LCD level in its ability to dig into the subterranean frequencies, it holds its own and never felt unfulfilling even on tracks that require solid bass performance. There's a very slight midbass bump, but it ends up being just enough to give them a bit of kick without making them sound warm or muddy.
Whether electronic bass such as in Yello's The Expert, Bass Guitar such as in Steely Dan's Negative Girl, or Orchestral Bass such as in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture, the bass was always quick, punchy when called for, and well defined with excellent timbre and clean delineation between the notes.
Midrange
The Celestee has a small dip in the lower midrange which works to to cleanly separate the bass from the midrange and helps aid in focus for vocals. Upper-Midrange is one of the most important aspects of headphone performance for me as I listen to a lot of female-vocal focused music, and the Celestee performs very well in that regard, holding close to the Harman Curve up through 3Khz, with some drop-off after that (a little more energy up through 5khz would be welcome, but it gets the majority right).
Vocals are forward, with dead-center presentation, and the timbre has enough bite and brilliance to give the upper vocal harmonics some emphasis. Male vocals are also well presented, and without any chestiness or excessive resonance. Detail retrieval in the midrange struck me as well above average, with details in vocal inflection, breath, vibrato and resonance, etc, all being quite audible.
Selected midrange/vocal test tracks included: Alison Krauss & Union Station - Gravity, Solji - Please, IU - Strawberry Moon, Willie Nelson - Stardust
Treble
Treble performance on headphones has never been a big priority of mine - as long as it isn't piercing or completely dead up there I'm OK with it. The Celestee performs completely acceptably in the treble range, nothing stands out to me as good or bad, which is a good thing in my book, the treble exists, there's some air up there, but it doesn't ever make itself center-stage or try to steal the show.
Treble test tracks: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons: Summer III - Presto, Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man
Soundstage and Imaging
Typically areas that are hard for closed-back headphones to perform well in, and the Celestee hits and misses here. Imaging is acceptable, very good even for a closed back, but not close to top of the pack when open backed headphones are considered. I believe the challenge comes from the rather narrow soundstage - it's hard to define a clear image when the soundstage itself is rather small.
I'm not one that cares about a super-wide soundstage, so that's fine for me personally for most music. Pop, rock, acoustic, ballads, etc, all work well within the small soundstage, they sound focused and detailed. Listening to large orchestral works and classical is where it falls apart in terms of soundstage and imaging. While those genres are tough for headphones in general, the Celestee underperforms open backs and many other closed backs when it comes to painting a realistic picture of scale and position when listening to symphonies.
Source Pairings
My main setup is a BlueSound Node 2i fed with Apple Music Lossless and FLAC files on USB stick through an RME ADI-2 DAC and a Schiit Ragnarok 2 amplifier. This setup worked very well (aside from the need for an extension cable) and easily powered the Celestees.
Since this is a closed-back, which seems to indicate that it would be intended for mobile/public use, I also decided to test it out using my iPad Pro M1 with the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm headphone dongle. Surprisingly, I could not hear any difference with the Celestees using this setup compared to my primary one. The Celestee appears to be an extremely efficient headphone, and even using the rather low-powered output of the Apple Dongle there was more than enough volume range on the Celestee, and bass extension and impact did not suffer. This is a headphone that can easily be driven by portable sources.
Quibbles
While I found the Celestee to be a delight overall, there are some areas I could see room for improvement on. The cable is extremely short, which is fine for a product that will be used 'on the go' but is not great for home use, or even office use if you have a large desk and need to roll around a lot. Some Focal headphones come with multiple cables, and at a nearly $1,000 MSRP, Focal could have and should have included a 3m cable along with the shorter one for portable use. There were also instances where I could hear a resonance in the upper-bass range, likely some reflection inside of the cups. Some of that is unavoidable with a closed back headphone of course, and I'm not sure what Focal could do to fix that. The adjustment range of the headphones are also on the smaller side. I was able to get a good fit, but I was on the second-to-last click on the adjustment rods to do so, those with heads larger than mine may face some difficulties.
Comparisons
Beyerdynamic DT177X
Perhaps not a fair comparison given that the Beyerdynamic is a much cheaper headphone, but it's one that I had on hand and could do AB testing so I gave it a go. While the Beyerdynamic is built well in a utilitarian kind of way, it doesn't come close to the Focal in terms of style or luxury quality of materials used. The DT177X feels like it could survive being thrown into a backpack without a case, something I wouldn't do with the Focal, but it's not nearly as pretty and doesn't feel as special in the hands.
In terms of sound quality the Beyerdynamic lacks the upper-midrange extension and detail found in the Celestee, it sounds a bit more dead in that region in comparison, and also has more subdued treble. While the DT177X has copious amounts of bass, the bass on the Focal is more detailed, more defined, with considerably better texture and timbre, the DT177X coming off as a bit more 'one note' in comparison.
Audeze EL8 Titanium
An out-of-production model, but another I had on hand. Build quality on the Audeze is excellent as it is on the Celestee, though style-wise the Focal still wins. The Audeze outperforms the Celestee on bass impact and a tad on sub-bass rumble, and the two are matched well when it comes to midrange performance, with the Audeze perhaps having a bit more going on in the top of the upper-midrange/lower-treble region, and sounding just a bit thinner.
The Celestee does win from a comfort perspective, with the EL8's pads not breathing nearly as well as the Celestee's, and with the Audeze being prone to an annoying crinkle sound from the drivers when you move your head.
Dan Clark Audio Ether CX
This is one I tested quite a while ago, so I am going by memory. The Ether CX was a headphone that absolutely required EQ for me - the bass was way too anemic without it, but it did have a beautiful midrange presentation, and excellent build quality, though going for a more tech-focused look with carbon fiber and exposed headband wire than Focal's Paris Fashion Week approach.
Both are extremely comfortable headphones, and though DCA uses faux-leather in their pads, it's faux-leather of an incredibly high quality that feels better than the real leather used in some brands.
While matched (from memory) in midrange performance, the Celestee pulls ahead again in terms of bass quality, with the Ether CX falling victim to a bit of 'one note syndrome' when the bass is boosted to an acceptable level.
Focal Elex
While this a bit of an apples/oranges comparison considering the Elex is an open back, it's the only Focal headphone that I own (it's actually an Elear with Elex pads, but measurements have shown that's really all an Elex is - an Elear with cosmetic differences and Elex pads), and it's positioned in the same point of Focal's lineup as their entry-level open back.
It could be because my Elear/Elex is a bit older, but it creaks quite a bit, something the Celestee never did. Style-wise I think the Celestee is a clear winner as well, much nicer to look at than the Black/Chrome on the Elear/Elex.
When it comes to sound though, the Celestee falls short compared to its open-back brother. The Elex has considerably more dynamic impact (I'm guessing there's some mechanical air damping happening inside the Celestee), a much more open soundstage, more precise imaging, and doesn't seem to lose anything when it comes to bass performance.
This brings me to....
Conclusions
Who is the Celestee for? It's a beautiful high quality luxury product with excellent sound for a closed back, falling short in a few small areas, but outperforming the competition in many more. While sound isolation is good, I don't know how well it would fare on a plane compared to an ANC headphone (though the sound quality is quite a bit better than any ANC headphone I've heard). For home use an open back would provide better performance, provided you have a quiet space away from people.
Therefore I'm thinking the target is office use, perhaps use in bed next to a partner doing something else, or perhaps a commute on public transportation. Since they can run very well off of even low-powered sources they're quite versatile with what they can be driven from, making them excellent potential road-warrior headphones. Since the case is quite compact it may even make sense for someone to take two sets of headphones on a trip - some Bose or Sony ANCs for the plane ride, and the Celestee for when you get to your destination, the isolation is quite suitable at blocking out AC noise, so should be great for hotel rooms.
I enjoyed my time with the Celestee, and in a final reckoning I'd say they're absolutely worth the price, especially if design and luxury materials are priorities of yours, and you need a closed back headphone.
SGarfinkle
Of course, if your bose breaks, they'll send you a new one - frequently even out of warranty. If your Focal breaks, you can try to send them to France.
mindblownDt48
If i were stealing as much as bose from my customers, id send them free stuff as well... And those that dont see, will even be happy i robbed them and they will give me even more money. I know, crazy, right?
First of all thank you to American HiFi for sponsoring this product tour.
Source Gear
- Bluesound Node 2i with Apple Music and FLAC rips on USB (source for both chains)
- RME ADI-2 DAC (headphone chain)
- MiniDSP DDRC-22D Dirac Processor (speaker chain)
- Emotiva PT-100 Preamp (speaker chain)
- MassDrop THX AAA 789 Headphone Amp (headphone chain)
- Crown XLS 1502 Speaker Amp (speaker chain)
- Infinity Intermezzo 4.1t
- Beyerdynamic T1.2
- ZMF Auteur Wenge
- Audeze LCD-3
- Audeze EL-8 Titanium
- Hifiman HE6se
- Grado PS1000e
- Sony MDR-MA900
Overview
As someone who runs a speaker setup and a headphone setup in the same room the possibility of reducing clutter and finding a 'one device to rule them all' solution is always compelling. In many ways the Cyrus OneHD comes close to being that device, and performance in many ways exceeded my expectations. However, a number of usability issues, bugs, and shortcomings ultimately means this isn't the device to do that for me.
With a powerful speaker amp section, a wide variety of inputs (both analog and digital), and an innovative take on headphone amplification from an integrated amp that allows the full power of the speaker amp power supply to be directed into a separate Class AB headphone amp there are many things to like about the Cyrus OneHD.
Build
Solidly build out of metal with two large knobs and high-quality feeling binding posts, the OneHD feels like a high quality product. It comes packed extremely well - double boxed with form-fitting inserts to keep it from jostling on its way to your door.
The dimensions are a bit odd - it's very narrow while also being very deep. Because of that it hung over both the back and front of my audio rack (see photo below) and because of the narrow dimensions the inputs on the rear are closer together than would be preferred for ease of use in connecting/disconnecting gear (though in a non-review setting that likely wouldn't be an issue as you'd 'set it and forget it').
Making the unit wider-but-shallower would also allow for space to include XLR inputs on the rear and an XLR headphone jack on the front, potentially with more power to be able to drive more power-hungry headphones.
Speaker Amp Performance
My favorite thing about the Cyrus OneHD was it's excellent performance as a speaker amp. It's powerful, punchy, has an incredibly low noise floor, and easily trounced my Crown XLS 1502 in terms of audio quality. I hadn't realized how much my XLS 1502 was holding my speakers back until I hooked up the OneHD - it was a revelation how much clearer the sound became and how imaging and soundstage improved. Despite having considerably less wattage than the Crown amp, I found that at even 50% of the volume knob my Infinitys were much louder than I'd ever need in my listening room. I can heartily recommend the Cyrus OneHD as a speaker amp.
Headphone Amp Performance
Most receivers and integrated amps with headphone jacks just include one as an afterthought with very little time spent optimizing the quality of the experience for headphones. It's clear that the Cyrus team went above and beyond there, however, building-in a dedicated Class AB headphone amp that pulls power from the main transformer that normally drives the speaker taps.
I found that the OneHD performed best with high-impedance dynamic headphones. There's a certain warmth and richness to the sound, though it's thankfully not syrupy or blurred as one might get from an inexpensive tube amp or tube hybrid. I've never heard my Beyerdynamic T1.2s sound as good as they did from the OneHD - the stellar imaging that the T1.2s are known for was in full effect, with an extremely natural tone devoid of any sibilance or harshness in the treble. Likewise my ZMF Auteurs loved the OneHD, with strong meaty bass, powerful transient attacks, and an open natural sound.
Lower impedance dynamic headphones like the Sony MDR-MA900 and Grado PS1000e didn't seem to gain as much from the OneHD as the aforementioned ones, but they still sounded as good as they do from my THX 789.
Where it didn't stack up well was with power-hungry planars. While the LCD-3 is relatively high efficiency for a planar, the OneHD didn't seem to be able to drive it with the same quick attacks and slam as the THX 789, and the Hifiman HE6se fell apart on the Cyrus - with a sound that was loose and muddy. The Audeze EL-8s, however, which are designed to be run from mobile sources, worked extremely well with the Cyrus OneHD, sounding considerably better than they do running off of my iPhone, with deeper and more pronounced bass and a more present and lifelike midrange.
Usability Issues
This is ultimately where the unit didn't live up to what I'd want for something I'd purchase myself. While the Cyrus app works very well, it's nowhere near as convenient as a physical remote control that can be operated without having to pick up the phone or tablet or switch screens/apps while using other apps while listening. Strangely, both the lower-model in the One series, the Cyrus One, and the one above this, the Cyrus One Cast, both come with physical remote controls. The choice by Cyrus not to include one with the OneHD is baffling makes usability suffer.
On a positive note, the app does allow you to change the brightness of the front-facing LEDs (the default value is eye-searingly bright, unfortunately), as well as to quickly change inputs. I like the idea of an app to delve into deeper settings, but a basic remote that allows for volume and input changes should be included.
I ran into an issue with the built-in DAC while using my Bluesound Node 2i with Apple Music. When connected to the Cyrus OneHD via the coaxial digital input the OneHD would seem to lose sync whenever a new album would begin, and sometimes in the middle of an album, resulting in the sound stuttering and cutting in and out for 30 seconds or so before eventually beginning to play smoothly. Oddly this did not happen when using the Node 2i to play FLAC rips off of a USB stick plugged into the back of it. This behavior isn't present in either my RME ADI-2 DAC or the built-in-DAC in the Emotiva PT-100. I do not have any other devices with ESS DACs, so I don't know if it's an issue endemic to ESS or just Cyrus's implementation of it. Once it did 'sync' and begin to play freely the built-in DAC did sound lovely, however.
Upon connecting the app to the unit with a headphone plugged in you will be greeted by a message stating that balance control is not available on the headphone output. Again, this is a baffling omission as being able to adjust balance is even more important on headphones than speakers - being able to correct for slight channel imbalances in headphones (or for one's own hearing) would be a welcome addition.
The unit also creates a 'pop' or 'thud' sound in the connected speakers every time it's turned on - even if headphones are connected first before the unit is powered on. Some sort of soft-power-on feature would be much appreciated as it's disconcerting to hear one's speakers pop every time you turn on the amp.
Comparisons
vs Crown XLS 1502
There's really no comparison here, the OneHD is a far superior speaker amp to the Crown, there was absolutely no area of sound where the OneHD wasn't notably audibly superior.
vs Massdrop THX AAA 789
This is a tougher comparison as the OneHD beats the 789 in terms of 'organic' or 'natural' sound, but lacks the same amount of power that the THX AAA 789 has. Head-to-head I'd say that the THX 789 has more overall detail and more pronounced treble articulation, but there was a certain je ne sais quoi to the sound of the OneHD when driving the T1.2 or Auteur that made me clearly prefer it to the THX 789 for those headphones. For headphones that can benefit from copious amounts of power, however (or for those that demand it) the THX 789 took the lead.
Conclusions
My time spent with the Cyrus OneHD was both enlightening and frustrating. There are things about the OneHD that I absolutely loved (speaker amp capability, sound of the headphone amp with the cans that worked well with it), things that made me wonder why they weren't addressed in the development process (balance control for headphones, the popping sound when powered on, the lack of a remote), and things that made me want to start pulling my hair out (the syncing issue when using the internal DAC from my Node2i as a streaming source).
Ultimately while the performance was above expectations for the things it does well, the usability concerns would make it a no-go for me. The step-up unit Cyrus One Cast would seem to be the more compelling option - with integrated support for a number of streaming services without having to resort to lossy Bluetooth and with a physical remote it would solve two big issues, though as someone with a variety of headphones, some of which need more power than the unit can produce, I believe it would still ultimately fall short. Perhaps in the future Cyrus may want to offer a unit that can redirect the full power of the speaker amps through the headphone jack (preferably with an XLR connection) similar to what Schiit does with the Ragnarok.
INTRO:
First of all thank you to Audio46 for sponsoring this review tour.
I'll start off by saying I've not traditionally been an IEM guy. I've focused almost entirely on full-sized open back headphones (and I have a wide range including the Beyerdynamic T1.2, ZMF Auteur, Koss ESP 95/X, Monoprice M1570, Sennheiser HD6XX, Grado PS1000e, Sony MDR-SA1000 and MDR-MA900, and plenty of others), and have found IEMs in general to be disappointing and uncomfortable in the past.
That changed when I impulse bought a pair of Moondrop SSRs and discovered that IEMs can offer a level of clarity and detail that I hadn't thought possible, eclipsing that of my full-sized open back headphones.
I'm still relatively new to the IEM-game, but when the opportunity arose to try the A4000 I wanted to jump on it to expand my horizons.
Others have listed the specs and have provided detailed photos (I actually forgot to take photos while using it, so I just have my boxing/unboxing photos to share) so I'll skip those parts.
ASSOCIATED GEAR:
Source: Apple Music Lossless
Amps: Apple iPad Pro 10.5" Headphone Jack, Apple iPhone 8 Plus w/Apple Dongle, RME ADI-2 DAC IEM Port
PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES:
The unit comes in a nice box with foam cutouts and five sets of silicone ear-tips in various sizes. There's a little travel-case which closes tightly and feels like it's at least water-resistant. There are some ear-hooks to help the cable maintain a curve around the ear, but they're not built into the cable and have to be installed separately.
BUILD AND USABILITY:
It's made out of plastic, but you could be fooled into thinking it's aluminum. It's a very high quality plastic, and build quality feels impeccable. The IEMs are quite light and small enough that there's no discomfort putting them into your ears.
I commend Final Audio on their dual-density silicone eartip mounting system, with the inner silicone ring being a firmer type of material than the outer part, it makes it quite easy to mount them on the spouts coming out of the IEMs. Color-coding the right vs left and in alternating dark vs light shades is also very nice so that you can make sure you're getting two of the same size when you install them. The tips are quite comfortable.
Unfortunately that same system is used for determining the right vs left channels when putting the IEMs into your ears, requiring you to peel back the outer silicone later to see the color of the shaft beneath. While it works, it's a bit fiddly, and simply color-coding the right cable termination in red would make things easier.
On the topic of the cable, it's a bit too short for when you want to lean back and listen with your device on the table next to you, an extra couple feel would be welcome. I also personally prefer cables that have permanent plastic sleeves to make the part that goes over your ear hold its shape, similar to what Moondrop uses.
SOUND:
Bass: Bass is deeply extended into the sub-bass region with excellent punch and detail, and a very tight presentation. Thankfully there's no mid-bass emphasis or bleed from the bass into the midrange. This results in a clean crisp sound with a very solid foundation. On Wheein's Watercolor the bass line comes across clean and punchy without ever interfering with the vocal line. On Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo the bass line had the ultra-deep extension, texture, and growl that makes that song a perennial bass test highlight. Acoustic instruments also shine in the bass department with the Contrabassoon, Contrabass, and Bass Clarinet in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 Leningrad all coming across tonally correct and prominent when called for.
Midrange: The midrange is the make-it-or-break-it element of any headphone for me. Anything with a recessed midrange is an instant deal-killer (or requires the application of judicious EQ to correct the deficiency). Thankfully on the A4000 the midrange shines, with a very forward presentation with plenty of bite to give recordings that 'in your face' feeling. There's a clear delineation between the bass and the midrange which helps prevent any kind of bleed between the two and prevents the A4000 from ever sounding muddy, as is unfortunately all too common in headphones with too much mid-bass elevation. On No BS! Brass Band's KHAN!!! the trumpets had the expected brilliance, the saxophones the reedy breathiness, and the trombones the snarling growl that makes the track a delight. On Heize's Happen the acoustic instruments again show excellent separation from the bassline and the vocals maintain their airy ethereal nature. On Gavy NJ's Let's Stop the high notes towards the end all ring through forward in the mix with the proper amount of sharpness and bite, just verging on painful as they should. On classical tracks like the Shotakovich 7 again there's excellent timbral accuracy in the strings and upper woodwinds, with the reedyness of the English Horn and Oboe coming across beautifully.
Treble: Overall I'd rate the treble as inoffensive with appropriate levels of detail and an overall laid back presentation. There's some air, and just enough that it feels like the top end is there, but it doesn't distract from the midrange and tight bass which are the stars of the show with this IEM. There's an emphasis on the lower treble vs the upper, which does a good job of emphasizing overtones in vocals and acoustic instruments, helping to keep the overall tonal balance towards the brilliant side and managing to toe the line perfectly between sounding lean and warm, possible edging just a bit towards the lean side, which is my personal preference anyway. I didn't notice any unpleasant sibilance.
Soundstage: What really sets this IEM apart from my (admittedly limited) experience with others is how wide the soundstage is. On the Fairfield Four's Roll Jordan Roll the soundstage blooms out nice and wide as it should about halfway through the song. On Yello's La Habanera the various instruments and percussion are placed nice and wide, often seeming to emanate from outside of the head. Listening to orchestral recordings it was easy to close my eyes and image the full orchestra set in front of me.
Imaging: Imaging isn't as strong as the soundstage is, but it's not poor by any means. I'd set it somewhere in between the Sennheiser 6XX '3 blob' and the razor's edge pin-point imaging of the Beyerdynamic T1 Generation 2.
Composure: This is the place where the A4000 stumbles a bit, but it didn't come off in all tracks. When the track gets extremely busy the IEM can lose it's coherence to a degree, such as in the finale of Shostakovich's 7th, the finale of Charles Ives' 2nd, or in particularly busy brickwall mastered pop tracks like Fromis_9's Love Bomb during the chorus when tons of effects and synths are layered on top of the vocals all in the same tonal range. They do excel in less busy songs however.
Final Thoughts:
I walked away from my time spend with the A4000 extremely impressed. The Moondrop SSR was the IEM That made me rethink my position on IEMs in general and rekindled my interest in the style, and the A4000 strikes me as an SSR taken to the next level with much better bass performance, greater technical skill, and a wider soundstage without losing that brilliant midrange or clarity that made me fall in love with the SSR to begin with. For only $159 this is easily a great value.
One of the things I always like about testing out new gear is the chance to discover new elements in favorite songs, as well as to expand my listening into some new areas. I've often heard it repeated that Japanese headphones and IEMs are tuned for Jpop, and while my personal pop music tastes lay to the other side of the East Sea, I decided to dig into some Jpop as well during my time with the A4000. Going with AKB48's Eien Pressure, Last Idol's Nanbitomo, High School 3-C Idol Club's Jibunno Kotoga Wakanarai, I can say that these do excel at the genre, but they're by no means limited to it, and are excellent all-rounders whether I was listening to Willie Nelson, Maynard Ferguson, Pink Fantasy, or Bach.
My only real areas of criticism are the minor ergonomic issues of the too short cable, lack of integrated ear contours in the cable, lack of clear external color coding for channels, and the chance for it to fall apart a bit on particularly busy/dense tracks. When it comes to the latter point I wonder how the TOTL A8000 would compare, but at $2,000 that's quite a bit too rich for my blood in terms of IEMs right now, though with the A5000, A6000, and A7000 names available and unused for the moment, perhaps Final Audio will release some intermediaries with even greater technical capability, after all there's a huge price gulf to the exploited between the A4000 and A8000 as it is.
Even with those concerns however, I can heartily recommend the A4000 based on my time with it and the (limited) experience I have with IEMs thus far.
First of all thank you to Audio46 for sponsoring this review tour.
I'll start off by saying I've not traditionally been an IEM guy. I've focused almost entirely on full-sized open back headphones (and I have a wide range including the Beyerdynamic T1.2, ZMF Auteur, Koss ESP 95/X, Monoprice M1570, Sennheiser HD6XX, Grado PS1000e, Sony MDR-SA1000 and MDR-MA900, and plenty of others), and have found IEMs in general to be disappointing and uncomfortable in the past.
That changed when I impulse bought a pair of Moondrop SSRs and discovered that IEMs can offer a level of clarity and detail that I hadn't thought possible, eclipsing that of my full-sized open back headphones.
I'm still relatively new to the IEM-game, but when the opportunity arose to try the A4000 I wanted to jump on it to expand my horizons.
Others have listed the specs and have provided detailed photos (I actually forgot to take photos while using it, so I just have my boxing/unboxing photos to share) so I'll skip those parts.
ASSOCIATED GEAR:
Source: Apple Music Lossless
Amps: Apple iPad Pro 10.5" Headphone Jack, Apple iPhone 8 Plus w/Apple Dongle, RME ADI-2 DAC IEM Port
PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES:
The unit comes in a nice box with foam cutouts and five sets of silicone ear-tips in various sizes. There's a little travel-case which closes tightly and feels like it's at least water-resistant. There are some ear-hooks to help the cable maintain a curve around the ear, but they're not built into the cable and have to be installed separately.
BUILD AND USABILITY:
It's made out of plastic, but you could be fooled into thinking it's aluminum. It's a very high quality plastic, and build quality feels impeccable. The IEMs are quite light and small enough that there's no discomfort putting them into your ears.
I commend Final Audio on their dual-density silicone eartip mounting system, with the inner silicone ring being a firmer type of material than the outer part, it makes it quite easy to mount them on the spouts coming out of the IEMs. Color-coding the right vs left and in alternating dark vs light shades is also very nice so that you can make sure you're getting two of the same size when you install them. The tips are quite comfortable.
Unfortunately that same system is used for determining the right vs left channels when putting the IEMs into your ears, requiring you to peel back the outer silicone later to see the color of the shaft beneath. While it works, it's a bit fiddly, and simply color-coding the right cable termination in red would make things easier.
On the topic of the cable, it's a bit too short for when you want to lean back and listen with your device on the table next to you, an extra couple feel would be welcome. I also personally prefer cables that have permanent plastic sleeves to make the part that goes over your ear hold its shape, similar to what Moondrop uses.
SOUND:
Bass: Bass is deeply extended into the sub-bass region with excellent punch and detail, and a very tight presentation. Thankfully there's no mid-bass emphasis or bleed from the bass into the midrange. This results in a clean crisp sound with a very solid foundation. On Wheein's Watercolor the bass line comes across clean and punchy without ever interfering with the vocal line. On Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo the bass line had the ultra-deep extension, texture, and growl that makes that song a perennial bass test highlight. Acoustic instruments also shine in the bass department with the Contrabassoon, Contrabass, and Bass Clarinet in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 Leningrad all coming across tonally correct and prominent when called for.
Midrange: The midrange is the make-it-or-break-it element of any headphone for me. Anything with a recessed midrange is an instant deal-killer (or requires the application of judicious EQ to correct the deficiency). Thankfully on the A4000 the midrange shines, with a very forward presentation with plenty of bite to give recordings that 'in your face' feeling. There's a clear delineation between the bass and the midrange which helps prevent any kind of bleed between the two and prevents the A4000 from ever sounding muddy, as is unfortunately all too common in headphones with too much mid-bass elevation. On No BS! Brass Band's KHAN!!! the trumpets had the expected brilliance, the saxophones the reedy breathiness, and the trombones the snarling growl that makes the track a delight. On Heize's Happen the acoustic instruments again show excellent separation from the bassline and the vocals maintain their airy ethereal nature. On Gavy NJ's Let's Stop the high notes towards the end all ring through forward in the mix with the proper amount of sharpness and bite, just verging on painful as they should. On classical tracks like the Shotakovich 7 again there's excellent timbral accuracy in the strings and upper woodwinds, with the reedyness of the English Horn and Oboe coming across beautifully.
Treble: Overall I'd rate the treble as inoffensive with appropriate levels of detail and an overall laid back presentation. There's some air, and just enough that it feels like the top end is there, but it doesn't distract from the midrange and tight bass which are the stars of the show with this IEM. There's an emphasis on the lower treble vs the upper, which does a good job of emphasizing overtones in vocals and acoustic instruments, helping to keep the overall tonal balance towards the brilliant side and managing to toe the line perfectly between sounding lean and warm, possible edging just a bit towards the lean side, which is my personal preference anyway. I didn't notice any unpleasant sibilance.
Soundstage: What really sets this IEM apart from my (admittedly limited) experience with others is how wide the soundstage is. On the Fairfield Four's Roll Jordan Roll the soundstage blooms out nice and wide as it should about halfway through the song. On Yello's La Habanera the various instruments and percussion are placed nice and wide, often seeming to emanate from outside of the head. Listening to orchestral recordings it was easy to close my eyes and image the full orchestra set in front of me.
Imaging: Imaging isn't as strong as the soundstage is, but it's not poor by any means. I'd set it somewhere in between the Sennheiser 6XX '3 blob' and the razor's edge pin-point imaging of the Beyerdynamic T1 Generation 2.
Composure: This is the place where the A4000 stumbles a bit, but it didn't come off in all tracks. When the track gets extremely busy the IEM can lose it's coherence to a degree, such as in the finale of Shostakovich's 7th, the finale of Charles Ives' 2nd, or in particularly busy brickwall mastered pop tracks like Fromis_9's Love Bomb during the chorus when tons of effects and synths are layered on top of the vocals all in the same tonal range. They do excel in less busy songs however.
Final Thoughts:
I walked away from my time spend with the A4000 extremely impressed. The Moondrop SSR was the IEM That made me rethink my position on IEMs in general and rekindled my interest in the style, and the A4000 strikes me as an SSR taken to the next level with much better bass performance, greater technical skill, and a wider soundstage without losing that brilliant midrange or clarity that made me fall in love with the SSR to begin with. For only $159 this is easily a great value.
One of the things I always like about testing out new gear is the chance to discover new elements in favorite songs, as well as to expand my listening into some new areas. I've often heard it repeated that Japanese headphones and IEMs are tuned for Jpop, and while my personal pop music tastes lay to the other side of the East Sea, I decided to dig into some Jpop as well during my time with the A4000. Going with AKB48's Eien Pressure, Last Idol's Nanbitomo, High School 3-C Idol Club's Jibunno Kotoga Wakanarai, I can say that these do excel at the genre, but they're by no means limited to it, and are excellent all-rounders whether I was listening to Willie Nelson, Maynard Ferguson, Pink Fantasy, or Bach.
My only real areas of criticism are the minor ergonomic issues of the too short cable, lack of integrated ear contours in the cable, lack of clear external color coding for channels, and the chance for it to fall apart a bit on particularly busy/dense tracks. When it comes to the latter point I wonder how the TOTL A8000 would compare, but at $2,000 that's quite a bit too rich for my blood in terms of IEMs right now, though with the A5000, A6000, and A7000 names available and unused for the moment, perhaps Final Audio will release some intermediaries with even greater technical capability, after all there's a huge price gulf to the exploited between the A4000 and A8000 as it is.
Even with those concerns however, I can heartily recommend the A4000 based on my time with it and the (limited) experience I have with IEMs thus far.
riverground
You sir have great taste in music 
Very nice review!
I definitely should try the tracks you mentioned that made the imaging suffer on the A4k. I just heard the imaging to be precise but nothing to be extremely wowed by but it didn’t come off incoherent for me.
Very nice review!
I definitely should try the tracks you mentioned that made the imaging suffer on the A4k. I just heard the imaging to be precise but nothing to be extremely wowed by but it didn’t come off incoherent for me.
CT007
I must have had a dud. Mine had no significant bass.
You are missing what this headphones are being targeted to and their usage.