Audiophilepure

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/review-stax-sr-l300-electrostatic-headphones-r883/

“Now all of my listening with these phones was done with either the new Stax SRM-700T (for Tube) or the HiFiMan Jade 2 energizer/amplifier (solid-state). I’m very fond of my Jade2 system. It is clean, articulate and the phones are super comfortable. But in spite of the Stax being over a thousand dollars (List price) cheaper than the Jade2s (by themselves – no energizer/amp) they blow the HiFiMan cans out of the water. The amount of detail retrieval is an order of magnitude better, and the in-your-face perspective of the Stax still manage to give a soundstage that is at once wider and deeper. While this difference is much more pronounced with the Stax amp, both amps allow two sets of phones to be auditioned at once. This makes comparisons between different sets of phones much easier because one can switch very quickly and one can tell which amp does what to which phone (confused yet?). For instance, Between the SR-900S ($4500) and the SR-L300 ($430) on the Stax amp, one can easily hear that while the former are about 10X the latter, the sound of the two (except the difference in perspective, of course) are actually fairly close. There is certainly not 10X the difference in performance, and given the lightness of the SR-L300s, they certainly are more comfortable than the flagship model over long-term listening.

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“Although the Elegia uses a closed enclosure, it has two vents; one is part of the driver itself while the second vent is actually built into the logo design in the centre of the earcup. The entire earcup design has been optimised to an ideal volume for optimal decompression and damping. It uses both internal diffusers as well as EVA foam to break up any standing waves and spread the energy evenly throughout the enclosure. According to Focal, “The main objective here being at all costs to prevent the energy emitted by the back wave from returning to the speaker driver cone and thus turning into an additional unwanted sound signal.” Even Elegia’s microfiber earpads got a redesign so as to optimize their isolating abilities while enhancing their comfort and preserving Elegia’s high acoustic impedance.”

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/grado-gs3000e

“Most rivals, usually closed-back designs, sound less lively and more shut-in. Equally, these same rivals offer more in the way of bass punch and authority. It’s a major advantage innate in the closed-back configuration.

We play Olafur Arnald’s Broadchurch soundtrack and the Grados render the music’s low-key but powerful emotions brilliantly. It’s down to expressive and fluid dynamics and the GS3000es’ wonderfully composed organisation – every sound fits perfectly into the whole, never seeming random or redundant.”

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/zmf-verite-headphones/

“As with Meze Empyrean, the ZMF Vérités are certainly headphones where people gravitate towards their vocal-centric tuning. While the headphones escape from an overly “warm” or romantic tuning, the Vérité has enough richness in its midrange to really propel it into an affable listening experience. Tracks sound lively without resorting to thin or unnatural leading edge transients that some headphones implement to artificially boost clarity levels. Instead, vocals have great body with a slight warm tilt while maintaining high levels of resolve and liveliness. Every track just sounds right, which is not an easy feat for headphones to achieve owing to their propensities to exaggerate frequencies here and there. While the Empyreans opt for a smoother and “darker” tonality, the Vérité leans toward a relatively more vibrant character while still maintaining incredibly low levels of fatiguability, sibilance, or grain. Compared to HiFiMAN’s HE1000 V2, the Vérité sounds relatively more intimate, but more solid in its presentation compared to the former’s more airy, diffuse, and ethereal presentation. For orchestral music and tracks which benefit from a large soundstage and TOTL separation of instrumentals, the HE1000 V2 certainly wins but it is incredibly hard to take the ZMF Vérité headphones off for tracks where vocals prevail, and therein lies its magic.

https://www.headfonia.com/drop-thx-panda-review/

“I was relieved (and not really surprised) to find that the Panda impressed in the sound department straight out of the box. It has a rich, balanced sound that’s super-enjoyable with decent levels of detail. It’s not quite your classic ‘planar’ sound – if you’re expecting fast, lean and ruler-flat response, you’ll be surprised by how the Panda manages to somehow bottle the natural tonal warmth and decay more associated with dynamic drivers. 

The Panda’s bass is done tastefully, with satisfying but not overwhelming quantity and impact. Steely Dan’s ‘Peg’ shows the Panda to have taut, agile bass performance balanced with nice texture and speed. There’s a slight hint of ‘bloom’ in the mid-bass area moving toward the lower mid-range, but that’s nit-picking – for a $400 close-backs headphone (let alone a wireless one) it’s superb”

https://audiofi.net/2020/01/hifiman-ananda-headphones-planar-magnetic-magic/

Play some solo violin like Jascha Heifetz on RCA Living Stereo SACDs (his famed Brahms/Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos and Double Concertos albums, for example) and his bowing can be heard distinctly, even in front of a mass of instruments. In quieter passages, the emotion he coaxed out of his instrument was so palpable, you could close your eyes and almost believe you were listening to a live feed of the recording.

Transient speed from drums and percussive instruments was another plus. The snares from songs like The Raconteurs’ Steady As She Goes, Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love and Toto’s Rosanna really came alive with the Ananda.

http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/stax-sr-009s-electrostatic-earspeakers/

Next, the SR-009S proved to have greater transient agility and increased levels of dynamic expression relative to the SR-009. A track that showcases these qualities is ‘Stank” from Jamey Haddad, Mark Sherman, and Lenny White’s Explorations in Space and Time [Chesky, 24/96]. ‘Stank’ is a percussion extravaganza—at times delicate, but at other moments explosive, employing everything from high-pitched chimes and cymbals to low-pitched bass drums. The SR-009S navigated the track’s complex instrumentation and multi-layered dynamic challenges with effortless clarity and a sense of dynamic brio—as if relishing the chance to strut its stuff.

Finally, the SR-009S offers superior bass performance to the SR-009, both in terms of resolution and dynamic wallop. The ‘Lopsy Lu/Silly Putty’ medley from S.M.V.’s Thunder [Heads Up, 16/44.1] made this abundantly clear, as master bassists Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten took turns showing off their chops and the distinctive voices of their basses. Thunder is a serious low-frequency challenge, but the SR-009S tackled the track with an exuberant quality of dynamic swagger and punch the SR-009 could not have matched.”