Audiophilepure

“To personalise the Aventhos, you install an iOS or Android app on your phone, called MIY (Make It Yours). You then specify your age and then run a series of test signals. Basically, the app plays a range of tones at 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 4 kHz, and 8 kHz. You tell the app when you start and stop hearing each tone (by simply pressing a button on the screen). MIY then makes and loads your profile into the Aventhos.

With an MIY profile in operation, the sound changes. The degree of the change can be tailored in the app more to the subtle side or to the dramatic. Even at the least dramatic setting, I found my first profile actually made the sound worse, with the Aventhos now obviously too bright and edgy. Fortunately, creating a new profile is so easy that you can try again and again. I did, and after a few attempts I got to a profile without some of the obvious issues of my first try.”

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“As an example, try ‘Walking On the Moon’ from the The Yuri Honing Trio’s Star Tracks [Jazz in Motion, 16’/44.1]. The track begins with a subtle, softly plucked figure from bassist Tony Overwater, whose call is later answered by an expressive response from percussionist Joost Lijbaart. Then, the proceedings really take shape when Honing joins in on his saxophone. In each case the timbres and dynamic qualities the instruments sound spot-on and incredibly engaging. Major sonic treats include Honing’s powerful, evocative sax solo in the middle of the track and several dramatic bass and percussion exchanges along the way. Stated simply, the Empyrean creates large believable soundstages and the sort of gripping, you-are-there realism that’s rare to find in any transducer, regardless of type.”

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“Featuring a planar-magnetic open-back configuration with a diaphragm listed as one nanometer thick, the HE1000se is equipped with HIFIMAN’s newest shaped-neodymium magnets which were developed to present a smaller surface area “dramatically reducing wave diffraction turbulence.” This, the company says, degrades the sound. The unique magnet-design implementation makes the drivers “faster and more dynamic than ever before, with even greater levels of detail and lower distortion than previous iterations. But perhaps most significantly, these powerful magnets also make the headphone much more efficient…” How much more efficient? The engineers managed to goose it from 91dB to 96dB, yet retain the same 35 Ohm impedance and 8Hz~65kHz frequency response of the award-winning HE 1000 V2 ($2,999 USD), which in the real world translates into making the 1000se reasonably mobile-friendly for those who would take it on the road.”

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“The RAAL-requisite SR1a Earfieled Headphone Monitor is a crowning achievement of what is possible in headphone design. The beautiful sound coming from the ribbon monitor was sensational. The exceptional imaging made all performers come alive and made the equipment get out of the way.

The SR1a created a midrange that was as good as I have heard regardless of price. The soundstage was wide and deep with exceptional space and air between the performers. The 299D was able to throw off a 3D stage that was sensational. Imaging was among the best that I have heard in any system. The SR1a was so special that at times I felt as if I were actually at the performance.”

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“However, when it comes to soundstage width and, especially, depth, the HD6XX handily bests the Alara. The Alara pulls Lenny Zakatek charmingly histrionic vocals on the aforementioned “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” to the front, whereas they stage deeper on the HD6XX, making what sounds like a light chorus effect slightly more apparent. Likewise, on Miles Davis’s Live-Evil’s “Funky Tonk,” Jack DeJohnette’s masterful drums, which transition between scattershot madness and tight grooves and back again throughout the opening to a 23-minute track, have more front-to-back depth on the HD6XX than the Alara, leaving more room in the center of the sound field for Davis’s wah-inflected trumpet.

Given this soundstage versus extension tradeoff, is the Alara an all-around better headphone than the HD6XX? In a word, no. However, for listeners put off by the HD6XX’s somewhat polite sound or those who wish for the brighter signature and up-front detail found in the Clear or Sennheiser’s own HD800S, the Alara offers a sound signature that edges toward those pricier cans at a fraction of the cost.”