I was on vacation in Melbourne, Australia and I found a place called Carlton Audio Visual, to demo these headphones. They were really nice guys and they let me try them on for an hour and a half on a comfy leather couch. Preface: I’m not that great at describing sounds other than bass (which I’m ok with)
Setup
Spotify Premium → LG V30+ → Klipsch HP-3
Build
They seem very well built and everything moves smoothly. Nice braided cable, but the ones from the choker to the headphones are a little thin.
Comfort
I think these need to be broken in, but they are quite comfortable right out of the box. They were a bit too firm at the crown of my head and my jaw. The pads are thicker at the back but overall, they’re very shallow. My ears are relatively normal and they touched the driver. Not so much that it bothered me, but it’s worth mentioning. Overall, quite comfortable and I didn’t have the urge to take them off during my demo. Take note that I was trying on the headphones in an air-conditioned room. The earpads might get sweaty for you if you are in a humid area.
Sound
They’re definitely more neutral than my AudioQuest Nighthawks (but most things are). Soundstage is a bit wider, sub-bass is straight up better than probably everything I’ve tried (650s, 770, 880, 990, Momentums 2.0 and Sony 1000x MKII are all the ones I remember). Bass is tighter and probably a bit emphasized (but maybe that’s because of my song choices) and still coherent. Highs were good and they didn’t hurt me like some other headphones have (770s comes to my mind). They took a bit more power to drive than my Nighthawks, but I didn’t need to push my phone to full volume to be happy with the sound.
Conclusion
If the stars aligned and I could convince myself to spend $1800 AUD on headphones, then I’ll really consider these. I love the design, and they are quite light, but I’m currently still happy with my Nighthawks.
