Somic v2 Headphone Review by mark2410

Somic v2 Headphone Review by mark2410

Thanks to GearBest for the sample.

TLDR? Try here http://www.head-fi.org/t/809323/somic-v2-headphone-review-by-mark2410#post_12605805

First Impressions:  Hmm, box looks it took a beating a little on the way over.  Oh inside its all good it seems but there is a ear pad container that seems to have been dislodged.  It also seems that said item has double sided sticky tape on it and it’s now glued itself to part of the headband.  Hmm, after a little effort it came off but it did scare me and left glue residue.  I presume the ear pad container was just put in the wrong way but why even have the separate container?  Surely they would have fit under the headphones.  Hmm the headphones look alight, though I’ll be changing those pads quick, they’re open so might as well have the softer velvety ones.

On the ears and they feel really nice.  A bit plastic for sure but they very nicely fit my ears, being oval shaped rather than round.  Pretty sure I could wear these all day just fine.  Big sturdy cable on the buggers too, look at that jack when it’s got the 6.25mm adapter on it.  It’s practically some medieval weapon.  Really good and sturdy cable on theses.

First listen and rather nice.  Somewhat warm and inclined to the bottom end as you’d expect but they have a quite monitor esq like polite tonality.  Sure a bit warm and rich but easy on the ear and very easy to listen to, no brashness or hardness at all to the treble.  Something that you kinda want if you’re having to listen to something all day long.  Quite impressed with the detail too, god a big open can, can make this stuff look easy.  Burn in time.

Source: FiiO E7/E9 combo, Hisoundaudio Studio V 3^rd Anv., HiFiMAN HM-650, 1G Ipod Shuffle, Lumia 735, Nexus 5 and Graham Slee Solo Ultra Linear.

Lows:  From something of its price I would expect there to be very heavy bass, somewhat overblown and flabby.  However these really aren’t, they are acoustically much more level than I’d expect and dare I say….. more monitor like.  A/B’ing back and forth with the HD515 and the V2’s are impressively capable.  They are slightly bigger, richer, more assertive just a tinge in the bass too.  The HD515 isn’t available anymore and I don’t know how close it is to the HD518 but the Senn’s are circa £90.  The Somic V2 is circa £32.  The bass quantity isn’t going to be loved by all as its approaching towards natural, you know that slightly bass boosted level that sounds more natural on the ear.  Now yes it’s still boosted but that boost isn’t huge.  These are almost exactly at the level of the HD515, just a tiny bit more and tiny bit more heavy in presentation.  In the bass you don’t really notice that it’s slightly less nuanced due to that thicker bass presentation.  Then you sit back and realise these cost a third of what their Senn based competition does.   I love Senn, they do great stuff as a rule especially their higher end stuff but lower down they do trade a little bit on their name.  Somic hasn’t the ability to do that so they are all value for money.  These are superb.

Tonally they are a tiny, tiny bit greyish brown, there is a hint of darkness but not a particularly chocolaty one.  There is just that shadow like greyness providing a little dash of darkness.  That makes for an overall darken feel acoustically.

Mids:  Firing back to those HD515’s then to the V2, the Senn is more open and airy but these are so cheap.  The mids are a little more suited to a thicker, perhaps a more pop like vocal.  It’s not best suited to the most open and breathy, they have a slight thickness that wants to add a dash of cream.  Nevertheless being a big and open backed can there is still plenty of feeling of air and space.  They just aren’t the lightest, there is ever a bit of a weight and body to vocals.  Still these are so bloody cheap, they may have things I could tear apart acoustically and that’s is very, very large part down to just how good they are. How close they get to lots more expensive stuff.  Firing back and forth with the HD515 and there really isn’t a lot in, acoustically they have slightly different flavours but god the Senn isn’t pulling away ahead like something 3 times the price ought to.  I’ve got stuff way more than that too and still I find I’m enjoying these, not just thinking they are good for the money but good.  They are nicely balanced and they by god are something you could use as a real life monitor too I’d bet. 

Quantitatively they are more middy than may be expected for the price, they are however that “natural” gently sloped sound signature with the bass being that touch greater.  Still the mids are only a smidge behind and their pleasingly good clarity despite the fractionally creamy tonality, cleanly come through.  A really quite impressive showing for a brand I’d never heard of.

Highs:  These are a little spikey though there is a spike that seems to come forward in the lower treble that is noticeable it seems to bother me more greatly than is relatively slight (for a peak) outburst.  I’m not running a signal generator because I don’t believe in doing so but I’m quite convinced there is another spike which is actually causing the discomfort.  I believe it to be very high up however, above where music normally sits so I’d not expect most to notice it and I believe it’s there to give a slightly more open feel to another wise more weighty sound.  Think what some companies tell you a super tweeter is for.  Highs so up there you are not particularly aware of them directly but you can “feel them.”  So for me, Owl City and their treble heavy songs, when thrown power and volume got rather wearing.  Impressively capable and detailed for sure but gosh it could wear out my delicate little ears in no time.  This however was only really the case when I had the big cans hooked up to the Solo and its considerable power output.  Plugged into a phone with their more weedy power outputs, this rather worked in the V2’s favour.  The phones just can’t provide the power to hurl that driver back and forth the same so the treble peak melted away.

The overall quantity of the treble is around the same level as the bass.  Hmmm maybe it’s more in between the bass and the mids at times I can’t quite decide.  Flicking round from sources the acoustic balance swerved all over the place.  The E9 and Solo had them more balanced, the P8 had at times the bass exploding out of nowhere. 

Soundstage:  For the most part not that big.  They are big, open backed cans but they add a certain thickness to proceedings which encloses somewhat the presentation.  Certainly a good sized room but even in more acoustic pieces there never took and the grand openness I might have liked still its in keepnig with their quite monitor like presentation.  Things are a little more brought in and presented before you.  All nicely integrated though, it’s there, before you with a slight spread,  instrument separation is a little diffuse as is placement.

Comfort:  Great stuff:  The pads are just barely big enough to make it full around my ears but that the do.  They therefore rest full on my skull and not my ears.  Absolutely happy wearing these the whole day long just as you’d want in a monitor.

Cable:  Great.  It might have been nice if removable but the thing is a beast.  What’s more its connected to both ears so no pulling at one side.  I very much prefer cables that connect at both sides as it balanced the weight of them.  On top of that the cable is a big thick beast of a thing.  Nicely flexible too and then you get to the jack.  It’s a mega beast of a thing too.  Then what’s more you get a great 3.5 to 6.25mm adapter that screws onto the 3.5 end.  Its great big metal thing.  Top notch.

Isolation:  Well for all the acoustic benefits you get from an open can, the down side is you get sod all isolation.  So if you want something to use out and about or around people, yeah, think again.  Of course if your using them as monitors or alone in your office then it’s all fine but for the love of god don’t use them around others.

Build Quality:  Now I’ve seen some say it’s great however while its mostly rather good, they feel rather solid, they really do.  What wasn’t was the headband slider mechanism.  For whatever reason they were very loose so they would change with barely a touch at some positions.  Once they were on your head this has absolutely zero impact on anything but it was mildly irksome.  Honestly though for the most part it wasn’t something you noticed nor did it really bother me.  Sure if these were way more costly I’d be irritated but it just didn’t.  However it’s not something that they should do.  Now aside from that they felt for the most part quite nice in the hand.  Feeling quite firm, all plastic practically but it’s all solid enough.

Aesthetic:  Err well they look okay.  Nothing great, nothing bad, bit plastic looking but then they are plastic.  Look fine to me.

Amped/Unamped:  Playing about they gained detail and such from amping, the treble got more detailed and gained some energy too.  Though for the most part it’s unlikely that these will run off a beefy amp and it would appear they have been made with moderate sources in mind.  They ran absolutely fine out of anything, phones were all fine at powering them.  They naturally weren’t as good, detailed, nuanced but arguably their acoustic balance may be more popular.  There was a bit of treble energy drop thusly the bass felt comparatively enhanced a bitty.  So despite being big cans you really don’t need an amp and honestly you don’t wildly benefit from one either.  Still you might want to give a baby FiiO a go just in case you like the bit more detail.

Accessories:  Good.  I’m big on getting a choice of ear pads and I very much liked the 6.25 to 3.5mm screw on adapter.  It looked really nice and all matched so well.  You really don’t need anything else, I mean a baggy or case perhaps but these are big open cans they aren’t meant to be carted about the place.  Oh and I almost forgot.  You get a Velcro cable tie thingy that’s really handy for spooling up the rather long cable and keeping it at a more manageable length.

Value:  Well take a wild guess.  It’s been a long time nice I’ve seem something come from China that hasn’t been great value and there is no change here.  Sure these have some issues, like the band size adjustment thing slipping.  However you just can’t ignore one overriding aspect, their price.  The things are stupid cheap.  Right now they are coming in at a sliver under £32 or a touch over US$44.  They are just so ridiculously cheaply priced.  I cannot see anyone arguing these are anything other than superb value priced as they are.

Conclusion:  Why had I never heard of these before the peeps at Gearbest offered me one?  Now I’ll confess they have a stupid name.  Somic to me just looks like they miss spelled sonic.  Which if you’re going to do how can you not then at least one headphone the hedgehog?  Anyway…… these are a brand that has little to no exposure in the western world and that is unfortunate.  While there are aspects I’m not chuffed about, the super loose headband extending arm things is the big one.  In use once they’re on your head it doesn’t matter but it’s not something I’d have put up with if they said Sennheiser on the side.  These don’t really scream premium at you.  Then you play something.

Acoustically they may not be quite perfect but holy poop!!!  For 30 quid these are amazingly good.  These are pushing towards proper monitor sound signature and their quality levels, the detail extraction level is good enough that you could use these a proper grown up monitor.  Yet with its slightly warmed sound signature it’s so presently enjoyable and easy on the ear.  These are not party beasts the likes of which Beats fans will like but they are just the sort of thing that should go down a storm on Head-Fi.  Have Somic never been to a Canjam, if not why the hell not??  These priced as they are I am sure would create quite the furore.

Should you grab a pair?  Well to put it bluntly, yes.  These aren’t perfect but the sound to cost ratio is just silly.  I just don’t understand why I’ve heard so little of these before?  They are the exact sort of thing that any young/poor audiophile that are just dipping their toes into the water.  Something that can give them a taste of what proper audio can sound like without giving their wallet a severe beating.  Got a child or friend you want to have a taste of proper audio quality?  Grab a set, even if you’re a hard core audiophile already with some great higher end stuff, give them a bash because really at 30 quid a pair is practically nothing, I mean that’s two packs of Comply’s.  Seriously these people need to get their backsides to a Canjam and let a bunch of people at once have a go and kick up some noise.  These are just outstandingly good priced so dirt cheap as they are.

Somic v2 Headphone Quick Review by mark2410

Somic v2 Headphone Quick Review by mark2410

Thanks to GearBest for the sample.

Brief:  Somic, the hedgehog.

Price £32 or US$44

Specifications:  Connectivity: Wired, Application: Computer, Mobile phone, Portable Media Player, Plug Type: 3.5mm, Cable Length (m): 3M, Frequency response: 15Hz-30KHz, Impedance: 54ohms, Sensitivity: 95 ± 3 dB

Accessories:  You get a replacement ear pad set, some pleather ones and velvety ones.  Also you get a screw on 6.25 to 3.5mm adapter oh and lastly a handy Velcro cable tie to keep the rather long cable in order.

Build Quality:  It feels sturdy enough for the most part but the headband expanding slidy bits were very slidy and would do so with the faintest touch.  Not great but it didn’t really cause any issues in use.

Isolation:  Pretty much nothing, they are big wide open cans.  It’s therefore zero surprise that they isolate nothing.

Comfort/Fit:  Very good really, they are however rather small for a proper circumaural (goes around and not on your ear.)  They only just barely made it all the way round my ear so if your ears are bigger than mine, your get some ear squishing going on.  If that happens it will impact comfort levels.  For me they were fine and I could wear for hours before wanting them off.  YMMV.

Aesthetics:  They look alright, nothing fancy.

Sound:  These in most aspects are really easy to be wishy-washy about.  Then you come to how they sound and you’ll be blown away by just how you aren’t blown away.  El cheapo stuff you’d naturally bass / party cannons right?  You don’t get a real life, proper grown up pair of monitor esq headphones for this sort of money, you just don’t, right?  I had never heard of Somic before and even Googling these I could find almost nothing about them.  No one it seems has noticed them and that, dear reader, is a travesty.  These are excellent, so much more flat and balanced than I expected.  So more detailed, so more nuanced in the mids especially.  God the mids are good, so clear and articulate more than once I went back to check their price and that I hadn’t been sent the wrong thing by mistake.  Seriously £32, just how?  Not to mention that’s delivered too.  I feel like I’m missing something.  Their bass is so cleanly rendered, no big mid/bass hump, so well behaved before it then tails off at the bottom.  The mids are fractionally creamy but they’re so present and comparatively up front that there is gobs of detail despite its creamy and otherwise reticent nature.  Its gentle tonality, laid back and mellow.  So sumptuously melty if you slap on a little softly mellow jazz.  John Steven’s Red album is gloriously captivating.  The treble is fairly detailed, it’s not as great as the mids and bass but it’s got plenty detail, its also a little laid back, a hint mellowed.  It gives it that monitor esq, easy on the ear gentility but retained plenty of detail. 

It’s a dirt cheap real life monitor

Value:  Stupidly cheap, real proper grown up headphones for the price of a nice dinner.

Pro’s:  Superb acoustic balance.  Superb sound Quality.  Superb tonality and timing.

Con’s:  Headband size adjustment was rather slippery.  Won’t satisfy bassheads.

Hisoundaudio HSA-H200 Pro Review by mark2410

Hisoundaudio HSA-H200 Pro Review by mark2410

Thanks to Hisoundaudio for the sample

TLDR? Try here http://www.head-fi.org/t/809117/hisoundaudio-hsa-h200-pro-review-by-mark2410#post_12600942

First Impressions:  Quite a nice looking box, Hisoundaudio are certainly coming along in that regard.  Ahh got the thing open and I’m instantly transported back to the 80’s.  These are genuine, old fashioned on ear, earphones.  You know, the thin metal band over the head, circular foam covered pads that just sit on your ear and don’t isolate in the slightest.  These look and feel achingly retro.  I don’t know why but it makes me smile, there is just something fun about them.  Picking them up though they don’t feel like something from the 80’s.  They feel so solid, firm and that metal band feels so stiff.  They may casually look like old fashioned flimsy earphones but they certainly don’t feel it.  The plastic on them too feels very nice to the touch.

On the ears and the utter lack of isolation is weird to me.  Acoustically they are pretty bass heavy, well upper bass heavy anyway.  They are so open they are never going to reach very low no matter what Hisoundaudio have done they can’t defy physics.  Rather warm and rich too.  Treble is curiously detailed yet tame.  I’m not sure I’m loving the richness, it’s a little much and its making them feel a little muddy when the treble detail level means they clearly aren’t.  Burn in time.

Source: FiiO E7/E9 combo, Hisoundaudio Studio V 3^rd Anv., HiFiMAN HM-650, 1G Ipod Shuffle, Nexus 5, Lumia 735 and a Graham Slee Solo Ultra Linear.

Lows:  I have a touch of mixed feelings about the low end here.  There is due to the form factor and their being desperately open, no real bottom deaths.  You just can’t really get the deepest lows in something this open, not that most music has the deepest lows in them anyway.  Still its something that I noticed when comparing with the Senn Momentum On-Ears, they being more closed simply did better.  What was also evident in that the Momentums were physically so much bigger.  The v-JAYS being more physically close to the H200’s had the same thing.  They really are so curious and the ear in comparison to most things by stint of their form factor.  The bass is so open and airy yet it’s so richly warm tonally.  It’s rounded and has tonally an inclination towards thick but its openness feels so utterly at odds with that tonality, it’s weird.  There is a darkness to them, like some darkly overcast sky, like there is an impending storm, like some tropical typhoon is just there.  It’s so close you can almost touch it, the dark, the warm, the power beneath the faintest of barriers about to riotously rise of like some giant wave of death.  There is something, impending, looming just out of sight ready to sweep all before in some monstrous tidal wave.

“Your Father and I” is like some warm dark wall of bass.  It’s a little monotone and its does rise a little towards the mid/bass cusp region.  Vocals are a little influenced and warmed by the bass.  However its overall darkly warm richness to me, for me ears and my musical preferences, is over kill.  I do believe it’s a most popular sound signature in Cathay but to me and I think for more western ears, it’s too thickly warmed.  For audio purists / audiophiles anyway.

Mids:  The warmth and the darkness pervading them is still highly evident in the mids.  They are dark, they have a certain something of the night about them.  Firing up Northern Kings and their bizarre take on “I Should Be So Lucky” that darkness, the scale and air is a little counter intuitive to the darkness and the viscosity.  It’s strange, they feel like their openness wants to pull them towards cooler, drier and a more open presentation but the warmth and darkness pulls it in the opposite direction.  Tonally it’s much more like something you’d expect from something very closed but then its wide open.  Its staging is so open yet it’s all so dark and viscous.  The presentation masks much detail and nuance from the listener by this presentation.  It’s too thick too, heavy and too creamy.  It is the classic and archetypal 80’s Sony esq sound signature. 

I feel that its weight and thickness will go down a storm in the Far East but I’d have liked something less heavy.  Something a little more light than this wall of weighty oomph.  Like some deep seated roar they have such force and weight behind them.  What feels like endless power behind them yet they aren’t prominent, their inclination towards the lower vocals makes them somewhat staid. 

Highs:  They are surprisingly rather treble muted.  For something that is physically open they have gone for the opposite end in terms of sound signatures.  Thus the treble response is very subdued.  They have air by being open but the treble is very reticent and quite over shadowed in prominence by the lower end and heavy low vocals too.  The treble is like a most tiny dash of lemon cutting through some quadruple chocolate cake mousse.  It’s in there, but behind in so much weight you have to hunt a little for it.  It’s like Hisoundaudio have deliberately gone out of their way to make this the anti-open on ear classic headphones.  The things you may remember from the 80’s which were inclined for light bass and abundant treble, these are the total inverse.

Soundstage:  Weird.  Physically they have a space to them, open air but tonally, they are thick old beasts.  There then feels like there is space hey it’s got a dark and enclosed quality too.    It’s really unusual.  Instrument separation though is light, they all sound close in up on that stage.  They are all more or less are going together and merging into one. 

Fit:  I wanted to wear the vertically up but this didn’t work so well.  You see the ear pads have no flex to them so they wanted to sit flat on my ears.  My ears aren’t flat though.  So to get a little bit of an angle going I had to move the band from sitting bolt upright towards the back of my head.  This introduced a bit of an angle for the pad to sit more naturally on my ears.  I’m not sure I loved the feel, I wanted them upright but pushed back was the much more comfortable option for me.

Comfort:  Once pushed back at an angle I got along quite well with them.  The metal band however be warned, it’s a beast.  It may look like some 80’s thin bit of metal but it’s more like a steal bar.  Thus these babies clamp like mo fo’s.  So you get a super secure fit, but it’s a little head squeezing.  Compared to the v-JAYS these felt locked onto my skull and like short of a hurricane nothing in nature was going to budge them.  The v-JAYS felt so slack in comparison.  So they weren’t quite as comfy but if you wanted you could probably stretch the headband.  Though if you do you’d loose some fit stability.

Cable:  It’s black with some dark red crisscrossing pattern down it.  It’s a little ridged and feels solid.

Build Quality:  They may look like some 80’s headphones with same flimsy metal headband.  The headband is like a steel beam.  To look at you don’t expect them to be solid, they dont look solid but they really are.  That band is so tough and firm its totally unexpected.  The plastic bits too, I just assumed ye 80’s light cheap flimsy plastic but they are super solid. I know they may not look like a totally ridged headphone but they actually are sooooooooo much more solid than a glance would suggest.

Microphonics:  None.  There is also a neck synch if you want but there is no microphonics at all.

Amped/Unamped:  There really wasn’t a huge difference between a beefy amp and a phone.  They did err toward the bass from a phone, its growing notably.  It did also feel a little bit more slow in tempo of course it’s not really but it hadn’t the same immediacy when better powered.  However it really doesn’t need amping on the whole.  Their differences were small so it’s clearly been made with lesser sources in mind and it tries to make the best of them.

Isolation:  None.  I suppose maybe technically there may be one or two decibels but for all realistic purposes there is none.  If you need to be able to hear outside noises, like traffic or maybe the phone ringing, these would work for you.  If you are thinking about a flight or Tube commute your crazy, don’t bother.  Even using on a bus I wouldn’t because you will be blasting noise out to all around you, your fellow passengers with want to beat you with sticks and you would deserve it too.

Accessories:  You don’t get a lot, you get a spare set off pads and a little Velcro cable tie thingy.  You don’t get a case of bag or anything but its form factor doesn’t lend itself to the use of one anyway so it’s not really a significant omission

Value:  They are not exactly cheap and while they wouldn’t be my personal choice their physical nature is probably going to be what’s the clincher in terms of value for you.  They are snug fitting on ears, small enough to use outside without looking like a knob and yet allowing you to hear any impending meetings with a vehicle or cyclist.

Conclusion:  The HAS-H200 Pro is a total queer duck.  Visually its screams 80’s and I want to buy same Walkman off eBay to go with them.  Then you pick them up and they are so solid in construction they feel nothing like what I remember.  Granted I was a small child, the on ear headphones of this style I had were cheap things and the H200 Pro’s are circa US$120 (about £83) so from that alone they had better be considerably better.  Well, they are.  These look so 80’s retro but they are nothing like them in build quality, these are so solid and firm, they are clearly a much more quality object than a casual glance may suggest.

Acoustically they are again a bit of a queer duck.  Being physically open wide you expect an airy, light presentation but instead you get this very heavy, weighty dark presentation.  It’s the antithesis of what you’d think is coming and it makes for a weird situation where the tonal style says one thing but the physical attributes promote the opposite.  I feel you don’t really end up with either entirely but I believe this tuning is squarely aimed at the Chinese market.  From what I gather there they are big fans of the archetypal Sony 80’s sound, big, warm, rich, highly viscous a presentation.  I confess it’s not my preferred style but I can see it having a fan base.  Its all just so not what you’d expect.

So would I / should you buy one?  Me, na.  I need isolation from portable things and these don’t, of course they don’t try to.  For you, well maybe you want these for the office, for working at home, want to listen to music while you work but still need to be able to hear the phone when it rings.  Maybe you want something that on ear and is as small as possible?  Some people can’t abide any buds in their ears but don’t something huge.  I mean you could very easily use these outside, go for a run in them they would clamp enough to stay in place give you music and let you hear traffic when needed.  So while its target user may not be me there certainly is a place for them and a target demographic that they would be perfect for.  Indeed a quick 10 minute play with them took them off and promptly declared “They are f***ing good!!!”

Hisoundaudio HSA-H200 Pro Quick Review by mark2410

Hisoundaudio HSA-H200 Pro Quick Review by mark2410

Thanks to Hisoundaudio for the sample

Brief:  Hisoundaudio go 80’s retro!!!

Price:  Circa US$120 or about £83

Specifications:  Type: Dynamic, open, Driver Size: 40mm, Impedance: 36 Ohms, Sensitivity: 116db, Max SPL: 125db, Frequency Response: 20 – 20khz, Earphone Jack: 3.5mm straight, Cable Length: 120cm.

Accessories:  Spare set of foam pads and a little Velcro cable wrap tidy thing.

Isolation:  None.

Build Quality:  They may look like your 80’s flimsy metal banded headphones but they are nothing like that.  In the hand the metal band is more like a steel beam.  Its very firm, very solid feeling as are the plastic arm / bud / pad things where the drivers are situated.  Their plastic too is very solid and firm.  It’s all very, very premium feeling to the touch.  They may not look wildly fancy but they feel so solidly constructed it’s very visually deceptive.

Comfort/Fit:  Getting a fit was easy.  At first I had them vertically seated and they were fine but they were putting uneven pressure on my ears.  They don’t have any sideways flex so to get any I had to tilt the headband.  Rather than sit bolt upright I angled it backwards nearer to 45 degrees and then it fit my ears much better.  Once that was done and the clamping force more evenly distributed they were comfortable to wear for a good while at a time.  They do however clamp a little hard.  You could always stretch them out I suppose but their tight clamp means you could use them in a bouncy castle and they’d stay put.

Aesthetics:  I realise they aren’t the greatest lookers in the word but….. I like them.  There is something so childhood reminding and I like the colouring of them.  They are a little polite and non-descript but I find nevertheless I like them.  They are so retro styled by with modern colourings, it works for me. 

Sound:  Its presentation has air and space but its tonality is all about the warmth, rich darkness it possesses.  They are diametrically opposed attributes which makes for a weird sound. They want to be dark and richly encompassing, so heavy and oppressive but they have an airiness due to being so open.  It’s just not supposed to be like that, you can’t be both those things at the same time surely, but they are.  It’s a big 80’s Sony esq warmth that has a certain retro appeal, not from their head phones but from their Hi-Fi’s.  You see back in the day those headphones didn’t have much in the lows but these are solid and weighty bass beasts.  They haven’t the most deep nor most controlled bass but it’s a force to be reckoned with and I don’t doubt that those who need light, portable on ear headphones will be pleased.  It’s a like a tidal wave coming at you, relentless, massive, endless power.  Its mids are skewed to the bass end and thus are warmed and thickened.  The highs are lightly delicate and laid back 

These are squarely about the warmly dark presentation and bass. A mountain of bass, heavily veiled and crazy boom party time.

Value:  At circa US$120 (about £83) they aren’t cheap but if you need ultra-light portable on ear headphones you don’t have a lot of options.  They are also superbly constructed, super solid beasts.

Pro’s:  Build Quality.  Prodigious low-end output.  Ultra-light and portable on ear.  A bit mental.

Con’s:  Wallet ouch.  Super highly flavoured sound.  Zero isolation.  A bit too mental.