Fifteen Cool Headphone Products from Newport Beach 2015 – Part 2

This is Part 2 of the two-part article on cool new headphones and related products seen at T.H.E. Show Newport Beach 2015.

As always, I offer apologies in advance to worthy manufacturers and components not be mentioned here. The omissions are in no way a commentary on the merits of products left out.

Click here to read Part 1.

CEntrance

The CEntrance team has been busy bringing their crowdfunded $499 HiFi-Skÿn, which is a combination headphone amp/high-res DAC/iPhone case & charger, toward completion (slowly but surely, it’s getting there). In the mean time, however, CEntrance has found time to update its classic DACport product to create the new DACport Slim ($149).

The DACport Slim is a very high quality, dongle-type USB DAC/amp capable of decoding PCM files at up to 192/24 resolutions and of producing up to 1 watt of output power. The Slim also provides Hi and Low master gain switch settings. Our take is this is an awful lot of DAC/amp for the money – sort of an audio system you can slip into your pocket and take with you wherever you go.

ESS

ESS is perhaps best known as the loudspeaker company through which Dr Oskar Heil first introduced his famous (and now widely copied) Heil Air Motion Tranformer–type driver to the audio world. In fact, to this day ESS still produces a version of Dr Heil’s original loudspeaker. But, in more recent times, the firm has also completed work on a hybrid dynamic/Heil AMT driver-equipped headphone, called the ESS-RLM-713, priced at $299, which is available now.

The ESS headphones weren’t being shown in the Newport Headphonium, proper, but rather in the ESS suite in one of the Hotel Irvine’s upper floors, where it was being shown alongside the extensive range of ESS loudspeakers. My hope is that, in future shows, the ESS ‘phones will be demonstrated in the headphone-specific area, where I think they will garner a fair amount of attention.

HiFiMAN

The Chinese firm HiFiMAN brought a host of newly released headphones and headphone-related products to Newport, making for a demonstration area that proved very popular with showgoers.

At the top (and I mean the very top) of the audio ‘food chain’ was the firm’s spectacular new flagship HE-1000 planar magnetic headphone ($2,999), which not only introduces a new ergonomic frame and lightweight ear cup design, but also a new, one-of-a-kind planar magnetic driver unit that uses an ultra low-mass nanomaterial diaphragm said to be by far the lightest of its type ever produced for use in a planar magnetic headphone. In the time period since CES 2015 this past January, HiFiMAN founder Dr Fang Bian has been refining and fine-tuning the HE-1000 design, with the result that the headphone has gradually become more sensitive, slightly better balanced than it was in initial prototype form, and better finished (with sturdier and more attractive external metal driver-protection grilles), while at the same time enjoying even smoother and more linear upper midrange/treble response.

The HE-1000, then, is an extraordinarily transparent, detailed, and nuanced headphone, yet one that somehow manages to retain an unforced quality of naturalism (as opposed designs that sound like the sonic equivalent of electron scanning microscopes – achieving extreme clarity at the expense of dissecting the music). We anticipate that the HE-1000 will come to be considered a landmark design—one that enthusiasts will be talking about for quite some time to come.

At the other end of the pricing scale, HiFiMAN also introduced its most affordable planar magnetic headphone to date: the new HE-400S ($299). Two things struck me (and many other listeners) regarding the HE-400S: first, it’s very easy to drive and thus quite tolerant of a wider variety of amplifiers and portable devices, and second, it simply sounds far more capable and accomplished than it has any right to do for the price. Indeed, wondered aloud whether the HE-400S might be good enough to give HiFiMAN’s excellent (and already value-priced) $499 HE-400i model a serious run for its money. Regardless of the answer, the fact that the question has arisen tells you what an exceptional value the HE-400S will be when it goes on sale later this year.

Finally, HiFiMAN showed its next-generation HM-901S portable digital music player ($1,499), which represents a significant re-thinking of the design HM-901 player. At first, I made the mistake of thinking the HM-901S was just a light update on the HM-901 theme, but on closer inspection it proves to be something more than that. The HM-901S offers an all new (and meaningfully improved) German-influenced industrial design, an anti-glare screen, completely re-worked user interface controls backed by next-generation Taichi II user interface control software, a DAC section based on dual (yes, you read that right) ESS ES9018 DAC chips that now provide not only PCM 24/192 support, but also DSD 64 support, an improved analogue section controlled by a stepped potentiometer volume control, dual 7.5V batteries said to provide lower noise,  and—as in the original HM-900—provisions swapping and of several available user-installable amplifier modules (at present, a total of five modules are offered, including both IEM-specific and balanced-output modules). The upshot is that the HM-901S promised to be a significant step forward from the original HM-901.

HRT (High Resolution Technology)

As a long-term champion of affordable high-performance audio, HRT rolled out two new USB dongle-type headphone amp/DACs, both of which must set some sort of record for affordability. The units in question are essentially two variations on a common theme: the dsp amp/DAC ($69.99) for Android platforms, and the i-dsp amp/DAC for Apple platforms (also $69.99). The products are very similar, the i-dsp will require purchase of one of Apple’s camera adapter cables.

A brief listen through a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 headphones revealed the sonic potential of the dsp design, meaning that these little HRT devices, whichever is appropriate for your chosen platform, might be one the simplest and most cost effective sonic upgrades available for budget-minded listeners on the go.

MrSpeakers

Up to this point, all of MrSpeakers headphone products have been based on heavily modified Fostex designs, but as of the So Cal CanJam event MrSpeaker announced the first headphone entirely of its own design and manufacture, which is called the ETHER ($1,499). The ETHER is beautifully made, features a deep metallic gloss red finish, is very light and comfortable, and – most importantly – offers a wonderfully neutral and highly revealing sound. Credit for this must go to MrSpeaker’s distinctive ‘V-Planar’ planar magnetic driver, which is said to provide “a more idealized planar (diaphragm) surface” and to improve driver acceleration, dynamics, and high frequency response while delivering “measurably lower distortion.”

In a brief conversation with MrSpeakers founder Dan Clark, we learned that the ETHER is just the first in what will eventually be a series of 100% MrSpeakers designed and manufactured headphones to be available at a variety of price points.
 

Noble Audio

The CIEM/universal-fit earphone experts at Noble Audio introduced an all-new earphone/CIEM design called the Savant that I think is destined to attract a lot of attention for all the right reasons. Many of our readers (and many members of head-fi.org) are familiar with Noble’s Kaiser 10 CIEM, whose rich, sumptuous, and engaging sound has found favour among a broad spectrum of music listeners. Even so, given that the Kaiser 10 does not offer strict, monitoring grade tonal neutrality, some have wondered aloud what might happen if Noble, in a judicious way, offered a Kaiser 10-like IEM that at least shaded more in the direction of neutrality, yet without sacrificing the soulful qualities for which the K10 is famous.

In a nutshell, this gives you design brief for the new Savant. It’s sound is in many respects quite like the K10, but with slightly more subdued bass and slightly more elevated highs. In a significant shift from past practice, however, Noble declines to say exactly what sort of driver array is used in the Savant: Noble’s position on this is that it hopes to encourage prospective buyers to spend less time obsessing over driver counts and technology per se, and more time listening carefully to select models whose sound best fits their system requirements and personal tastes. In any event, a brief listen to the Savant universal-fit model lead me to think the Savant may have found that elusive sweet spot between strict neutrality (which Noble’s Model 4 is designed to provide) and the richness and sumptuousness of the Kaiser 10. Interestingly, the Savant will be offered in only two forms: as a relatively affordable universal-fit model ($599) or as a CIEM that will be built using Noble’s exotic, top-of-the-range Prestige-type earpiece materials and construction techniques (prices starting at $1,599 and up, depending upon the materials combinations chosen).

Noble also showed its very clever BTS add-on device ($99), which not only gives earphones and CIEMs wireless, multi-point aptX Bluetooth connectivity, but is also ALAC compatible, and adds smartphone call-answering capabilities. Since virtually none of today’s top-tier CIEMS or universal-fit earphones offer these sorts of convenience/connectivity touches, Noble’s inexpensive BTS could well prove to be a godsend for high-end listeners on the go.

Pendulumic

Pendulumic showed its very impressive Stance S1+ wireless Bluetooth headphones ($199), which in simple terms attempt to shatter the myth which holds that Bluetooth headphones invariably sound cheap, cheesy, and much too coloured for their own good.  And shatter those myths the Stance S1+’s do with the greatest of ease.

Let’s put it this way: If you heard the Stance S1+ without knowing it was a self-powered, Bluetooth device, you might conclude that it was a much better than average passive (that is, wire-connected) $200 headphone. Once you learn that it is Bluetooth enabled, chocked full of genuine useful technical features, stylish, and well made, the value proposition becomes that much more irresistible.

To give you some idea of what I mean, let me mention that when one Hi-Fi+ team member first heard the Stance S1+ in Munich he pronounced its sound to be “magical”, while when a second Hi-Fi+ staffer heard the Pendulumics for the first time at Newport, he decided to purchase a pair to take home with him to England. Such are the kinds of responses this clever headphone evokes. One further point we should mention is that Pendulumic has somehow crafted its Bluetooth interface so the Stance S1+’s offers clearer sound over much greater distances than most other aptX Bluetooth devices can manage.

Woo Audio

Woo had previewed its upcoming WA08 portable valve-powered headphone amp/DAC at the So Cal CanJam event, but at Newport it appeared that the product-to-be had progressed even further, so that the firm was not only showing samples of the amp/DAC proper, but also of its very cool-looking, semi-hard-shell, leather-clad carrying case. The anticipated price for eh the WA08 is approximately $1,500.

Historically, almost all of Woo’s extensive range of headphone amplifiers have been valve-powered, so the intent behind the WA08 is plainly make the traditional Woo ‘house sound’ available to listeners on the move. The WA08 is fairly large by portable standards, but still qualifies as a hand-held device. Our thought is that valve aficionados will find the sound of the unit sufficiently compelling to make peace with its size.

One potentially important note for our European readers: Woo amplifiers sadly are not CE-qualified – a situation we hope Woo will consider rectifying in the future.