Auris Audio – The balance of beauty and sound.
MrSpeakers’s new TOTL planar magnetic ETHER 2 was one of the stars of CanJam. Show here with the super rare Cavalli Liquid Glass hybrid-valve headphone amplifier. Only 290 grams, new driver, motor, baffle, and headband. The sound is not only lush and full but nuanced in details and bass definition. Voices and instruments have shape and depth – which I don’t hear from headphones often. I couldn’t stop listening to this headphone! I have to hear these again. So damn good.
Abyss Diana Phi ($4,000) is only available in sleek black/grey with red stitching. The standard Diana looks similar from the outside but sounds tonally much closer to her bigger brother – the Abyss Phi. It’s very spacious and resolving. The standard Diana is warmer but much flatter sounding in comparison. The Diana Phi’s fit is also much better – roomier earcups and an overall more balanced comfort around the head. Clamping pressure is also a non-issue. In comparison, the Abyss Phi has a larger image, a bit smoother, and slightly more dynamic.
Abyss Phi with the CC pads and dual mono Eleven Audio amplifiers!
Woo Audio WA33 Elite – HEAVEN.
Jay,
The Abyss Phi CC picture shows a new headphone cable? doesn’t look like the stock cable or Superconductor. Or is it just a trick of the lighting?
$3495 for the Nirvana, what an absolute joke; we are now at a point where the cable costs as much as the bloody headphone. The Reference was meant to be a cable that was “completely transparent” between amp and driver, now this cable comes along and all of a sudden the reference is not? I mean, what sort of difference in transparency are we expecting from $3495?
Remember, the best cable is no cable – it is NOT meant to alter the signal that comes out of the amp, so if you can’t get the true sound of your amp driving your headphones from a USD$1k cable (reference), then time to pack up and go home.
Custom cans in the UK build hand made cables that measure in Capacitance 7.5-40pF (depending on length up to 2m, and terminations) and are made of 84, 40 AWG, individually insulated high purity litz copper strands per core, 4 cores, braided, terminated as per whatever you request with custom colours for the 550 paracord sleeves… for only USD $170, I think I’ll go with that for my Utopia’s.
I wouldn’t say the Laz Ref is completely transparent at all. It has color. It has richness. It’s not the tightest or most resolving cable. Unfortunately, cables with better transparency sound tonally off balance. They tend to have an oiled-skin and glossy or hyper-detailed sound. Those are expected trade-offs. The Nirvana aims to strike the perfect balance. It ain’t easy. Review coming this week.