Headphones

Have a read on head fi, there's a few people on there who have done write ups.

They're supposed to be pretty fussy about amps, partly down to the low sensitivity, but also because of the unusually high impedance for a planar, which makes them very voltage hungry instead of current hungry like you see with most planars. Interestingly, based on what little I've read this means they can actually play surprisingly well with OTL amps (which are notoriously bad with planars due to their poor current delivery) thanks to their ability to easily push a lot of volts.

I've listened to both the double-sided and single-sided Tungstens, though at different events a month apart so I can't do a direct comparison. The Single-Sided version is hard to drive. It needs more power (particularly voltage) than a Susvara, which I was able to compare with at CAF.

Take this with a grain of salt, but I thought that non-feedback amplifiers didn't play well with the Tungsten. When I tried it on the HeadAmp CFA3, the amp was initially in zero feedback mode and I thought the vocals were way too upfront and the soundstage had width but little frontal depth. When I flipped the feedback switch to enable feedback, the vocals moved back and the soundstage opened up. It was not a subtle difference. I also tried the double-sided Tungsten with the Schiit Mjolnir 3 which also has a zero feedback mode, and I thought the vocals were too upfront there too, but I didn't check which feedback mode was used at the time. I wish I had been able to listen to it on my Ferrum Erco, as I've heard that Ferrum amps work well with it.

Sound-wise, I think it's good, with no flaws that stood out to me. It's darker than, say, a Hifiman Arya or HE1000, has more bass, and has a rich but mellow and not shouty vocal range. It's a bit like an old-style Audeze. In fact, I'd say that it sounds the most like how I remember the Audeze LCD-2 Classic that I demoed at a store once. Smooth, a bit bassy (but not bloated or boomy), but without the midrange tonal weirdness that the LCD-X has. I don't quite get the hype around them, but they're good headphones.

Awesome headphones. Been enjoying the ds version quite a bit the last few days. They definitely punch above their price range.

Being insensitive, high impedance planars they are a bit picky as to which amps pair well. A minimum of 20 vrms is generally recommended.