Before I start my write-up, I would like to Thank Audeze for providing me with review samples in exchange for my honest opinion.
The lineup of popular audiophile headphones is filled with legendary names of companies that earned their reputation over decades of consistent flagship releases. There are no shortcuts to join that fraternity, unless you have something truly outstanding to offer right out of the gate. I wouldn't classify Audeze as a newcomer, but relative to other well known audiophile companies you might as well refer to them as one. That is why I find it to be amazing how much headway this company made in their 5+ years, joining the lineup of other audiophile dinosaurs. With my primary focus on portable headphones and audio sources, I haven't been covering as much full size cans unless I know it could be driven efficiently with a gear in my review collection, but that doesn't mean I haven't been lusting after one to review. So when I heard about the new line of Audeze products, EL-8 in open and closed back variation, and their spec favoring portable DAPs and even smartphones - I jumped at the chance to review one of their latest offerings with planar magnetic driver technology.
I was especially curious about the aspect of portable source requirement, either directly from a DAP or a smartphone and maybe with a portable amp, and of course I was interested how Audeze was able to scale down their flagship LCD design. Another decision I had to make was a choice between open back and closed back design. Without a doubt, open back design is the way to go if you're craving an expanded airy sound, but in my mind it defeats the purpose of "portable" use. The consequent action of an open back is a lack of sound isolation and significant sound leakage – in my opinion a total contradiction of portable sound definition where you can’t enjoy listening to a music without distracting others around you and by not being able to isolate yourself from other outside distractions. With all this in mind, I choose to review a closed back version of EL-8 which I will refer to as EL-8C. As a bonus, I was also offered an opportunity to test their new Class A amplifier/DAC, a debut product from Audeze under a model name "Deckard". Now without further ado here is my review of EL-8C and Deckard.
Arrived in a large box, I wasn't surprised since I already expected these headphones to be a plus size. After opening the box and flipping over the magnetic cover flap, I was looking at a folded flat solid design with two oversized metal earcups planted inside of a thick foam cutout including shaped foam pieces going inside of earcups. The first thought that crossed my mind, was it even necessary to have this level of drop protection for something that build like a tank? Apparently it is, and I learned my lesson about planar magnetic headphones where you are no longer dealing with a typical dynamic driver and now need to consider a super-thin diaphragm surrounded by an array of tiny neodymium magnets that create a magnetic field driving this transducer (driver). So no matter how solid EL-8C design appears to be - you need to avoid any drop shock which can damage its internal components. As a matter of fact, I was told that after the initial release, Audeze was diligent enough to go back and to re-enforce their packaging to make sure there are no hiccups during the shipping.
The flip cover of the box has its own storage under another nested flip cover where you find accessories, booklet, and a dated certificate of authenticity hand signed by one of the Audeze technicians. Honestly, I've never seen this level of attention [hand signature] before from any other product I reviewed in the past, and it definitely made my unboxing experience a lot more special. Regarding included accessories, you will find a detachable cable, 3.5mm to 1/4" adapter, and a soft drawstring storage pouch. There is nothing special about the adapter, though it has a nice rubbery grip. Storage pouch is not really intended for a durable headphone protection but rather as scratch and dust shield. I did confirm that Slappa Full Sized hard body Pro case fits EL-8C snuggly and secure, though you can't flip earcups flat. It would have been nice for Audeze to come up with their own hard shell case to take full advantage of fold flat design of these headphones.
I will talk more about the cable a little bit later, but do think that for the price of these headphones it would have been nice to include a second set with a shorter cable and mobile controls. The original included flat cable is rather long at 2m, and considering a suggested mobile application of EL-8C, in my opinion it would have been a good idea to include a bonus 1.3m cable with a universal inline remote/mic with a single control button for Play/Pause/Call to accommodate both iOS and Android users. Audeze already offers as an add-on Apple specific (3-button including volume control), Astell & Kern (2.5mm balanced) and Pono/Sony PHA-3 (dual 3.5mm balanced) cables, so including a shorter universal 3.5mm smart cable would have made sense to complete this rather modest accessory package.
EL-8C unboxing and accessories.
I was a little bit surprised with Audeze decision to use flat cable, but do have to admit it has a nice durable shielding, decent strain relief, and a small rubbery y-splitter. Flat cable is typically tangle free and easy to manage, especially when you are dealing with 2m length, but at the same time it contributes to a little bit of microphonics effects which I found in this case. Nothing too extreme or distracting, though you will notice it a bit, especially when music is idling. Of course, the star of this cable is the connector.
Resembling a shape of apple's "lightning" connector, it has a total of 8 contacts (4 on each side, a secure attachment (actually requires a bit of force to pull it out), and a safety disengagement if extra pulling force is applied to avoid damage of the cable and equipment attached to it. Each connector is labeled with corresponding L/R marking, and the inner blade of the connector is keyed so you can't plug it flipped.
EL-8C cable.
When it comes to a design, Audeze had a helping hand from Designworks - A BMW Group Company. Thus it wasn’t a surprise to me these headphones have a solid masculine design with a touch of "warmth" in a form of a wood veneer accent. I always joke with my friends who drive bimmers about spartan interior design where there is a touch of wood trim just to make it appear more "luxurious" which sometime feels out of place. I know, it's all a matter of a personal taste, but I would have preferred all black design to complement bold look of these full size headphones.
Weighting exactly 500g (according to my digital scale) and another 40g for the cable, EL-8C is the heaviest headphones I have tested, thanks to its all metal construction and planar magnetic drivers. But despite their weight, I found EL-8C to be very comfortable to wear for extended period of time. A plush cushioning of earpads (never got warm) and inner headband's suspended "bridge" make this weight to be distributed without uncomfortable pressure points – definitely a well thought of ergonomic design. Protecting a spring-loaded suspended inner soft cushioning of headband, outside of it is a solid steel band with a decent clamping force. To make it more comfortable, during my week-long burn in of these headphones I kept EL-8C over a soccer ball to stretch the headband. Clamping force became a lot more tolerable, and sound isolation still remained excellent.
The headband height adjustment is well controlled with a precise click action. Attached to a headband at a joint that swings 180deg (flipping earcups flat on either side), you have a metal half-yoke attached at a single point to earcup which also provides a degree of tilt for adjustment around your ears and head. Back of earcups is all metal, where the inner round piece has a brushed surface finish. Wood veneer piece only goes around the edge perimeter of earcups. Earpads are marshmallow soft with a very nice cushioning and angled shape, sloped up toward the back of your head behind your ears for a better seal and isolation. The 100mm driver size and a large earcup design provides plenty of room for earpads opening which is deep enough to encapsulate your ears completely.
Overall, I'm a bit on a fence classifying EL-8C as truly portable headphones. They are definitely bigger than some of my other 40mm/45mm/53mm full size headphones, though I'm also aware they are not as big as some other planar magnetic headphones. Wearing them around a neck is out of the question, and walking with them for extended period of time will start to feel uncomfortable since 500g of weight is not exactly feather light. Their closed back design and relatively slim footprint (in comparison to other planar magnetic cans) should make them a good candidate for use in the office or maybe during extended commute. But I would personally use them at home, sitting comfortably on the couch rather than dragging them outdoors.
EL-8C design details.
I always feel there are so many sound shaping options when it comes to in-ear headphones, everything from selection of dynamic vs balanced armature drivers or the hybrid combination of both, more common replacement cables, eartip "tip rolling", and so on. With full size headphones you don't have the same luxury, especially when it comes to drivers. But one technology has been making a lot of headways lately - planar magnetics. The principle behind this technology is almost 40 years old and has been seen in other headphones and speaker releases under "orthodynamic" and "electrostatic" names in the past. It evolved over years to a more portable consumer friendly design thanks to thinner diaphragms, smaller magnetic elements, higher efficiency, etc. I will not go into details of the history behind evolution of planar magnetic drivers, but would highly recommend reading of Tyll's excellent article about it: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/how-planar-magnetic-headphones-work#LZqqBpJ43xJHmiW6.97. Audeze also played an important role with their innovations, specific to EL-8 models with a patent pending Fluxor Magnetic Structure (increasing magnetic flux density to reduce the weight and to improve efficiency) and new Fazor elements and Uniforce diaphragm (improvement in planar magnetic design to reduce distortion and to improve resolution and imaging), all of which you can read about in more details here:https://www.audeze.com/technology/engineering.
There is definitely a lot of info to read about the technology behind the design of Audeze EL-8C 100mm planar magnetic drivers that can handle up to a whooping 15W of power (though for a brief 200ms period), with an optimal power requirements of 200mW to 4W and ultra wideband 10Hz-50kHz frequency response. But at the end of the day I treat any audio gear as a black box where the only thing that counts is the SOUND. I already mentioned that I focus more on portable audio gear, and Audeze made it clear that EL-8C has low 30ohm impedance which can be driven by any portable source, including smartphones, but they also truthfully mentioned that use of external amplifier will produce better results. If you look at their efficiently of 100dB/1mW, this will already give you a clue that you will have to push your volume higher than your typical portable headphones.
Was I able to drive EL-8C from my Galaxy Note 4 smartphone? Sure, without a problem, but I had to push volume to the max and found performance to be on a weaker side. Driving it from HO of my laptop was not a problem and it was loud enough, though a sound wasn’t as resolving due to poor quality of ThinkPad built-in audio interface. I also found that it wasn't really necessary to drive EL-8C from a hefty desktop tube amp, and it had a great synergy even with my portable amplifiers. Along with EL-8/C, Audeze also released their own Deckard desktop amp which I'm going to talk about at the end of my review, but do want to mention that synergy with that amp was really good!
If you are craving a portable stack up to take with you on the road with EL-8C, I found a great solution to make it happen. I have a large number of DAPs in my review collection and went through all of them trying to figure out which one will have a better synergy with these headphones. Prior to that I also tried my Note 4 and to my surprise found sound to be rather smooth but lacking energy, being more on a dry side, and obviously not having enough juice to drive EL-8C to a higher volume. With my other DAPs, using AK120ii, X5ii, QA360, N6, and LP5, I found a better synergy using N6 and LP5 due to their powerful amp section being able to bring EL-8C sound to LIFE with greater dynamics, better low end texture, improved retrieval of details, and smoother upper mids and treble performance. Unfortunately, limited GUI of LP5 and lack of EQ was a deal breaker in this particular case, so I chose Cayin N6 as my best available option to drive EL-8C. Here is my assessment of EL-8C sound analysis straight out of N6 headphone output.
After 200 hrs of burn in (don't jump into conclusion about their brightness until you put it through a burn in pace, it will get smoother!!!), I hear EL-8C as having a neutral-bright signature with a highly revealing sound that has an excellent retrieval of details (on micro-detail level) without crossing a threshold of harsh analytical sig.
Low end has a great extension down to a sub-bass, but its best described in terms of quality rather than quantity. It's slightly north of neutral level, and it greatly benefits from bass boost (more about it later). Mid-bass has a fast punch, and slams with an authority, but at the same time it's well controlled with a surgical precision separation from lower mids.
Lower mids are on a thinner side which takes away a little bit from a body of a sound. Upper mids are bright, crisp, detailed, close to smooth-analytical level. They are pushed slightly forward, in some songs even overpowering low end. With mids being brighter and more analytical, vocals loose a little bit of their organic natural feeling and sound a tad dry.
Treble has fantastic extension, bright, and crisp. At the same time, I'm not sensing any sibilance even considering a slightly mid-forward bright nature of the sound. It's not even harsh or grainy, just a fantastic bright detailed sound.
Depth of soundstage is slightly above the average while the width is phenomenal, expanded way above average to the right/left. Separation and layering effect is excellent, you can easily distinguish and pick every instrument, even in complicated music passages. Due to a wide staging the positioning/imaging is also excellent. I wouldn't call it having a 3D placement, I think closed back design holds it a little back (with slight depth limitation which affects accuracy a bit), but for a closed back headphones it still sounds very good! Just don't expect the same airiness effect as you would find in open back design, something I'm sure EL-8 open back nails with flying colors.
Overall, I was happy with a wide-bandwidth detailed sound of EL-8C from N6, but still felt like I didn't push it to their full potential. Next step was to try it with portable external amplifiers, and I looked into my go-to FiiO E12A and Cayin C5. E12A pair up was OK but not as tight as I expected, after all - it's designed for IEMs. But once I paired up N6 with C5 - I honestly couldn't believe my ears!!! This Cayin stack took EL-8C performance to a whole new level! I heard improvement in dynamics of the sound, low end got tighter and better defined, upper mids became smoother, and width/depth/height of soundstage expanded noticeably (especially depth, still closer to intimate side but with addition of 3D imaging). The most impressive improvement happened when I turned on bass-boost - it literally changed neutral bright sound signature into a more balanced smoother warmer sound with a powerful sub-bass rumble, a tighter mid-bass punch, and more body in lower mids. This change brought a more organic feeling to a sound especially when it comes to vocals. In comparison, E12A also has a bass boost but it affects a narrower band of mid-bass while C5 has a wider bandwidth boost covering sub-bass and some lower mids. After experiencing N6+C5 stack up driving EL-8C, I can't imagine driving it with any other source I have now, except maybe with Deckard which also delivered a smooth and warm sound, though it was more transparent relative to a source without too much coloring. If given a choice, for my own personal taste I prefer C5 bass-boost coloring all the way!
Cayin N6+C5 stack up with EL-8C
Since this is my first pair of planar magnetic headphones, I don't have any other ones with a same driver technology for comparison, though I'm planning to look into reviewing and comparing similar offerings from Oppo and HiFiMAN. In a meantime, I wanted to do a quick comparison with a few of my other favorite full size headphones, using EL-8C straight out of N6 HO without "coloration" of C5 enhancement.
EL-8C vs MSR7 - MSR7 has a little deeper sub-bass with more quantity, similar mid-bass punch, warmer lower mids with more body, upper mids are a little less detailed (not the same level of smooth micro-details), and treble with a similar extension but not as smooth as EL-8C. Also, MSR7 soundstage is more intimate in comparison, while EL-8C sounds wider.
EL-8C vs R70x - R70x sound is warmer and a little more balanced, sub-bass and mid-bass have a lot of similarities though not as tight and detailed, mids are thicker, warmer, pushed a little bit back and with less details in comparison. Also, R70x treble doesn't have the same level of extension as EL-8C. Surprisingly, closed back EL-8C had a lot of similarities in soundstage characteristics with an open back R70x, though airiness of R70x has its advantage.
EL-8C vs HP150 - HP150 has a more elevated sub-bass, similar punchy mid-bass, similar thinner lower mids, while upper mids are not as detailed and also warmer and smoother. Treble has a nice extension, but not on a same detailed level as EL-8C. Also, HP150 soundstage doesn't have the same level of width/depth.
Throughout this testing I was especially impressed with how closed back EL-8C performed in comparison to open back ATH-R70x.
In addition to reviewing their new EL-8C headphones, Audeze also extended this opportunity with an offer to look into their own new desktop amplifier - Deckard. Having desktop amp goes against all of my "portable" principles, thus I don't have any big amps that I use at home. I was very close to turning down this offer, but in the last minute changed my mind, and so glad that I did.
Deckard is truly a work of “industrial design” art brought by the same group of Design Works (BMW group behind EL-8 design) and combining functionality of a very powerful Class-A amplifier and a high-performance DAC. Arrived in a rather large box, it had a very secure foam packaging inside to protect its solid aluminum brushed surface from any scratches or dents. Accessories included a standard power cable with a separate common earthed ground, a digital USB cable, a driver on a mini CD, instruction manual, and a card signed by Audeze employee (really appreciate this personal attention touch). I was a little surprised that Audeze didn't include RCA audio cable as part of the accessories. As a minimum, I think it would have been a good idea to include at least 3.5mm to RCA audio cable.
Deckard unboxing and accessories.
The design of Deckard is truly an eye candy which made me wish I would have a dedicated audio listening desktop setup. The casing of amplifier is constructed from a solid brushed aluminum while the sides have a clever design with a built-in heatsink. I didn't take it apart but can imagine that at full power the circuit will get hot and natural air cooling or alloy body casing won't be enough to absorb the heat. Using sides of the casing to integrate a solid chunky heat sink fins was just brilliant!
The back of amplifier has a power plug connector with a large power switch, a pair of RCA inputs (analog amplifier input) and RCA outputs (as part of Line Out 50 ohm pre-amp output), and USB DAC digital input connector. The front of the amplifier has a large volume dial knob with a good resistance and a comfortable grip. I just wish the knob position indicator would stand out more, though I do understand that it fits a theme of minimalistic industrial design without any color marking. The headphone output is 1/4" jack (and speced with 3 ohm output impedance with a power rating of 4W at 20 ohms), and you also have blue power LED indicator and 2 rocker switches, one for selection of USB (digital) or RCA (analog) inputs and another one for Gain selection (low=0dB, med=10dB, high=20dB). Interestingly, the middle perpendicular position of the switch is a default low "no gain" setting. Flipping a switch up will set it to Medium gain of 10dB, and flipping it down to High gain of 20dB. I think it's a very good idea so you can always start at a baseline of low gain in the middle default position, and then decide which way you want to go without blowing your ears or headphone drivers.
Deckard design details.
As far as sound shaping goes, the performance was smooth, warm, tight, and transparent. Deckard had a perfect black background, and added slightly warmer signature to a sound, but I didn't sense too much of coloring or exaggerated warm distortion. As a matter of fact, even so I enjoyed a bass boost with C5 portable amp, while using Deckard I didn't miss bass boost too much.
I found DAC performance of Deckard to be quite good as well. After installation of drivers, DAC was recognized without a problem on my ThinkPad running Win7. I'm not sure which DAC chip Audeze implemented in their design, but it was on par in sound quality when comparing laptop+Deckard to some of my portable DAPs (with either CS4398 or PCM1792) driving Deckard from LO. According to the spec, it handles 16bit-32bit samples with a rate of 44.1kHz to 192kHz, though there is also a mentioning that up to 384kHz is supported by MAC only. Since I have issues with DSD file playback on my laptop, I wasn't able to verify higher sample rates, but I can confirm that Deckard breathed a new life in my laptop when playing lossless high res FLAC files that sounded very dynamic and detailed playing from my ThinkPad as a source.
Deckard as USB DAC.
I already mentioned that it would have been a great idea to include RCA analog cable with Deckard, and instead I ended up using some of my generic 3.5mm to RCA cables found at home. Curious enough to find out if a better quality cables can improve the sound performance of the Deckard, I reached out to AudioQuest with a request to test a few of their cables.
For digital connection I choose to use AQ Forest USB (A->B) cable (http://www.audioquest.com/usb-digital-audio/forest) with a solid 0.5% silver conductors and air-filled foamed polyethylene insulation. I know some people are not cable believers, but I have tested a number of digital usb cables from AudioQuest in the past and found them to be very reasonably priced with a significantly better build quality in comparison to any generic cable, and some noticeable sound improvement. This particular 0.75m Forest USB cable I choose is priced at around $35, and we are talking about quality cable with a sturdy USB A and USB B connectors, premium conductor material, and durable shielding. Surprisingly, in comparison to the included Audeze usb cable, a sound with AQ Forest was a little bit louder and a shade brighter. After further discussion with AQ, they suggested their digital cable lowers a noise floor which should improve Signal to Noise ratio resulting in a louder perception of a sound. Either way, I was pleased with a marginal sound improvement and also the looks of this cable. Is this a must have upgrade? If you want to squeeze out every ounce of sound improvement and care about solid usb connectors – I would go for it, just get it longer than 0.75m to have more flexibility in your setup.
For analog connection I choose to use AQ Evergreen 3.5mm to RCA cable (http://www.audioquest.com/bridges-falls/evergreen). Also very reasonably priced around $35, this one features a solid long-grain copper conductors and air-filled foamed polyethylene insulation. Again, this is a very reasonably priced cable with an impressive build quality and nice tight fitting connectors. In my comparison of AQ Evergreen RCA vs Generic RCA cable - I found it to add a little more transparency and a touch more brightness/details to a sound. It wasn't exactly night'n'day difference, but its amazing build quality, durable shielding, and a tight fitted gold plated connectors (love how the housing is green, but the label was printed red and white to distinguish the sides) - was a no brainer to use this cable for connection of audio source to Deckard. I also found 3.5mm plug to fit nicely with all of my DAPs.
Overall Summary.
It’s very exciting to get a chance to test a piece of a new technology, especially when you hear so much about it discussed in audiophile communities. I don’t have much experience, yet, with other planar magnetic headphones, and I can’t compare EL-8C to Audeze flagship LCD series. But I can tell you with certainty that in a right setup these headphones shine with a sound quality like I have never experienced before. Here, Audeze offers an amazing opportunity to take a planar magnetic technology with you on the go in a beautifully crafted and durably built closed back headphones that isolate you from outside world while you submerge yourself into the spacious ocean of sounds filled with micro-details and smooth neutral tonality. You can accept this experience as is or enhance it with a slight warm coloring that can transform a sound into a new balanced dimension. Definitely a great audiophile quality product at a consumer friendly price!
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