On the eve of winter holidays, I always want to believe in some miracle. Of course, as we grow older, faith in Per-Noel is lost, and usually a miracle becomes some unexpected new thing, pleasing more than expected. This year I have three of these: a player and two headphones, some bigger, the second - very small. It is about them in this case and will be discussed. They were made by the company HUM, known for us with their player, in general, I'm getting a bad intrigue (and it's revealed in the title), so I'll say directly that .
To create headphones in HUM came with all due care, the result of them turned out great in terms of sound and completely unsuccessful from the point of view of marketing. Judge for yourself, as in today's world, you can pair headphones for 1300 dollars (it's custom, universal is slightly cheaper), if only two radiators are used? Spoiled by the wild number of customer drivers, one often does not even succeed in convincing you that the main thing is not the quantity, but what you hear, so to evaluate this model you have to move away from traditional bias and evaluate only the sound, but he succeeded.
The HUM decided to do everything to the maximum, picked up the ideal, in their opinion, radiators, calculated an uncompromising crossover using electrolytic capacitors and resistors from Vishay. The internal wiring was made with a high-grade lithocarbon, the nests were supplied from Amphenol and even used two different solder, according to the developers, even this affects the sound. The crossover was calculated as maximally coherent and does not introduce phase distortion.
In general, the developers decided that it is better to use only two drivers, but use them to the fullest.
Specifications
- Emitters: 2 × with balanced armature
- Frequency range: 10 Hz - 20 kHz
- Impedance: 91Ω @ 1 kHz
- Sensitivity: 120 dB / mW @ 1 kHz
- Sound insulation: ~ 26 dB
- Cable: interchangeable with MMCX connectors
Packing and delivery kit
The delivery set here is quite simple, but also as functional as possible. The headphones are sold in plastic case from Pelican beautiful cherry color (in my opinion, the best version of the package), inside are headphones, 3 pairs of silicone attachments of different sizes and a brush with a loop for cleaning the headphones. The HUM rightly decided that those who buy these headphones in a universal case, and they themselves have a suitable range of attachments.
Instead of various not very useful accessories, a completely chic audio-rich cable from ultra-high purity copper litzrat was added to the kit. Such an audiophile rope, sold separately for $ 300.
Design and comfortable wearing
HUM produce this model in two versions, a custom fit perfectly to the shape of your ears, and a universal one that is supposed to be worn with attachments. The pros and cons of these options have already been considered many times, so I will not dwell on them. Because of the long distance and the difficulties with sending the casts, I decided to choose the option in a universal case.
Like other manufacturers, HUM has different options for tuning colors, feyspletov and others, but personally I think that for this model is best suited transparent colorless acrylic, which opens the view of the filling. I think that here you can draw an analogy with a clock equipped with a tourbillon - they also make special holes through which the owner can admire the mechanism that stands for such insane money. In Pristine, the interior is, of course, simpler, but still very aesthetic: both the wires of the internal wiring, and the radiators, and the condenser - all neatly placed inside. Naturally, the overall quality of the performance is also flawless, there are no traces of dust and dirt, no air bubbles characteristic of poor-quality castings. From the decorations of the case in my version there is a brilliant company logo of dark red color, put on the outside of the case.
Shell is surprisingly small, this is another plus of avoiding the insane number of radiators, and thanks to the rounded shape it is easy to sit down even in not the biggest ears and is worn with comfort. Sound insulation of the universal option is slightly worse than average, for those who care about this parameter, you should take care of the custom.
The wire, of course, interchangeable, thanks to the use of quality MMCX connectors, it is very securely fixed, providing both excellent contact and reliable connection. The complete cable is quite thick, made from copper litzendrate of very high purity, in transparent silicone insulation. Despite the thickness, it is soft, does not harden in the cold and is almost devoid of a microphone effect, in general - the wire is quite at the level of the top achievements of cable construction. Near the connectors are made curved sections that form the zakes.
Sound
The following equipment was used for listening.
- NuPrime DAC-10H and Resonessence Labs Concero HP as DAC and Amplifier
- Apple MacBook Pro Retina 2013 as a source
- Fidelia as a player
- Lotoo PAW Gold, Fiio X7 and theBit OPUS # 2 as portable players
- High Definition Records in Lossless-formats (Dr. Chesky The Ultimate Headphone Demonstration Disc and others)
Before listening to the headphones were warmed for 96 hours. Usually, it is not necessary for the reinforcing radiators, but here an electrolytic capacitor enters the circuit, so I decided to perform the necessary formalities.
The sound of this model is truly audiophile, the headphones have a slightly light feed with a bias in microdetails, however, without excessive cold and dryness. This is an option for serious music, quality recorded and also qualitatively reproduced by a good source. Naturally, such a pitch is not suitable for everyone, for some it may seem "fresh", but those who seek maximum monitor sound without razor sharpness will be satisfied.
The low frequencies of this model - the only place where you can find fault with their sound, is that the area of the sub-base here depends heavily on the source. I did not catch the patterns, but with some players, headphones go very deep, with others, even top-notch - the drop in deep low frequencies is very noticeable. In the rest, headphones are very pleasing, starting somewhere around 50 Hz, the bass is ideal both in terms of quantity and design, not to mention speed characteristics. In general, reinforcing bass at their best. Of course, they are a bit lacking in weight compared to dynamic radiators, but the headphones were clearly designed for lovers of reinforcement feed. In general, Pristine "sharpened" for those styles that do not rely on the massive bass, so the decision to sacrifice everything to high-speed characteristics is justified.
The middle frequencies are generally close to the spherical standard from the Paris Chamber of Weights and Measures. HUM manage to combine incongruous, their headphones are as detailed as possible and reproduce all the small nuances, but paradoxically they do not stick out the flaws and problems of the track and source. That is, you will hear their presence, but they will not interfere with the enjoyment of music. Very well the headphones convey emotions, not only for the vocalists, but also for instruments, with them it's very pleasant to listen to "audiophile" records that convey the effect of the room well. The headphones are built in a voluminous and holographic way, all instruments are ideally distributed in space, their dimensions correspond to real ones. The imaginary scene is close to the real one as far as it is generally possible in models of this form factor (the width is maximal, the depth is less than the maximum, but still good). It is possible to scatter a lot of epithets around this model for a long time, telling all these trivial truths about the realism of strings and winds, about the corporeality of images and stuff, but in general, the naturalness of the mid-range for these headphones is practically standard.
The upper frequencies are slightly brighter than some generalized norm, primarily due to the excellent development of attacks and attenuations. At the same time, the "top" is not sharp, unless, of course, a decent record and the player controls the RF. Thanks to this, everything that falls into this range sounds mesmerizing, starting with light percussion chimes and ending with almost imperceptible overtones. So, in spite of the fact that MF of this model is tolerant to the source, HF is forced to take care of the quality material.
I do not have many headphones of this level for comparison, so this section will be brief.
Noble Audio Kaiser K-10AU . In general, the "Kaisers" are more massive on bass, offer more deep bass and are less detailed at mid and high frequencies. According to the tuning model from Noble Audio is closer to the "traditional" filing for simple genres.
64 Audio U12 . In many respects - the antipode of the heroes of today's review, headphones with deep bass and softened by the use of branded acoustic filters feed. Their bass is fed more weightily, but with a lower resolution, the middle is smoothed for the sake of musicality, and the high frequencies are not as long as those of Pristine, but tolerant of the material.
Lear BD-4.2 . Another approach to sound, another perception of headphones. "Lira" is closer to what you expect from hybrids - a more massive, but less detailed bass, a light drop in resolution at the junction points of the emitters, longer HF with a worse attack design. In general, a more tasteful model with a smaller bias in the monitor.
Compatibility
The combination of a sufficiently high impedance and sensitivity imposes certain limitations on the sources for this model. The player or amplifier for them should be, firstly, detailed, for revealing the strengths of the model, and secondly, they should work well with high impedance and, thirdly, have a low noise level. Almost all top sources with this model a little noise, but in most cases it is audible only in complete silence, listening to music, the light background does not interfere. Strangely enough, one of the best results was shown by Luxury & Precision L3, which is almost silent with this model. And maximally opened these OPUS # 2 headphones from theBit company, despite the presence of very quiet noise, the bass goes very deep and sounds very powerful. The Questyle QP1R and Fiio X7 with AM2 amplifier proved to be just as good. The reverse side of the coin - Lotoo Paw Gold and Cayin players, despite all their merits, with them Pristine sound not the best way.
Genre headphones gravitate to serious styles - classics, vocals, chamber music, live jazz. Naturally, with them very well go and styles like metal and electronic music, but there are not many quality records that reveal these headphones to the fullest. Sensitivity to the quality of the recording of this model I would have estimated at 8.5 points out of 10.
Several traditional tracks as an example
Vangelis - Blade Runner (End Titles) . For some reason, for a very long time the soundtrack from my favorite fantasy film to me, as they say, "did not go." Music without the familiar dark streets of the metropolis of the future lost its charm. And only after the appearance of the Pristine + OPUS # 2 bundle in my collection, this soundtrack played all its faces. It's very difficult to choose one of the many genius tunes created by Vangelis, so I stopped at the melody from the final credits, it's quite dynamic and combines a lot of interesting sounds, starting with the lightest percussion chimes and ending with powerful blows of the big drum. This track is really a test for headphones, and Pristine pass it with honor.
Arne Domnérus - Limehouse Blues . It would be a crime not to include in the compilation to the review of these headphones something from the disc "Jazz in the Lombard". Of course, I use it often, but it's too good. Firstly, it's really interesting and not boring stuff: it often happens that jazz is music that is interesting to play, but it's boring to listen to - but it's clearly not about this disc. Secondly, the incredible quality of recording, immersing in the atmosphere of a live concert in a nightclub, with all the attendant attributes such as ringing dishes and waiter's steps - just close your eyes and you will find yourself at the table of a famous club. HUM Pristine with their holographic scene here will come in handy.
Göteborgs Symfoniker, Neeme Järvi - Marche slave, op. 31 . The "Slavic March" was written by Tchaikovsky in September 1876 at the request of the Directorate of the Russian Musical Society. The composition was devoted to the events of the Russo-Turkish War. While writing music, Tchaikovsky calls him "Serbian-Russian march" and uses traditional folk motives of the Balkans and "God save the Tsar" in music. By the way, this work Accept used for the introduction of his famous album "Metal Heart", but this is a separate story. In general, the performance of the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra is among the best, so listening is not only interesting, but also pleasant, especially if the headphones allow you to enjoy the sound of each individual instrument, as heroes of our review do.
conclusions
It's very nice that in an age of extensive development there are companies that can take a step back and think "are we going there?" While the others are trying to insert more emitters into small cases, the HUM decided to achieve a maximum using only 2 drivers, and they succeeded. Pristine - fully justify their name, providing a rare purity and detail of the sound.
The article is based on materials .
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