A couple more comments to pin: 1) Were my issues with resolution due to lack of break-in? Unlikely. This unit was a return to A46 before it came to me and I put an extra 60+ hours of hard driving break-in on it to be sure. No audible change. Additionally, at the time of this filming, Abyss's Diana MR web page made no mention of a need for break-in/burn-in. 2) What did the DHC Molecule Elite cable do? I didn't find it to be a great match. The plugs fit the MR's jacks just fine but I thought the sound excessively brightened and the bass leaned out too much. I don't recommend the pairing. Thanks all for watching. I hope you found it helpful. -WT
Most underrated reviewer on youtube. His assessment of the Topping amps, when everyone else was promoting it as the best thing out, explained why it sounded so lifeless and artificial sounding to me (and don't even get me started on Periapt cables). One of the few ears I trust.
@@Sturgon Yeah, the discrete model sounds more promising. I was referring to the model before it that everyone was saying buy it without question (JV mainly). I did, and it just seemed to suck the joy out of listening over my pervious amp.
There's a reason why abyss guys sent out headphones to certain reviewers, like dms and Josh and a couple more , because they would not give a negative report but only good news and praise . I almost went to buy this because the look and fit and yes listening to Josh . They took a big chance sending it to you wave lol. I'm sooo happy with my he1000se and zmf verite close . Wave is the best if the best with his honesty and style of detail reviews , my 2nd best reviewer is passion for sound , these two I would trust first .
Interesting review. Paying $3000 for a headphone for it to have a niche in "texture retrieval" isn't something I'm interested in. Wish there was more commentary on the bass - other reviews seemed to focus on how good the bass regions of the Diana MR are, in addition to how studio-neutral the Diana MR is.
I am in total agreement with the fact about a headphone’s ability to present every nuance in a recording. Personally, I want to hear everything in a recording as the engineer and musician put forth in the music.
I've been using the MR (and loving it) for just over a month, and I'd say your review is tough but fair. For me, the texture-forwardness and focusing on the instruments over the room ambiance is a boon to many recordings, though it also makes this headphone a specialist for me. It's not particularly well suited for the grandeur of big-room recordings. It is perfectly suited for letting you effortlessly focus on the intricacies of the instruments. You don't have to seek that up-front textural detail out, it just puts it right there. I can see the argument about value proposition, but I take a horses for courses approach to my headphone collection, and this is an important and unique addition to the stable. All that said, I largely agree with your assessment. The one aspect where I can't agree is shoutiness. In the past, we've often been simpatico on this. I feel the same way about Audeze's recent tunings as you do, for example, and I'll even grant that older Abyss headphones have it to some extent. This one though, at least to me, feels pretty chilled out in the mid-range. Especially with the suede pads, the FR is just as smooth and unfatiguing as it can be for me.
I got to hear them at SoCal and I genuinely really enjoyed them. But it was largely because it was only headphone I heard that had crazy sub bass. To top it off I enjoy mid centric headphones and this had it in spades. It’s interesting to see how you feel though, and I’m curious if I would feel the same in a quiet environment testing. I do want to specify that this was done on woo audio mini (portable tube amp).
Awesome review as always and your detail of explaining is super. Happily owned the he1000se . Question , so since zmf verite close is mid forward , which one would you chose if you had to keep zmf or abyss mr ?
For piano/classical and vocals, is the MR a good choice? I liked the v2(given I have not tried many things). I would be running them on a mojo2. Coming from iems(u12t, ie600), I have had the 800s and found it too thin, natural but thin. I prefer something compact. and mr covers that, but could perhaps sacrifice that for sq
You've got great insight and articulation. I came away understanding your points clearly. As a Diana TC user, I probably have different preferences but my experience does match your descriptions. Voices don't sound natural but they are engaging which makes listening for me more emotionally gripping. But for keener years as yourself, hearing room details while the voices seem to float is probably jarring. Imo the MR sounds like the tuning objective was to reduce artifacts in lower quality tracks/gear while keeping some of that texture that abyss owners like. But since these are not as easy to drive as they are advertised to be AND they don't resolve as well, i see them as a miss. As someone who prefers natural sound, what's your opinion on R2R dacs?
Most R2Rs I've heard have sounded good to excellent. I don't think they are inherently better than DS dacs near the same price, though. I've found myself far less interested in whether a DAC is DS or R2R as I am in its performance. I think R2R's reputation for being smoother and more analog happens at least in part because the R2R approach is usually used by more boutique leaning makers who put a lot of care into their sound. This in turn raises the floor on R2R dac performance. But when DS dacs are given the same care, they can sound equally awesome. My Berkeley Alpha S2 is a DS, fwiw. Thanks for the comment! 🍻
22:26 Thank you for talking about this issue. What headphone would you say was the best at representing acoustic instruments accurately? Insofar as they sound live.
Audiophiles in this price class don't care about value. They didn't care about almost anything other than the validation that they could both afford it, and the purchase validation that came with it. How it performs is almost irrelevant
I’m a bit confused with “enhanced texturing” and “lower resolution” as it seems to be contradicting terms to each other. Usually, higher resolution, highly resolving headphones will have enhanced texture compare to lower resolution which will sound less texture. I’m thinking maybe it because of its highly resolving ability it pull out every details in the live recording and throw everything at you all at once it just confused the heck out of your brains? (I have 1266 and that does happened to me on some tracks, just too much details all at once, you just get confused) I don’t have the headphones so I can’t say that’s the case for sure but enhanced texturing just doesn’t go with lower resolution. It’s like saying this is a really fast car but the acceleration is terrible… it doesn’t fit in together.
Yes it does, and your analogy sucks balls. Same as you can sharpen or upscale 1080p to 4k to look more textured but native 4k actually has more real low level information.
@@mariodrv Also there is no oversampling or upscaling involved here at all so your analogy is totally irrelevant. This is more like saying you can see more texture on a 2k screen than one on a 4k screen playing the exact same content. Even if playing 2k content, 4k won’t make it less texture but it will just be as texture as a native 2k screen but a 4k content will be more texture on a native 4k than 2k screen.
I will be repeating myself saying that Abyss headphones are overpriced as hell, like many people noticed there are so many options in a fraction of Diana price that can compete or even win in terms of sound. Seriously I could buy Susvara for that price...
I am in the same thinking with Abyss headphones they have 99% of the same house sound. This equals a love it or hate it sound. For myself spending my hard earned money on it was NOT worth it and later sold 2 headphones for a loss the 1266 Phi TC & Diana V2. I think the Abyss company are awesome people and build the very best headphone in the world but sadly not the best sound signature. I find all of their headphones sound pretty much the same. And what they say about the bass is 100% correct extremely impactful and authoritative speaker like one would say. Abyss really needs to get closer to a Hifiman Arya or Susvara sound signature which is a natural sound that uses most of the frequency range not just two of them which is a smooth treble no midrange and awesome bass to me doesn’t sound natural.
Not agree with this review. MR is a very detailed headphone but it is just dont have a big soundstage that the hifiman does. That makes the hifiman has better ambience details but the MR has much better micro details.
Did you get $2200 semiconductor cable? They say on head-fi it fixes it’s all problems. A thread on reddit says those cable are just wrapped cables from walmart and still head $16 cable branding underneath lmao. Abyss is biggest snake oil and scam in this industry.
Snake oil company being propped up by snake reviewers like DMS/Josh Velour. I still to this day couldn't believe how garbage the Diana v2 despite the glowing reviews from DMS/Velour. When I saw their videos on the MR and heard it at Canjam, I couldn't believe they were getting away with it again.
You say the MR isn't worth the asking price, comparing it to another headphone widely regarded as being now worth the price, how does fair in that regard to the original Empy?
@@enjoshi-godrez8775I wouldn’t agree with this take nor is detail retrieval the only indicator of performance. I will concede the og empy did not compete well ok technical performance at its price point. Used OG empys are now down in the $1.2k range which is much more appropriate.
@@enjoshi-godrez8775 there is more to it than that. There's a lot that can happen in time domain behavior that you pay for too. Getting the pacing of attacks and decays and the amount of driver-motion-damping play huge roles and are aspects that don't show up on FR sweeps and are only partially correctable with EQ. Also, it's easy to undersell the importance of resolution as detail retrieval. Many technical aspects of sound such as imaging, separation, the attack & decay timings just mentioned, and texturing are at least in part connected to resolution.
What a joke 3000 and the abyss comes in a box and inside a case that resembles something like sony wireless headphones and others thats about 300 .lol abyss take note from zmf , hifiman , audeze ect.
@srg-yo for the price it should be better , so I guess if you bought it you wouldn't mind unpacking it from a simple paper bag or plastic bag , my point they are overated all and all
![АЛАУДИНОВ у Скабеевой: эти их ВСУ нас НЕ ДОГОНЯТ 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/an0anqU4WGQ/mqdefault.jpg)
A couple more comments to pin:
1) Were my issues with resolution due to lack of break-in? Unlikely. This unit was a return to A46 before it came to me and I put an extra 60+ hours of hard driving break-in on it to be sure. No audible change. Additionally, at the time of this filming, Abyss's Diana MR web page made no mention of a need for break-in/burn-in.
2) What did the DHC Molecule Elite cable do? I didn't find it to be a great match. The plugs fit the MR's jacks just fine but I thought the sound excessively brightened and the bass leaned out too much. I don't recommend the pairing.
Thanks all for watching. I hope you found it helpful. -WT
I havent yet found a channel or reviewer that is as technically proficient, honest, and rigorous as you. As always, thank you!
Thank you 😊
I totally agree 👍
Proud subscriber here, and I'm happy to hear more real honesty.
Most underrated reviewer on youtube. His assessment of the Topping amps, when everyone else was promoting it as the best thing out, explained why it sounded so lifeless and artificial sounding to me (and don't even get me started on Periapt cables).
One of the few ears I trust.
You are delusional. Glad he is underrated.
The newest topping stuff sounds awesome. Far improved from the older designs and other products on its price class like the fiio THX stuff.
@@Sturgon Yeah, the discrete model sounds more promising. I was referring to the model before it that everyone was saying buy it without question (JV mainly). I did, and it just seemed to suck the joy out of listening over my pervious amp.
@@enjoshi-godrez8775 Troll be gone. Convinced at this point you're just a Etymonic sock puppet
Amazing and thorough review, that goes against hype on forums because it's honest at its core.
Wonderful review 👌 I love the brutal honesty and as an owner of the HE1000SE it's the comparison I wanted to hear!
Wow me too, I have the he1000se and needed to hear this review and happy I did . He1000se is really tough to beat and is a keeper.
@@Angel-AbC9 100% my friend 😉
Wow a review can’t get much more complete than this!
Apart from the lack of conversation on bass performance, let alone further details of the sound with the bass ported pads installed.
There's a reason why abyss guys sent out headphones to certain reviewers, like dms and Josh and a couple more , because they would not give a negative report but only good news and praise . I almost went to buy this because the look and fit and yes listening to Josh . They took a big chance sending it to you wave lol.
I'm sooo happy with my he1000se and zmf verite close .
Wave is the best if the best with his honesty and style of detail reviews , my 2nd best reviewer is passion for sound , these two I would trust first .
Thank you for this review! (I was waiting for it!) It was helpful indeed. I am glad that Abyss is improving.
Interesting review. Paying $3000 for a headphone for it to have a niche in "texture retrieval" isn't something I'm interested in. Wish there was more commentary on the bass - other reviews seemed to focus on how good the bass regions of the Diana MR are, in addition to how studio-neutral the Diana MR is.
I like Audio46 and have bought more than a few TOTL items from them - Hi Tony ! Also, great review!!!
I am in total agreement with the fact about a headphone’s ability to present every nuance in a recording. Personally, I want to hear everything in a recording as the engineer and musician put forth in the music.
I've been using the MR (and loving it) for just over a month, and I'd say your review is tough but fair. For me, the texture-forwardness and focusing on the instruments over the room ambiance is a boon to many recordings, though it also makes this headphone a specialist for me. It's not particularly well suited for the grandeur of big-room recordings. It is perfectly suited for letting you effortlessly focus on the intricacies of the instruments. You don't have to seek that up-front textural detail out, it just puts it right there. I can see the argument about value proposition, but I take a horses for courses approach to my headphone collection, and this is an important and unique addition to the stable. All that said, I largely agree with your assessment.
The one aspect where I can't agree is shoutiness. In the past, we've often been simpatico on this. I feel the same way about Audeze's recent tunings as you do, for example, and I'll even grant that older Abyss headphones have it to some extent. This one though, at least to me, feels pretty chilled out in the mid-range. Especially with the suede pads, the FR is just as smooth and unfatiguing as it can be for me.
I didn't have suede pads to try but even without that I can buy that the mid balance was corrected enough here to reach a wider audience. Cheers 🍻
Fantastic review. Thank you so much.
I got to hear them at SoCal and I genuinely really enjoyed them. But it was largely because it was only headphone I heard that had crazy sub bass. To top it off I enjoy mid centric headphones and this had it in spades. It’s interesting to see how you feel though, and I’m curious if I would feel the same in a quiet environment testing.
I do want to specify that this was done on woo audio mini (portable tube amp).
Thank You. You've just saved me a lot of money ;) I stay with my HE1000SE🙂
Awesome review as always and your detail of explaining is super.
Happily owned the he1000se . Question , so since zmf verite close is mid forward , which one would you chose if you had to keep zmf or abyss mr ?
For piano/classical and vocals, is the MR a good choice? I liked the v2(given I have not tried many things). I would be running them on a mojo2. Coming from iems(u12t, ie600), I have had the 800s and found it too thin, natural but thin. I prefer something compact. and mr covers that, but could perhaps sacrifice that for sq
You've got great insight and articulation. I came away understanding your points clearly.
As a Diana TC user, I probably have different preferences but my experience does match your descriptions. Voices don't sound natural but they are engaging which makes listening for me more emotionally gripping. But for keener years as yourself, hearing room details while the voices seem to float is probably jarring.
Imo the MR sounds like the tuning objective was to reduce artifacts in lower quality tracks/gear while keeping some of that texture that abyss owners like.
But since these are not as easy to drive as they are advertised to be AND they don't resolve as well, i see them as a miss.
As someone who prefers natural sound, what's your opinion on R2R dacs?
Most R2Rs I've heard have sounded good to excellent. I don't think they are inherently better than DS dacs near the same price, though. I've found myself far less interested in whether a DAC is DS or R2R as I am in its performance. I think R2R's reputation for being smoother and more analog happens at least in part because the R2R approach is usually used by more boutique leaning makers who put a lot of care into their sound. This in turn raises the floor on R2R dac performance. But when DS dacs are given the same care, they can sound equally awesome. My Berkeley Alpha S2 is a DS, fwiw. Thanks for the comment! 🍻
22:26 Thank you for talking about this issue. What headphone would you say was the best at representing acoustic instruments accurately? Insofar as they sound live.
The hifi man he1000se no doubt does what you mentioned
I honestly don't get it. Hifiman and modhouse is killing it for value for money. I think other companies making planar headphones should be scared.
Audiophiles in this price class don't care about value. They didn't care about almost anything other than the validation that they could both afford it, and the purchase validation that came with it. How it performs is almost irrelevant
I’m a bit confused with “enhanced texturing” and “lower resolution” as it seems to be contradicting terms to each other.
Usually, higher resolution, highly resolving headphones will have enhanced texture compare to lower resolution which will sound less texture.
I’m thinking maybe it because of its highly resolving ability it pull out every details in the live recording and throw everything at you all at once it just confused the heck out of your brains?
(I have 1266 and that does happened to me on some tracks, just too much details all at once, you just get confused)
I don’t have the headphones so I can’t say that’s the case for sure but enhanced texturing just doesn’t go with lower resolution. It’s like saying this is a really fast car but the acceleration is terrible… it doesn’t fit in together.
Yes it does, and your analogy sucks balls.
Same as you can sharpen or upscale 1080p to 4k to look more textured but native 4k actually has more real low level information.
@@mariodrv No, that’s not texture.
That’s picture artefacts from upscaling.
@@tonamg53
It is PERCIEVED texture.
@@mariodrv Also there is no oversampling or upscaling involved here at all so your analogy is totally irrelevant.
This is more like saying you can see more texture on a 2k screen than one on a 4k screen playing the exact same content.
Even if playing 2k content, 4k won’t make it less texture but it will just be as texture as a native 2k screen but a 4k content will be more texture on a native 4k than 2k screen.
@@mariodrv Artefacts are considered as noises, not texture.
subbed.
I will be repeating myself saying that Abyss headphones are overpriced as hell, like many people noticed there are so many options in a fraction of Diana price that can compete or even win in terms of sound. Seriously I could buy Susvara for that price...
I am in the same thinking with Abyss headphones they have 99% of the same house sound. This equals a love it or hate it sound. For myself spending my hard earned money on it was NOT worth it and later sold 2 headphones for a loss the 1266 Phi TC & Diana V2. I think the Abyss company are awesome people and build the very best headphone in the world but sadly not the best sound signature. I find all of their headphones sound pretty much the same. And what they say about the bass is 100% correct extremely impactful and authoritative speaker like one would say. Abyss really needs to get closer to a Hifiman Arya or Susvara sound signature which is a natural sound that uses most of the frequency range not just two of them which is a smooth treble no midrange and awesome bass to me doesn’t sound natural.
Think I coined a new term: "textural retrieval"
Not agree with this review. MR is a very detailed headphone but it is just dont have a big soundstage that the hifiman does. That makes the hifiman has better ambience details but the MR has much better micro details.
Much? That's not true. Lmao
Lol what other headphones do you have to compare the mr to ? I own the he1000se and wave remarks are spot on
Did you get $2200 semiconductor cable? They say on head-fi it fixes it’s all problems. A thread on reddit says those cable are just wrapped cables from walmart and still head $16 cable branding underneath lmao. Abyss is biggest snake oil and scam in this industry.
if thats true, that is insane!
Different controversy, I think. The rewrapped cable was one of their "premium" power cables,
Talking crap. People who have/used the expensive cables said they were a bit better but that it's subtle.
@kurtphillips124 That is not an argument. People say the magic stones make a difference. LMAO
@enjoshi-godrez8775 OP is claiming somone said it "fixed all there problems". My point is, I don't believe his recollection of what he read.
Snake oil company being propped up by snake reviewers like DMS/Josh Velour. I still to this day couldn't believe how garbage the Diana v2 despite the glowing reviews from DMS/Velour. When I saw their videos on the MR and heard it at Canjam, I couldn't believe they were getting away with it again.
It's an improvement though right? That FR is magnitudes improved from before. What is still wrong with it sonically speaking?
I had the same experience with the 1266...Got to listen at CJ Socal and it was a HUGE disappointment!
Man the Diana V2 is a ripoff even for 50 USD. It is THAT BAD.
Would never trust a company whose owner has a pretty sketchy history when it comes to being a snake oil salesman.
You say the MR isn't worth the asking price, comparing it to another headphone widely regarded as being now worth the price, how does fair in that regard to the original Empy?
Ya know I never heard og Empy.
The original empyrean isn't worth $300. It has the detail retrieval of a sundara. Why are you using it as an example, when it is the opposite?
@@enjoshi-godrez8775I wouldn’t agree with this take nor is detail retrieval the only indicator of performance. I will concede the og empy did not compete well ok technical performance at its price point. Used OG empys are now down in the $1.2k range which is much more appropriate.
@aceofspades6667 no it could. Technical performance is all you pay for. Great tuned and QC iems for $20.
@@enjoshi-godrez8775 there is more to it than that. There's a lot that can happen in time domain behavior that you pay for too. Getting the pacing of attacks and decays and the amount of driver-motion-damping play huge roles and are aspects that don't show up on FR sweeps and are only partially correctable with EQ. Also, it's easy to undersell the importance of resolution as detail retrieval. Many technical aspects of sound such as imaging, separation, the attack & decay timings just mentioned, and texturing are at least in part connected to resolution.
What a joke 3000 and the abyss comes in a box and inside a case that resembles something like sony wireless headphones and others thats about 300 .lol abyss take note from zmf , hifiman , audeze ect.
Why care about making more junk? The important is the headphones themselves and the carrying case.
@srg-yo for the price it should be better , so I guess if you bought it you wouldn't mind unpacking it from a simple paper bag or plastic bag , my point they are overated all and all
that is company like Grado they will never learn but there always gonna be people who dont know what to do with money