Lastly, the treble. This is one of the hardest things to get right about headphones, as it’s really easy to make things sound too bright or subdued. You can’t have a fully natural sound without a good treble response.
The treble response of the Crosszone CZ-1 is almost as bad as the midrange. Peaks and dips all over the place, harsh and subdued at the same time, unnatural and weird sounding. There’s nothing smooth, detailed, or extended to it, as the entire treble response is just simply bad. Nothing more to say.
The Diana Phi is once again: too aggressive and harsh, and its treble performance comes up as too forward and tiring most of the time. It lacks definition and coherence, and its frequency response seems all over the place. The treble of the Diana Phi is highly detailed, but because of its poor control and definition it can only score 4 points.
The treble response of the HD8xx is pretty peaky with great technicalities. The detail retrieval and the amount of speed are both fantastic. However, I have to rate it significantly lower than the competitors mainly due to its somewhat chaotic tone and lack of smoothness.
The treble response of the RAD-0 is detailed, crisp and accurate. It’s that slight lack of openness and spaciousness that both make it score a 7 out of 10. For their price it’s a very competitive and technically great treble response, but since we’re speaking “price doesn’t matter”, it just doesn’t really have the arguments to score higher.
Both of these headphones offer an incredible level of detail retrieval in the treble area. The only reason they didn’t rate higher is purely because of the fact that the next headphones offer a more tonally accurate or more interesting approach to the tone, while also having a phenomenal detail retrieval.
The treble is the least impressive frequency when it comes to the Charybdis, but it’s very far from being “average”. It’s thick, detailed, and fantastically open, which gives you a very enjoyable yet highly technical sound. However, I can’t imagine anyone buying the Charydbis only because of its treble response, even though it’s very, very good.
Two different approaches to the treble, both spectacular. The D8000 Pro has a highly neutral, reference-sounding treble that is full of detail and resolution. An exceptional crispy kind of delivery that is actually one of the most detailed in the game.
The Elite on the other hand is not AS impressive when it comes to the technical performance, but the tone of the entire treble response is just lovely. It has that ability to make things sound prettier than they actually should. Highly musical, dense, incredibly smooth, and incredibly natural.
The treble performance of the Empyrean II is very close to perfect. It’s super fast, detailed, has a lot of resolution, but it’s never bright or tiring. Why doesn’t it score 10 then? Because the Susvara offers a touch more richness and naturalness in its treble, marking a pinnacle of high frequencies in headphones. These two were very close though, and it’s amazing to see how the Empyrean II has almost rivaled the legendary Susvara in one of it’s best features.
Once again, the Susvara gets 10 points, but what can you do. The treble response of these headphones is just simply mind-blowing. Exceptional texture, God-tier detail retrieval, the most natural timbre there is, and all that while still being beautifully smooth and rich. This treble can be both aggressive and mellow, depending on what it’s actually supposed to sound like. It doesn’t get better than this.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Contenders
Page 3: Presentation
Page 4: Build Quality & Comfort
Page 5: Tone
Page 6: Detail
Page 7: Soundstage
Page 8: Bass
Page 9: Midrange
Page 10: Treble
Page 11: Musicality
Page 12: Value
Page 13: Results
Founder of Ear Fidelity. I’ve been into audio for many years, working in production, distribution, retail, and marketing throughout my career. Now trying to revolutionize the art of reviewing audio gear, but one thing will never change: Music is the most important.
Woww….What an amazing comparison.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much Ruff! 🙂 Enjoy the content!
Great review! Pitty so many are missing – LCD-5, CRBN, DCA Stealth, Staxxes, Utopia, T+A Solitaire…
Thanks Peter!
Yeah, but I’ll get all of them eventually and will constantly update this 😀
Thank you again and enjoy your time here.
Great idea, well executed, but one small item please. Why not use the real Sennheiser HD800S as it is a headphone that many folks in the headphone community know and love (or hate) but at least it is a widely known data point. The Drop is comparatively unknown and had a lot of poor reviews due to the many variations in tuning. This has ruined your hard work and effort, sorry.
Hi Ian!
Thank you very much for your comment, I really appreciate all the feedback 🙂
While I definitely wouldn’t call that it “ruined” the hard work, I might get the 800S eventually to include it in the comparison as well. The more, the better. The 8XX is a rather fresh release and I’ve got it here, so it was natural for me to include it and see how it scores.
Thank you for your feedback and hopefully I’ll be able to get the 800S in the future. Enjoy your time here 🙂
This is one hell of a comparison of top and upermost earphones around. Keep up the highest mountines of our ears Pawel!
Thank you Kris, I’m glad you like it! I’ve mentioned this article so many times to you that there was quite an expectation I believe haha 😀
Dear Pawel,
It was a refreshing read of a comparison. I was in the market to see if I wanted to get one of the headphones you compared here and your article just made the decision for me! Keep up the great work and looking forward to future updates on this summit-fi shootout!
Thank you very much Kelvin, this really means a lot to me!
I’m glad it helped you with your decision. What headphone did you choose in the end?
Great review! True, the music is the most important, but when you have such great headphones (like Charybdis or other top ones) the music opens up, at the same time it becomes richer and clearer, so whatever you liked before you like even better with such headphones. Re-listening becomes a pleasure!