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raansire7
1552
Dec 10, 2024
checkVerified Buyer
Exceeded any expectations I would've had. I've been waiting for this sound!
Like with everything else in life, I've learned to approach deaf headphone purchases without prejudice, bias or expectations instead of believing hivemind narratives from Internet strangers of questionable mental health. TL;DR of this review would be: if you have an open mind and want the next level of headphone experience, get these, especially on sale. Go on. I will spare you from the following ridiculous dissertation, ha-ha! When I played my first song through these headphones, I had no expectations, but they sounded better than anything I would've expected based on my cumulative experience with headphones. First thing I noticed was their imaging. I'm hearing an aural image that seems to come from where the sounds should, and not from the headphones themselves. It's more natural. Background is delightfully dark and sounds seem to emanate from it and vanish to complete silence. Sounds like something that should happen with every headphone, but no. Some headphones do not allow one to appreciate the silence between the quietest sounds. The grell OAE1 have surprising clarity and detail retrieval that punches way above their price point. I'm hearing EVERYTHING unmasked. All the elements have their own place above and below each other. Busy tracks still sound organized. These headphones really have fantastic separation and layering. I'm getting high-end headphone sound quality, but these are priced like cheap headphones. Nothing about their sound suggests their price. These sound like 3X their price. As open as these headphones are, the bass is unexpectedly punchy and powerful, surprisingly bigger than the mids and highs, but without overpowering them or sounding exaggerated in the context of the recordings. It goes low and is ear-filling, but without that annoying intermodulation that happens with so many open headphones when the bass gets super low. The highs are velvety and not sparkly, but pay attention and you'll notice that all the definition is there. I think that after the imaging, the highs are the second most impressive aspect of them. We associate sparkle with detail. Not here. You get all the highs and none of the sparkle, which is weird at first, but you quickly get used to it. No wincing except on really bad recordings. The highs here remind me of the super-pricey Sony C800G tube condenser microphone. When you hear its highs, you are marked by them. They are in their own category. The grell OAE1 do not sound analytical, and are also forgiving of bad recordings. However, I can be as analytical as I want and I will keep hearing little details that are masked even in pricier headphones. Compared to anything else I own, they don't sound bright in terms of tonality, but detail retrieval-wise, I'm getting everything micro and macro that I have to struggle to hear in some of my much pricier cans. Oh, and they are enjoyable on low volume. i don't feel the need to crank them to get excitement out of the drivers like I need to do with other headphones. That was a total surprise. By the way, their precise driver matching is evident. Another thing that was surprising was that, unlike every other headphone I own that benefits from Meier crossfeed to tame the unnaturally-wide stereo field, these don't need it at all. The position of the drivers makes them sound less headphone-y. It's not like the sound appears to come from the front, but the way the drivers hit the outer ears, it makes for a more natural soundstage. The audio hologram is a different size and shape. I'm testing them on an AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt and an H2 Designs MIYO. Playback is through iTunes and foobar2000, both with commercial tracks and my own self-produced stuff. These are my opinions, untethered from anyone else's. I STRONGLY recommend you give these a chance if you want to go to a next level of headphone sound reproduction, to an uncharted territory. Overall, are they weird and very different from other headphones? YES! Honestly, anyone would absolutely hate them if they expected a familiar aural presentation. This is a new thing. The way the drivers are mounted is going to sound different to what you're used to, which is two drivers playing sound flatly into your ears, which is not how sounds work in real life. They interact with the outer ear first, and that's how we hear and how the brain interprets what's going on. Sound doesn't enter the ear directly like with traditional headphones. There is distance and position before it. You need to deprogram yourself from any previous headphone experience before listening to these. You can't compare them to anything else you own, because they are a different concept and deviate from what is considered a normal tuning. The grell OAE1 to me are like a next level, something new my brain hasn't experienced before. Referencing any previous mental framework would be unfair to them. In summary, I'd say get these headphones if you are tired of climbing the headphone tier and not getting the expected value for your money. Pay no mind to their low price. The grell OAE1 are affordable, yet sound many times better than their price in terms of clarity, sound quality and detail retrieval. You are getting a much pricier sound reproduction and presentation. Their sound is clear and free of any smearing or harshness. You hear the sound of sounds in a transparent way that is unusual at this price point. At any given time, I can hear more stuff at the same time compared to other headphones I own. Like I said in the beginning, I'm hearing everything unmasked. The proof is in the pudding: this concept works. I'm glad Axel dared to carve a new path with these, and I would shake the man's hands and thank him. I've waited years for these headphones; for something daring like this. Honestly! They'll eventually find their way to the heads of people who will understand them and appreciate their unconventional concept. If you keep an open mind, you'll get what the grell OAE1 are about and realize that whatever cons people mention about their sound are actually its pros.
(Edited)
Recommends this product? Yes
BMeek
2
Jan 7, 2025
raansire7Thanks for this insightful review! I also enoyed your earlier discussion of the HD 6XX (which I had just learned of vis-a-vi the HD 650 and ordered here on drop yesterday). This 'OAE1' appears to be a real innovation - the forward positioning of the drivers totally makes sense. Exciting! Given where I'm at in my journey (transitioning from a life-long music lover to a 'music-loving-amateur-audiophile-with-62-year-old-ears'), I'll spend some quality time with the HD 6XX as I keep an eye on this OAE1. I've just stepped into the 'audiophile headphone hobby' while upgrading the stereo system in my 20-year-old Lexus es330, and sharing some details on a Lexus owner's forum thread about Head units/stereos with audiophile grade components (mostly defined by the OP as the presence of a decent 24-bit DAC). I was told by the OP that the amp I bought was useless 'because it's class d, blah, blah'. By then I had decided I needed a better appreciation, a reference, of what an audiophile is listening for and had bought some Sennheiser HD 599 headphones on sale via Amazon (continually upgrading a car audio system would be a very tedious and expensive path to audiophilism). Of course, then I wondered what makes an audiophile happier with a more expensive set of headphones... and here I am wondering about spending another few hundred on some OAE1s having just purchased the HD 6XX:-). I've been listening to the 50 ohm HD 599s with my late model M2 Macbook Air, and I gather the macbook's port will automatically kick into the higher-gain 3V mode when it sees the 300 ohm HD 6XXs. Reports are that newer Macs do pretty well without an external DAC/AMP - have you experienced this? Anyway, thanks again for your contributions out here!
(Edited)
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