OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Got these for Christmas, my direct comparison is to a set of B&W PX5's (mine) and PX7's (my middle son's), as we have both here. I will also being comparing them to my eldest son's Sony units, which, I must say, sound like hot garbage. I did some back-to-back listening with him and he was rather depressed over how his Sony units sounded after that.
I read a number of reviews before getting them, and have read a few after. Most reviews are good, some individual ones are not. I'll share my experiences here.
Link to website:
https://www.heavys.com/
They are "designed for heavy music" hence the name, though I find they do just fine on anything. They are like listening to a large set of Paradigm towers, to do a speaker comparison.
These have 8 drivers, which, unlike the electrostatic Sony units, means they have proper tweeters:
This is readily apparent in even the most basic listening, as the highs are strong and clear, while the Sony units are muddy. The B&W's both do well here, I am not sure as to their driver arrangements, but it's B&W, so quality is to be expected IMHO.
Connectivity is pretty diverse:
- Bluetooth
- 3.5mm analog cable
- USB-C with built-in DAC
Down to the review.
These are not "fancy". They have no wear sensors; they lack any active haptics, so they don't pause when you lift one off your ear for example, which my PX5's do. They seem well made however, and, while not lightweights, aren't annoyingly heavy on the head (har har).
I first used them paired to bluetooth on my iPhone and was not blown away. The highs were very present but didn't sound great; sort of sounded like listening to a lower bitrate track. I tried a pile of different artists and songs, didn't make a difference.
I installed the app, which notified me that there was a firmware update, which I performed. This had zero impact on the Bluetooth audio quality.
I skipped the 3.5mm cable with the logic that analog wasn't where I was going to hear them shine, if they were in fact going to.
Enter the built-in DAC.
With them off, I plugged them into USB on my million year old Mac Pro (had to use a USB-C to USB-A adapter cable) and they were detected as a digital audio device. Selected the same tracks in Apple Music (formerly iTunes) and wow, what a difference! The built-in DAC is fantastic. The highs are crystal clear, the soundstage is broad and dynamic, and the lows are strong, but not overwhelming; they don't come across as bass boosted, just seeming to properly do the lows justice.
The difference between the DAC and bluetooth was so pronounced I haven't used them on Bluetooth since, just leaving them plugged into my computer. This means I'm using none of the active features of the units, such as noise cancelling, as that's all disabled with them off and the DAC is run in straight-through mode. You can run them in active mode on the DAC, but they do a very good job of drowning out your surroundings without the active noise cancelling, so I've had no reason to use them that way.
The iPhone management app for them is finicky. It sometimes doesn't see them and you have to forget the headphones and reconnect them for them to be detected. I've never had that issue with the B&W's, which always connect the first time.
Now, I assume as a byproduct of them having 4 tweeters and 4 drivers, they are pretty "revealing", so if you are listening to a poorly recorded track, you know it. They aren't as bad as my B&W 802's for this, but are pretty bad. On the other hand, if it's a good quality recording, you are rewarded with hearing all the little details.
All-in-all, if you are looking for fancy wireless headphones with lots of features, these aren't that. If you are looking for a solid set of over-ears that you can plug-in and listen to digital music on for a reasonable price? These are a solid option. I'm not sure they are any better or worse than others in the bluetooth space, but hard wired using the built-in DAC I think they are a fantastic value for the quality of audio delivered, and this is where they really shine.
I read a number of reviews before getting them, and have read a few after. Most reviews are good, some individual ones are not. I'll share my experiences here.
Link to website:
https://www.heavys.com/
They are "designed for heavy music" hence the name, though I find they do just fine on anything. They are like listening to a large set of Paradigm towers, to do a speaker comparison.
These have 8 drivers, which, unlike the electrostatic Sony units, means they have proper tweeters:
This is readily apparent in even the most basic listening, as the highs are strong and clear, while the Sony units are muddy. The B&W's both do well here, I am not sure as to their driver arrangements, but it's B&W, so quality is to be expected IMHO.
Connectivity is pretty diverse:
- Bluetooth
- 3.5mm analog cable
- USB-C with built-in DAC
Down to the review.
These are not "fancy". They have no wear sensors; they lack any active haptics, so they don't pause when you lift one off your ear for example, which my PX5's do. They seem well made however, and, while not lightweights, aren't annoyingly heavy on the head (har har).
I first used them paired to bluetooth on my iPhone and was not blown away. The highs were very present but didn't sound great; sort of sounded like listening to a lower bitrate track. I tried a pile of different artists and songs, didn't make a difference.
I installed the app, which notified me that there was a firmware update, which I performed. This had zero impact on the Bluetooth audio quality.
I skipped the 3.5mm cable with the logic that analog wasn't where I was going to hear them shine, if they were in fact going to.
Enter the built-in DAC.
With them off, I plugged them into USB on my million year old Mac Pro (had to use a USB-C to USB-A adapter cable) and they were detected as a digital audio device. Selected the same tracks in Apple Music (formerly iTunes) and wow, what a difference! The built-in DAC is fantastic. The highs are crystal clear, the soundstage is broad and dynamic, and the lows are strong, but not overwhelming; they don't come across as bass boosted, just seeming to properly do the lows justice.
The difference between the DAC and bluetooth was so pronounced I haven't used them on Bluetooth since, just leaving them plugged into my computer. This means I'm using none of the active features of the units, such as noise cancelling, as that's all disabled with them off and the DAC is run in straight-through mode. You can run them in active mode on the DAC, but they do a very good job of drowning out your surroundings without the active noise cancelling, so I've had no reason to use them that way.
The iPhone management app for them is finicky. It sometimes doesn't see them and you have to forget the headphones and reconnect them for them to be detected. I've never had that issue with the B&W's, which always connect the first time.
Now, I assume as a byproduct of them having 4 tweeters and 4 drivers, they are pretty "revealing", so if you are listening to a poorly recorded track, you know it. They aren't as bad as my B&W 802's for this, but are pretty bad. On the other hand, if it's a good quality recording, you are rewarded with hearing all the little details.
All-in-all, if you are looking for fancy wireless headphones with lots of features, these aren't that. If you are looking for a solid set of over-ears that you can plug-in and listen to digital music on for a reasonable price? These are a solid option. I'm not sure they are any better or worse than others in the bluetooth space, but hard wired using the built-in DAC I think they are a fantastic value for the quality of audio delivered, and this is where they really shine.
