The Zen of doing nada? A few initial sonic spot checks whilst I twirled the plates had me quickly conclude than for once, 0 + 1 do add up to zen indeed. I couldn't tell any tonal or other difference that warranted mention for mattering. That's how close both modes were. Palma sealed extracted no performance hit that rendered open-backed mode superior and preferable by design. I didn't see how run-in would alter that. Whatever changes my loaner might still undergo, wouldn't they affect both modes equally? Unless prolonged use said otherwise, my first surprised if quick finding suggested that it won't matter how we hear these. Open or closed? Toss a coin. Though it reads casual, that's serious. In one fell spin, it eliminates the usual compromise of one-way traffic¹. That's when a driver opens only toward the ear whilst its rear radiation hits an immediate barrier to reflect off from then leak back out through the diaphragm. Sealed sound didn't suggest facing a dead end with all the stuffiness and compression it can entail. No typical box sound yet no sound leakage into the environment. Just what the doctor of domestic harmony ordered. I also only had to describe one sound not two. But first some words on sensitivity relative to the volume settings of sundry devices.
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¹ In fairness, even in 'open' mode the back plate remains ~60% solid so far away from a truly open design like the below Raal 1995 Magna.
FiiO R7 with 1TB SSD ⇒ Soundaware D300Ref ⇒ COS D1 ⇒ Cen.Grand Silver Fox ⇒ LessLoss Firewall for Headphones ⇒ DHS-1.
The above 4V DAC's volume sat at five LED for the DHS-1 whilst Susvara needed 15 diodes for equivalent SPL. On the below Shanling portable, 30/100 in low gain hit my desired loudness. That was pretty much on par with Meze's 109 Pro. Enleum's AMP-23 sat at 8:30. As the Spaniards promise, their load takes off on little fuel. Cue the Tao of Chuang Tzu: easy does it. While one man's loud is another's whisper, this type efficiency guarantees stacked headroom to bridge such differences. In the next photo you see how high Palma's headband wears when still leaving 1cm of unused extension per side.
Win 10/64 ⇒ Qobuz Sublime ⇒ Audirvana Studio ⇒ Singxer SU-2 reclocked by LHY ⇒ I²S ⇒ Laiv Harmony ⇒ Enleum AMP-23R ⇒ DHS-1.
Dry cereal is crunchy then gets successively softer the longer we soak it in milk or fruit juice. That breakfast image arose between the Palma and my desktop regular, Final's D8000 planarmagnetic. Texturally the Spanish headphone retained more crunch. Its outline edges were more articulated to increase separation between images. Contrast ratio was higher just as fresh muesli keeps its oat flakes, raisins, fruit and nuts clearly discrete ingredients whilst soaking them softens and binds the lot. The Final wasn't soggy of course. But it was a few seconds into the change of added milk. Aside from a softer thicker consistency, the temporal domain too was rhythmically less taut and sprung. So the planar's greater softness exerted itself from image lock and layering to contrast and timing. That manifested even on structurally simpler music like the duets between Renaud Garcia-Fons' 5-string upright bass and Claire Antonini's theorbo or 13-course Baroque lute of Farangi. Importantly, the DHS-1 didn't feel dry or über detailed. I suspect that its minor warmth was a function of the tuning's at best semi-open nature which stays virtually put when fully closed. It's never completely open. That injects some reflective fill regardless of plate rotation; just demonstrably less than the planar with its two-sided shutter magnets. I enjoyed Palma's bouncier gait. Meanwhile its tonality reminded me of my favourite lateral Mosfets from the UK's Exicon – dry but sunny, with excellent tonal fill. At €3.5K, the D8000 made my earlier point. The far more ubiquitous dynamic driver can compete head-on even nose first with exotic planars whilst charging less. In this encounter I call the DHS-1 of more advanced resolution without at all crossing over into spot-lit über-airy HD800 antics of yore.
It also had the edge on bass control. Where the Final is slightly plumptuous—'bassy' in common parlance—a tighter grip surrounded Palma's no lesser weight. That meant superior damping so stoppage. Particularly on organic electronica where acoustic instruments play atop synthesized infrasonics, tauter beat keeping gave the same tracks the groovier more tribal/trance vibe. Rhythmic energy was stronger. The Final's big diaphragm had the heavier lower treble, the Palma more mid-treble blitz. We'd call neither tuning overly airy, however. On subjective stage width I found them on par so attractively wide to countermand any claustrophobic skull-lock syndrome. After about half an hour, the DHS-1 did cause me sweaty ears and I began to feel that pressure point at the crown of my head. Here HifiMan's thin leather suspension well clear of the upper hard bridge goes farther into endless sessions. If I owned the Palma, I'd buy a comfort wrap from New Zealand's Beautiful Audio like I already have on this D8000. For my initial comparative purpose looking for Palma's place in the hiercharchy, this sufficed to declare the DHS-1 a direct alternative to the costlier Final planar; and for my ears the even tastier alternative.
