Converted by the convertible? Revisiting the open/closed question after I'd gotten familiar, the only times that I thought I caught a fleeting difference right after a plate rotation was on certain male vocals. Then closed felt just a tad more sonorous. But a few bars past that notice, this apparent difference evaporated again. It was far too mild to hold onto as an actual feature. So I stand by my initial impression. This dual-purpose design remains fundamentally unchanged regardless of mode. That's quite the achievement if arguably divergent from popular expectations. There's not much mechanical friction to turn the plates. If you're curious how this works without any leaks or eventual loosening, you'll want to look up the patent.
Soundaware P1x.
Instead of that patent, I looked up the P1x. That sat taped and locked up in its Soundaware cardboard box in the hallway awaiting a pickup that hadn't happen in over a month. Even my factory contact now ghosted me on the matter. "Okay, be that way" said my Exacto knife. This minimalist fully balanced 12wpc class A headfi/preamp from mainland China had really impressed during its recent review. How would the Palma respond to its ultra-quiet mega power? Not like a lamb led to slaughter but a moth to light. Returning to the earlier Tatuajes track "Zamba para no morir", the 'room mode' incident didn't repeat. This quite suggestively declared that superior amplifier current/damping is boss regardless of sensitivity that comes on song even off emo amps. That's back to superior kit scaling up in performance with ever better ancillaries. As the P1x demonstrated, this impacted bass control, dynamic range, even tonal hue. Though I do believe in overkill power—namely that it can be about sheer bragging rights with no practical relevance—for the DHS-1 I had nothing on hand that crossed that line. Whilst on paper the P1x was overkill a few times over, it became my favourite Palma playmate to unseat Velo.
Honesty x flash. In a quick demo, flash wins. There's not enough time to tire of its tuning liberties. The Palma is an honest sort so during a quickie quite unspectacular in the best sense. It doesn't pull cheap tricks to curry instant favours. Once we travel not just the highways but back-country byways of our music library, we appreciate how honesty serves the lot. It doesn't play favourites. It doesn't serve certain styles better than others. It's omnivorous. In my book that equal-opportunity approach makes Palma's DHS-1 a surprisingly mature maiden product. It skips right over the various infatuation phases with this or that audiophile quality. It goes straight for the sobriety of just the facts. That's bundled with excellent build quality and high sensitivity to lower the hurdle of drive requirements. In the context of my domestic headphone harem, the Palma settled comfortably into the D8000/Susvara tier on performance equality not sameness; and for far less coin than the HifiMan yet mechanically superior. Had I experience with current-gen dynamic competitors, I'd be in a position to judge the DHS-1's standing in its own class. As explained already, I don't. Today's Palma is the first ambitious dynamic headphone I've laid hands on in very many years. Other than confirm a personal suspicion that this transducer type will easily challenge planars for rather less coin; other than make the empty declaration of being the best dynamic can of my acquaintance… I don't have properly updated experience in this sector to get more definitive. Let's leave that to the various YouTubers who specialize in headfi and have the walls of hardware to back it up.
With SAEQ Hyperion Ge amplifier in sealed mode off LessLoss FoH with new Forza Audioworks C-MARC headphone cable.
I'll leave it at this. When a headphone aces all the usual test particulars, it's popular to call it technical. That's shorthand for being without technical flaws so competent, correct, textbook. Whilst that's certainly true today, it rather shorts the takeaway without adding another word: organic. The DHS-1 strikes me as organically technical. It manages to be an easy listen when we're in a casual mood. It instantly elevates to deep listening when we're in a seriously investigative mood. It has no peculiarities I could identify. It's capable of very fine resolution but doesn't highlight such insight or detail mining over the natural pursuit of wholeness when music is just a climate or space/time capsule we temporarily inhabit without checking off a laundry list of attributes. I'd love to add the Palma to my compact collection as the resident king of the dynamic class. Our household budget simply has other ideas than buy more toys. So I shall miss this visitor from sunny Palma de Mallorca when soon the door bell rings to collect it again. What a lovely debut!