Finally, a reference headphone done right!

Outside of Herman, the Chinese headphone

market has been pretty hit and miss in

the past. Some brands have made

fantastic sounding headphones, but those

same brands have also made some pretty

average sounding headphones.

[music]

Of course, I don't think I could name a

single brand from anywhere in the world

that's hit the bullseye every single

time, but I'm talking about some wild

swings between amazing and not amazing

when I'm talking about most of the

Chinese headphone brands.

[music]

And so, when Linsol asked if I would

review the new Cipher headphones from

the Audio, I didn't really know what to

expect. I said yes, obviously, or you

wouldn't be watching this video. but

with the normal understanding that they

have no influence over this video and

there's no guarantee that it's going to

be a positive review. [music] And it's

lucky I did that, too. It allowed me to

tell you that my first impressions of

the the Audio Cipher [music] were just

okay.

They certainly looked great and they

were undeniably comfortable at first,

but even accounting for the $399

price tag of these, in other words, not

expecting them to behave like a true

flagship level headphone, I was still

underwhelmed.

[music]

Of course, first impressions can change.

So, I continued listening to the ciphers

while I did some editing, listened just

casually to some background music while

I got on with other tasks. But it was

only later when I picked up a pair of

Meza Audio 105 AERS and the Hyman

Edition XV that things started to turn.

Along the way, though, something else

happened too. It's quite warm here in

Australia at the moment. And I did find

on the hot afternoon when I was doing my

initial just first impressions and

casual listening that the snug and cozy

fit of the Ciphers did start to feel a

little bit hot on my head after a while.

Every other time that I've worn the

Ciphers during this review process,

which has been a lot, they've been

nothing but comfortable. But if you are

living in a location where it's hot and

humid and you don't have access to air

conditioning where you're listening to

your headphones, they might be a little

bit warm for you. And I mean warm

physically, not tonally. Their tonality

is definitely not warm. But we'll get to

that. First though, let me clarify that

unless you're in a hot, humid situation

when listening to these, the the Audio

Ciphers are nothing but wonderfully

comfortable. I found the headband

padding to be absolutely perfect, and it

never even drew attention to itself, let

alone become uncomfortable. The velour

pads feel soft and plush on the head,

and they seal really nicely around the

ears. And they also attach with this

wonderful magnetic system that means

they're going to be super easy to change

should you ever need to change the pads

in the future. And if you happen to look

underneath the pads, you'll see this

absolutely gorgeous design. What you'll

also see is the very specific damping

approach used in front of the 50mm

dynamic driver of the cipher. And the

result of that very specific damping

approach using the paper in front of

most of the driver, but the cutout hole

in the middle is a very linear and

natural sounding frequency response.

That's the reason that the ciphers

didn't impress me. They don't play any

tricks with the music. Instead, they

just deliver it with supreme honesty.

Once my brain adjusted to that and

started to have some points of reference

around the same price, I realized just

how brilliant these actually are.

They're not quite perfect, as we'll

discuss, but I do think they're amazing.

First though, a little tiny bit more

housekeeping. The Ciphers come with this

unique carry bag, and it is a bag more

than it's a case, but I like that it's

got a firm molded section down the

bottom, which is going to securely hold

the cups in place while they're in the

bag and stop them from banging together.

They also come with a very pro style

headphone cable. I say pro style

because it's terminated with a 3.5 mil

plug at the amp end and a 6.3 mil

adapter. Most Progeear doesn't use 4.4

mil or 4 pin XLR balance connections.

And so this is a nod to the fact that

when the Audio say that this headphone

is designed for professional mixing and

mastering style use, they're maybe not

joking. Of course, it's also intended

though for audio files seeking a

reference tuning, and we will get to

that in just a moment. Of course, if you

would like an alternate cable to use the

ciphers with balance connections, they

have just the regular 3.5 mil

connections on the bottom of each cup.

And that means you could easily set

yourself up with any of the ensemble

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put all of the information that you need

in the description box down below,

including a link to donia adio.com and

the discount code passionforound 10. But

for now, let's get back to the review. I

think it's time that we talk about the

sound of the ciphers now in a bit more

detail. I should also explain in a bit

more depth why these didn't initially

impress me. I've already mentioned that

they don't play any tricks with the

sound to try to impress. And that's a

good thing in my opinion because

auditory tricks almost always end in

auditory fatigue once the brain realizes

that things don't sound exactly natural

and starts to try to compensate. But we

should also talk about the one thing

that I think prevents the ciphers from

being absolutely perfect, and that's

their soundstaging. The width of the

sound stage from the ciphers is good.

I'd go so far as saying it's excellent

at the price. It just doesn't really

extend out in front of you as the

listener. And what that means is that

everything tends to be a little bit

inside the head. However, as I listened

more and more to the ciphers, I started

to understand their soundstaging a

little bit better. Whilst everything is

delivered in a fairly intimate sound

stage, there is depth and

three-dimensionality to the overall

sound. Some headphones, like the Herman

Edition XS, deliver a very wide sound

stage, but one that is completely flat.

It's like all of the musicians have

lined up along the front of the stage

with their toes right on the front of

the stage. Or in the case of some

instruments like piano and drums, the

drums and the piano might be the thing

at the front of the stage. With the

ciphers, you don't get that sense.

Despite not creating a huge expansive

sound stage with the ciphers, it never

felt like everything was flattened out.

Instead, the sound stage, whilst

intimate, was naturally shaped, meaning

it was more spherical and very cohesive.

You can hear each individual sound very

distinctly with the ciphers, but they're

not broken apart excessively. As I've

already said, the tonality of the

ciphers is very natural, but the sense

of clarity and detail within that tuning

is, I think, exceptional at the price.

Listening to piano from the ciphers

sounds just right and completely natural

from the lowest key to the highest key.

And then the details of a soloist's

breath, or the percussive sounds of the

piano keys being hit are all perfectly

rendered from the ciphers as well.

Because these don't play any tricks or

do anything that jumps out at you

though, I needed comparisons to properly

understand how they were performing. The

Meza 105 AERS are a very similar

headphone to the much more expensive 109

Pros from Mesa Audio. That means they've

got a slightly more V-shaped tuning than

the Ciphers, and it does serve to push

the mid-range back from the listener a

little bit and give the 105s overall a

slightly deeper and larger sense of

sound stage. However, I also noticed

that it robbed the 105s of the sense of

immediacy and energy that the ciphers

are able to deliver. And when I talk

about energy and immediiacy, that's not

a way of saying that the ciphers are

somehow bright or aggressive, because

they're definitely not. It's actually a

little bit hard to describe. Somehow,

the ciphers just convey the inherent

sense of energy in the music better than

the 105 AERS can. If there's a sense of

urgency in the track, the ciphers will

deliver it. If the track is laid-back,

the ciphers will deliver that, too.

They're not artificially enhancing the

sense of energy and immediiacy. They're

just delivering it as it's in the

recording or as it's in the piece of

music. Another way to put that is that

they're not adding to the music. They're

just revealing it to you. And it's very

impressive. And I have to say that none

of this was at all what I expected from

the the audio ciphers. That goes back to

what I said earlier about the range of

variability that I've heard in a lot of

the different headphones coming out of

China. And that's not a knock against

Chinese-made products. It's just a

different approach to tuning, I think,

in the past. Whereas the Ciphers have

really nailed it. Back to the 105's

comparison, though, and it's the 105

AER, not the 105 Silver from Meza Audio

that we're talking about here. The 105

AERS do have a fuller sounding bass than

the Ciphers. But what was interesting as

I went back and forth was that even

though the 105's bass is enhanced, it

didn't leave the bass from the ciphers

feeling lacking when I went back to

them. Whilst the ciphers I would

describe as being very linear and

neutral in the bass, they've still got

good weight and presence. And so what

you hear as you go between the 105s and

the ciphers is that the 105s have

enhanced bass, but the ciphers don't

lack bass. In other words, both sound

great in different ways. What the extra

bass from the 105s does do for them

though is make the mid-range sound

relatively less weighty and present. The

ciphers therefore offer more sense of

presence and weight through the mids

because it's not being overshadowed by

the bass or the treble. It means that

all instruments have a greater sense of

presence within the mix at whichever

frequency they sit. And I think it makes

the ciphers sound like the more balanced

and natural headphone by comparison. At

this point, I was now definitely

impressed by the the Audio ciphers, but

I deliberately left the other comparison

headphone that I took out for last.

[music]

I knew that it would be the tougher

battle here. The first thing I noticed

with the change of track to delete and

fast forward was the insane levels of

detail and clarity that the ciphers are

able to offer. I'm not suggesting here

that they're giant killers, but I am

suggesting that for the money, I think

they're amazing. What makes them amazing

to my ears, though, is that they deliver

excellent detail and clarity without

pushing anything specific at you. And I

mean that both in terms of frequencies,

but also just overall the balance they

deliver in the music is perfect. Or

maybe perfect's too strong, but very,

very good. In contrast, whilst I still

had the Meza 105 AERS around, they came

undone a little bit on this track. You

could specifically hear their upper

treble spike because of the way it

shifted the tambber and made the sounds

of some instruments a little bit less

than natural. And then the Hyman Edition

XV was different again. It delivered a

crisper and more detailed sound than the

Cipher. In doing so, its delivery of

sibilent sounds like s and t were right

on the edge of being a little bit

uncomfortable for me. The ciphers never

had me sweating the treble like that.

Another thing I noticed is that the

addition XV from Hyerman also creates a

greater sense of separation of sounds,

but in doing so, it started to produce a

sound stage that was less coherent than

the cipher. That's something I hadn't

noticed specifically about the Addition

XV before, but when I compared these two

together, the incredible cohesiveness of

the image and presentation of the sound

from the ciphers highlighted the fact

that the Addition XVS are a little bit

artificial in that regard. They're not

bad, but the sound didn't sound like I

expect from say a live performance. And

I think a lot of this comes down to the

fact that I think the ciphers have a

supremely natural and balanced tonal

response to my ears at least. They have

a very natural treble rolloff that

doesn't present the upper treble spikes

present in so many other headphones. And

it means they're not trying to highlight

details by having boosted treble. And

then because they don't have boosted

treble, there's nothing getting in the

way and masking all of the wonderful

details and nuance that the ciphers are

able to deliver in the mid-range area.

There are so many amazing subtle details

and textures produced by all the

different instruments that live in the

mid-range, which is most of them. And

the ciphers deliver all of that to you.

I am normally a fan of headphones that

produce larger, deeper sound stages, and

it obviously would have been better if

the Ciphers could do that, too. But as

it is, even with that in mind, the

Ciphers are comfortably my favorite

headphone in this price range now. And

that's not to say that the others, like

the 105 AERS and the Addition XVS,

aren't great. And we all have different

tastes and preferences in how we like

our music. But what I'm saying is that

if you gave me $400 to spend on a brand

new pair of headphones today, [music]

the ciphers are absolutely the pair I

would buy. What's even better than that

is that at the time I'm releasing this

video, the ciphers are available on a

Kickstarter campaign. It's being used

like a pre-launch. They are, as I

understand it, already a finished

production model. So, this is [music]

more of a pre-order campaign rather than

a Kickstarter where you're paying to

help produce the product. But what that

means is that while they're in the

Kickstarter campaign, your money will go

further by either getting them at a

reduced rate, a reduced price I should

say, or by having extra bonuses thrown

in for the $400 price tag. And so, if

that sounds good to you, check out the

link in the description down below to go

and buy yourself a set of ciphers. And

also, don't forget to use the code in

the link in the description to get 10%

off anything and everything from

doneyia.com.

And [music] then if you want an amazing

device to plug your headphones into,

actually the device that I used for a

lot of my testing of the ciphers, then

you'll also want to watch the video I

pinned here at the end next. But until

next time, peace, love, and music, and

I'll see you again soon. [music]