First of all, I would like to thank
Fischer Audio Singapore for giving me the opportunity to test and review their flagship headphone, the Kennerton Odin! Also big thanks to
Zeppelin & Co. where I spent hours comparing Odin with other headphones, and to
AV One Singapore for their hospitality during the Audeze LCD-4 comparison!
http://kennerton.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=95
There are 3 type of woods for the ear cups: Old Wood, Sapele, and Walnut. Kennerton Odin Walnut is the version that I reviewed. It is made of all natural material, wood, metal, and leather, that somehow reflected well to its natural sound signature. Kennerton takes great care of the production of Odin. I’ve been told that the production rate is rather low, only around 30 pieces per month, to maintain the quality. I’ve used it for more than 2 months now, and I can say that besides the stock cable (which I will discuss in feature section), Kennerton Odin is made to last. It feels solid and I can see from the design and construction that it will last for a very long time.
From my 2 months of experience with Odin listening to various recordings and genres, tried different DACs and Amps with it, and also compared it with many other headphones, I honestly love the natural sound signature of Odin. It sounds so balanced, musical, and emotionally engaging without any emphasis on any of the sonic element.
Sound quality wise, I would give a full 5 stars rating to Odin without any reservation. But for the overall rating, I have to reduce it to 4.5 stars, mainly due to the weight of the headphone that affects the comfort level.
One day, when I was at Zeppelin testing gears, there was a guy testing some headphones, near to where I sit. After a while, after he tested a few headphones, I suggested to him to try the Odin, and oh boy…. his facial expression was totally changed when he listened to Odin. Initially, he was quite serious, showing the usual analytical expression when he was testing other headphones, but once he listened to Odin, he smiled, joyful, and I saw some tears of joy in his eyes. I can see clearly Odin touched his emotion deeply and shed some joy to him. I was so surprised that Odin has that magical power to drastically changed his mood. It was a very nice experience that I will remember for a very long time.
Pros:
Lifelike sound quality, almost a perfect balance of all the musical elements, tonality, detail, clarity, speed, & dynamic.
Easy to drive.
Very good build quality (headphone only).
Detachable cable.
Cons:
Heavy. Around 666 grams, headphone only without cable.
Stock cable come with 3.5mm headphone jack that has no cable strain relief. The metal barrel of the 3.5mm connector will eventually erode the cable braided sleeve and jacket.
Sub bass rumbles a bit lacking for bass lover.
Suggestions for Improvement:
Weight reduction while maintaining the same sound quality.
Cable with proper 6.5mm headphone jack with cable strain relief is highly recommended as the main stock cable. Stock cable with 3.5mm jack is not appropriate for a headphone at this caliber, but a good option to be included as the 2nd stock cable.
To include a balanced cable with 4 pins XLR is highly recommended.
The nice wooden case is better if it is able to accommodate Odin with the headband extended at maximum extension, and with the cable attached. If user has to remove the cable and adjust the headband every time they want to keep Odin in the wooden case, the wooden case can be considered practically useless.
Sound Quality
Before going with more detail description, I would summarize the sound quality into a few bullet points:
- Natural, smooth, musical, and engaging are probably 4 words that best described Odin’s sound signature.
- Lifelike and consistent tonal density across the spectrum. The nice tonal density makes Odin has some fullness to the sound and doesn’t sound thin.
- Balanced tonality with a touch of warmness. Odin is not analytical, but also not too warm or mellow. It is neither bright nor dark sounding. No annoying peaks or dips observed in the frequency response.
- Pleasant, enjoyable, rather forgiving, and Non-fatiguing sonic character, yet quite detailed and transparent for classical and other acoustic recordings. Also quite lively and never sounded dull or boring.
Lifelike Tonal Density
If I have to pick one particular sonic character of Odin that I find most special, it would be the tonal density. It took me some time to find the right words to express that sonic quality, and I think tonal density would be the closest. I often feel that my Sennheiser HD800 and Beyerdynamic T1 sound rather thin when compared to some live concerts. They sound very transparent, detailed, but often don’t present music with good body and natural weight, and often make music sounds thin and light. Tube amps may help, but only to a certain extent. On the other hand, Odin never sounded thin, and also never sounded overly thick. It has the right amount of tonal density that gives a natural thickness, body, and weight to the sound, and quite consistent across the audio spectrum to give realistic musical experience. Listening to classical recordings on Odin reminds me of live classical performance. Somehow the sonic signature of Odin relates quite well with live music performances.
Pleasant & Enjoyable
Odin has the type of sound signature that makes music listening a very pleasant & enjoyable experience. Vocal rendered with a good body in a natural way without sounding too thick or over emphasized. It also has the right amount of detail, clarity, and dynamic that make music sounds lively and realistic without causing listening fatigue even for a very long session. But unfortunately, even though the sound signature is non-fatiguing, being a heavy headphone, Odin might cause some fatigue elsewhere.
Balanced Tonality
Overall tonality is quite balanced, slightly on the warmer side. Treble is silky smooth but has a nice sparkle and doesn’t take attention to itself. The treble is not as sparkling as Focal Utopia, HifiMan HE-6, Sennheiser HD800, or Beyerdynamic T1, but it has more treble than Audeze LCD-2 and LCD-4. Bass sounds clean, tight, with good texture and quality, and without any emphasis on the bass level. Bass level is quite neutral in comparison to the midrange, and never sounded anemic. Bass is slightly emphasized on the mid bass, with extended but rather soft sub bass, so not much sub bass rumble from the bass. Midrange is superb. Very natural sounding midrange that is both smooth and full sounding. It is not thin and also not overly thick or bloomy midrange. Simply beautiful, clear and realistic sounding midrange.
It is hard to identify any emphasize or deemphasize of a certain frequency from Odin tonality. There is no annoying emphasize or deemphasize of any area in the frequency region. The tonality is quite balanced in my book. Perceived balanced tonality could vary from one person to the other, and it is also heavily dependent on the recordings used to observe the tonality. Therefore I always mention in my reviews, the recordings that I use for evaluation. Besides recordings, I use both frequency sweep as well as individual tones from 20H to 15kHz (my hearing limit) in comparison to 1kHz tone, to observe the tonality. From my observation, the sub bass below 40 Hz rolls off rather early and it is rather difficult to observe the 20 Hz tone. Odin sub bass level is pretty close to my Hifiman HE6 sub-bass response, with HE6 has slightly fatter overall bass and a tad better sub bass. Around the midrange to the treble area, when using tone loudness comparison, I only could hear mild hump around 3 kHz and 7 kHz. What I mean by mild is, those humps are not obvious when we listening to music. This is roughly what I observed:
3 kHz : ~3 dB
7 kHz : ~3 dB
For my own personal preference, I do prefer a little boost around the sub bass area to add some sub-bass rumble and a little improvement in speed and transient like what I hear from Focal Utopia. I tried to apply some equalizer to boost the sub bass below 60 Hz. Around 6 dB sub bass boost sounds very nice to my ears. Sometimes I do have some craving for vibrating sub-bass. With Odin, a simple +6 dB eq as the following is all I need.
I saw a website that has frequency response measurement of Kennerton Odin by Reference Audio Analyzer Pro, pretty close to my observation, even though it doesn’t show the 3 kHz hump that I heard:
http://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/report/hp/kennerton-odin.php
Using my own method that I called
Earfonia Frequency Response Evaluation or EFRE (under development), this is the estimated frequency response, based on my personal hearing:
Lifelike Detail, Transparency, Speed, and Dynamic
Perceived detail and transparency are very good, but in a natural way, without sounding analytical or artificially emphasizing the perceived detail and clarity. By now you might be able to guess that Odin has a rather forgiving sonic signature, mainly due to the smooth sounding treble. Being forgiving it doesn’t mean that it is dull sounding or has a low level of clarity that masks the detail. But the detail and clarity are naturally presented in a non-offensive way. I could easily hear the different sound signature between different amplifiers and DACs with Odin, and this is a good indication that the level of perceived detail and transparency are good.
Instrument separation is clear and focused, with good 3D localization. Stereo imaging is quite holographic but on the average level of width and depth. The stereo imaging is more spacious than LCD4, but not as large and spacious as HD800. So I would say the size of the perceived stereo imaging is about average, not congested and also not ultra spacious.
Odin has an engaging dynamic but never sounded aggressive. Dynamic is quite lively, and definitely not in the category of mellow or slow transient headphone, but not as fast and punchy as Focal Utopia. As mentioned earlier, personally I do prefer faster-sounding headphone and I prefer for the speed and transient of Odin to be slightly faster and closer to the Utopia. But don’t get the impression that Odin is a slow and mellow sounding headphone, because it is not. It is more because I'm quite amazed at the incredible speed and transient of Focal Utopia. The speed and dynamic are just nice to make Odin sounds pleasant while still able to cope with some fast pace music and complex orchestra. But please take note that generally Odin is not a very fast sounding headphone, and if improvement in speed is desirable, pairing it with a fast amp in balanced connection is recommended. In my setup, when I need more speed, I prefer to pair Odin with my Questyle CMA600i in balanced, as compared to the smoother sounding Geek Pulse XFi.
In summary, Odin is neither bright nor dark. Tonality is quite linear, with smooth texture of midrange and treble, good clean bass with rather a soft sub bass. IMHO, generally Kennerton Odin is an excellent all-rounder. From what I’ve tried so far, it sounded great with almost any type of genres and recordings I tried. Probably only with one exception for some recordings that have lots of sub bass rumble like some movie soundtracks, Odin doesn’t have the earth shaking sub bass for those recordings. Kennerton Odin is not a bass head headphone and won’t give cinematic rumbling sub bass and the strong bass that bass head might crave for, but it has the musical type of clean bass that I believe most audiophile will prefer. In my opinion, Odin is a very musical and realistic sounding headphone.
Comparisons
For the last of almost 2 months, I mainly compared Kennerton Odin with the following headphones in my collection:
Audio-Technica ATH-R70x
Beyerdynamic T1
Hifiman HE-6
Sennheiser HD800
Besides those, I had a few sessions in both
Zeppelin & Co. and
AV One Singapore to compare Kennerton Odin with:
Audeze LCD-2
Audeze LCD-4 (both 100 ohms and 200 ohms version)
Focal Utopia
Hifiman HE-1000 v2
If I could generalize those headphones into 3 groups based only by their perceived tonality, it would be something like the following:
Group 1: Natural with some emphasis on clarity & transparency:
Beyerdynamic T1
Focal Utopia
Hifiman HE-6
Hifiman HE-1000 v2
Sennheiser HD800
Group 2: Natural with a slight touch of warmness:
Audeze LCD-2
Audio-Technica ATH-R70x
Kennerton Odin
Group 3: Natural warm:
Audeze LCD-4
Generally, my personal preference is group 2, natural and balanced tonality with a hint of warmness. The slight touch of warmness is preferable to me as they usually have a nice tonal density around the midrange and bass that IMHO sounds closer to some of the live performances that I auditioned, and use to hear in church weekly. Group 2 also has smoother treble that helps to avoid listening fatigue in a long session. While other warmer sounding headphones are sometimes polarized toward certain type of genres and generally less ‘all-rounder’ than group 2 headphones. Comparisons below will follow the sequence as the above grouping.
Previously I was not really sure where to put the Hifiman HE-1000 v2. Probably somewhere in between group 1 and 2. Hifiman HE-1000 v2 has a real smooth flat tonality, reach low to sub bass and also reach high to upper treble extension, but without any added perceived emphasis on clarity nor warmness. But after more sessions with it, I decided to put it in group 1 as it has pretty strong transparent character to its sound signature.
Beyerdynamic T1
Odin is obviously less bright than T1, with fatter bass. Not a night and day differences here, probably in the range of a few dB more bass and less treble. Both have more or less quite linear tonality to my ears, while Odin sounds horizontally flat, and T1 sounds linear but slightly ramping up towards the treble. T1 brightness is I would say within the limit of my brightness tolerance, but borderline at the maximum level. Anything brighter than T1 is started to become not acceptable to my ears. I heard that there are some different batches of Beyerdynamic T1 out there with some variations on the tonality. My T1 serial number is 7230, and I’m not sure in which category of T1 variant is mine. Being moderately brighter, T1 generally sounds more transparent than Odin but also sounds thinner in comparison. T1 bass is fast and punchy but rather lean. Odin has fatter bass, not by much, just nice to give more body to the bass. Overall, I much prefer the Odin tonality for being more linear and less bright than T1. Odin tonality is more agreeable to my ears as being more natural sounding and closer to lifelike tonality. The level of perceived detail is pretty close. At first, the brighter sounding T1 might give the impression of higher perceived detail. But with closer observation, actually, the perceived detail are quite similar between the two. Odin has better-perceived dynamic, more lifelike than T1. Imaging wise, both are not as spacious as HD800, but both have good 3D holographic imaging. Sound quality wise, I prefer Odin for sounding more natural and lifelike to my ears. But being a lighter headphone, T1 is more comfortable.
Focal Utopia
Utopia to me is an amazing headphone. I’m not saying this because of the $ 3,999.- price tag, almost twice the Kennerton Odin street price, but I truly impressed by the Utopia sound quality. From all headphones in this comparison, to me, the best three are Utopia, Odin, & Hifiman HE6. If I have the money, I would like to have both Utopia and Odin, and will probably pretty much settle for a long time.
Clarity, separation, detail, attack, and transient of Utopia are second to none. Utopia is gloriously transparent in the right and natural way. Detail and instrument separation is simply the best I've heard. Detail is presented in a very natural way without any artificial analytical artifacts. Don't imagine HD800 detail and transparency, which are good but sound rather artificial when compared to Utopia. Utopia transparency is so natural and realistic without sounding analytical. It also has better tonal density than HD800, therefore it doesn’t sound thin in comparison.
Utopia has excellent transient and dynamic that are presented in a very realistic way. Bass is much faster and textured, very punchy, but slightly leaner in body than Odin. Utopia tonality to my ears sounds balanced and neutral, just mildly bright, but with good tonal density. Realistic is probably the best word to describe Utopia sound quality. IMHO, Utopia is a must for all recording studios in the world. It is just remarkably balanced and realistic sounding.
So, Utopia is clearly better than Odin technically. But as ones might guess, it is also very revealing and might not be very friendly to less than stellar recordings. Bad recordings will simply sound bad on Utopia. While Odin is more pleasing and forgiving, and more friendly for those recordings. Utopia has the ability to bring stellar recordings to the next level of musical bliss, while Odin has the ability to make not so stellar recordings sound acceptable, and more enjoyable.
Hifiman HE-6
I’m glad to say that my old Hifiman HE-6 still competes very well with the newer Kennerton Odin. Being older and cheaper than Odin, I don’t feel that HE-6 is inferior in this comparison. At least from the perspective of musical enjoyment, I would say they give me more or less a similar level of musical enjoyment. In comparison to Odin, HE-6 tonality is mildly V shape, with slightly more emphasis on the treble and level of transparency, and slightly more potent bass. When properly driven, HE-6 has slightly better dynamic than Odin. But HE-6 is well known for being one of the most difficult headphones in the world to be properly driven, while on the other hand, Odin is much easier to drive and doesn’t require high power amplifier to produce lifelike and enjoyable dynamic. Currently, I use Matrix HPA-3B with around 3.8 Watt output power at 33 ohms to drive HE-6. Definitely, not the most powerful amp for HE-6, but for now I feel it is quite sufficient for HE-6. I tend to hear both Odin and HE-6 as two different headphones with more similarities than differences. They have rather similar ‘planar’ tonal density, quite similar in dynamic and perceived soundstage imaging. The main difference is in tonality as mentioned earlier. I do prefer the Odin tonality for a fuller and more engaging midrange, with the more intimate vocal presentation. While HE-6 can be more fun with large scale complex orchestra. In my book, they are almost equally good. If I have to choose between the two, I slightly prefer the Odin, but not by much. They are both among the most musical headphones I’ve ever tried.
EFRE Result of my HE-6:
Hifiman HE-1000 v2
I would describe HE-1000 v2 sonic signature as smooth, transparent, open and airy with neutral tonality. Dynamic and punch are rather on the soft side. Frequency extension and tonality flatness is excellent, reaching very low and very high, but it doesn't punch hard. Very polite dynamic. Bass body and punch are a bit lacking for my preference. Not anemic, but HE-1000 v2 bass doesn’t sound as potent as Odin.
HE1000 V2 is slightly brighter than Odin, with nice, smooth and extended high. No peaky treble and the treble sounds better and smoother than HD800. Midrange is very neutral, but leaner, less tonal density than Odin. I actually like the HE1000 v2 neutral tonality, but I prefer to have more punch and overall dynamic. HE1000 v2 sonic signature is probably lean more towards the electrostatic type of sonic character, sweet, smooth and relax sounding. For my personal preference, I do prefer the Odin for more dynamic and thicker tonal density.
Sennheiser HD800
Swapping HD800 and Odin back and forth makes me appreciate the comfort level of HD800. The design of HD800 with extra-large ear cups and much lighter weight (366 grams headphone only) makes HD800 a much more comfortable headphone than Odin. The large ear cups also helps to give a more spacious sensation of soundstage. On tonality, as expected HD800 tonality sounds brighter and thinner than Odin. And frankly I’m rather annoyed by the 7 kHz treble peak of HD800, therefore seldom could enjoy them for a long session of music listening. It is very transparent, but thin sounding, therefore to my ears, doesn’t sound as natural as Odin which has better overall tonal density and dynamic. I do like HD800 for the comfort, transparency, and spacious soundstage, but to be honest, having HD800 for many years, it doesn’t give me musical enjoyment as much as I got from Odin from the last 2 months. Odin is more musically engaging, provides balanced stimulation to both my left and right brain hemispheres. While I feel that HD800 stimulates my left brain much more than my right brain. For comfort, transparency, and spacious soundstage, HD800 is the king. But when it comes to balanced, natural, and lifelike sonic character, in my opinion, Odin is the better headphone.
EFRE result of HD800 based on my hearing:
ATH-R70x
I reviewed ATH-R70x last year. Here is the link if anyone interested:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/765004/audio-technica-ath-r70x-in-depth-review-impressions
ATH-R70x and Audeze LCD2 are probably the 2 headphones in the group that tonality wise closer to Kennerton Odin, with LCD2 being the closest. ATH-R70x has a tad fatter bass and better, ‘more shaking’ sub bass, but not as clean and textured as Odin’s bass quality. I actually feel the ATH-R70x vibrates on my ears when there is earth shattering sub bass on the tracks. It probably due to the light driver frame of the R70x. Vocal sounds more intimate on R70x with slightly more forward presentation. Odin has better overall clarity, perceived detail, and instrument separation. Stereo imaging is more spacious and holographic on Odin. I put ATH-R70x with Odin in the same group is for the reason that those who like the sound signature or ATH-R70x will most likely love Odin sound signature, and consider Odin as a great improvement over the ATH-R70x.
EFRE Result of my ATH-R70x:
Audeze LCD-2
Kennerton Odin is pretty much an LCD-2 with improvement in detail retrieval, instrument separation, clarity, transparency, and dynamic. Tonal balance is pretty close between the two, obviously not exactly the same but pretty close. For those who love LCD-2 tonality, and wish to have some improvement in detail, clarity, and dynamic, Odin is a must try. It is almost that simple, that I think that I don’t have to write more about the comparison between the two.
Audeze LCD-4
I had 3 different sessions for LCD-4 auditions. Twice with the 200 ohm version paired with Woo Audio WA5-LE amplifier at AV One Singapore, and once with the 100 ohm version paired with around 7 watts discrete DIY amplifier that belong to a friend. Odin was compared side by side with the LCD-4 using the same setup. I tend to like the 100 ohm LCD-4 setup slightly better for sounding a tad more lively, but the difference is not much. Both LCD-4 that I tried are generally warmer sounding than Odin. Odin has flatter and more balanced tonality in comparison. LCD-4 has more midrange and midbass emphasize, while Odin has more treble sparkle and extension. LCD-4 has slightly better dynamic and punch. Mid-bass punch is better on LCD-4, while Odin has slightly better sub-bass to mid-bass balance. Perceived detail, clarity, and instrument separation is slightly better on Odin, but not by much. Probably the more sparkling treble helps in the perceived detail and clarity. LCD-4 sounds a tad smoother and has a kind of cohesiveness to the sound that somehow makes the instrument separation less clear than Odin. Perceived size of soundstage is more or less similar, with Odin sounds slightly more spacious and holographic and the LCD-4 sounds closer and more intimate.
In general, I would say the LCD4 has the extra oomph, especially on vocal. Vocal has more presence and sounds fuller on LCD4. Those who love vocal would probably choose the LCD4 over Odin. But in my opinion, Odin is a better all-rounder, and less polarized towards a any kind of musical genre.
Features and Build Quality
Planar Magnetic Driver
I suggest visiting the Kennerton website to read more about the new 80mm planar-magnetic driver that is designed from scratch by Kennerton, as well as other design highlights. Planar magnetic is not a new technology, but the interesting part is how Kennerton improves the conventional design in their own planar magnetic driver. It was mentioned that Kennerton uses a reliable and durable multi-layer 10µm polyimide film diaphragm, and also unique semicircular FEM-Optimized bar magnets system to improve the driver response and reduce distortion. I attached the scan copy of the leaflet included in the package, to show the construction of the semicircular magnet bars.
One advantage of the planar magnetic driver is the constant impedance across the audio frequency spectrum. It translates as a constant load to the amplifier regardless of the frequency. Unlike common dynamic driver that usually has frequency specific impedance, that is inconsistent across the audio spectrum. Rated at 35 Ohm with 104 dB sensitivity, Odin is easy to drive and doesn't require a powerful amplifier.
Amplification & Gear Pairing
The loudest volume I ever set to play some soft sounding recordings was around -10 dB on my Geek Pulse XFi unbalanced output, at high gain. My listening volume is generally around -20 dB. The -10 dB unbalanced output was measured 2 Vrms on my oscilloscope, while -20 dB was around 0.64 Vrms. Therefore any player or amplifier that is able to output 2 Vrms at 35 ohms, or approximately 115 mW output at 35 ohms, would be able to drive Odin with sufficient loudness. These days, many modern DAPs have 2 Vrms maximum output or more, with output power ranging to a few hundred mW. Those powerful modern DAPs would be able to drive Odin with sufficient loudness. Adding an additional 6 dB headroom, in the case that louder volume is required, it is translated to -4 dB volume on my Geek Pulse XFi unbalanced output, which is 4 Vrms, which is approximately 460 mW output at 35 ohms. 500 mW output is quite common for desktop amplifiers, and not considered high power output. Therefore we can conclude that Odin doesn’t require high power amplification, and relatively easy to drive.
Any source with around 150 mW output at 35 ohms would be sufficient, and around 500 mW (or higher) output at 35 ohms is recommended for Odin.
Odin is easy to drive in the sense that we could get adequate loudness even from a not so powerful DAP. But from my observation, bass will suffer when not properly driven. Bass may sound loose and less textured when not properly driven. When properly driver using good amp, bass is clean and tight with realistic texture.
During the 2 months period with Odin, I’ve tried Odin with some DAPs & DACs such as AK70, Onkyo DP-X1, Cayin i5 (only short period), Chord Mojo, Chord Dave, Geek Pulse XFi, ifi micro iDSD + iCan, Yulong DA8, Questyle CMA800i, Questyle CMA600i, Matrix HPA-3B amplifier, and some other amps. Odin with its musicality can easily sound good and enjoyable with all of them. But it doesn’t that Odin sounds more or less the same with all of them. Odin clearly reveals the source and amp signature quite well, but it has the ability to sound good with most gears. For DAPs like AK70 and Onkyo DP-X1 using the balanced output is highly recommended for extra power and better driveability. The 3 most frequent sources I used during this review is the Geek Pulse XFi, Questyle CMA600i, and Chord Mojo. My personal preference for Odin is the Geek Pulse XFi which gives a tad extra body to the bass for a more engaging musical experience. Questyle CMA600i and ifi micro iDSD + iCan combo are also highly recommended for a faster transient and dynamic. So even though Odin is easy to drive, but it also scales well with some gears that match well with Odin's sound signature.
Stock Cable
The cable is detachable using 4 pins mini XLR, with similar pin assignment as the Audeze LCD headphones. So Audeze LCD headphone cables can be used for Odin and vice versa. I don't understand why Kennerton decided to use a 3.5mm jack for the stock cable. Probably to show that Odin is easy to drive and can be driven from portable players. But I still consider stock cable with a 3.5mm jack for a headphone at this caliber is not a proper setup. I do believe that most Odin users will use a desktop amplifier or DAC to drive it. Therefore the 6.5mm stereo jack is more proper for the stock cable. I even think at this price Kennerton should have included a balanced cable with 4 pins XLR.
The quality of the stock cable itself looks pretty good, but unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, the 3.5mm jack's barrel has no cable strain relief, and the metal barrel will eventually erode the cable braided sleeve and jacket. and this is what happen after it was being used for the demo set in Zeppelin, for a few weeks.
I strongly suggest to Kennerton to include proper cable with 4 pins XLR or 6.5mm stereo jack as the stock cable for Odin.
To test the balanced connection, I made a balanced cable for Odin. Though I honestly didn't hear any major improvement using the balanced connection, there was a mild audible improvement in bass tightness and control. Impressions in this review are based mostly on the balanced DIY cable.
Headband and Ear Cups
The headband is very sturdy and well designed. Weight distribution is cleverly done using a simple and effective solution, by using a leather strap under the headband to evenly distribute the weight over the head.
Kennerton chose tighten-to-fix slider rather than the flexible one, and it is made of solid aluminum. I guess to properly hold the heavy drivers, this solution is much more durable. To adjust the slider, the metal screw must be loosened, and later be tightened after adjustment is made.
The ear pads have a large inner hole, approximately around 6.0-6.5 cm in diameter. It is large enough to cover my ears comfortably. The ear pads are made of real lambskin leather that I expect will be quite durable.
Weight
At 665.7 grams (headphone only) Odin is considered a heavy headphone. From my observation, 400 grams is more or less the borderline for generally comfortable headphone weight. More than 400 grams, we will start to feel the headphone as heavy. Having said that I had many sessions with Odin for more than an hour continuously. And one time 2.5 hours straight without putting it off. Yes, it is heavy, but for me the comfort is still acceptable, and I think some high flyer Head-Fi'ers shouldn’t have any issue with the weight, considering the excellent headband weight distribution.
For comparisons, below are estimated weight of some headphones that I have (or had):
Audio-Technica R70x : ~210 grams
Sennheiser HD 800 : ~330 grams
Beyerdynamic T 1 : ~350 grams
Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro : ~295 grams
Philips Fidelio X1 : ~300 grams
Hifiman HE6 : ~502 grams
Wooden Case
Kennerton Odin comes with a very nice wooden case. But unfortunately, the wooden case is not very useful for daily use. The nice wooden case cannot accommodate Odin with the headband extended, and with the cable attached. The user has to remove the cable and adjust the headband every time they want to keep Odin in the wooden case. So, we can consider the wooden case is practically useless, and we will need another case for daily use.
Conclusion
Kennerton Odin is all about musical enjoyment. It might not be the most technically superior headphone, but definitely one of the most enjoyable sounding headphone that I’ve ever used. With Odin, I found it is so easy to get emotionally connected to the music, an important feature that often rather weak on other technically superior headphones. Odin is an excellent example of how to set all sonic elements in a balance proportion to achieve optimum musical enjoyment. I do hope that if in the future Kennerton will be releasing a newer version of Odin, they could reduce the weight for better comfort while maintaining the sound quality. I highly recommend for everyone to have some musical experience with Odin. Kudos to Kennerton!
Specifications:
Driver Type : Open Backed Planar Magnetic
Driver Unit : 80 mm
Frequency Response : 15-50000 Hz
Sensitivity : 104 dB
Impedance : 35 Ohm
Cord length : 2 m detachable copper cable (3.5 mm)
Weight without cable : 666 grams
Equipment used in this review:
Headphones:
Audeze LCD-4
Audeze LCD-2
Audio-Technica ATH-R70x
Beyerdynamic T1
Focal Utopia
Hifiman HE-6
Hifiman HE-1000 v2
Sennheiser HD800
DAPs, DACs & Headphone Amplifiers:
Astell&Kern AK70
Onkyo DP-X1
Chord Dave
Chord Mojo
Geek Pulse XFi
ifi micro iDSD
ifi micro iCan
Questyle CMA800i
Questyle CMA600i
Matrix HPA-3B
Yulong DA8
Computer & Player:
DIY Desktop PC: Gigabyte GA-H77-D3H-MVP motherboard, Intel i7-3770, 16 GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1.
foobar2000 v1.3.12
Some recordings used in this review: