Oh yes! Venture Electronics has finally set foot in the headphone field. It took some time, but the wait is over.
Design & Build Quality
The Supernova is a fairly boring-looking headphone and most definitely not built like a tank. It features a metal headband, plastic ear-cups, and plastic pieces that hold the headband strap. The design is not loud, with the only place where the company’s logo is featured being the faceplate of the ear-cups. The logo is done in a shimmery silver finish, which makes it look very nice. The exposed plastic parts on the headphone are additionally treated to give a smooth matte-like finish.
Although the headphone is fairly boring, it’s incredibly light. It’s so light that you literally forget you are wearing it.
Cable
You get two cables instead of one, which is always highly appreciated! Both cables are of high quality. The brownish orange cable is 1.8 meters long, while the black coiled cable is 1.2 meters when it's not extended, and can read the length of 2.8 meters when extended. Both cables' termination is 3.5mm, and both connectors are threaded to accept the included 6.3mm adaptor. I used the orange cable, which is also very easy to put away as though it holds its shape when rolled up. The housings for both cables are rubberized. Venture Electronics clearly didn't spare the accessories department and was thoughtful when deciding what to include in this wallet-friendly package.
Comfort
The lightweight nature of this headphone is one of the traits that makes it extremely comfortable.
On the other hand, the trait that makes it uncomfortable are the shallow ear-pads. They are made the breathable fabric type, which actually are comfortable on my skin. What makes the shallow on-ear fit uncomfortable is the fabric that covers the drivers. This fabric sewn into the ear-pads, and it is extremely irritating to my skin. It feels like some sort of synthetic fabric.
In order to respect the original product, I will be testing the Supernova without any sort of mods. I want to report to you how these sound out of the box, and that’s exactly what I did.
Lows
Though Supernova is marketed to have a “layered low frequency”, I generally found it to be very delicate in the lower end of the spectrum. I actually only discovered this after listening to tracks that have other elements present. For example, I found the Supernova to possess decent quantity and quality of lows in my reference tracks (“Smoking Mirrors by Lee Curtiss, “Hydrogen” by MOON), but when I put on something like Robbie Roberts’ “Theme for The Irishman”, or Arctic Monkey’s “Do I Wanna Know?”, or even Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”, it was quite apparent that there is an accent on the mids and highs, while lows are kind of recessed.
However, this is likely a quality that is sought after in the professional field, especially if you are monitoring vocals.
Mids
Wow! I don’t think there are better words to describe the mid-range performance than “clear” and “accurate”. I am truthfully blown away.
The Supernova really does something special here, because it doesn’t make sense to my ears how such a cheap headphone can have such a natural-sounding mid-range. I am especially referring to vocals. Instruments don’t sound as spot on as vocals. For example, acoustic guitar (e.g. Deep Purple’s “Soldier of Fortune”, Pink Floyd’s “Hey You”) sounds thin. But vocals… I can’t get enough! Even though there is distortion present in peaks, like in Sia’s “Chandelier (Piano Version)”, there hasn’t been a time where Supernova sounded piercing or fatiguing.
If you listen to a lot of poorly recorded tracks, be aware that things can get hot in the upper mid-range region. For example, Joan Baez's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" ha shot peeks (vocal peeks, and essy peeks). Of course, this is only with the headphones as they come (stock form). If you want to fiddle around, you can dampen it and see how it sounds with different ear-pads.
Highs
Supernova isn’t a pair of headphones that will make you pull your hair, but it’s also not boring. Usually, safely tuned headphones don’t have a lot of energy when it comes to treble, but that’s not the case with Supernova. It's definitely in the shine range (sibilance>sparkle>shine>sheen>warm), though when it comes to peeks, it's got a roll-off. The peeks won't poke your ears, so you don't have to worry about fatigue. I will say though,
The first product from Venture Electronics’ professional division did not disappoint. I know many will treat it as an audiophile product, and that’s just wrong. When VE Pro designed these headphones, they didn’t have an audiophile listener in mind. Instead, they designed these to be used as a tool, as a monitoring headphone to be used professionally.
I—not a professional by any means—judged the Supernova as an audiophile headphone. I cannot pretend to be a professional when I am not. I tested it with music, not “on the field”. However, I can definitely see these being used professionally, because they have the desired qualities. That is, at least to my audiophile ears. Due to the non-existent isolation, I think they would be put to use in a quiet environment where audio needs to be monitored.
If you are a modder or someone who likes to experiment with different ear-pads, it does appear that there are some options out there. I cannot directly say which ear-pads are compatible, but your best bet is asking on VE’s private Facebook group or Telegram channel. The good news is that there are options. So, if you are an audiophile, there is hope to tailor it to your needs!
As for me, these have instantly became my daily driver. Supernova for the win =)
Design & Build Quality
The Supernova is a fairly boring-looking headphone and most definitely not built like a tank. It features a metal headband, plastic ear-cups, and plastic pieces that hold the headband strap. The design is not loud, with the only place where the company’s logo is featured being the faceplate of the ear-cups. The logo is done in a shimmery silver finish, which makes it look very nice. The exposed plastic parts on the headphone are additionally treated to give a smooth matte-like finish.
Although the headphone is fairly boring, it’s incredibly light. It’s so light that you literally forget you are wearing it.
Cable
You get two cables instead of one, which is always highly appreciated! Both cables are of high quality. The brownish orange cable is 1.8 meters long, while the black coiled cable is 1.2 meters when it's not extended, and can read the length of 2.8 meters when extended. Both cables' termination is 3.5mm, and both connectors are threaded to accept the included 6.3mm adaptor. I used the orange cable, which is also very easy to put away as though it holds its shape when rolled up. The housings for both cables are rubberized. Venture Electronics clearly didn't spare the accessories department and was thoughtful when deciding what to include in this wallet-friendly package.
Comfort
The lightweight nature of this headphone is one of the traits that makes it extremely comfortable.
On the other hand, the trait that makes it uncomfortable are the shallow ear-pads. They are made the breathable fabric type, which actually are comfortable on my skin. What makes the shallow on-ear fit uncomfortable is the fabric that covers the drivers. This fabric sewn into the ear-pads, and it is extremely irritating to my skin. It feels like some sort of synthetic fabric.
Performance
In order to respect the original product, I will be testing the Supernova without any sort of mods. I want to report to you how these sound out of the box, and that’s exactly what I did.
Lows
Though Supernova is marketed to have a “layered low frequency”, I generally found it to be very delicate in the lower end of the spectrum. I actually only discovered this after listening to tracks that have other elements present. For example, I found the Supernova to possess decent quantity and quality of lows in my reference tracks (“Smoking Mirrors by Lee Curtiss, “Hydrogen” by MOON), but when I put on something like Robbie Roberts’ “Theme for The Irishman”, or Arctic Monkey’s “Do I Wanna Know?”, or even Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”, it was quite apparent that there is an accent on the mids and highs, while lows are kind of recessed.
However, this is likely a quality that is sought after in the professional field, especially if you are monitoring vocals.
Mids
Wow! I don’t think there are better words to describe the mid-range performance than “clear” and “accurate”. I am truthfully blown away.
The Supernova really does something special here, because it doesn’t make sense to my ears how such a cheap headphone can have such a natural-sounding mid-range. I am especially referring to vocals. Instruments don’t sound as spot on as vocals. For example, acoustic guitar (e.g. Deep Purple’s “Soldier of Fortune”, Pink Floyd’s “Hey You”) sounds thin. But vocals… I can’t get enough! Even though there is distortion present in peaks, like in Sia’s “Chandelier (Piano Version)”, there hasn’t been a time where Supernova sounded piercing or fatiguing.
If you listen to a lot of poorly recorded tracks, be aware that things can get hot in the upper mid-range region. For example, Joan Baez's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" ha shot peeks (vocal peeks, and essy peeks). Of course, this is only with the headphones as they come (stock form). If you want to fiddle around, you can dampen it and see how it sounds with different ear-pads.
Highs
Supernova isn’t a pair of headphones that will make you pull your hair, but it’s also not boring. Usually, safely tuned headphones don’t have a lot of energy when it comes to treble, but that’s not the case with Supernova. It's definitely in the shine range (sibilance>sparkle>shine>sheen>warm), though when it comes to peeks, it's got a roll-off. The peeks won't poke your ears, so you don't have to worry about fatigue. I will say though,
Conclusion
The first product from Venture Electronics’ professional division did not disappoint. I know many will treat it as an audiophile product, and that’s just wrong. When VE Pro designed these headphones, they didn’t have an audiophile listener in mind. Instead, they designed these to be used as a tool, as a monitoring headphone to be used professionally.
I—not a professional by any means—judged the Supernova as an audiophile headphone. I cannot pretend to be a professional when I am not. I tested it with music, not “on the field”. However, I can definitely see these being used professionally, because they have the desired qualities. That is, at least to my audiophile ears. Due to the non-existent isolation, I think they would be put to use in a quiet environment where audio needs to be monitored.
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If you are a modder or someone who likes to experiment with different ear-pads, it does appear that there are some options out there. I cannot directly say which ear-pads are compatible, but your best bet is asking on VE’s private Facebook group or Telegram channel. The good news is that there are options. So, if you are an audiophile, there is hope to tailor it to your needs!
As for me, these have instantly became my daily driver. Supernova for the win =)
