đŸ”¶ Andover PM-50

Headphones [Official] Open Back
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That’s fair. And you’re right, that market segment is crowded with yet another new player coming in soon: Helm Audio - Another Startup w/ $400 Planar

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They would do well to be wary of zeos lol

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You see what DMS did to the Thieaudio Phantom? There’s no safe space.

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lol no I didn’t I gotta go see that one now. I thought the thieaudio was well recieved just dark kind of like an audeze

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A lot of people loved it after some basic modding. A lot of other people liked it. DMS, however, went straight up hitman. Thing is still bleeding.

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So you haven’t seen the Zeos’s PM-50 review utter massacre

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sigh


This is why I don’t watch reviewers anymore.

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I did watch that. Did he describe them as dark? He went on most about their congestion and muddiness, and then said all the Andover employees are greedy scheisters pretty much. Brent Butterworth and a pro musician he brings in to help review headphones at times described them as being a bit too sibilant. I think @Pr3ssAltF4 compared them closely to Sundara, which is brighter.

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Equivalent technicalities (tradeoffs still exist), exceedingly different tunings and presentations.

PMs are midrange to the max where sundaras maintain neutral to maybeee a slight V. Stage is intimate on PMs, where stage is ‘broad’ on Sundaras. I believe the PMs have significantly better layering and separation, but lose airiness and space.

Sundaras lack musicality but sound clean af. PMs lack the bright technical cleanliness but sound musical af.

Detail is similar, dynamics are similar, response is similar, but intent in design is different.

If that intent is not for you (as it is a very not ‘audiophile’ tuning) then that’s fine. I happened to prefer the PMs for their musicality, as the Sundaras sounded lackluster af to me (after hearing the gear I now have). Clean, but with no soul to be found.

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Ah, gotcha.

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I’m sorry. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Ok let’s please not turn this into gif spam thanks (I know where this is headed)

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Now we need a hatchet job by DMS
 this thread will be permanent gif anarchy.

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Just gonna quote my two comments before and disregard the dipshits above, as I’m the only one here who owned a pair for more than a week or two.

Me and Resolve had a pretty long conversation about these on discord and ended with differences in opinions but in agreement on the evident flaws. Personal preference in the end.

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Lol
 I disagree, I like the T90, although not as much as the T1.

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Well
 I took the plunge, I couldn’t resist buying them used for a hair over $200 – $213 with shipping and tax collected by eBay – Zeos’ rant about them notwithstanding. :sweat_smile:

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Andover PM-50 review: Who needs Harman? Quality open-backs with an unusual tuning. Think “Grados with bass”.

TL,DR: The headphones “Harman neutral” curve, for my ears, equals too much treble. So I wanted these to be the antidote, and that’s quite it. They’re fast and natural-sounding (as opposed to analytical-sounding) planars with very present and detailed bass (impressive, for open-backs!) and very present and full mids for a life-like experience. Very smooth because of their diminished treble, but the treble sparkle is still there (sometimes just “a few feet behind”). And for the soundstage, everything is “close enough” for you to do critical listening. These are the antidote to music sounding like “it’s recorded with a microphone with augmented treble” instead of sounding like you’re just there. And I’ve heard too much of that shit. Acoustic guitar, rock music, vocal-oriented music and instrumental music is where they shine. On point for Andover, which sell classy turntables and turntable kits. These will make you feel like you’re there. And that’s what I want in headphones or speakers. Harman tuning doesn’t do it for me, this does. As an unexpected bonus, their powerful and detailed bass and sub-bass mean they’re excellent for electronic music, too. For me, they’re all-around great headphones.

Foreword: If you’re here from the old Zeos’s video, you’re wondering: “So, why did I buy this crap?”

Well, Zeos’s review was not the best, and
 my ears are not normal. I know treble can be glorious. I got Hidizs MP145’s (IEMs), and my Emotiva speakers’ AMT tweeters are incredible. But for most headphones, it’s a coin toss if I hate em or not.

Note that I don’t believe in “these headphones are horrible for this band but I’ll keep em because this other band sounds too good with em”. i.e.: The ONLY headphones (and IEMs and speakers) I keep are ones where I can just press “random”, listen to hardcore electronic music, death metal, jazz, classical music, female vocals and vocal-oriented music, acoustic guitar, and hours and hours of YouTube videos
 and none of the sounds (or frequencies) annoy me. And now, I can add the Andover PM-50’s to this list.

What’s special about the Andover PM-50’s?

First, who is Andover Audio? Well, they sell, mostly, turntables and all-in-one turntable speaker systems. Imagine “Crosley”, if they did quality stuff that sold for about 750$ instead of, like, 75$. The Andover PM-50’s were sold as “analytical, neutral, studio-oriented” headphones. Until someone realized: They did not use the harman tuning. They just tuned em “dead flat”. Like speakers. This completely different and original tuning made it interesting enough for me to spend 200$USD to try these.

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So, here’s the actual review:

Tests have been done with my Xduoo XD-05 Basic, plugged into an Aune X7S headphone amp.
Warning: These are seriously amp-dependent. They sound like half of what they are when plugged straight into my good old Xduoo XD-05 Basic, instead of the Aune X7S amplifier. And they’ll sound worse plugged into your phone.

Pads:

Harman lovers criticized the harshness of the treble and the impression everything except the mids was “in the other room”, well that’s what you get for sticking to the more harman-neutral, smaller pads. I use their biggest, thiccest pads. They’ll lack high-mids/low-treble, which will be “boring” for some, but ironically, that’s headbanger-approved stuff on rock, metal and electronic music if you just crank the volume a bit to compensate for the lack of treble. Give the thickest pads a chance and Andover PM-50’s will give you an enormous amount of information and detail both in the bass and the mids. Both pads could be a bit “on-ear” for your ears – but not mine (Andover PM-50’s are smaller than it seems).

Note there’s this round plastic thing and five “clips” to ensure the pads stay on the headphones, so uh, it will be hard to change the pads to something other than the ones provided.

Bass: Present and detailed.

These got present (but not boosted!), detailed bass, detailed, full mids, and diminished treble. Which means ALL the music from the 90’s and before and all the imperfect live recordings in which the treble is in your face and the bass and drums and vocals sound like they’re, oh well
 “somewhere in the other room”, well now everything all sounds as it should. And for everything either “correctly recorded” or “modern” ? Man, I’d say these are “basshead”-approved headphones. They do an impressive job at making you forget they’re open-backs. I never heard as much detail and textures in bass guitar notes, and as much sub-bass in electronic bass notes (ex.: Carl B - Radiance)
 and yes these are open-backs. Which is a feat in itself. They’re also quite fast and quite natural-sounding (as opposed to analytical!) planar drivers. They also pass my Fleshgod Apocalypse - Pathfinder “speed test”, i.e.: They will resolve everything in this bloody fast chaos.

Mids: Impressive depth and life-likeness.

I dare you to listen to Lindsey Stirling - Crystallize (Orchestral Version) and not want these. Because the Andover PM-50’s remind you very well that “mids are where the music is”. While the singer (or, in this case, the violin!) is always straight in front of you, all the other instruments all seem to be a few feet behind, left and right. Which is also the case for male singers and high-pitched female singers (i.e.: Epica - Chasing the Dragon). This is an original experience, reminding me of my Vista Spark speaker amplifier – in the form of headphones.

Listening to I Mother Earth - Soft Bomb Salad is an experience in itself. Detailed, musical, holographic, like never before. That’s where Andover PM-50’s shine. Acoustic guitar, rock music, vocal-oriented, full of little details. On point for Andover, which sell classy turntables and turntable kits. Listening to Michael Kobrin - Nightlife, or Karen Souza - Tainted Love, or Incubus - Drive, the Andover PM-50’s will make you feel like you’re there, too. And that’s what I want in headphones or speakers. Harman tuning or not, whatever does it, as long as it works.

Treble: Smooth operator.

The Andover PM-50’s treble is (too?) diminished, but they do everything else so well
 These are the antidote to music sounding like “it’s recorded with a microphone with augmented treble” instead of sounding like you’re just there. And I’ve heard too much of that shit. Cymbals and all the high-pitched instruments and sounds are still there. All the high-mids and lower-treble information is also still there, just “a few feet behind”. Yes, they lack the treble required to accurately reproduce energetic songs, for example. But this also means after a month listening to em, it’s very hard to find songs that annoy me. I’d take this “speaker” tuning “for people who don’t have ears” over Harman suffering cough Harman tuning any day, hence why my HD6XX’s collect dust – the Andover PM-50’s are also way above the HD6XX’s in terms of detail and depth. Hell, I’m just cooked
 My beloved Fostex T50RPs and Nad HP50’s I enjoyed for maybe 10 years sound like “bluetooth speakers” in comparison.

About critical listening: Are these good for the studio?

There is soundstage, but it’s not large. “Gidge - Perimeter”, a track known to
 paint a perimeter of music ten feet all around your speakers, won’t make a big perimeter around your head. Yosi Horikawa - Letter either. But damn will it sound great. It’s a “critical-listening-over-soundstage” thing.

I get what they meant when positioning these as “studio-oriented”. Everything is not “far away”. Everything is close enough for you to do critical listening. These planars are fast, but also natural sounding (as opposed to analytical/mechanical sounding). The bass is very detailed. The mids are full, life-like, and front-and-center. But you might be enclined to over-compensate the lack of treble. And you don’t want that if you create, record and/or master audio.

Final words:

As a bonus, they’re beautiful. Well made, wood and metal construction. The headphones are also symmetrical (the only “L” and “R” I see is on the dual 3.5mm removable cable).

I believe these are both unconventional and great, as is. And now I remember these are Andover’s first headphones? Well, for their first try, for me, it’s a home run. Too bad Zeos destroyed em because he did not like their tuning.