@kylereptyle and @KrakenUp I think you’ve both had both headphones on the tour at this point, please post your impressions.
Borealis received!
Australis received.
Have to emphasize again that posting impressions is a requirement of the tour @KrakenUp and @kylereptyle. You both received and mailed out both headphones at this point, please post your impressions on both headphones.
Borealis is on the way to the next person! I should have my impressions posted soon.
You mentioned at the beginning that there will be other regions after the USA as well. Is there a chance for a European Tour? In Europe we have even less chances to hear any boutique brands… Let us know if there’s a chance for us as well. I’d be happy to post my impressions! Thanks!
Yes, we do plan to do a European region tour later.
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Thanks for posting confirmation.
Just sent off Australis to the next recipient.
Just wanted to drop some brief impressions from my time with it here:
I like the build of aurorus headphones as someone who used to own a borealis, so these felt great in the hand if a little floppy. I dont really have problems with the comfort of them and was able to wear them for a few hours at a time.
For sound I find Australis to be a bit of an odd mashup tuning-wise, the bass is quite elevated but I find it to be rather isolated from the rest of the sound, it doesnt have too much lower midrange and theres also a bump in the center mids somewhere around 600hz-1khz. This makes mids a bit strange as theres some upper mid recession going on and in combo with the center mid bump vocals can sound twangy, honky and a bit aggressive. I think Borealis has a more audible hump here than Australis, possibly because it doesnt have the bass shelf that Australis has.
Treble-wise I found Australis mostly agreeable for my preferences. I like darker signatures, I absolutely cant stand when headphones overdo their treble and introduce grain and strange textures into things like vocals. Australis does a solid job here, only having a single peak around 6khz that barely bothered. After 6k it rolls off considerably and has quite soft upper treble.
So what you get is a generally warm and downsloped headphone with some bumps around the center midrange and lower treble that keep things from being overbearingly dark and warm. However I cant say I felt compelled to listen for an extended period of time with these, the vocal tone was just a bit too off for and the bass didn’t strike any chords in me. Microdynamics were quite good but I think Borealis beats Australis it still, and has better slam. For spaciousness Australis performs quite well and I found it to defy its closed-back nature in this regard quite well.
I look forward to what Aurorus has cooking next as I’m generally a fan of their approach to a sound quality first approach to headphone design and they seem to be one of the few manufacturers on the market who can tune treble that I actually like without EQ. If I was to own an Aurorus right now it would still be the Borealis for me.
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I received the Aurorus Australis!
1st off, thank you Aurorus Audio for doing this tour in exchange for our impression. This impression will feature the Australis headphone. The amp I used to test out the Australis is mostly the Schiit Midgard. I did mess with my HiBy R8ii DAP as well, but I didn’t spend too much time on it.
I think the Schiit Midgard amp was a fantastic pairing for the Australis because it helped buff its bass quantity while still sounding more controlled. It also provided a nice clear mids with a pretty decent soundstage. I haven’t tried the Halo output since I don’t have an XLR cable for it, so this was all done on the 6.3mm output. I haven’t spent too much time on the DAP as I like my desktop Midgard setup more, but it sounded pretty good out of my DAP (HiBy R8ii). My Schiit Midgard setup gave it a more clear mids and the bass is less boomy and more controlled compared to the HiBy R8ii. The Australis are easy to drive as the HiBy R8ii is on high gain on 60 volume. The Schiit Midgard volume knob only needed to turn up to like 30%.
These to me are dark-sounding headphones. I do like it a lot with a lot of pop and rap songs as it’s a pretty fun headphone without any worries about the highs. If I had to pick 1 genre, I would say I like this the best with modern rap songs. This headphone to me has a fun rumbly sub-bass, pretty good clear mids, and an easy-to-listen-to highs. The bass isn’t extreme like the ZMF Atrium Closed (lambskin pads) or even the HarmonicDyne Eris, but it’s more bass than the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro and DCA Stealth. Mids aren’t as clear as the ZMF Atrium Closed (suede pads) or DCA Stealth, but it’s clearer than something like the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro. I will say the highs may be a little too relaxed for my taste as I do want a little more “edge” for the electric guitars and vocals. Because of that, for rock songs, I wasn’t too much of a fan of this headphone for that reason. The soundstage is decent. Not as small as the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro, but not as spacious sounding as the DCA Stealth. Pretty much in the middle between these 2 which makes sense when comparing prices.
The Australis are nice easy-to-drive headphones that are easy and fun to listen to. I think the price to performance seems fair after comparing it to my headphones. It’s better than my entry-level headphones like the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro, but not as good as the ZMF Atrium Closed or DCA Stealth. Unfortunately, I don’t have a headphone in the $899 price bracket to compare. Overall, these headphones were fun to try, thanks again Aurorus Audio for the opportunity to try these headphones!
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I received the loaner Aurorus Borealis last Friday.
Just a quick update from me!
I got to spend some time with the Borealis. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here because my setup and much of the discussion on comfort, fit, and finish are unchanged from my original Australis impressions.
As for the sound, I had a really lovely time with the Borealis and found it to be an improvement toward my preferred signature from the Australis. I’m not opposed to EQ and have plenty of my own settings saved for Susvara and LCD-X, but I tend to reserve EQ for headphones that are going to be exclusively used with desktop amps. Given the ease of driving from portable sources, I opted to listen as-is without tweaking.
Bass dynamics and mids are great—as they were on Australis—but it really shines by comparison in the treble. Presumably attributable to the decreased dampening of being an open back set, treble is a step up from the Australis and no longer feels recessed. The natural timbre of string instruments and female vocals is much closer to my expectation without leaning into the brightness several Hifiman sets are known for, as an example.
The overall spaciousness of the soundstage is not as large of a jump from Australis as I would have expected (which is partly a compliment to the Australis) but is still adequate for my enjoyment. I would describe Borealis as ovoid with good lateral separation akin to (and better than) my Utopia 2022. This is in comparison to headphones I would describe as more “spherical” such as Susvara or Atrium that also provide an added sense of height depending on the particular mix and instrumentation.
If I were to grab a set today, it’d be the Borealis for sure. The sound punches above its weight for the price at the expense of some fit and finish niceties offered (at higher prices) by more traditional manufacturers; but I think there’s also something to be said about the boutique elements lending themselves to customization for DIY-enjoyers. The design is user friendly and highly accessible. A few standard machine screws are the only thing standing between you and painting the frame in a preferred color to really make it your own. Similarly, it’d be comparatively trivial to 3D print a replacement frame or custom grille.
And thank you @aurorusaudio for providing invaluable audition time through the tour.
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I just got the Aurorus Australis a few weeks ago for the loaner tour. Here in Tampa we’re having some hurricane issues, so posting impressions a little late. I have some closed backs to compare it to, the Dan Clark Aeon closed, Beyerdynamic DT700, 250ohm DT770, MMX300, Audeze 100mm driver Hyperx Cloud Orbit S, AKG K371 wired, and just got the Dan Clark Stealth the other day. While not a fair comparison on prices, it helps determining value for money.
I didn’t read reviews or check FR charts before, just to get an unbiased first impression. First things I noticed was the bass and mids were really consistent. The treble has a slight rolloff, which I welcome more than a big peak. I wear headphones all day for the business and get weary with bright headphones.
Soundstage is as good as other closed back models. Noise isolation is a lot better than the Hifiman Audivina (which has a seashell effect, you can hear the AC air handler blowing with them on) or DT770 250 ohm. I use closed back headphones for privacy or noise isolation when the landscape crew rolls through with their Ghostbuster sized leaf blowers.
Power requirements: These are easy to power, low gain at 55 percent on a SMSL DL200 was plenty. I use an SMSL H400 for a main amplifier, and in low gain it was a walk in the park. The fact that I don’t think they require equalizing with a preamp reduction makes them even easier to power. The Topping L30 II was best, with it’s extremely quiet noise floor. It was with an E50 DAC on optical, so the balanced was available for powered speakers.
Comfort: The pads are also comfy, and the cables attach with a positive click. What weight there is (not much) is so well distributed you can easily wear them all day without a problem, the big puffy headband helps a lot.
Equalizing on these is really down to personal preference and music collection. It’s not one of those models where you have to do it. I tried an Autoeq profile but it really wasn’t an improvement, so I just ran them stock tuning.
Comparison:
In short, they blow away every single Hifiman closed back all the way to the Audivina (which I had for a month). The Beyerdynamic DT1770 is good competition if you factor price, but even with the “A” pads they’re not as resolving (the “B” pads are a disaster plan with boomy bass). The DCA Aeon closed is too bright out of the box, and with the felt inserts loses too much detail compared to the Australis to achieve similar tuning. The Focal Elegia has too much treble rolloff, got bored with those pretty quickly (though fit and finish felt really high end). If you have something like the Hifiman Arya Stealth or HE1000, and want a pair that will compliment them these are a great choice. The tuning reminds me most of is the original Heddphone. The deal breaker with that open back design was the crushing 718 gram weight which felt like wearing a motorcycle helmet.
The negatives are really minor.
With they had a snap on plastic clip guide on each side of the frame cables to give it some rigidity.
A firmer attachment for the headband pad, so it didn’t flop around so easily.
Wish I had measured the pad dimensions and attachment method, couldn’t find replacements online.
Overall I really like them, and if you have a brighter pair like planar magnetics or Beyerdynamic with a treble peak, these are a nice change of pace. Also I take all headphones into Destiny 2 to see how they fare for gaming. Since the mids are so consistent they did great in games. Footsteps are usually 400hz-1600hz so having that range be predictable really helps listening for other players coming. So yes, they do well for double duty, not just music.
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My last impression was of the Aurorus Australis which is the closed back headphone. This time, I was given a chance to try their open-back headphone, the Aurorus Borealis. To me, I liked the Borealis much more even though the sound presentation is pretty similar to each other, but only with some differences. But the differences is enough for me to have a favorite of the two.
I found the Borealis to be a similar sound presentation, but less dark sounding than the Australis and I want to say the Borealis sound more balanced overall. The soundstage seems to be similar as well for both headphones which is not too big nor is it intimate. But the Borealis seems to have better soundstage layering and better instrumental separation making it easier to notice more details with the Borealis to me. It might be because of the open-back nature of the Borealis headphone which makes sense. One thing that I do like from the Australis over the Borealis is having more quantity for bass. Being a closed-back, the Australis have more oomph and slam in the bass vs the Borealis making music genres like modern rap and EDM much more fun to listen to on the Australis vs the Borealis. Overall comfort seems to pretty similar on both the Australis and Borealis and both headphones are very easy to drive.
So why do I like the Borealis more than the Australis? I feel like the bass and dynamics are a double-edged sword on the Australis. The bass and dynamics can be really fun for some genres and for other genres or tracks, the bass can be too distracting. With the Borealis, I feel like I get enough bass without it distracting me so I can appreciate the beautiful mids and high this headphone can produce. Combining it with its slightly different sound presentation of having better layering and instrumental separation, the Borealis sounds hi-fi to me. People say the Borealis punches above its price, I believe that. I heard and owned some $2000 headphones and the Borealis to me is more of a balanced headphone than those headphones. The other headphones are either doing too much or too little where the music feels incomplete or ruined. Meanwhile, the Borealis sounds more complete because of its balanced tuning from bottom to top and balanced soundstage while still presenting a good amount of details in the music.
Another reason why I like the Borealis is the scaling. Yeah, it can sound pretty good on my Schiit Midgard and HiBy R8ii DAP. But when I feed it my main setup (Allnic HPA-5000XL + custom Supratek Cabernet DHT 2A3/45 preamp), the Borealis sings. The Borealis scaled up on higher gear a lot better than I expected. Midrange clarity sings so clearly, the bass sounds nice and detailed, and the highs are sweet while still being non-offensive. Another thing my tube amp helps is a nice wider soundstage for better instrumental separation and imaging, but I don’t think there are any noticeable changes in the soundstage depth. I wouldn’t recommend a tube amp for the Borealis since it’s a sensitive headphone, my the Allnic HPA-5000XL is a different beast for handling sensitive headphones where noise-floor is not really an issue for me.
If you are looking for your first step into hi-fi headphones, the Borealis is a safe and great first choice thanks to its balance tuning, especially under $1000 USD. Plus with how the Borealis scale, upgrading gear as you go will be very satisfying on your journey. If you are looking for something more fun and bass-focused, the Australis would probably be your better choice.
Thank you @aurorusaudio for this tour. Its been really fun trying out your headphones!
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