The Head-Fi world seems to have something of a tradition when it comes to companies forming around headphone modifications. Both Dan Clark Audio and ZMF began when their founders sold modifications of the Fostex TP-50 planar headphones. Both ended up making their own, unique designs, and are now highly regarded manufacturers.
Modhouse too began with modified Fostex headphones. Not unlike Dan Clark, whose Ether headphones were 3D-printed, the Tungsten headphones consist of mostly 3D printed parts.
The Tungsten, of which there are two variations — with single-sided or double-sided magnet drivers — have generated such hype that they are back-ordered by 6-8 months. At the time I began writing this (mid-October 2024) they had suspended orders altogether for a few weeks enabling them to catch up somewhat.
I had not ever expected to get a hold of a pair, yet by chance I managed to, as the double-sided version forms part of a kit along with an ENLEUM HPA-23RMH headphone amplifier, and it was the kit I was sent to review. Since they are individual products in their own right, I’ve reviewed them as such, and decided to focus on the pairing in the review of the headphones.
Design
While the finish of the 3D printed parts are not as nice as Dan Clark managed with his painted Ether, the raw plastic of the primary parts doesn’t detract from their attractiveness as much as one might think. Modhouse offers finished options, but they add significantly to the price of these $2000 headphones.
Four screws secure the metal headband, underneath which is a simple head pad, and a common click-to-adjust indented pin system provides primarily adjustment of the freely rotating cups.
Earpads are unique in that they consist of a metal plate upon which the earpad is glued. The metal plate has holes that match the position of screws in the cups, and a grill which aligns with the magnets. The earpads are held on with magnetic force only, alignment by way of the screws and plate holes. This allows them to come off a bit too easily for preference, making them easy to knock them off accidentally.
Inside the kit with the ENLEUM amplifier came two pairs of ear pads: One leather, and one, mostly cloth hybrid. Respectively, they result in more or less treble, allowing some flexibility in tuning without need for an EQ.
Finally, a beautiful Viking Weave cable is included, the headphone-end plugs snugly fitting inside the holes in the 3D-pritnted cups.
As only a 6.3mm terminated plug was included with the set, I used either a Meze copper or HiFiMan Susvara Unveiled cable for testing with balanced sources as required.
Listening Impressions
As the Tungsten has a 155 Ohm impedance and only 78 dB/mW sensivity, the demands on amplification are quite severe, with three times the amount of power required compared to the original HiFiMan Susvara. While on paper there is plenty of amplification that can output up to the 1.5W of power required to get up to 110 dB, a level which while most people would find far beyond too loud, is possible to reach with movie soundtracks and their often near 20 Hz bass, so in those cases a speaker amp is truly ideal.
Indeed, I was disappointed to find that some the already excellent amplification I had to hand could only provide somewhat bloated and boomy bass through the Tungsten, much as one might get from a moderately demanding headphone like one of the Dan Clark models when run through a small amplifier like the Schiit Magni.
The Luxman P-750u was knocked out of contention for this reason, and, for some bass-strong music, the ALO Audio Studio Six as well, despite its ability to drive sensitive speakers. That left Schiit’s Mjolnir, the Headamp GS-X mini and the Audio-gd Master 9, both standalone and as part of the R-27HE as possible contenders, with the Master 10 speaker amp setting the benchmark for performance.
When adequately driven, the Tungsten has a slightly lean-of-neutral sound signature with the leather ear pads, and slightly muted treble and softer bass with the hybrid ear pads.
For example, Montego Bay Spleen by St Germain from the high-res remaster of Tourist has just the right amount of sparkle for my preferences with the leather pads, and wonderful punchy bass running them out of the older, full-size version of Audio-gd’s Master 9 headphone amplifier or the R-27HE DAC/amp. As the full-size Audio-gd amplifiers have a touch of smoothness along with a soundstage that makes the amplifier sound like it isn’t there, it worked well with what I feel is a very likely lively treble when using the leather ear pads.For Tourist, the better slam of the leather ear pads was the go. I could easily turn the volume dial up on either of the Audio-gd units to 70 on high gain and it was only slightly loud for me, albeit a touch fatiguing with the treble.
In terms of resolution, a good test of this was the ENLEUM HPA-23RMH included in the kit, which does a great job of being what feels like being completely neutral, while also being extremely resolving. I used the amp to test a number of interconnects and observe the subtle nuances of each, not something that every amplifier I have here is good at doing.
With the Tungsten, while it doesn’t have the raw power to get through movie soundtracks (20 Hz bass will send a lot of excellent gear into clipping with less demanding headphones) with most music it allowed the Tungsten to deliver a fairly precise presentation with only a bit of looseness in the bass. It was a touch too monitor-clear for my personal preferences.
Listening for detail, the Tungsten didn’t quite have the micro-detail and the ability to dig into the subtle nuances of the better, and doubly-expensive or more headphones such as the Dan Clark Audio Stealth and Expanse, or Susvara Unveiled.
The Spoils from Massive Attack and Hope Sandoval lost the last nuances of note decay.
John Lee Hooker’s Too Young from Chill Out (2007 Remaster) was very compelling listening with this combo, using the Chord TT2 and MScaler as a source and a pair of Van Den Hul The Hill ICs. This shows that the Tungsten is capable of delivering a good degree of subtlety from what is a simple track as much as it is able to slam with a powerful amplifier.
However, there was some bloom in the lower registers of the vocals with the leather pads, suggesting that the HPA-23RMH is at its limits of control. The current-based amplifier’s gain is entirely dependent on impedance, and can be pushed to clipping with a sufficiently strong bass line, though I don’t listen loud enough for anything regular bass-strong music to get that far.
Similarly, Fleetwood Mac’s Sara is presented in a bit more of a “monitor” way in that everything is precise, including imaging (no doubt thanks to Chord, but also the amp). I had felt a bit more moved by the song previously while I was listening to it with the Susvara Unveiled and Luxman P-750u.
One of my old favourites is from The New Basement Tapes – When I Get My Hands On You. From the HPA-23RMH, the bass punches through very well, if not as tight as from the Master 10, but it wasn’t at all unpleasant with the leather pads on. I didn’t feel like it was out of control.After some discussion on Head-Fi in one of the Audio-gd threads, I gave the amplifiers another run. The slightly narrower soundstage from the R-27HE compared to the older Master 9 was noticeable listening The Black Keys Weight of Love from Turn Blue. Still, the best results came by far from the Master 10 speaker amp, which required setting the level to 35 and using the volume control of the Chord TT2 for best results.
However, with the Master 10, the bass was almost too precise, and the bass bloom entirely gone. If anything it was a little too good.As I’ve seen questions about cheaper amplifier to use with the Tungstens, I plugged in the Schiit Jotunheim, which is my standard recommendation. From a post on Head-Fi, “According to Schiit, the Lyr+ will push 7.2 Vrms into 150 ohms. The Lyr 3 is rated at 5 Vrms. The Jot 2 outputs 9.6 Vrms via XLR out into the same impedance.” This makes it ideal on paper, and listening, not surprisingly it wasn’t as wide-sounding as the Master 9, but Music to Make you Stagger from Treasures from the Temple by Thievery Corporation was delivered well, with good, punchy bass using the Audio-gd R-27HE as the source.
Ultimately, I settled on the using the Master 9 with any of my sources and sat enjoying the bite of the guitar and bass in Good Love (feat. Billy F Gibbons) from the Black Keys (Dropout Boogie). Even if I feel that the headphones aren’t quite the last word in resolution, they made for a fun listen from this combination.
Comparisons
In the same price bracket as the Tungsten come the popular Dan Clark Audio E3s. Giving almost the same result as the doubly expensive Steath, but with what I feel is superior tuning, I’ve seen a few people impatient for a Tungsten buy a pair instead.Following the Harman target curve near exactly, the mid-range is a touch forward for my tastes (many manufacturers drop the frequencies between 1-3 kHz a bit in comparison) the treble to me is still a touch weird. This is belied by the AMTS system both providing precise tuning and lowering distortion.
The E3s rivalled the Tungsten easily in slam and precision, but it was a toss-up between them when it comes to overall resolution. I feel that the Tungstens have a slightly excited treble from internal reflections, something Dan Clark’s AMTS system overcomes.
The Tungsten, after the E3s sounds slightly sucked-out in the mid-range (and the E3 likewise more forward). I felt that the cymbals in Marc Moulin’s Day Fever from the Top Secret album were presented more realistically with better imaging from the E3. The Tungsten had the cymbals slightly disjointed between the left and right, almost as if one side was out of phase, but possibly had to do with driver matching.
Meze’s Empyrean II are arguably the king of easy listening. Going back to Good Love, the music was quite a bit more distant, without the bite from the guitars of either the Tungsten or the E3 from the Master 9/R-27HE combo.Cymbals sounded a bit muffled from the aforementioned Marc Moulin, though the imaging was otherwise quite good. Between the Empyrean and the Tungsten, the 3D-printed upstart won out in impact and detail, but loses out in drivability and imaging.
In the end ...
… like I said in my video review, it’s hard to criticise a small manufacturer, especially one that has put so much effort into a product which they are making by hand. To the designer’s credit, the design is mostly excellent, and the wait* for a pair seems to be more of an issue than the arguably crazy power requirements or the raw finish. Certainly, what relatively minor sonic imperfections they have are way more forgivable, especially if a good system is prepared for them, where they become exciting to listen to music with. I wish them all the success they can have.
*Though 6-8 months is nothing like the 2 years which is more typical of a new product from a new manufacturer on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.
