Aurorus Borealis Measurements and Review

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by purr1n, Apr 12, 2020.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yes, new comp for FPC. It's just a B&K target. Let me dig up a Vali since I can't remember where the Horizon went. From memory, I think HP-3 bass is lower, that is think, if all things are equal (I would EQ or vent the earpads to get less bass on the HP-3). I still have to try better amps. Too lazy these days since I've stopped chasing. Just having more fun setting up the Drop TT for my son with a Jot that has phono inputs. Many of us would look at that combination as "ewww". We are so spoiled.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2020
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Added said links to first post and also another one started by @gandhisfist. Seem there were two threads that I missed. And no, I don't read everything on SBAF nor I do have Professor X psychic awareness of all goings on SBAF. This last snarky comment reserved for people who expect that I do.

    Keeping this thread separate to have appropriate feature placing on home page (stuff is based on initial post date of thread). I think this is worthy of front page treatment.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2020
  3. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Loooooooool, gotcha, and yes perhaps spoiled especially in light of your comments about the Drop table :p

    I asked cuz I did an overlay of your graphs with the Borealis and HP-3 and went WTF, I know the latter are v-shaped but this looked excessive haha. I'm actually kinda done with transducers between the HD600s and Klipsches, but it's always fun to get to try new things. May be tempted to supplant one if the Borealis is a categorical put-down of either in what I like about em.

    I actually stopped venting the Klipsches before I lent them out but might go back to doing so once I get them back because I've acclimatised to the HD600 and HE4XX. Yikes.

    Err one more stupidly self-serving question— IMO the Klipsch is actually less smooth in treble than the TH610 from memory, and the X00 Ebony too; how grainy is the Borealis relative to that? Hands's comments scare me a bit.
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    The Klipsch HP-3 is just darn sharp and sibilant in the highs! Too much, so I just resorted to EQ because I loved other aspects of its presentation.

    I wouldn't say the Borealis is grainy or gritty. Could be a difference in terms of vocabulary. However, the transients in the highs are very crisp. Almost too responsive and too fast! Jumpy? Prickly?

    I think there is something in the burst 4800Hz attacks may show this "jumpiness". Let's put a pin in this. Elex is like this. Grado similar, but less so, slightly different. Ether too. Even HD660S to a smaller extent. Would be interesting to examine the 4800Hz attack characteristics of these headphones and compare them to others which are not so "jumpy".
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2020
  5. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    If Pioneer (hah) comes out with an HP-3 but with less tizzy treble (that's the only downside to em IMO, but it's easy enough to acclimate to), I'm jumping ship :p

    You mentioned e-stats. Haven't tried Stax that I can recall but is the treble similar in "jumpiness" to Koss ESP950? That's one I got to spend some time with and compare to the Klipsch. If the Borealis has similar jump-factor as those then dammit I loathe that I'm unable to get ears on em, haha. Hopefully these scale as well as the Klipsches up to TOTL rigs in texture and resolution, not that I'm any close to one but having it manage that is always nice to know.

    Bowing out of thread since I've got nothing to add.
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    This is a great question. The electrostatic stuff is like this, but also different at the same time. Jumpy yes, prickly no. We can argue on what exact words: jumpy but smooth, jumpy but plasticky, jumpy without grain? The orthos are somewhere in between. I don't have data for enough electrostatics though.

    Request denied. You remind me of early Changstar denizens who asked great questions and inspired me to explore measurements and tweak visualizations that could better explain this stuff. As such, you are not allowed to leave. You are also given more leeway in talking about politics: Duterte, members of his cabinet, Hunter Biden, Trump, whoever.
     
  7. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Yep, good idea, and what I assumed was the case for all that when I tacked on some of my previous (and new/forgotten) stuff. :)
     
  8. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    I mean, isn't "prickly" in the same vein as "grainy" or "gritty"? If two people rubbed sandpaper on their genitals, with one describing it as prickly and the other as gritty, I would assume their sensations more or less lined up. Though I may need to try it for myself to be sure.

    You might note that I described what I heard on the Borealis as something similar to, but stronger than, the very mild glare/grain that comes with a stock HD650. I think this is mostly attributed to the tiny 5KHz bump, which has a wee bit of ringing to it. (Of which the Borealis measures for me with a slight spike above 5KHz with accompanied ringing.)

    The HD660S is similar in that regard, but worse. The Borealis is at least as "bad" as the HD660S, if not worse. I put quotes around "bad" because in an absolute sense it's no big deal. The Borealis otherwise had what seemed to be balanced and well-behaved treble to my ears.

    Then again, what prickliness I heard on the Borealis I never found related to transients in and of themselves, but that too may just be a vocabulary thing of sorts. Or, given that I purposely found myself with the problem of trying to reduce seal to improve the sound, the headphone damping might be notably different on my head, affecting how I perceived transients.
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Grainy is like cat licking your balls. Prickly is like brushing your balls with cactus.

    FR, CSDs, Burst, no one factor. Likely all them contribute and interrelate.

    I now go back into the "lab" do examine burst response attack. Would be interesting to compare to other fast headphones such as SR1a or Verite which do not exhibit this jumpy, grainy, prickly characteristic.
     
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    ^ I want to reemphasize this point. We are simply trying to find words to describe rather than assign positive or negative characteristics as ultimately it's whatever floats your boat. The idea is that we are trying to correlate measurements to words and this takes time, study, and experience.

    Measurements by themselves are useless if we don't know how they translate into sound. Measurements for the sake of measurements is dumb (and purely academic at best). As I mentioned in a earlier post, remember when folks on HF were trying to ascertain the squareness of a 50Hz square wave as a primary indicator of sound quality? Today we have people looking at SINAD bars as a primary indicator of sound quality, which is no better. Ignorance and stupidity march on.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2020
  11. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Though square wave responses probably tell us quite a bit more about how something sounds than SINAD results. They're just harder to read and understand. :/
     
  12. animus

    animus Almost "Made"

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    Curious about the 10 wave burst decay but no actual 10 wave burst. I recall a couple of headphones being measured on that a while back and the Focal (Elex was it?) had some sort of overshoot on the first wave. Wonder if Borealis exhibits something similar, or if it behaves extremely well controlled in such a measurement.
     
  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  14. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Wonder what it says about me that I just use the Klipsches unmodded from my phone a lot, haha (eh, lower SPL listener, probably main reason I can stand the treble without EQ... or I'm deaf!).

    Going to grain, many I know apply this descriptor to HD650 and similar, claiming it's unnatural (grainy treble, specifically). To my ears it's definitely got more texture than HE4XX's treble, and latter seems weird in comparison.

    I don't know nearly enough about recordings or how things sound on proper hi-fi to tell whether this is actually innate to a lot of popular material or if the Senns really do just add grain to distinguish it from the comparatively smooth presentation of most planars lots of people swear by; out of micro iDSD silver>Sunrise III I actually think the HE4XX resolves as much macrodetail as the HD600, if not more, and has more clarity too, but at the cost of less texture/microdetail and ambiance (which I think is all common vocab here).

    I'm just wondering how the minimal damping works out since it's not a lot like other cans I've seen. Lack of air pressure either way behind baffle means good reactivity like the Focal kids, but the positive pressure in front of the baffle helps keep the driver from wobbling out of control indefinitely? Not quite Elear (only Focal besides Spirit Pro I've gotten sufficient ear time with to form definite opinions of) cuz the drivers there seem suspended in free air almost, v the fine baffle on here.
     
  15. wadec22

    wadec22 Almost "Made"

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    @purr1n thanks for the extremely thorough measurements and explanation. very well done! honestly, I will have to re-read a couple times after work to fully digest everything covered here. great stuff. really appreciate the time and attention to detail.

    interesting headphone. I almost pulled the trigger on release but my OCD wants better aesthetics for the $. Very subjective though, reading plenty of folks who think these look really great.

    Honestly, @Garuspik set a very high (almost unreasonable) standard for aesthetics & value for the small start up. My expectations here have probably become far too lofty for what the average start up can afford to do.

    I certainly applaud the sonic achievements here though. pretty cool for these guys to have their stuff compared to some industry cornerstones on their first product launch.
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2020
  16. tommytakis

    tommytakis MOT: E.T.A Headphones

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    Borealis Part 2?
    I’ve had these for a while now, and I’m happy to say that I still feel the same way about them. They’re still the punchy, exciting headphone that I genuinely enjoy listening to and I would be happy with just owning the Borealis and nothing else. I’m a die-hard HD650 fan, but man the Bori is so much more fun to listen to and the JAR650 has been collecting dust lately. I guess this is a supplement to my initial impressions post here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/aurorus-audio-borealis-australis.7650/page-5

    Durability:
    image0.jpg

    • Durability is a bit of a mixed bag. My unit was actually one of the affected units where the nitinol rod snapped in half from general usage. I think mine broke after a week of usage? Obviously Ruck and Eudis have already addressed this issue, so I won’t go much into detail as to why it happened, but rather talk about my experience dealing with the issue. I messaged Ruck about the damage with a picture on the Aurorus discord and the very next morning I got an email saying my replacement had been shipped. I haven’t had issues with the rod breaking since the replacement. I can’t comment on how it will be for everyone, but I’m certain you’ll be taken care of. Just remember that even Verum and ZMF had their fair share of issues (channel imbalance, paint chipping, etc.) but I think it’s more important to focus on how they dealt with the customers when they were faced with issues. Other than the headband, the main body feels sturdy af and wouldn’t worry about even possibly dropping them.
    Goodbye Ugly Headband!
    IMG_4443.JPG
    • Yes, looks are subjective, but the headband looks… ugly. I’m not going to sugar coat this. Like I said in the initial impressions, I wish it contoured the shape of our head like MrSpeakers/DCA or Audeze, because when you wear it on your head, it looks like you have braces on ...for your head lol. The seat belt comfort seems to vary depending on your head shape, but if you find it uncomfortable like me, the ZMF Pilot pad definitely helps. However, I don’t think it doesn’t fix everything. With the pilot pad, the hotspot is gone, but the padding is a bit too thick and keeps pulling the headphone up. I have to routinely push down on the headband to adjust it back to the correct position. I think this can be solved with slightly thinner comfort pads or changing the angle of the rods so that there is slightly more slide clamp.
    • While I was waiting for the revised headband, I decided to take a DIY approach and transplanted the Audeze LCD headband onto the Bori. It’s not a simple swap, but it wasn’t impossible to do. I had to drill the Audeze yolk on all 4 holes so that it fit the borealis screws. It certainly looks more refined now and since I’m still using the spacers and screws that came with the headphone, I can easily swap it out to the original headband if I choose to. Obviously do this at your own risk and I will not be held accountable if you mess up. Plus the Audeze headbands are pretty hefty in price so I don’t know if I can easily recommend it to everyone. (Big Thanks to @Bloom for the friendly price on the headband) If you care about aesthetics like I do, swapping in the Audeze headband is an option for those that want it. I’m happy to help out as well, just PM me anytime.
    • How’s the comfort with the Audeze headband? Obviously YMMV but with my head, it feels snug and comfortable. No more hotspot nor uneven pressure around my head. I can wear these for hours with no issue now and the best part is that it’s much more aesthetically pleasing than the stock headband.

    Borealis vs. JAR650
    • First obvious difference is the superior macrodynamics/slam of the Borealis. It’s hard to go back to 650’s bass after hearing the Bori’s bass. It’s more punchy and grippy, while the JAR650 feels wimpy and deflated, despite Jupiter’s mods making it sound more controlled and clean. I was really surprised to see Marv’s burst response for the Borealis. I knew the Bori was a tight and punchy headphone, but I did not expect it to edge out the Elex and come close to SR1a’s performance.
    • In terms of microdynamics, they’re both excellent choices, but I think the JAR650 edges out just a bit in this category. Sure the 650s don’t slam hard, but the micro contrast is top notch and makes music sound nuanced and engaging.
    • Borealis easily wins out in clarity. Borealis’s another strong point is that it sounds clear and lacks veil without depending on the treble boost or over-sharpening effect.
    • JAR650 wins out in mids, vocal intimacy, and timbre. Vocals are smoother and more natural sounding on the 650.
    • The upper mids is a toss up between the two. The JAR650 has more presence and bite, but with modern music, it can sometimes sound a bit shouty. Borealis on the other hand, is slightly withdrawn relative to the 650, but I never get the feeling that it’s sucked out or lacking. I think this can be a positive because I can blast the music to a reasonable degree and just rock out. Instead of the vocals taking the center stage, it blends more naturally with the rest of the instruments. It’s nowhere near as extreme as the Audeze LCD tuning or Verite w/ Universe pads, but with some jazz tracks, it can sound slightly withdrawn and lack a bit of energy.
    • The controversial 7k treble peak… at least with the current setup, it’s not bothersome and I only notice it w/ ~5% of my music. It’s still not as offensive or sharp as something like the HD800 or any of the Beyer cans. It kind of reminds me of Verite and Elex’s mid-treble peak, but to a lesser degree that can easily be ameliorated w/ source matching with something like a nice tube amp.
    • I noticed that clamping makes a big difference in the peak where the peak becomes more evident when the clamping is a bit loose and outward. I haven’t had the opportunity to try it with many amps, but BF2+ Black Widow makes me feel like the setup was made for this headphone because of the insane synergy they bring together.
    Verum 1 vs. Borealis:
    • macrodynamics/slam: Borealis >>>>Verum 1; despite Verum 1 extending more linearly, Borealis has better slam and grunt to it.
    • microdynamics : Borealis >>>>Verum 1; Borealis is excellent in microdynamics slightly behind or evenly matched to JAR6x0 while Verum 1 is trailing behind both.
    • Verum’s mids sounds a bit withdrawn in comparison to the Borealis, but sometimes I do like that especially when I watch movies or play games. For music listening, Borealis just sounds more natural and engaging.
    • Treble is definitely more resolving in the Borealis. Treble seems relatively hazier when I switched back to the Verum.
    • Verum’s stage sounds a bit diffuse and wide while Borealis seems to be more inline with Sennheiser 6x0 series but with better imaging.
    • I still believe Verum 1 is an excellent product for its price range, I just feel like the Borealis wins out in most categories I care for.
    Pad Rolling:
    • I didn’t do an extensive pad rolling, but I did manage to try 3 sets of ZMF pads (Thank you @Phantaminum for letting me borrow them!)
    • I chose the Verite and BE2 pads first because they’re roughly the same thickness as the stock pads. Yeah the Borealis really sucks with these pads. Bass rolls off way too much and sucks the life out of the music.
    • Universe Suede pads weren’t that bad, but treble lost a sense of liveliness and macrodynamics took a big hit.
    • So far, Stock pads = best. Maybe someone else can experiment with more pads, but I’m quite happy with the stock sound.
    Tackling the Upper mid dip & the 7k treble peak
    IMG_1498.jpg

    • I’m no genius modder like some of the friends here, but I had some materials lying around the house so I tried experimenting.
    • I found that the carpet liner commonly used for reducing that treble peak of HD800 and bringing up the upper mids worked pretty well for the Borealis as well. However when I cover the entire area where the driver sits, it seems to make the Borealis sound kind of veiled sounding. I decided to cut out a big portion in the center to not cover the driver too much. That seemed to work, but now the 7k peak doesn’t seem as controlled.
    • Then I decided to add another material: Curtain fabric sheet. I got the idea from @Ox Cart 's post for his HD58x mod which seems to shave off some of the 7k peak and bring up the sub-bass a wee bit. Aaaaand this was it! I was pretty happy with the result. It sounded pretty similar to my JAR650 in terms of general tonality. As you may know I’m running a warm/smooth setup and it was borderline dark sounding, which probably means it will sound fine on a more neutral setup. I don’t have a measurement rig so I compiled a playlist with a list of songs where I can hear the treble peak and checked if it was still evident with the mods. At least in my ears, they are no longer peaky in that area. It sounds like there is slightly less mid bass, but a bit more sub-bass? I can’t tell for sure, but that’s how I hear it. Like I said before, with the current setup I have, I am totally fine with the stock tuning, but if the peak and dip bother you, try this mod? Maybe you’ll find the Borealis more enjoyable.

    Closing thoughts:
    Borealis still kicks ass and is definitely worth investing your time and money into it, as I consider it to be a well rounded product that is easy to live with. It’s not the best in everything, but I still believe it’s a competitive product that sits comfortably with ZMF and Focal cans. My setup feels pretty complete now with JAR650 and Borealis as my main headphones. I've already sold the JAR600 and probably plan on selling the Verum 1 as well as I feel like it's a bit redundant. I hope my rambling was helpful in providing some insight on this headphone and if there was any point that I was unclear, please let me know and I'll try my best to answer.
     
  17. BURNART

    BURNART New

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    @tommytakis thanks for the notes :) Can you take a picture of what is under the pads?
     
  18. sherm137

    sherm137 New

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    Like you, these headphones give me a hotspot on my head. I honestly don't know why they designed the headband the way they did. It's ugly, it hurts and it isn't durable.

    I like your Audeze headband mod but I'm not too stoked on the price of the Audeze headband.

    Do you think the Hifiman headband for V560v2 would work? It's basically the same headband that is on the Sundara and is much cheaper than Audeze. I'm having a hard time finding dimensions for the Hifiman yokes.
     
  19. tommytakis

    tommytakis MOT: E.T.A Headphones

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    Have you tried the ZMF Pilot pads? That should get rid of the hotspot for sure. It's not a perfect solution but it'll get you by while you wait for their revised headband. I believe they're sending all current owners new rods and comfort strap. Just be mindful of the delays due to COVID19

    As for the hifiman band, I have no idea because I've never owned one. You can unscrew one of the screws holding the chassis easily and compare the measurements with the hifiman headband to see if it'll fit. Whatever headband you choose, make sure you're still using the same borealis parts so that you can easily swap between headbands!
     
  20. sherm137

    sherm137 New

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    Thanks for the reply. Maybe I should just wait for the new headband. I wasn't aware they were sending our a revised headband, I thought it was just the rods.

    With the Pilot Pad, did you put it over the rods and strap?

    Also, I'm like you where looks matter somewhat to me, and this thing is just ugly. So replacing the headband is two fold for me.

    With all that said, I can't forget to mention how good this thing sounds. It's pretty damn good.
     

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