Grell OAE1 Headphones: Don't Buy If You're Unsure

No, because when you EQ it, it either kills the soundstage or induces weird resonance.

Basically, it seems the sonic "shortcomings" were deliberate choices to both a) make the headphone listenable without treble pain b) preserve the 3-D soundstage effect

As I mentioned earlier, its not a headphone you should go into to get a flat response experience; get the HD600 for that. The OAE1 is more if you want a 3-D/realistic soundstage with the sonic profile you might expect with a speaker-in-a-room setup instead of headphones. Like all headphones there are tradeoffs and in this case the tradeoff for the exceptional stage is a bit of an odd duck of FR curve.

 

When are these going on sale for $150?

 

It may come down to the preference and where to adjust.

If you want to reduce some mid-bass, cutting via low-Q low shelf filters may help. But I'd recommend against boosting presence and brilliance for OAE1 (note I am mostly skeptical with EQing treble, given huge variation across individual HRTFs) because there appear to exist many structural peaks and dips (i.e., caused by constructive or destructive interferences among multi-order reflections) and some even driven by the notch filter. We also need to consider FR-induced spatiality. Overall, OAE1 might be on the trickier side, I believe.

Instead, one may dial in through more conventional tuning like removing/changing inner clothes, bypassing notch filter, etc. Not a cookie-cutting answer, but may work better in the long run.

 

This is one to try with the SW51+ if you can. Lyr 3 is also pretty good. Was not a very good fit with Folkvangr even with the impedance multiplier in place.

It's an interesting headphone if a little unusual. Definitely seems thirsty, but then the SW51+ doesn't really put out that much power.

 

works amazingly with Garage1217 Project Polaris in low gain without the input attenuator inline, 0.1 ohm output impedance. low gain with the input attenuator inline isnt powerful enough

any amp that imparts a very warm or thick sound, or with high output impedance, is going to sound bad with these likely. and if you dont give them enough power they just sound off

 

Well I ended up running them for nine days straight. Physically, these are perfect for me. I even have extra adjustment space left on the headband. I also like the feel of the pads. And I like the look of them.

Sound wise, I have no complaints or compliments on the treble. It all sounds good to me, but I am an old guy.
The mids are very forward and I Love that! I am totally a vocals guy. 10 out of 10 for me on the mids.

Bass wise, it is thick, deep, and can be too much. On top of that, the bass is not sharp, clean or exact.

The overall sound was hit and miss for me. That came down to two things for me though:

Music wise, if does not excell with messy music. Think Nine Inch Nails, the Black Keys or anything described as lo-fi. Jumping around with rock music it was up and down. Mostly up though. Jazz was MUCH better.

The next problem was amplifier related. The
Violectric V220 is a little too warm and makes a lot of stuff very thick sounding.

The iFi Pro iCAN was leaning the same way. I put it in SS mode and turned off any bass boost and 3D sound effects. They sounded much better in this set-up.

The Lehmann Audio Linear amp was Great with them. It is clean, clear and neutral to my ears.

The Vali 3 was a bit of a surprise to me. With a clean tube, GE 5* or a nice GE JAN 5670, they are wonderful! The more thick sounding Russian tubes don't do it for me.

With the right music, on the right amp, I do get some of that wrap around sound. The music seems to come from the far left and across the far right. Pretty cool!

Awesome with jazz, which is mostly well recorded. I listened to jazz for days, which I rarely do.

I will be keeping them. My only complaint is that they seem pretty fussy on the music that is acceptable.

I am on a roll with cheapies! Thumbs up to the OAE-1's, the Aune AR5000's and the FiiO FT5's.
Same to Vali 3 and a well used Lehmann Linear.
2024 is a frugal year for Audio gear, for me!

 

Not if you keep buying more of it (as I seem to)!

 

Listened for a couple of days and here's my impressions:

TLDR

• I kind of love this, OAE1's unique presentation works for me.
• Super bassy, maybe too bassy.
• Ergonomics is tolerable.
• Don't buy if you only need one headphone or want to upgrade from something you love, OAE1 is very different (in good ways and bad ways) that it's very picky on music.. and people.

Background
My personal audio journey started with speakers first, headphones later. Probably starting with speakers first is what makes me tend to choose headphones that are bassier and have a larger soundstage. Nowadays 60% of my listening is with speakers (KEF R3 Meta) and 40% is with headphones (hd800s, HD650, u12t). I believe this background is relevant to why I find the OAE1 enjoyable.

Bass
Right off the bat this is a VERY bassy headphone, it's fast and punchy, but depending on how you place it on your head, it's very easy to get a bass bleed into the mids. I do find that for me there's a specific placement on my head (headband tilted back a bit and headphone being slightly moved forward but still leaving space behind ears) that I can get pretty clean bass, but even then it's still pretty much on the bassier side.

Headstage
For me this is the star of the show and I'm happy to find that it works for me. What I'm hearing is that the center image of OAE1 is located just in front of my nose - normally with other headphones it's located at the middle or even to the back of my head - which doesn't sound like much but to me OAE1 might be the most 'externalized' headphones I've heard. Even compared to HD800S with it's huge sound stage, HD800S center image still dissipates from a sound source inside my head. This character of OAE1 makes voices or solo instruments pop out and seems in front of you. The headstage width isn't particularly impressive though, similarly close as HD650, but again at times there will be sounds that come from front left and right. HD650 forms a sound bubble within the head, and the audio scene happens all in your head. OAE1 forms a sound bubble right in front of me and the audio scene hovers around at the position of where i wear my glasses. Really glad that this effect works for me. (A quick rant about Ultrasone, who claims their headphones are doing similar things with S-Logic... they absolutely suck and doesn't work. Bought the drop Ultrasone Signature X and the S-Logic plate does nothing but mask the driver and make it sound like a 50 dollar gaming headset. OAE1 actually delivers.)

Resolution
Initially I feared that this would turn out to be another Ultrasone low res sound, but actually OAE1 resolves quite well for the price, I feel like it might be just a bit behind HD650 in terms of resolving capabilities, especially with more complicated music, but it's definitely enjoyable and not disappointing.

Tuning
In direct & immediate comparison with HD650, OAE1 is a lot warmer and bassier, with a seemingly muffled highs. The treble is mostly smooth and not fatiguing at all. The magic happens when after some brain burn in and I'm settled into OAE1's presentation, the tuning is no longer interpreted by my brain as tonality difference, but sound source location differences. If I go back to listen to HD650 it will immediately sound harsh and lean and... boring. I don't think this has ever happened to me before, since HD650 always is the 'reference' headphone tuning for me and past ABs I always felt going back to HD650 feels 'correct'. The OAE1 kind of resets that baseline of how I expect headphones should sound, but of course after brain burn in the HD650 will sound natural again.

Comfort
It's OK, maybe the headband could be a notch longer (I need to use it fully strecthed) but the weight and how the earpads clamp is OK for me. I think the real problem of OAE1's design is it needs a very precise placement on one's head to sound good. Otherwise the bass bleed will be too much or the higher frequencies gets muffled. Personally I tend to prefer the sound when the drivers sit at ear's height and have some room around my ears, which when properly placed, the headband would need to sit at a quite uncomfortable spot on my head.

Conclusion
I feel like the OAE1 has a presentation that's more like listening to speakers (well, more like mini speakers hanging around your glasses) and found that a lot of the music I enjoyed more on speakers than headphones, sounded pretty awesome with OAE1. (And similarly a lot of music that are great on headphones sound off on OAE1...)
This is definitely not something I would recommend people that just wants a good pair of headphones or looking for upgrade from other headphones they love. OAE1 just works differently, finicky to wear and highly depend on content.

But for me, I kind of love what it brings and enjoyed the forward presentation and super bassy sound signature. It gives me an unique perspective to my music and puts a smile on my face when it clicks. Chasing minute differences in this hobby for so long, the OAE1 brings something quite unique and easy to have fun with.

 

I've been daily driving OAE1 for 2 weeks straight and honestly did not expect to love it this much.

What I found is that it works stupid good with all the 2000s rock and pop music (Maroon 5, Muse, Greenday, other Chinese Rock..) in my library, which are music I LOVED but had to abandon because they sounded too harsh and bright on my HD800S.

My guess is that most of them are mastered in studio with speakers alone and at the time period V shape tuning is mainstream to get more attention during air time, which then leads to too much treble energy on headphones. In theory OAE1's front facing driver design uses individual's HRTF which creates a personalized dip (6k-8k) in higher treble. For me the result is actually those 2000s sounded a lot more clear and tonally 'accurate' with OAE1 without the excessive treble masking details and causing listening fatigue.

For these types of music recordings, I can really hear more detail into the music and they sounded a lot more holographic on OAE1 than on any other headphones. OAE1 has replaced LCD2C/Elex as my go to headphone for rock / metal, it just sounds so right and I find myself having a rediscovery of my older music collection with them.

But at the same time, binaural recordings or other modern recordings that have been mixed exceptionally well for headphone listening tend to sound a lot worse and congested on OAE1 compared to my other headphones. I believe if one built their entire music library upon music that works great on headphones / IEMs would have a very hard time listening with OAE1.

 

very interesting