Ever want to be the conductor of a world class symphony orchestra? Got a desire to enjoy a performance of a stellar big band and ease on to the Duke's piano bench during a Columbia recording session? Maybe you would like to take a chair during the performance of a Beethoven piano trio? Then just acquire a pair of new ESS 252 Dynamic Headphones, or be the Maestro, himself, and try the unique, up close and personal, world premier ESS 422H Heil AMT two-way headphones with moving coil woofer! Both are closed in designs and circumaural! Someone get me a handkerchief so that I may wipe the sweat off my brow.
The ESS 422H with Heil Driver plus Moving Coil Woofer
The ESS 422H produces mind blowing intimate explosions of musical definition. It takes nearly 150 hours to break in properly, but it's worth the wait. In the case of the 422H, the specifications are telling.
422H Specifications
- Hybrid Driver Unit: 40mm moving coil driver, 20*30mm multi-fold AMT Air Motion Technology
- Impedance 32 Ω +/- 15% at 1KHz, 179Mv
- Sensitivity: 110 +/- 3dB at 1KHZ w/Vrms input= 179Mv
- Power Capacity: 50mW, Max~100mW
- Frequency Response: 20~20kHz at 1mW
You will notice the 110db efficiency...and full power achieved at 100mW. With a complex crossover and world premier technology—at least for headphones—these are stunning specs. They took almost two years to create and voice, and are assembled in California. Designed by Ricky Caudillo, President of ESS, he personally oversaw all facets of their parts selection and final performance. His goal was to create an extraordinary headphone for the every-man and every occasion. Cans that are appropriate for critical audiophile listening, recording engineers, a trip on an airplane where isolation and quiet are needed, and cans that are priced for most all to afford. Plus headphones, like the 422H, which are so very efficient, you can plug them into your navel and get music!
The 422H also features metal casework with plush leather headband and ear pads that challenge Ultrasone's elegant fit and finish. I had the metal back finish for the review pair, and there is a wood finish shown as well. They are supplied with a formed soft carrying case, an audiophile cable, and a 3.5-to-6.5mm adapter. Only one cable is needed, as the cans are connected on only the left ear cup only to your DAP, a very cool idea.
The Reference System
- E.A.R. Acute 3 Tube CD Player and DAC
- E.A.R. HP4 Tube Head Amp with HiZ and LowZ Outputs
- McIntosh MR71 FM Tuner
- Scott 350 FM Turner
- Dynaco FM3 FM Tuner
- Grado Headphone Amp plus power supply
- Toshiba Tecra Laptop
- Astell&Kern AK-240
- Astell&Kern A&ultima SP1000
- Interconnect cables included:
- UITAudio PMP Interconnects and Headphone Extension Cable
- Kubala-Sosna Emotion and Elation! Interconnects
- Jorma Origo Interconnects
- Kimber Select 1136 Interconnects
- Kubala-Sosna Emotion and Elation! Power Cords
Plus 11 assorted pairs of headphones for comparison...with conventional moving coil drivers, planar drivers, and electrostatics: STAX 009 and Koss 950, plus a pair of stock AKG 1000 Ear Speakers with an E.A.R. 534 tube amplifier all used for comparison.
Efficiency Par Excellence
The 422H Heil Headphones are THE most efficient high-end headphones I have ever tried. The ESS 252 are only just a bit less efficient. When the 422H is playing ear-filling output from my HP4, even my most efficient Grado and A&K Beyer/Tesla Headphones are half as loud when fed the same levels. The more efficient the cans are, with the best headphone models in particular, the better the reproduction of definition, in most cases.
Even though their impedance is 32 ohms, the 422H performed to a higher level from a HiZ output or one that handled at least medium impedance cans. I am not sure why. The HP4 HiZ output eliminated any subtle "cupping effect" I hear from most closed cans, including the 422H. It also opened up the highs, the ambiance, and the hall sound around you.
The Performance of the 422H
With the dual drivers on board, these comfortable headphones have a direct powerful sound. There is no attempt here to simulate Row M or throw the sound stage to some other plane away from your face. These are the quintessential musical immersion headphones, Row A or closer still. I have heard only one headphone like this and that is the AKG 1000 with the pivoted ear speakers pushed inward toward your head.
On typical speech, language is well articulated, easy to follow and understand. Singing voices are natural, intimate, and uncolored. Though they have a slight mid-range emphasis compared to my electrostatics, the 422H never make you feel less involved with the performance. The Heil powered cans connect you to the musical happening more dramatically than even IEMs! Once you hear the 422Hs, many dynamic and planar headphones are somehow diminished and detached.
Mixed choral performances, opera, and acapella singing are robust, lifelike, and very special. The casual listener will enjoy the gigantic power and authority the 422H produces from any DAP, the output from a lowly computer, and the output from the weakest amplifier.
The engineer will love their ability to zoom in on any image mentally, hear all the power and energy of big band or what would overload most any other headphone, and feel comfortable outside sounds are not going to interfere with their monitoring. The audiophile and music lover will thrill to the unlimited dynamics, textural intimacy, and total immersion possible with these headphones. The 422H has a fun factor that is undeniable.
Overall imaging is first rate! With the freedom to be as energetic and alive as necessary since power is mostly unlimited, you will experience something new and vital with the Heils. No plastic credit card coloration here. No silvery edge or lack of solid placement. No technical problems or weird connectors, either. You cannot screw up the 422H, and may be able to upgrade them with some exotic wire down the road.
I listened to the 422H with every type of music there is, even test tones. I could not hear any lumpiness or crossover emphasis from having two drivers. The smoothness and evenness from top to bottom was excellent. Hard to believe that a Heil driver and a moving coil woofer 1.5 inches from your eardrum would blend perfectly…though they do. Ricky Caudillo voiced these new exciting headphones like the golden-eared audiophile he obviously is.
The female vocal is most telling on the 422H. My best reference disks revealed female vocals in a rich sexy style, where other highly rated cans were more bland and polite. Less well recorded disks were less rich. The 422Hs are accurate overall and neutral.
The differences demonstrated by the Heils to my usual headphone listening lies in the style of reproduction. Planar sound versus moving coil sound versus Heil AMT sound versus electrostatic sound...there are style differences, though all may appear totally the same measured with an oscilloscope and a signal generator. The human ear hears all and communicates their differences quite clearly.
With the Astell&Kern DAP References
When I reviewed my listening notes with the A&K 240 and A&ultima SP1000 playing hi-rez music, I kept noting the power and authority of the performances as well as their lovely musicality with the 422H. These A&K DAPs are powerful, maybe the most powerful around, but reveal more meat on the bones and drama with the 422H.
The Heils are not power hungry cans, which is very refreshing. The 422H enhanced the right-to-left separation as well as center fill with the A&K DAPS, too. The A&K DAPs are very quiet and the Cadillacs of the industry, but other noisy DAPs or distorted material was not pleasant with the 422H. The 422H are truly garbage in, garbage out. I loved the 422H with the A&ultima SP1000 on single and double DSD. (I must get some quad DSD to try on the A&ultima SP1000.) They sounded a bit sweeter and more relaxed with the 422H. Obviously amazing, the A&ultima SP1000 is the benchmark for portable DAPs, and even better with the 422 Heils.
More Great News
I saved the best for last. The ESS 422H is competitive to the $1500 Ultrasone Edition 8 in my collection in every way, a lot more revealing and entertaining, and just as elegantly built. The 422H is also closed in like the German cans...but much, much more efficient, powerful, detailed, and comfortable than the Ultrasone 8's.
The U.S. retail price of the ESS 422H is only $699!
Sense a bargain here? A breakthrough design, a breakthrough performance, and a breakthrough price...the ESS 422H is a musical gem.
Boost the Performance
One last observation. Use the 422H with the UIT Audio headphone cable with built in PMP module and get a full 10% improvement in every parameter of the 422's performance. Even definition and clarity, at all frequencies, is sharper and enhanced. Backgrounds are noticeably quieter. This is a great combo and a terrific and useful accessory for all the single-ended headphones in my collection.
There are now four ways to build headphones! The world premier ESS 422H Heil AMT Headphones prove that quite well. Welcome to the high-end party ESS 422H, at affordable pricing!
ESS 252 Dynamic Headphones
With one full-range custom-designed moving coil driver in similarly sized and styled headphones as the Heil 422s, these outstanding new 252 conventional cans do not sound conventional at all. Supplied in a real wood sided version only, the closed-back 252 is designed to emulate as closely as possible the performance of the 422H. Caudillo started from scratch and designed the driver voicing it for over a year before producing the headphones. He succeeded exceedingly well!
Specifications
- Speaker Size: 50mm Dynamic Orientation
- Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20KHz
- Sensitivity: 107 +/- 3dB at 1KHz 1mW
- Impedance: 32 +/- 15% Ohm
- R & L Balance: <3dB (20Hz - 10KHz 1mW)
- Rated Input Power: 30mW
- Maximum Input Power: 50mW
Notice the 107dB sensitivity and the ability of the 252 to come to ear-shattering volume at 50mW! This is just a stone's throw away from the Heil cans. They will not handle as much brute power as the Heils, but are linear, uncolored, and a maximum effort all around. Interestingly though not surprisingly, the 252 sounds a bit different. They sound like the shading and speed of what a moving coil driver sounds like texturally and emotionally.
The 252 is to my ears on hi-rez material the best conventional headphones I have auditioned under $1000, regardless of open or closed construction. I have never heard better "closed back" moving coil headphones.
I hear there are new Sennheisers with a new "closed back architecture" at $2500 coming out soon. Maybe they will challenge the 252 and give us more definition...but at $499, the ESS 252 can be your Holiday gift to four relatives for the same money and keep a pair for yourself!
Vocals are excellent. Norah Jones sounds exactly right; maybe a bit more intimate and sweet than I recall on many other cans, but with the 252 I am all for intimate and sweet. Being a single driver, they are even and integrated. I heard the same subtle sweetness from the A&K DAPS with very smooth reproduction.
Fit and finish are superb, just like the 422H overall. If Mercedes made these in Germany, I would believe it. Delivered with a carrying case, cables, and an adapter, they are ready to go after about a 50-75 hour break-in on an FM tuner or CD player.
By the way, I mentioned earlier that the 422H and the 252 had a single wire hook-up on one side. It is the left side and truly convenient. No looking for which way to put on the headphones. The cable is on the left so end of story. In this case, one is twice as good as two and less messy for dog walking.
Nothing like Jazz at the Pawnshop to show off the 252. My DSD recording from Acoustic Sounds on my A&K A&ultima SP1000 was immersive and alive. I knew the clarinet opening would be terrific...it was even better. Nothing like being literally in the Pawnshop with the 252. It is all around you, front and back, left and right, near and far. Full of sparkle and shimmer, the 252 has one hell of a driver, 50mm from the specifications. That is one big boy.
“Skylark,” sung by Cassandra Wilson, is both ethereal and ravishing through the 252. Gorgeous singing for sure, made a bit more gorgeous with the 252 (and the 422H.) What is the circuit for gorgeous? Not sure I care, but there are no tubes in the 252 or the A&K A&ultima SP1000, as far as I can tell.
Dorati conducting the MSO and Byron Janis for Mercury is out of this world on the DSD recording from Acoustic Sounds. The 252 is spot on real. Elegant and smooth, the latest LP reissue from the EU Mercury Box Set sounds this way, too. Now my A&K A&ultima SP1000 does, too. (The 422H is even more revealing and seductive.)
I sincerely hope ESS will be at the LA Audio Show, June 7-10 in Orange County at the Hilton Hotel Irvine. This will be a great chance to audition both models for yourself…or you could just order a pair now. They will be available as you read this I am assured.
Quibbles
Little to criticize folks! I would like to see a high-end cable option. The supplied cable is obviously adequate, but what could you really achieve? You just need a single cable with 3.5mm plugs on both ends. I know the headphones, both of them, were voiced with the included wire to maximize their performance, and job well done. However, the UITaudio headphone extender boosted sound quality audibly, so there is room for a bit more fun. The build quality of the 422H and 252 is beyond criticism and a new benchmark in their price categories.
Summary
The ESS 252 Dynamic Headphones and ESS 422H Heil AMT/Moving Coil Hybrid Headphones take their bow on the world's personal listening stage, demonstrating exceptional musical performances. Both models are designed for multi-purpose, fit most all budgets, are built to go anywhere, to play on anything, and to satisfy both recording professionals and audiophiles, with all goals achieved in spades.
I am surprised and a bit overwhelmed by the rapid progress headphone technology demonstrates; the ESS offerings prove it. The 252 conventional single moving coil driver headphones are tip-top offerings and go to the head of their price class. The 422H Heil AMT Hybrid Headphones, with two drivers, one being the first Heil driver ever utilized in headphones, is downright scary good. The 422H is not only head of its class, but is its only occupant! Who could have seen this leap in technology? Sound as clear as light? ESS has boosted the fun factor and affordability in headphones by a country mile.
My highest recommendation for both new ESS headphone models.
ESS 252
Retail: $499
ESS 422H
Retail: $699
ESS
9855 Joe Vargas Way
South El Monte, California
Rick Caudillo CEO
888.377.8720
