HarmonicDyne Athena's Review

 

General/Build/Comfort/Packaging

Athena is not HarmonicDyne’s first headphone, in fact, HarmonicDyne has released several headphones previously namely the Zeus, G200, Helios and the flagship Poseidon. Today i have the Athena with me, i have no prior experience with any of HarmonicDyne’s product.

The build quality of Athena is average, not bad but not excellent either. It is made out of plastic, the headband has very good padding and a wide contact area. The good thing is that it uses fabric instead of those faux leather which will be prone to peeling off after some time. The earpad is also very soft and comfortable, i don’t feel excessively hot even when I'm not in an air conditioned room. However, I personally find that it is a little too soft and doesn’t give a good seal at times, so I have to fiddle around with it to get a proper seal. The ear cup is swivelable hence it allows for more adjustment in terms of fitting.

Athena doesn’t feel heavy despite it looking rather bulky, I have no issues wearing it for several hours and don’t feel fatigue at all. The packaging of Athena is rather straightforward, housed in a big box with serial number on it, and it consists of the coaxial cable, storage pouch, and the headphone itself. I’d prefer a case instead of a pouch, but that’s just personal preference and it’s nothing good or bad against the brand.

Gears used for this review

• iFi Gryphon in BitPerfect Mode

• Earmen Angel

• iPod Touch 5th Gen

• Macbook Air M2’s 3.5mm port

Foreword

My review is solely based on what I hear via my equipment and I never consider my reviews to be objective in any way rather a subjective approach. Do take into consideration that everyone’s ear anatomy is not the same, so the psychoacoustics perception might be different as well, but i believe it will not stray too far

Sound

Tonality wise, Athena is leaning towards neutral with a slight emphasis on the highs, timbre sounds natural to my ears, good note weight overall. Very good soundstage and imaging capability which I believe is contributed by the M shaped side venting system. Let’s take a look at the frequency breakdown below:

Bass

• Starting with the sub bass, with a 3db boost on the sub bass, Athena does rumble whenever the track calls for it, however, it is nowhere near basshead level kind of rumble, possibly being a semi closed which will affect the bass

• Mid bass is punchy and tight, good slam as well, turning on iFi’s Xbass, Athena’s bass response behaves on a different level, more rumble and more punch, not to mention its tighter and also sounds “meatier”, very very enjoyable experience, however for the sake of this review, i will be leaving it off to prevent any “coloration” being added to the sound

• Bass has got decent speed and good control, listening to Slipknot’s People = Shit!, the drum beat, and the double bass, Athena managed to keep up with every beat and it doesn’t show signs of muddyness, very good performance here

• The bass also doesn’t bleed into the mids

Mids

• Mid range is not overly forward nor recessed

• Both male and female vocal has good texture to it, it carries a little “warmth” to it so they don’t sound thin

• Low baritone voice such as Zhao Peng has the intended “thickness” to it and overall very pleasant sounding

• Florence and the Machine’s lead singer Florence Welch’s vocal sounded thick very pleasant

• Transition from lower to upper mids is generally smooth and doesn’t sound “shouty” at all

Treble

• Treble does have some energy here but it's never offensive and sibilant

• Detail retrieval is good for the price, but not super analytical

• Good amount of air in the treble region, doesn’t sound congested even on busy tracks

• Good resolution

Soundstage/Imaging

• Soundstage is excellent here, with a good sense of width, height and depth, this shows that the side venting system is actually working its magic here

• Imaging capability is also excellent, instruments can be pinpointed easily and everything is well layered, instruments has its own layer while the vocal has its own and well separated even during busy track, very good performance

Driveability

• Athena is not hard to drive, with Apple’s Lightning dongle, it is able to push out decent volume within my normal listening volume

• With that being said, it does scale with better source and fare better with more power

• Feeding Athena with more power by using Earmen’s Angel with Gain+ mode, much better dynamics and tighter bass, slightly spacious sounding

• Pairing it with iFi’s Gryphon, turned the Xbass and Xspace on, the Athena becomes a lot more musical sounding, very airy and spacious sound, slight boost on the bass quantity, all without affecting the mids. Totally different sound from Earmen’s Angel, Angel reproduce the sound without adding any “coloration” to it, both are great pairing in my opinion, it depends on my mood when i feel like listening to which pairing

Final Thoughts

Athena is a good headphone overall with some minor caveats, it is not for those who prefer a warm signature as Athena is not warm to begin with. It offers good technicalities and good tonality at a competitive price, it is also not hard to drive and scales very well with power, making it suitable for anyone with powerful amp or without and it will still sound good.

*Athena is sent over by Linsoul for the purpose of this review. I received no compensation nor was I influenced in any way to produce this review. A big thanks to Linsoul for the opportunity as always.

Head over to the store if you’re interested in getting a pair:

HarmonicDyne Athena - Non affiliated