Venture Electronics are the brand which appeared out of nowhere and shook the world with Monk earbud many years ago. Then they continued Monk versions for a time. After their first iem Bie and memorable dongles like Abigail and Avani, they released an ugly but strong amp Megatron. This headphone VE Supernova Headphone is their first headphone. And maybe built for Megatron in fact 🙂 You will read why below.
Pros__
Dark timbre
Wide soundstage for a closed can
Cable is replaceable
Cons__
Poor sound quality in many fields
Not that detailed and engaging sound
Built for pro sources
Box
Box is completely empty besides the 6.3mm adapter cable which has screws around one of its connectors. And another one that has studio headphone cable spirals on it. These simplicity is giving it an utilitarian approach.
Sound
I am hearing a rich and transparent background but totally lacking bass at smooth jazz. The clarinet is painfully artificial and shouty. Vibrato doesn’t vibrate like it should..everything is truly amateurish in smooth jazz WITH ipad pro 2015.
When I play the same track with dx300 L gain, things reverted to what it was into recessed mids and looked like, only like, natural. I said like because there is an irrefusable dryness in Limehouse Blues’s jazz instruments.
Driving of Hans Zimmer is only OK after lowering expectations. Bass is linear, everything is almost 1d. In one view, this is because of the weakness of the source (we are talking about ipad pro 2015) and other point of view tell us this is it. However I am not giving up before using high power and see the difference.
With dx300 power in L gain, the soundstage is immersive, dark and enveloping. However it doesn’t have the engagement factor you can expect from a 96 instrumented orhestra. Layering is good but instruments are not bodied and extensions are not that detailed.
Bass is slam impaired in dubstep and tonality is hardly heard. The presentation is laid back! (C’mon, we are talking about a closed can here) But things I noticed so far are reminding me of it’s power need.
Okay, let’s dx300 L gain it: bass gained some weight and energy. But let’s give it another shot and increase the gain level to H and observe differences. With H gain, the bass is getting a slight tactile feedback power but treble effects are tiring now.
VE Supernova Review Conclusions
We have a headphone which is feeding with power like a vampire is feeding with blood. It’s 6.3mm adapter should tell the story but you know what they say; hearing is believing 😉 that’s why I don’t assume.
My final score for VE Supernova Headphone would be ~55/100. Your conclusions might differ.
