The scene of electrostatic headphones has been dominated by Stax, Sennheiser, Koss and Shure. Japanese company Stax introduced it’s first headphone Sr-1 in 1960. It takes a lot of work making electrostatic headphones and you must use special amplifiers to power them. The BIAS voltage over the mylar on Stax headphones is 580V. That’s a lot of voltage and i remember getting small zaps if I listened to my lambdas with wet hair. But electrostatic technology have some incredible advantages over dynamic/ortodynamic headphones. It does not require magnet arrays or motor pushing/pulling a membrane or mylar back and fourth. Clinging electrons are moving trough the electrostatic force. That means perfectly linear push/pull action and very low distortion.
We have seen Sennheiser launching their very top of the line Orpheus HE90/HEV90 in 1991. Still regarded by a lot of people as the very best headphones in the world. I have never had the pleasure of listening to them, but I’ve had my moments with their younger sister the HE-1. Truly amazing headphones. But in real life I had to choose an electrostatic headphone with a more budget friendly price tag. To say budget friendly and electrostatic headphones in the same sentence is kind of ironic. If you want a good electrostatic headphone rig, you need to pay a lot just for the amplifier that goes with it. You could buy a cheap old Stax amplifier. But that will be a mistake. Stax makes some of the worlds best headphones. From sr-404 Signature, the SR-507 to the SR007 and 009, they’re all amazing! So I’m trying to figure out why the Stax amps sound so dull and lifeless compared to Headamp Blue Hawaii or Mjolnir KGSSHV. It doesn’t make any sense to me making headphones that good to sell mediocre amps to go along with them. My first Stax amp was the SRM007TII with my old SR009. It was sounding great. But trying them on some really good amps its like night and day. I got so disappointed after getting home from Can Jam that I sold of all my Stax. My boss called me and pretended to be a forklift driver from the postoffice telling me it was run over by the forklift. I was screaming on the top of my lunges ¨ don’t you know what you just ruined?!¨They had a lot of fun on my expense during that episode. But I’m getting lost here.. So why does the Stax-amps sound so boring compared to Mjolnir or headamp? Well, I’ve sort of figured it out and the technical bit is not my strongest trait. But trust me! Even with the Stax SRM717 or the SRM727MKII you would not get the most out of you’re electrostatic headphones. It will run them fine, but dynamics and definition will lack. I guess that Stax making such poorly designed amps actually created the Stax Mafia.
So why do i mention all of this in what is going to become the review of the Nectar Audio Hive/X ? Well, i saw Amir’s review of the hive on the Audio Science Review website. He used an old Stax SRM313 doing the whole test. Measuring and everything is done using that old “piece of crap”. It’s so old it even got normal bias on it too. SRM313 is far from Stax flagship – series which by the way also is underwhelming. I had the first version of The Hive running of my KGSSHV and i know how good that headphone sounds. The maker of the Hive was trying to explain that Amir is using an old crappy steam engine to power he’s brand new car. Amir would not budge an inch. He stood by he’s test, actively ruining business for Nectar Sound. It’s a one man show making the products from his “garage” in the USA. I knew I had to write this review. If I had the money I would have invested in this guy. His product, the Hive, is truly remarkable. We can’t wait to hear his other creations.
Build
The Hive is all plastic fantastic. The plug on the original Hive seems to be made out of nails but thankfully that have been taken care of with the new Hive X. The looks got a proper garage – project feel over the whole thing. But keep in mind that it’s only 649 dollars!. Hive X have a short and flimsy cable much lighter than the ordinary Stax – cables. Also Nectar sound have improved Hive X with some stress relief to the attachment point. If you manage to stumble in the cable, my bet is that it would be fine. I spent probably a few hundred hours with both the original and the upgraded Hive X. I got no indication of them failing in any way. The new Hive X got bigger and better earpads, called Orion earpads. The parts is made of hard plastic and dust pads is included to put in front of the gorgeous yellow Stators to protect against dust. Reminds me of iphone – covers. Nobody cares how the iPhone looks inside a plastic cover. The yellow Stators looks like cells of beeswax. Pretty cool! Such a shame we have to hide the cool drivers under the dustcover. Of course that’s no dealbreaker, but a flaw in design. The plastic squeak a bit, but that’s ok for the price. I got the Hifiman HE1000 that was squeaking at me like an old rusty iron door many years ago. At least the price can justify it this time. All and all build quality is not much to write home about. But I see no clear complaints. It is what it is and both the original and the Hive X have been working fine.
My main issue is sticking and that can be really annoying. Stax got their “farts” when the air pressure builds up inside the cups. The old Audeze was just exploding, letting no air out. A lot of Audeze – drivers have died a quick, and for the owner, painful death because of them pushing the pads to get better seal. Now that’s a design flaw! The Hive will stick like a Hooker from Barcelona on to the stators. The only thing to do is unplugging the cable and grounding it on your hand until you hear that the mylar discharge and stops clinging to the stators. My routine is to take them on and get a proper seal, then out with the cable and grounding it. Done. That’s it! On to the music! Well, sometimes I move around a lot, so I have to do it again. It takes a little time to get used to. I don’t really think about it anymore. The Hives have their quirks and acts a little wonky. The sticking will not break the drivers and the producer says its perfectly normal.
Comfort
The comfort is good enough on both the original and Hive X. Hive X have larger pads witch results in some more clampforce. I got a tiny head and it sits like glued on my head. Just perfect. If you have a large head and abnormally large ears it will probably be a tight fit. It reminds me a bit of the clamp that Sennheiser HD600 produces. I don’t recommend trying to bend them into shape like people do with HD600. The Hive X will break if you do. I can listen for many hours without fatigue or discomfort.
Sound
So this is where it get interesting. This thing needs some power to really shine. I tried it on my Stax SRM727MKII and it was just ok. The bass lacked a bit slam and it felt like it was a tad slow. Like under powering Hifiman HE6 or Sony MDR Z1R. The Sony being pretty easy to drive, but needs some serious power to manage the bass right on those large drivers. So I hooked up my Mjolnir KGSSHV and they where singing. The first thing i noticed was the slam of the bass. Damn, these things slams hard and goes deep! I turned on some hard trance and the pure slam of these where almost unnatural for electrostatics. They reminds me of the before mentioned Hifiman HE6. That means that it’s got to be really flat from 20hz until at least 1000hz. That’s not easy to do with an electrostatic headphone. Most of the Stax dips into nothing way before Hive X gives up. Like Hifiman HE6 it takes massive amounts of volume and slams you into digging the music and wanting more. It got pure bass as far down as I can hear. No artefacts or peaks. Just pure tight bass with lot of dynamic power. Brilliant! I was really surprised on how good this sounded compared to the price. The bass detail on these headphones are just up there with the best ever created. A lot of deep and punchy awesomeness! If you like electro this is brilliant, just brilliant!
Next up was some compressed metal that often kills my ears when playing loud. But the treble was fine! Good extension, but didn’t kill my ears with nasty peaks. Very well behaved on top. Limp Bizkit – Almost Over sounds nice with that snare drum giving it impact and natural space. Dynamics feels good, even for this kind of music. I continued with some Lacuna Coil to get more impressed. Acoustic recordings is good, but I can’t “hear” the strings vibrate like on SR009 or the SR-507. It digs deep enough and picks up all the beautiful timbres of violins and contrabass. I prefer this headphone over the Stax SR-007 on top of the frequency band. The very flat nature is more on par with my preferences. It got better bass as well. Imaging is good, but a tad small and intimate. The larger pads on the new Hive X sorts this out a bit. The room feels a little bigger with the new Orion pads. It does not have the pinpoint image like Stax SR-009 or HD800 for that matter. Almost none have that. But it got Electronic music is superb on these things. The midrange Voices is good, but distant to me compared to lets say ESlab R10 or HD600. If acoustic music with soft voices and Jazz is your thing I would not recommend Hive X. Like Hifiman HE6, it’s harder to trace one instrument in the symphonic orchestra from the other with this headphone. I think SR-009, SR-507 or even the SR-L700 would do a better job in that apartment.
Electronic, Rap and Rock is made for Hive X! It’s entertaining and I can play dangerously loud for hours without getting fatigued. The base is brutal without being too elevated. Being harder to drive properly it needs a serious electrostatic amplifier and that is not cheap.
Conclusions
At the price well under 1000 dollars with all taxes paid i think we got a winner here! The mylar is sticking to the stators and the build quality is not on par with any of the competition from Stax, Audeze, Dan Clark and others. But it’s 649 dollars with the sound being so good! The slam of the bass is unrivalled for electrostatic headphones and I enjoy listening to my electronica for hours. The rumour of electrostatics having weak base is proven wrong. I recommend this product wholeheartedly and for it’s price it hits far above and in some aspects equally good or better than rivals costing five times as much. You need a good amplifier to get the most out of them and the old Stax SRM313 would just not do it justice…
