HYLAND VENUS HEADPHONES REVIEW

John Scott dips his toe (and his ears) into the world of bespoke audio with Hyland Headphones’ open-backed Venus model retailing at £650.

Hyland Venus are an open-backed and good looking design.

Hyland Headphones describes its products as “Bespoke reference headphones – handmade by audiophiles for audiophiles”. The company was founded in 2017 by Alex Hyland who is a musician and has a background in music technology, producing sound design and music for films and art installations.  Having been blown away by a pair of STAX headphones, but lacking the financial resources to own a pair, Alex began the journey towards producing his own headphones. The end result is a range of headphones, each of which is hand-built and can be customised to the individual requirements of the customer.

OVERVIEW

Hyland headphones are only available by pre-order which means that from your very first email exchange with Alex, you are working together with him to produce something truly individual. Alex claims that almost anything you want to change on your headphones can be changed; so if you want to specify a particular type or colour of cable, a specific cable termination, a distinct type of wood for your ear cups or leather for your headband,  Alex will do his best to accommodate your wants.  Alex even says that if you have a piece of wood lying around that you would like to accommodate into your headphones, he’ll be happy to have a chat about it. Maybe something to bear in mind if you are ever ripping out an old mantlepiece!

While I was potentially enthralled at the prospect of co-designing my own headphones, because I was receiving these for review purposes rather than as a paying customer I decided to take a slightly different approach and, after agreeing on which model of the range I was interested in reviewing, I left Alex with free rein to do his own thing and waited a few weeks to see what would arrive.

UNBOXING 

Opening up the perfectly ordinary cardboard shipping box revealed, well-swaddled in bubble wrap, a rather lovely wooden box literally branded with the Hyland Headphones logo. This box is really well put together; box-jointed at the corners with twin metal hinges at the rear and a metal clasp lock at the front to keep it closed.  Internally the lid and the base of the box are padded to provide a safe nesting box for the headphones and cable.  Also included is a cloth drawstring bag, also printed with the Hyland Headphones logo, an additional pair of ear pads (of which more later) and a signed certificate of authenticity. The wooden box is definitely a nice touch, giving a feeling of added value, and the cloth bag is a welcome extra option for temporary, portable storage.

Good quality cable and adapters are supplied in the box.

BUILD QUALITY

Straight out of the box I was struck by the Venus’ visual and tactile appeal. They appeared to be lighter than the Sendy Aiva headphones I was using as a comparison and this was confirmed by the numbers: the Venus weighs in at 360g and the Aiva at 425g. The first things to really draw my attention though were the wooden cups; in this instance turned from Bubinga (African Rosewood). These have been really well turned with a subtly rounded face and smooth edges and given a satin finish that allows the natural shading and banding of the wood to shine through.

Interchangeable earpads and vegan options are avialable.

As the Venus is an open-backed headphone, the external side of the cup is formed from a metal mesh which provides a sympathetic foil (pun intended) for the wooden cups. The cups are attached to the headband via polished aluminium armatures which are also connected to a thin metal band that provides the tension required to hold the headphones to the head. The Venus came with two sets of earpads: one made from sheepskin and one from protein leather and velour. Internally, the headphones contain 50mm, 32-ohm drivers. As standard, the Venus’ headband is leather but as these are a bespoke product, vegan-friendly alternatives to leather and sheepskin can be arranged.

Popping the headphones on, I was immediately impressed by their comfort. The Sendy Aiva is a comfortable pair of headphones but the Venus is noticeably more so.  Putting them on is like giving your head a little cuddle. Very suitable for extended listening. All in all, build quality is first-rate.

The Venus comes as standard with a 1.6 m cable manufactured by NLovell Cables and terminated with a 3.5mm stereo jack and a ¼” adapter. The supplied cable was braided from a mix of black and subtly mottled strands containing colours of red, white and dark green that blend together to form an attractive blend. Of course, as these are bespoke products, you can specify your own colours.  Alex contacted me shortly after I received the headphones to let me know that my particular cable was an upgraded version of the standard offering; slightly longer than standard and with each core in its own paracord casing and then braided together rather than all the cores being contained in a single casing. This upgraded cable will be available as an option.

SOUND QUALITY

For the majority of this review, the Venus was compared against the Sendy Aiva headphones which retail at a slightly cheaper price point and are also open-backed.  Although Stuart Smith found the Aiva to be slightly lacking in excitement when he reviewed them, I found them to be an enjoyable and relaxing listen so I was looking forward to hearing how the Venus would compare.

Comforatable and adjustable headband.

By their nature, open-backed headphones are designed for solitary listening in a quiet room; there is a high degree of acoustic leakage both into the headphones from the external environment and from the headphones into the room. If you are looking for something to listen to while your significant other is watching the telly then look elsewhere towards closed-back headphones or IEMs – Hyland produces the Eclipse closed-back. For serious music listening though, open-backed headphones can provide a sense of “airiness” and an extended soundstage that is hard to match. This sense of space was where the Venus headphones showed their strength.

To start with I paired the Venus with a couple of integrated amplifiers with headphone outputs: the A&R A60 from my desktop system and the Audiolab 8000A from my second main system. Both of these amps are great performers in their own right but the Venus headphones revealed their headphone stages to be just a little bit lacking in refinement. Having said that, at one point I also hooked the Venus up to my iPhone for a spot of low-level casual listening and very much enjoyed that combination so they are not totally fussy about what they are paired with. For the remainder of the critical listening required for the review, I moved over to the Chord Anni headphone amplifier. The Anni also has the advantage of being able to connect two pairs of headphones at the same time which allows for quick comparison between the two.

And so to the music. The orchestration on In The Darkest Place from Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach’s Painted  From Memory album switches from subtle to sweeping in the space of a few bars.  An opening hi-hat ticks above a brooding, muted trumpet and a low tolling bell, each of which is rendered distinctly. Electric bass, drums and a closely-mic’d grand piano (I suspect there may actually be two grand pianos) could all struggle for space as they contribute to the arrangement, but space is something that the Venus conveys well and even when the whole orchestra and a trio of backing singers pitch in against Costello’s vocals there is no danger of the soundstage becoming congested or of the Venus struggled to cope.

Switching to the Sendy Aiva, that trumpet still broods and that bell still tolls but there is a little acoustic guitar detail that lacks some of the definition provided by the Venus.  Also, the Aiva seems a little less dynamic than the Venus, even given a slight volume boost for compensation. Possibly though, the overall treble extension of the Aiva has a little more emphasis. This sends me back to the Hyland Headphones website which states: “The Venus is tuned for a romantic listening experience, with a more coloured, V-shaped sound signature than our previous headphones.” Coloured is an interesting word to use in HiFi marketing material as it is often seen as a pejorative.  On first impressions, the Venus’ sound does seem slightly warmer than the Aiva’s but not in any way unpleasantly so. Let’s watch out for that as we progress.

Turning to headphone favourite, Autobahn by Kraftwerk, I definitely found that more texture in the car motor sounds at the start of the journey was conveyed by the Venus than the Aiva, also in the bass synths and the main melody when they come in from 1:00 onwards. The bass sounds were drier with the Aiva but the overall detail was just slightly lacking.

Time then to try a change of ear pads on the Venus. Being about as dexterous as an arthritic penguin, I was kind of dreading this so I emailed Alex Hyland to see if he had any tips. “Just go for it” he replied. “I have never managed to break a pair  but I can always send more if the worst happens.”  Slightly (but only slightly) comforted by this, I proceeded. Pulling the ear pads from the cup reveals a small band of leather that fits into a groove around the edge of the cup. Replacing the pad is a matter of stretching this band over the cup and easing it into the groove. Once done, the pad is firmly secured to the cup. It’s a little bit fiddly but not too much, and I managed it several times with no risk of damage to either set of pads.

The protein leather and velour pads proved to be every bit as comfortable as the sheepskin ones so it was on with the listening and back to In My Darkest Place. Bass was still well extended but there was an added sense of the drumstick striking that opening hi-hat and a bit more breath in the trumpet. Similarly with Autobahn, I found myself just slightly preferring the overall tone of the synths with the velour pads. It has to be noted though that over the course of the review period I switched the pads several times and I was unable to come up with an overall preference for one set of pads over the other. The sheepskin pads generally seemed more suited to classical and acoustic music and the velour to electronic and rock but both were perfectly acceptable and if I hadn’t had the option to choose between them I would have been happy with either.

Ultimately, the qualities of the Venus that I most admired were their dynamism, detail and that sense of airiness; whenever I switched to the Aiva they seemed a touch flat in comparison, which wasn’t something that I had previously perceived to be the case. Certainly, whenever I relaxed out of reviewing mode into simply listening mode, I found that my toes were tapping and my head was nodding much more with the Venus than the Aiva and that says a lot about their musicality.

CONCLUSION

£650 is not a small amount of money to pay for a set of headphones, although you can of course pay much more. However, £650 doesn’t seem like a lot of money at all to pay for an individually-hand-crafted product that can be made to your own specifications, particularly when it sounds, looks and feels as good as these headphones do.

Living with these over the last couple of months really did make me feel a little bit spoiled and indulged as they were so comfortable and a pleasure to handle as well as sounding really good.

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:

The sense of craftsmanship that comes with handling these headphones really is something special. Every aspect of them has been carefully thought out and put together They are light, very comfortable and simply exude quality

Sound Quality:

Airy, detailed and dynamic

While designed to have a “romantic” sound signature, they are not overly warm and the supplied alternate ear pads also provide a more neutral option

Value for Money:

The more you think about the work that goes into producing these, the more £650 seems like a bargain. How often do you really get the opportunity to purchase a bespoke product at anything near that price?

We Loved:

Pretty much everything about Hyland Headphones Venus headphones is a delight.  From the wooden storage box and bag to the supplied cables and the headphones themselves there is a real feeling of luxury to this product.

We Didn’t Love So Much:

I can’t say I’m best please that my current reference headphones were left sounding somewhat insipid in comparison to the Venus but that is just another point in their favour. The earpads are fiddly to change but that gets easier with practice.

Price: £650

Elevator Pitch Review:

If you are in the market for an open-backed pair of headphones then the Venus from Hyland Headphones offers an opportunity to own a great-sounding pair of headphones built to your individual specifications at a reasonable price.  I loved my time with them and as such, they come highly recommended with a 5 heart rating.

SUPPLIED BY HYLAND

John Scott

Review Equipment: P12 turntable, Ittok LVII tonearm, Hana SL cartridge; Etalon SuprA, Audiolab A8000 and A&R A60 amplifiers; Chord Anni headphone amplifier; Roon Nucleus+ server; Stack Audio Link II, Raspberry Pi and Logitech Squeezetouch endpoints; NextDrive Spectra, Audioquest Cobalt and VAD 10 DACs; Audio GE Sincerus 80,  Linn Keilidh and Linn Kan loudspeakers, AFAudio and Audioquest interconnects; AFAudio and Black Rhodium speaker cable.