Ceramic-Metal Groovy Music Presentation – HarmonicDyne Baroque Headphones
HarmonicDyne Baroque is a $559 USD pair of Over-The-Ear Open-Back dynamic headphones, using a 60mm dynamic driver, having an impedance of 64 OHMs and a SPL of 109 dB. Today we will review the Baroque and see how it fits in the bigger image of today’s world, as well as how it compares to other headphones we recently reviewed, including Noble Fokus Apollo (649 USD), OLLO X1 (539 USD), and Aune SR7000 (599 USD).
Introduction
While Linsoul is the shop and distributor that organizes the reviews for HarmonicDyne, I have to say that I absolutely love the sound and usual quality of the HarmonicDyne headphones, and in the past I’ve been super in-love with the Zeus model that they launched. Linsoul does an excellent job at bringing the sweetness of the Chifi price / performance ratio to the world, making the products they sell available on the Linsoul website, Amazon and Aliexpress while Harmonicdyne is a headphone designer that made a number of high-profile models that are still being cherished today.
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Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/43QSZHA
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oBfO2Ag
Build Quality / Design
HarmonicDyne Baroque is a large pair of headphones with an advanced Ceramic-Metal Driver at the core. This is the company’s Third Generation Flagship pair of headphones, and the driver is lightweight and rigid, using ceramic components that minimize deformation, reducing distortion and ensuring clear high-frequency reproduction. The whole headphone frame and acoustic chamber is made of aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, and it is precision CNC machined, with the acoustic chamber offering exceptional rigidity.
We get a light and ergonomic headband, made from high-quality stainless steel, and we also get breathable mesh earpads made with premium protein leather. HearmonicDyne applied special anti bacterial treatments to the earpads to improve comfort for people with sensitive skin.
Technically, we have a pair of open-back headphones that have a 60mm dynamic driver at the core, with a 64 OHM impedance, and 109 dB SPL, a THD of lower than 0.2%, and with both a 3.5mm single ended and a 4.4mm balanced cables. Those are some high-end cables, thick, reliable and sounding very good, so I am a bit surprised that Harmonicdyne doesn’t brag a bit more about them
Subjective Usage
Harmonicdyne baroque is open-back so it offers a very modest amount of passive noise isolation, around 5 dB at most, and leaks sound quite a bit to the outside, to the point where your room acoustics, especially having lots of echo might become audible while you’re listening to music, audible especially at the extremes, very high or very low volumes.
I feel comfortable while wearing the HarmonicDyne Baroque. They are on the heavier side, but the cable used has zero microphonic effect, zero handling noise, and the whole headphone is inert, does not squeak or have any kind of noise while adjusting it. Baroque feels a bit tight on my ears and head, but has a secure fit, with fairly dense earpads that feel nice on my ears and head.
Headband is never a problem, I forget there is a headband and it does an excellent job at distributing the weight of the headphones, with more tightness right around the ears than at the top of my head, and I like this. The headband has points where you can adjust it, but the whole mechanism is very smooth. Swivel is limited but enough to allow the Baroque to adjust to any head size and shape. They fit well on all heads, although I am close to the maximum limit, so someone with a much larger head might feel they are tighter than I do. Overall, wearing comfort and subjective experience is excellent.
Sound Quality
Pairings – For today’s review I’ve been pairing the new HarmonicDyne Baroque with a multitude of sources, including FiiO K17, FiiO K9 PRO ESS, iBasso D16 + iBasso PB5, Burson PlayMate 2, JDS Labs Element III, Singxer Sa-1 V2 driven by a Musician Pegasus II R2R DAC, Dethonray Listening M1. Baroque needs quite a bit of power to get loud, and while not exactly as hard to drive as HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled, it is about as hard to drive as Sennheiser HD 490 PRO Plus, or roughly HIFIMAN Arya Organic. A good source will go a long way with the Baroque, they improve significantly with a good DAC and AMP, and I recommend something high-end like FiiO K17 for the best user experience.
Overall Signature – HarmonicDyne Baroque is incredibly natural and transparent, and the more a pair of headphones do right, the harder they are to describe, as Baroque is a uniquely transparent and high-resolution pair of headphones that does almost everything right from the start. With a fairly warm and somewhat slow bass, but a vivid, transparent midrange that reveals musicality nicely, and a bright, sharp treble, they sound open, transparent, holographic and have a strong layering, vivid imaging. Baroque sounds somewhat similar to HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled in tuning, having a dramatic, high-energy, highly engaging sound that makes me yearn for more music every single time I put them on. This being said, Baroque is not an analytical headphone, and it generally feels musical, pleasing, enjoyable without any kind of fatigue, yet it does sound revealing.
Bass – Starting from the deep-end, Baroque has the kind of slower, fuller, more musical bass that makes you feel like you’re in a summer club on the beach, it has a really lush, slow but full bass. This kind of bass has more focus on the mid bass and upper bass than lower bass, technicalities are good, but bass doesn’t try to be the fastest or most revealing, it gives music groove and body depth and a fun factor instead of making it all about speed and technicalities. Baroque tends to show distortion and uneven parts in bass much more than other frequencies, so exaggerated bass and songs with high bass distortion will sound as such, while the midrange and treble distortion really is not obvious with the baroque.
Midrange – Baroque is really beautiful in the mids, it creates both a beautiful male voice and an emotional, musical, smooth female voice. This works well for all music styles, guitars are juicy, sweet, groovy and musical, and so are synths, pianos, it sounds rich and smooth. Everything is just pleasing and happy with the Baroque and while Baroque music in general is not that much my cup of tea, Harmonicdyne Baroque most certainly is. There is no tilt towards the lower or the upper midrange, although with the fuller, more forward upper and mid bass, you hear a ton of body both with female and male voices. This fuller body also makes the Baroque less analytical and more musical, giving it a certain depth without making them sleazy, heavy or muddy.
Treble – To complete the whole groovy sound, Harmonicdyne chose to give Baroque a bright, sharp, brilliant treble with a high resolution and strong revealing ability. You will hear an extension that goes as high as 20 kHz, with a strong peaking around 10 kHz, and then a very consistent expansion up towards 16 kHz, above which a soft roll-off happens. Basically, Baroque reveals all the extension, brightness and sharpness of the treble, with an excellent brilliance, sparkle and life, but it is 2nd to the midrange in presence, so it never gets in the way or sound harsh or fatiguing, rather it completes and gives resolution, detail to the already groovy signature of the Baroque.
PRaT / Textures / Dynamics – Supporting the signature we have a fuller texture rendering which gives body, presence and thickness to all sounds that Baroque produces, they can reveal detail really well, but won’t force that detail. The sound character is mostly wet without splashy, most people would call this kind of texture presentation slightly oily, thick, lush, smooth but with a fluid character. It is excellent for all music styles, free of fatigue but full of life and with a crisp detail.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – Harmonicdyne Baroque handles high and very high volumes a bit better than ultra low volumes, they come alive more at high loudness, they get more vivid, more detailed and more engaging, without a significant rise in THD. Sound stays controlled and crisp even at extremely high volumes, up to 110 dB, and you risk more easily burning the headphones than hearing any trace of distortion. At low volumes, they sound fuller, slower, more musical and smoother. Whole sound changes a bit with volume, and most of my description is at medium-high and high volumes.
Soundstage – Baroque is the kind of headphone that renders music in a wide and open space, with excellent depth and a fairly strong layering / layer separation. There’s a good sense of imaging, and separation. Baroque generally presents music as if it was played in a large place and places you in the middle-front of the audience, the most desired spot in a theater, it gives you not quite as much of a first-row, but the ideal listening spot of the whole show. Although this comparison will help only those who heard both, staging of the Baroque is right in between Susvara OG and Susvara Unveiled.
Comparisons
HarmonicDyne Baroque vs Noble Fokus Apollo (559 USD vs 649 USD) – Fokus Apollo is pricier, but that price includes a DAC, a headphone Amplifier, Bluetooth receiver, ANC module, and Apollo is a standalone headphone that does not rely as much on the source, sounding excellent with any smartphone. Comfort is on the side of the Baroque, which has much larger earpads, a less tight fit, although Apollo isolates really well from the outside noise and leaks much less, being ideal for a plane trip or when you want to stay away from noise. Overall, Apollo is much tighter, lighter but that is all in the name of passive noise isolation.
Sonically, Baroque sounds much more open, has less sub-bass, more mid bass, a smoother, more fluid sound and with a more natural midrange. Apollo sounds much bassier, heavier, darker, more V-Shaped and generally has more bass and more impact in the sound. The choice seems fairly simple here, if you want more sub bass, Apollo will deliver that, while if you want a more mid centric, more natural sound you will go with the Baroque.
HarmonicDyne Baroque vs OLLO X1 (559 USD vs 539 USD) – OLLO X1 is a more fair comparison, both are open-back headphones, both are comfortable, but Baroque has a tighter fitting, with larger earpads. Default cable is of a higher quality with the baroque, but the build quality in the X1 is better made for studio usage and abuse, while the earcups of the Baroque are beautiful, but look like they might scratch more easily.
Sonically, X1 is more mid centric, more dry, more analytical and has a faster sound at the cost of musicality and depth. Baroque has a fuller, slower bass that fills in the space more easily, the oily textures that Baroque has are musical and make you happy to enjoy music, while X1 is precise, dry and analytical, much better for studio work. The treble of the X1 is smoother, more dry, it is both a bit more harsh and fatiguing, while having less sparkle and brightness, compared to the Baroque which manages to be both brighter, more brilliant but also less fatiguing and more enjoyable in the long run.
HarmonicDyne Baroque vs Aune SR7000 (559 USD vs 599 USD) – SR7000 is a closed-back headphone, with much larger and softer earpads, a less tight fit, and a more comfortable overall design. Baroque feels tighter, more solid on the head and has a more secure fitting. Although SR7000 is closed-back, they do not isolate strongly from the outside noise, so there’s not a huge difference between the Baroque and SR7000 in passive noise isolation. Both headphones come with high-quality cables that also look similar, both have a solid build quality and look impressive in person.
Sonically, SR7000 is softer, more musical, more natural in the midrange, with a bit less boominess and a more open, brighter sound that’s less oily in the textures and closer to neutrality. By comparison, Baroque sounds darker, boomier, fuller, with more weight in the sound, a more groovy sound, waxy / oily textures and with a more open soundstage, more holographic presentation.
Value and Conclusion
HarmonicDyne Baroque is currently fighting in a fairly busy market, against established competition that is already known to offer an excellent sound, so the company did their best to undercut everyone and offer a sound that closely resembles the absolute flagship, HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled, but for a fraction of the price. While this does not mean that Baroque has exactly the same technical performance, I can see how the signature is inspired from Sus U, especially as I used them side by side daily for a while now. Overall Baroque comes with high-end cables, and an excellent build quality, so value is through the roof, even for this midrange segment where it has a ton of competition.
Award – While I am not enthusiastic about offering awards to many products nowadays, Harmonicdyne Baroque deserves a place in the Audiophie-Heaven Hall Of Fame for their excellent sound, build quality, and complete package, all for a much lower price than the market standard.
At the end of the day, HarmonicDyne Baroque manages to reach my feelings and make me happy while listening to music the same way that HarmonicDyne Zeus did a couple of years ago, it is an impressive headphone with outstanding technicalities, a dramatic, emotional sound, strong bass, strong treble, vivid voicing, it is darn near close to perfection and for the price paid, it is a fully recommended purchase today and a pair of headphones that I really like on a personal level.
PROs
- Exceptional design and build quality
- Revealing, high-resolution sound
- High impact and dynamic, colorful, punchy sound
- High-end cable included in the package
- Comfortable for long periods of wear
- Excellent support from Linsoul when purchasing the Baroque
Cons
- Needs a good source to truly shine
- Needs a high grain, lots of power to truly shine
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/43QSZHA
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oBfO2Ag
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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