A quick note guys the RRP for the QUAD ERA1 is £649 but I saw a couple of shops adverising for less hence the different price mentioned in the video - thanks for watching.
ve owned my Quad ERA-1's for about a year now. I use them with the leather pads and I love them, They have no creaking as you demonstrated. I started out using them with the SMSL SU-9 & the SMSL SH-9 dac and amp. Ive recently upgraded to the RME ADI-2 DAC fs which seems to bring out a bit more airiness but I may well be wrong. Cheers.... 👍
Using Apple Music you can change equalization and make presets. Also listening through Roon allows both EQ and crossfeed. I have 2 pair of AirPods Max, one pair of Sundaras(planer Magnetic) , and one pair Sennheizer 660s. Love them all for different reasons.
Oh man, Terry, thanks for the great review. I'm enjoying planer IEMs, they are at a far lower cost than your units here, but when I get my budget right, who knows. Thank you again for another great detailed review.
Nice perspective on the review without the usual audio(foo) references, I have a mojo 2/poly paired with 7hz timeless planer iem’s and AirPods max/pros. If I’m sat on my arse with no intention of moving then it’s the mojo2/poly and 7hz every time, if out n’ about or doing stuff round house/garden etc then AirPods max/pro’s all the way for convenience and any “perceivable” sound loss is not an issue or worth bothering about. All excellent for their chosen task
If you’re listening to FLAC’s on your Apple device, install Foobar2000 - that has a crossfeed option in the DSPmanager. I just tried it out now (seen it in there but never tried it before), man so much better! To me it seemed like it didn’t make it wider sounding as such, but it moved the core of the sound/vocals out from the being right in the very centre of your head. Toggle it on/off and without it and the sound obviously and suddenly feels thick and congested. I’m not a big headphone listener at all (train journeys only kind of thing), but colour me impressed on that 5 min test, might be hard to ever go back!
Having owned 2 pairs of the original QUAD ESL speakers and 1 pair of the QUAD ESL-63, I am curious to listen to these QUAD ERA-1planar headphones! Personally, my all-time fav headphones, so far, are the STAX Sigma ESL 'earspeaker's. Really, really loved their sound presentation, to the point of me wishing that there was some floorstander (or bookshelf) speaker system that would sound to me even half as good! Thank you for stoking my interest in this QUAD headphone, and keep up the stimulating reviews! 👍🍺🍺
Dali noise cancelling cans vs the apple will be an interesting comparison. The chord is a fun thing to have as a versatile dac as well by the way. I am now using it with my audeze lcd2c
🤗👍😎 GREAT REVIEW TERRY… And I listen to Lady Blackbird for the first time yesterday…😎👍 🤔 I wondered did you use Apple Music airplay when you were listening and maybe they were add in cross feed in a future update 🤷♂️
I let the airpods autoconnect to the ipad pro and used whatever connection method it auto selected playing music from Qobuz. Apple are doing all sorts of processong with spatial but thats not for "standard" music from what I could tell
I wanted to mention that I use my Airpods Max all day while at work, they are fairly comfortable if you can handle the weight. I work in a noisy environment, and the Active Noise Cancellation does a wondrous job of keeping me sane. As an audio fan, I was worried about the noise compression as I'm particularly sensitive to compression artifacts in streaming music, and was pleasantly surprised that I'm unable to hear any artifacts in the lossy Airpods Max stream. They really are a marvelous bit of tech. It's a shame you talk much about the noise cancellation, which is one of the biggest selling features.
You can change the sound signature of the AirPod Max within the accessibility settings in the iPhon or iPad… I personally have chosen another route with high quality (€1000+) Planar Magnetics with a separate headphone amp, but the Airpod Max sounds quite good for the price… and they are very convenient too. And I say this as an audiophile… would wish the Airpod Max would have USB-C and could be used wired too through it.
If I had to buy a wireless headphone it would probably be the Airpods Max. As I don't I prefer to use a decent wired headphone or IEM with a wireless DAC/amp like the Fiio BTR5 or IFI Go Blu. Connected to my phone using LDAC they sound great. Some people will always claim that wireless is trash despite never trying bluetooth at it's best, currently 990kbps and it will get better.
@@PursuitPerfectSystem it works with all audio on the iPhone, Qobuz + Roon included. Sounds fantastic (I am also on Qobuz). Just make sure to turn off head tracking to get the full effect.
Try this: go to Settings > Accessibility > Audible & Visual. Enable Headphone Accommodations. You can change the tuning in the panel. I chose Balanced Tone/moderate. It makes a nice improvement.
I was disappointed that he didn’t point out that iPhones don’t do high-quality Bluetooth codes, just AAC, while Androids can. With the Chord Mojo 2, you can only Bluetooth for via an add on Poly, which again only uses 4.1 Bluetooth via A2DP and SBC level decoding, not LDAC.
Really enjoy your content, but have to admit I thought the new shots of you slowly grooving to Barry White and glancing at the camera were... incredibly awkward.
I dont know, I think if the majority of your other bits are apple then the airpods max integrate so easily its a huge advantage but the sony might sound better. I think they would need to a sound a lot better if your all apple - if your not apple then its probably sony as some of the main airpods max benefits you would lose
I would get a pair of airpods max and be done with it, but they're just not very versatile and there's the underlying dread around the battery eventually dying.
I think by the time the battery dies in a wireless headphone it will 10 years and so beaten up by then a new set wont feel a bad purchase as they will be much better by then too
I was glad to see your enthusiasm for both products. Seems Apple has finally changed and realizes that they have to deliver a well-functioning sound product, along with their high price. I bought the original AirPods (buds). As sound gear goes they were pretty terrible…but they just "worked" on all my Apple devices. 2-years in, the sound isolation started creating noise, instead of stopping it 🤯..Apple just replaced them for free 🤗. These new AirPods are actually what I would call sound gear. 👍🏼Their sound isolation and sound quality are much more demanding of Apple's high price. Color me "pleasantly surprised" with the product and the service!!! 😬
if you say that the sound quality of AirPods (earbuds) is bad you really don't understand audio hahahaha, AirPods are basically the best earbuds on the market in terms of sound, it just doesn't sound like an earbud (and integration with the ecosystem like we know). The problem is that you probably expected earbuds to sound like in-ears, which is physically impossible.
Am I the only one that doesn't like the sound of AirPods max? Sound tinny and I find the highs almost shrill. I find Apple make it hard to EQ them (what a surprise hard to customize an apple product). If it's ANC wireless, I prefer Sony 1000X5's, find them more balanced and I find them easier to eq to tune them to what I like and I've wired and connected them to Mojo 2 so I had that option too. Where apple shines for me is the spacial audio is next level. With proper source it's awesome.
No becuase its not a digital connection by all accounts you have to connect to them via an analogue cable from a headphone output and that makes no sense to me
I have a pair of Bluetooth, noise cancelling headphones which also allow a wired analogue connection. The wired connection definitely sounds better. In this review it may have been a legitimate comparison as you could have use the Mojo 2's trickery to add the crosstalk and tweaked the frequency balance. Maybe, if the Apple sounded as good as the Quads when wired, only one pair of headphones would be required.
Yeah that is the whole point of the joke, its a non serious situation but one that could become frustrating and is where BT headphones are hard to beat the mobility of them
one thing annoys me about so called youtube reviewers, is they never give prices why! I see in the comment you did that is good but why not say it! and why don't you give the price on the Apple. headphones as comparison.
@@PursuitPerfectSystem yeah I knew that but they use Mark audio drivers. couldn't think of the name of hand, you should check out ollo s4x open back 350£ headphones are better than both those headphones especially on build quality. what's your favourite headphone?
Quad is not the company it used be many of their products are made in China and I imagine these will be made for them by another company although there could be some UK development
@@pauldavies6037 there is a lot of UK development for quad all the same engineers have been with the company for about 30 years they still service and work on quad speakers at the UK hq everyday. I have been there and spoke to them
Same and in some ways they do and some they dont. The apples are simply much better than you think they will be. One has a strong character the other sounds technically very good but with a pleasing sound balance if you like bold bass, I do
I haven’t tried the max properly but what I found personally with anc headphones, is they have more dynamics because they rely on a dsp and dac tuned to a more consumer oriented spec which tends to be more bass heavy - not just eq but also 2nd order dynamic/parametric eq tricks which in some ways is great but as a result I think distortions, decays, transients and timbre get compromised. If only anc headphones were a bit more hifi with the standards of the driver or you had anc planars on the market. Apple have done a fantastic job but they could be way way better which is what bothers me.
I would agree with you except I don’t sell anything as I am not a dealer, I dont know why you would think that either. I have never once mentioned I sell products. There are a lot of dealers that review products which I agree should not be classed or called a review. Take this criticism to them not me. I dont have the quad sales figures either in relation to all others sold so can’t comment on that I thought they sounded good for the money I owned much more expensive audeze and was not impressed with them at all.
@@PursuitPerfectSystem apologies I will edit my post. I must agree the marketing that Audeze use does not reflect the experience. I was totally underwhelmed with most of the range. One hifi dealer near Sutton Coldfield told me that they were tuned to a professional musicians ear. I’m a musician and a part time producer and I’ve never heard such bumkum. Hifiman have made massive inroads into the planar market and I admire their products. I’m just about to pull the trigger on a mojo 2 tomorrow and pair it with a pair of ananda’s. Fun times ahead.
@@bunkerbusterexplore I haven’t tried that many different cans not an expert in that arena but have listened to a few. The mojo 2 is nice though sure you will like it
A quick note guys the RRP for the QUAD ERA1 is £649 but I saw a couple of shops adverising for less hence the different price mentioned in the video - thanks for watching.
your smiles at the camera are so contagious! such a likeable guy. helpful vid. thanks.
Love the slow motion ‘model-like’ head turns Terry! You’ve missed your calling my friend!!
Its the only head I have got, I am sorry its a not a more attractive one
I believe you can get lossless by using the cable provided in the box. Yes it is wired but would be interesting to see how the quality differs
ve owned my Quad ERA-1's for about a year now. I use them with the leather pads and I love them, They have no creaking as you demonstrated. I started out using them with the SMSL SU-9 & the SMSL SH-9 dac and amp. Ive recently upgraded to the RME ADI-2 DAC fs which seems to bring out a bit more airiness but I may well be wrong. Cheers.... 👍
Hi, are those the Sibelius loudspeakers behind you? Are you going to review them? Cheers!
Yes they are and yes i am
Using Apple Music you can change equalization and make presets. Also listening through Roon allows both EQ and crossfeed. I have 2 pair of AirPods Max, one pair of Sundaras(planer Magnetic) , and one pair Sennheizer 660s. Love them all for different reasons.
Have you tried other music player software? I think Roon sounds processed. I much prefer Audirvana.
Oh man, Terry, thanks for the great review. I'm enjoying planer IEMs, they are at a far lower cost than your units here, but when I get my budget right, who knows. Thank you again for another great detailed review.
Another great review, Terry - both balanced and fair. Spot on👍👍👍
Nice perspective on the review without the usual audio(foo) references, I have a mojo 2/poly paired with 7hz timeless planer iem’s and AirPods max/pros. If I’m sat on my arse with no intention of moving then it’s the mojo2/poly and 7hz every time, if out n’ about or doing stuff round house/garden etc then AirPods max/pro’s all the way for convenience and any “perceivable” sound loss is not an issue or worth bothering about. All excellent for their chosen task
Waiting for your review of the Sibelius in the background
If you’re listening to FLAC’s on your Apple device, install Foobar2000 - that has a crossfeed option in the DSPmanager. I just tried it out now (seen it in there but never tried it before), man so much better! To me it seemed like it didn’t make it wider sounding as such, but it moved the core of the sound/vocals out from the being right in the very centre of your head. Toggle it on/off and without it and the sound obviously and suddenly feels thick and congested.
I’m not a big headphone listener at all (train journeys only kind of thing), but colour me impressed on that 5 min test, might be hard to ever go back!
Does Apple Spatial Audio fit here somewhere? It’s a great experience.
Having owned 2 pairs of the original QUAD ESL speakers and 1 pair of the QUAD ESL-63, I am curious to listen to these QUAD ERA-1planar headphones! Personally, my all-time fav headphones, so far, are the STAX Sigma ESL 'earspeaker's. Really, really loved their sound presentation, to the point of me wishing that there was some floorstander (or bookshelf) speaker system that would sound to me even half as good! Thank you for stoking my interest in this QUAD headphone, and keep up the stimulating reviews! 👍🍺🍺
Dali noise cancelling cans vs the apple will be an interesting comparison. The chord is a fun thing to have as a versatile dac as well by the way. I am now using it with my audeze lcd2c
🤗👍😎 GREAT REVIEW TERRY… And I listen to Lady Blackbird for the first time yesterday…😎👍
🤔 I wondered did you use Apple Music airplay when you were
listening and maybe they were add in cross feed in a future update 🤷♂️
I let the airpods autoconnect to the ipad pro and used whatever connection method it auto selected playing music from Qobuz. Apple are doing all sorts of processong with spatial but thats not for "standard" music from what I could tell
Great video! (is it me though or is your spoken audio just slightly ahead of the video?)
It might be a little in places, but shouldn't be for all of it
I wanted to mention that I use my Airpods Max all day while at work, they are fairly comfortable if you can handle the weight. I work in a noisy environment, and the Active Noise Cancellation does a wondrous job of keeping me sane. As an audio fan, I was worried about the noise compression as I'm particularly sensitive to compression artifacts in streaming music, and was pleasantly surprised that I'm unable to hear any artifacts in the lossy Airpods Max stream. They really are a marvelous bit of tech. It's a shame you talk much about the noise cancellation, which is one of the biggest selling features.
You can change the sound signature of the AirPod Max within the accessibility settings in the iPhon or iPad… I personally have chosen another route with high quality (€1000+) Planar Magnetics with a separate headphone amp, but the Airpod Max sounds quite good for the price… and they are very convenient too. And I say this as an audiophile… would wish the Airpod Max would have USB-C and could be used wired too through it.
If I had to buy a wireless headphone it would probably be the Airpods Max. As I don't I prefer to use a decent wired headphone or IEM with a wireless DAC/amp like the Fiio BTR5 or IFI Go Blu. Connected to my phone using LDAC they sound great. Some people will always claim that wireless is trash despite never trying bluetooth at it's best, currently 990kbps and it will get better.
Great review, Terry. I've also made a comment under the trying the Apple headphones wired post.
Shout out to Colter Wall! That's the first I've heard in an audio review. Nice.
Cheers man love his music
@@PursuitPerfectSystem out of interest, do you have a favourite CW track for testing speakers? Always thought Bald Butte was pretty good
@@GigantorRexAtron to be honest I like all the songs on the songs of the plains album but I think Manitoba man is my fav but I like all of them
Did you try the spatialise stereo option on the AirPods max ? To me it does what crossfeed does on other headphones. Sounds much better.
No pretty sure that would be an apple music thing but I am a qobuz user
@@PursuitPerfectSystem it works with all audio on the iPhone, Qobuz + Roon included. Sounds fantastic (I am also on Qobuz).
Just make sure to turn off head tracking to get the full effect.
@@gameandfilmfan interesting, i think I had it on with the head tracking. Will have a good play with it now I know thanks
Try this: go to Settings > Accessibility > Audible & Visual. Enable Headphone Accommodations. You can change the tuning in the panel. I chose Balanced Tone/moderate. It makes a nice improvement.
Thanks Steve gonna check this out
Could you share your EQ setting for the Quad? I just got them!
Sorry this was time ago I don’t recall
Oh my word, you’ve got the Sibelius speakers in, cannot with for that. They’re a pair I’m so interested in but concerned I can’t demo them anywhere.
You can demo them in London and Belgium
@@PursuitPerfectSystem really?! This is great news, where abouts?
@@Benvos if you contact Pearl Acoustics ypu should end up speaking to the right person to arrrange this with you
I was disappointed that he didn’t point out that iPhones don’t do high-quality Bluetooth codes, just AAC, while Androids can. With the Chord Mojo 2, you can only Bluetooth for via an add on Poly, which again only uses 4.1 Bluetooth via A2DP and SBC level decoding, not LDAC.
Is anyone know if AirPods MAx can use Apple's lossless codec while listening Tidal ? or it is used only for Apple Music ?
Really enjoy your content, but have to admit I thought the new shots of you slowly grooving to Barry White and glancing at the camera were... incredibly awkward.
Out of curiosity whats makes them awkward?
airpods max over the sony 1000xm4?
I dont know, I think if the majority of your other bits are apple then the airpods max integrate so easily its a huge advantage but the sony might sound better. I think they would need to a sound a lot better if your all apple - if your not apple then its probably sony as some of the main airpods max benefits you would lose
I would get a pair of airpods max and be done with it, but they're just not very versatile and there's the underlying dread around the battery eventually dying.
I think by the time the battery dies in a wireless headphone it will 10 years and so beaten up by then a new set wont feel a bad purchase as they will be much better by then too
Terry…WD-40 w/white lithium grease does the trick. 😎
I was glad to see your enthusiasm for both products. Seems Apple has finally changed and realizes that they have to deliver a well-functioning sound product, along with their high price. I bought the original AirPods (buds). As sound gear goes they were pretty terrible…but they just "worked" on all my Apple devices. 2-years in, the sound isolation started creating noise, instead of stopping it 🤯..Apple just replaced them for free 🤗. These new AirPods are actually what I would call sound gear. 👍🏼Their sound isolation and sound quality are much more demanding of Apple's high price. Color me "pleasantly surprised" with the product and the service!!! 😬
if you say that the sound quality of AirPods (earbuds) is bad you really don't understand audio hahahaha, AirPods are basically the best earbuds on the market in terms of sound, it just doesn't sound like an earbud (and integration with the ecosystem like we know). The problem is that you probably expected earbuds to sound like in-ears, which is physically impossible.
Am I the only one that doesn't like the sound of AirPods max? Sound tinny and I find the highs almost shrill. I find Apple make it hard to EQ them (what a surprise hard to customize an apple product). If it's ANC wireless, I prefer Sony 1000X5's, find them more balanced and I find them easier to eq to tune them to what I like and I've wired and connected them to Mojo 2 so I had that option too. Where apple shines for me is the spacial audio is next level. With proper source it's awesome.
I love AirPods max . Noise cancellation and great for movies and Apple music and also cordless
Did you not try the Apples wired?
No becuase its not a digital connection by all accounts you have to connect to them via an analogue cable from a headphone output and that makes no sense to me
I have a pair of Bluetooth, noise cancelling headphones which also allow a wired analogue connection. The wired connection definitely sounds better. In this review it may have been a legitimate comparison as you could have use the Mojo 2's trickery to add the crosstalk and tweaked the frequency balance. Maybe, if the Apple sounded as good as the Quads when wired, only one pair of headphones would be required.
I bought and returned the Airpods max but they were impressive.
why did you return them?
Being attached to wires when my gin and tonic runs out is one😌 of those life crisis moments, which is why I use BT headphones outdoors....... 🎧 🙂
Yeah that is the whole point of the joke, its a non serious situation but one that could become frustrating and is where BT headphones are hard to beat the mobility of them
one thing annoys me about so called youtube reviewers, is they never give prices why!
I see in the comment you did that is good but why not say it! and why don't you give the price on the Apple. headphones as comparison.
I gave all the prices in the video hence the comment as the RRP ia different for the ERA1 to what I said in the video
@@PursuitPerfectSystem yeah I noticed I did amend my comment. some Mark audio speakers" nice how you getting on with them?
@@hoobsgroove no worries dude the speakers are pearl acoustics sibelius
@@PursuitPerfectSystem yeah I knew that but they use Mark audio drivers. couldn't think of the name of hand, you should check out ollo s4x open back 350£ headphones are better than both those headphones especially on build quality. what's your favourite headphone?
@@hoobsgroove i was looking at the ollo closed back to use for doing my sound demo recordings. I don't really have a favourite atm to be honest
I don't like Chord products for looking like toy. I would never set it up on my hifi rack.
Oi! You looked like you was about to fall asleep when you was listening to them.
Quad is not the company it used be many of their products are made in China and I imagine these will be made for them by another company although there could be some UK development
@@pauldavies6037 there is a lot of UK development for quad all the same engineers have been with the company for about 30 years they still service and work on quad speakers at the UK hq everyday. I have been there and spoke to them
@@PursuitPerfectSystem I know that I was in the trade for many years so I know what goes on
@@pauldavies6037 Sorry Paul, I had no idea about that
My quad era never creeked
Of course just a random thing but it would have been wrong not to mention it
Great comparison. I would have thought the Quads would wipe the floor with Apple. Just goes to show Apple know what they're doing. 😨
Same and in some ways they do and some they dont. The apples are simply much better than you think they will be. One has a strong character the other sounds technically very good but with a pleasing sound balance if you like bold bass, I do
I haven’t tried the max properly but what I found personally with anc headphones, is they have more dynamics because they rely on a dsp and dac tuned to a more consumer oriented spec which tends to be more bass heavy - not just eq but also 2nd order dynamic/parametric eq tricks which in some ways is great but as a result I think distortions, decays, transients and timbre get compromised. If only anc headphones were a bit more hifi with the standards of the driver or you had anc planars on the market. Apple have done a fantastic job but they could be way way better which is what bothers me.
The quads have not sold as well as they expected. In the world of planar headphones unfortunately the quads haven’t got a good name.
I would agree with you except I don’t sell anything as I am not a dealer, I dont know why you would think that either. I have never once mentioned I sell products. There are a lot of dealers that review products which I agree should not be classed or called a review. Take this criticism to them not me.
I dont have the quad sales figures either in relation to all others sold so can’t comment on that
I thought they sounded good for the money
I owned much more expensive audeze and was not impressed with them at all.
@@PursuitPerfectSystem apologies I will edit my post. I must agree the marketing that Audeze use does not reflect the experience. I was totally underwhelmed with most of the range. One hifi dealer near Sutton Coldfield told me that they were tuned to a professional musicians ear. I’m a musician and a part time producer and I’ve never heard such bumkum. Hifiman have made massive inroads into the planar market and I admire their products. I’m just about to pull the trigger on a mojo 2 tomorrow and pair it with a pair of ananda’s. Fun times ahead.
@@bunkerbusterexplore I haven’t tried that many different cans not an expert in that arena but have listened to a few. The mojo 2 is nice though sure you will like it
@@PursuitPerfectSystem thanks and you’ve just gained a subscriber.
9:50.....😁
Hairspray would be nicer than WD40…