The Abyss JOAL, also known as Batman, is already highly respected in the audiophile space as one of the best headphones in the world today and among the best of its brand. Some even consider it to perform better than headphones like the Diana MR, which is twice its price. The Abyss JOAL headphones delivers on sound and comfort that most people only dream of. However, along with this headphone’s great success comes its ability to scale with higher-end amplifiers and DACs, as well as its ability to sound different based on the type of pads you use. Like the rest of the Diana lineup, Abyss did a masterful job giving users the ability to truly change the sound based on different pad materials and ported designs.
But one question remains: Will this amazing headphone drive on a standard DAP (digital audio player)? So I took this headphone and played it first on my Cayin N6ii, a $1399 DAP. It played beautifully on it, without any real problems at all. Yes, I used High gain, but it still played well on the lower gain level with a little help from the volume. The headphone still allowed the detail to shine, the space to shine, and the bass to deliver, but the star of the show was still the vocals and timbre.
Then I put it on my cheaper FIIO M33 ($699). Same results. The high gain handled it well, the medium gain handled it well but with much higher volume needs. The space again was still present, the bass was still present, and the vocals and timbre remained its shining example of mastery.
Now, of course, my example of DAPs might not be yours. And yes, both of these examples might be higher than normal in terms of power watts per channel on 4.4 balanced inputs. I understand that if you try to run this on a 3.5 input, you will experience a significant dip in power. So please understand that my example might not yield the same results on lower-powered DAPs with fewer watts per channel. It is a planar driver after all, so there is no getting around the power draw you need for such things. But if you have something pretty decent, you should be able to enjoy the JOAL on it.
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