At the same time, opting for closing the back of the cups has put them in a position of having to work against one of the biggest issues of closed backs. I mentioned in my review of the Thieaudio Ghost recently that they weren’t really exciting but were more of a blank canvas which could be tailored with some EQ.

The sound signature is more appealing to my tastes, too: balanced with a bit of a sub-bass and treble boost to deliver a fuller, more detail rich sound signature.Other that the coin and the headphones, we also get the cable (more on that in a second), a leather cable tie and a drawstring bag for storage. The ingenious introduction of glass adds the richness of texture and transforms the Athena into not just a competent HiFi headphone, but also a sophisticated decoration piece. Music such as Sirenia sounds ethereal, clean and has a good amount of impact, although once again, it sounds best at medium and low volumes. The bass is not overwhelming and does not intrude on the midrange, doesn’t thicken the sound too much, and allows Athena to sound very clean and natural. I don't necessarily like the idea of glass on a headphone just for the fingerprints/scratches that can happen (no scratches yet, I'm careful).

I have not received any form of compensation or incentive to endorse or promote any specific product mentioned in this review. The use of glass-like hard plastic (I think) in the backs of the cups and the ends of the headband looks a bit sleek, in exchange for the maintenance inconvenience -- this shiny plastic is very easy to get fingerprints on, which required me to be more careful and clean more frequently. HarmonicDyne market the Athena as a studio headphone, but it does not sound anything like professional headphones from Sennheiser, beyerdynamic or AKG.However, these colorations generally complemented the Athena's overall tonal mix, if not perfectly neutral. Once I got over my preconceptions, and started to embrace them for what they are, I began to really enjoy them. Details, speed, and resolution outclass the Athena as expected from a planar However, the Athena counters with a more even musical tonality versus the HE400SE's occasional shoutiness and brighter bias. Besides the impressive high-resolution audio it presents, Athena’s texture and design are also a sight to behold. HarmonicDyne has made its global success through several crowdfunding campaigns, including the Helios, Zeus, and Poseidon headphones.

I know I don’t usually refer to EQ in my reviews but I did play around with some simple equalization in the 1kHz to 4kHz range to see what the response was like and I have to say that it really brought more life to these headphones. The yolks and cups are also plastic but again, they seem to be well manufactured and I can’t see anything standing out as a “this will definitely break” point. The bass is quite fast too, starting and stopping on a dime to make sure that it doesn’t sound bloated or uncontrolled.It even mitigated that sensation of cup reflection in the low ranges due to the fact that with more presence in the upper ranges, especially mids, it made things sound much cleaner and the lower bass notes were no longer the center of attention. When I compare it to the Emu Walnut, I also found the Walnut to be a more pleasant listen overall, with similar quality and resolution. At only 320 grams, they’re already on the lighter side, but the company did a great job of balancing clamp force with distributing the weight across the headband. Take "Oster Peterson Meets Roy Hargrove" (1996) - the analytical presentation helps me easily follow the musical narrative, similar to some TOTL cans.