AUDEZE SINE DX Open

We loved the closed-back SINE DX with its DAC-equipped Lightning cable. So does the open version of this planar magnetic design deliver still more open and airy sound?

They came to us unpackaged, but we’ve seen Audeze’s Sines before, having given the closed-back Sine with its dedicated Lightning cable a Sound+Image award last year. These look similar — planar-magnetic drivers in a high quality package using premium leather. They’re again described as on-ear even though our back flaps just squeezed inside; they again fold flat for storage; and they’re again rather spiffy in their looks — the original industrial design was by BMW DesignWorksUSA. They’re also still a bit heavy on the ears and head.

Planar magnetic drivers are entirely different from the usual cone-speaker headphone design, instead using a large flat surface — here a planar panel 80 × 70mm (see cutaway image) — excited into motion by the electromagnetic force created by conductors woven across its surface. The diaphragm is extremely light, so response can be fast, and this type of driver is credited with delivery of detail potentially beyond cone-based headphones (or speakers).

Given that these versions are open-backed, their planar-magnetic drivers are free to breathe outward as well as inward, and their sound certainly remains a delight — with perhaps even greater lightness of touch at higher frequencies, thereby lending spectacular edge and detail.

And there’s no shortage of enjoyable bass below, especially as you raise the volume (use your device, as there are no smart controls on the cable supplied). If there’s a word that does not describe their sound, it would be ‘stodgy’ — everything emerges light and clean, no overfill in the lower mids, which keeps everything open and clearly soundstaged. They’re mighty in dynamics, with transients fast if maybe lacking a bit of sheer weight, and we note from our previous review that we thought the Lightning cable added magic to the Sine’s performance — here the sound is as beautifully etched and revealing as we remember the passive Sine headphones, but without the full gift of musical transportation we enjoyed via the Lightning cable. They did accentuate rather than cure the leanness in our Dion and The Teardrop Explodes torture test tracks, but then they did deliver the very bottom D of Neil Young’s bass in Walk With Me, and passed the Leonard Cohen test with flying colours, and bonus points for revealing a level of stadium acoustic around his spoken introduction which we hadn’t previously noticed in what must be hundreds of plays.

One final question might be where these are intended to be used. The passive cabling here is still distinctly portable, but where can you use an open-backed portable? Who would want one? They’re smaller than you might choose for the home, but far too spilly with the tizz-tizz for use on the commute or in the office. Perhaps that’s why Audeze originally announced this as a limited edition.

But hey, if that’s good for your purposes, then aside from their slight weight of wear, there’s nothing to criticise in this version of the Sine. JF