Austrian Audio

Hi-X65 Open-backed headphones

£319

The personal audio or 'head-fi' market shows no signs of slowing, and there are many good reasons for this. Firstly, we all need time to escape and enjoy some time and space alone – one of the most popular buzzwords of late has been “self-care”. The only issue until recently, was that you couldn't go anywhere for that break from family, colleagues, flatmates or even your partner. However, as any teenager will attest, slip on some cans, turn the volume up, close your eyes and you're away!

Moreover, building a decent desktop headphone system costs a fraction of what a separates-based two-channel hi-fi system would for arguably the same quality. Also, the headphone has the added benefit of not forcing your musical choices on the rest of the household. My parents are still waiting for me to grow out of my “angry music phase” thirty five years later…

Austrian Audio has an interesting back story. When AKG closed its Viennese office, over twenty of the newly jobless staff members formed this company. So, even though it has only been official since 2017, the experienced team members from management, acoustics, electronics, test and measurement, mechanical design, RF/wireless, software and firmware departments had already been working together for a while. They apparently have over 350 years of cumulative engineering experience between them.

UP CLOSE

The £319 Austrian Audio Hi-X65 headphones you see here are of the open-backed variety and feature a 44mm dynamic driver. This, says Austrian Audio, is the optimal size to move the maximum amount of air while eliminating any diaphragm wobble. This is pushed along by a ring magnet and a copper-clad aluminium voice coil. The design is said to keep the weight down, ensuring that it can quickly change its direction, resulting in a more responsive driver with a quoted 5Hz to 28kHz frequency range. With impedance rated at 25 ohms and a claimed 110 dB sensitivity, these headphones should easily be driven by portable as well as desktop systems.

The Hi-X65 arrived in a good quality cardboard presentation box bundled with a cloth carry bag and a pair of cables – one 1.2m and the other 3m in length, or “Pro and on the go”, as the company puts it. Both cables are terminated with a 3.5mm plug that allows for adding the quarter-inch screw-on adaptor also included in the box. A nice touch is that the box is closed using a long length of Velcro which is punched ready to be cut down and upcycled into cable ties, should the need arise.

The headphones themselves sport robust metal hinges and headband bow, the latter featuring an inlaid adjustment rail. Velco affixes the headband cushion, so like the earpads, it can be removed to be cleaned or replaced. The earcups are padded with memory foam with the internal mesh clearly marked L and R. Rounding things off is the 180 degree yoke swivel that enables a perfect fit and allows the headphones to be laid flat. Furthermore, they also fold, which makes them exceptionally easy to slip into a bag or suitcase. I do like the look of these phones. The design has a utilitarian aesthetic that gives it more of a studio than lounge vibe, which may or may not be to your taste.

The single exit cable makes the design easy to wear at your desk or used with your portable system without getting entangled. During the review period, I found them comfortable for long periods, the light 310g weight no doubt assisting in this. I wondered about the narrow earcups compared to my reference Ultrasone Edition 15 Veritas and Oppo PM-1s, but, once on, the Austrian audition cans fitted well and never felt cramped, nor my lobes crumpled. Naturally, as expected with open-backed types, there’s a degree of sound leakage both ways, but there was a good seal from the pads, which helped with bass response and articulation.

THE LISTENING

The Austrian Audio Hi-X65 seems to walk somewhere between what you would typically expect from both open- and closed-back headphones. The design does not possess the expansive vista of my reference PM-1 or similar open-backed models, but neither does it suffer significantly from the typically rolled-off sub-bass those sometimes have to bear.

As these are also put forward as suitable for mastering and mixing, I was hoping for a balanced handling across all frequencies with little-to-no colouration. On those points, I think Austrian Audio has made good on its promise. The mid and upper bands, especially in the vocal range, are wonderfully clear and let inflexions and texture shine, bringing personality to both human and instrumental voicing.

In particular, piano was reproduced impressively well when testing the Hi-X65 through a MOON 430HA headphone amplifier using Rachmaninoff's Prelude in D, Op.23, No.4 - Andante from Lazar Berman's Grandi Pianisti on the Deutsche Grammophon label. These cans imparted a great sense of pace and feel, as well as harmonic content, although I would have enjoyed more out-of-head staging to allow the piece more room. That said, it wasn't far off to what I experience soundstage-wise from my reference closed-backs, the Ultrasone Editon 15 Veritas, which are a couple of thousand pounds more expensive.

Although sound staging is not as wide as some, image location is precise – with enough space around individual instrumentation to not feel claustrophobic or walled-in. Where the Hi-X65 does benefit from its open-back design is the lack of internal reflections, and so presents an enjoyably ordered acoustic as well as a more realistic timbre.

Treble has a lovely airiness to it, and good attack. This made cymbals sound vibrant and visceral, for example, a case in point being Tool's Pneuma. Danny Carey’s stickmanship elevated the percussion's role beyond mere time-keeping, adding much to the melody as well as the rhythm. The blistering speed of those 44mm dynamic drivers let the ranging accents used by Carey come through clearly. Additionally, the mids and highs also worked well. Justin Chancellor's distinctive gritty picked bass style sounded crisp, whereas it can seem slurred through less capable cans. This recording also highlighted the Hi-X65’s dynamic tracking ability. Here, the headphones more than accomplished the given task, even when attached to the valved smoothness of the Auris Euterpe in my desktop system.

The Austrian Audios are not the most analytical headphones I've encountered, with Focal's Clear Mg able to pick out more nuance and detail from pieces of music than them, for instance. However, again we're in a different price bracket. More in the same arena is Sennheiser's HD660S which is much more open, but seems warmer in tone than the Hi-X65.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, the sub-bass roll-off isn't as drastic as some competitors. However, the lower mids do a great job bolstering lower-ranged vocals and giving them a more natural resonance. Below that, these headphones deliver a respectable low end but are capable of much more. This was evident when playing with the EQ in the USB Audio Player Pro app on my phone. However, putting the sliders back in their default position, the double-kick work in tracks such as Opeth's The Drapery Falls remained impactful. Likewise, the throbbing bass line in Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish still resonated through my skull in a curiously pleasant way!

THE VERDICT

The Austrian Audio Hi-X65 professes studio-friendly skills and does sport some of the requisites – such as a general lack of colouration and an even-handed touch across the frequency range. However, it does sprinkle a touch of richness in to make for a more enjoyable experience when you step away from your mixing desk. This in turn leads the design to drop points in terms of pure forensic detail. Also, where the open-backed construction undoubtedly assists in the headphone's articulation and insight, those expecting a vast, expansive soundstage might feel a little let down.

This new design does many things well and, I believe, manages to walk that tricky hybrid world between talented home studio monitors and affordable head-fi. Unfortunately, though, it finds itself up against several specialists at its price which makes the going tough. Nevertheless, the Hi-X65 is well worthy of an audition, and I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing what this young company does next.

Visit Austrian Audio for more information