HiFiMAN Deva-Pro Over-Ear Full-Size Open-Back Planar Magnetic Headphone with Bluetooth Dongle/Receiver, Himalaya R2R Architecture DAC, Easily Switch Between Wired and Wireless, Bluetooth 5.0

Product Information

These are incredibly comfortable, slightly darker, but very natural headphones with a beautiful and dynamic presentation. It’s not sharp enough to cause injuries, but it does illustrate some deficiencies in the fit and finish of the product.

It is good and straight to the point, and most importantly – the box is secure enough that you don’t have to worry about the safety of your new headphones while in transit.It is not something that can lead to listener fatigue and the sound is absent of harshness although the attentive listener will not fail to notice that there are signs of artificial and metallic timbre combined with a thinner touch. As for emphasis the treble part is a bit more forward than the rest making for a sparkly and livelier presentation, giving instruments more illumination this time.

The highest point is actually around 5kHz and as I have mentioned in the past, my ears seem to be far more sensitive to the 5k mark than the 3k mark. It offered a very pleasant, musical, and smooth tone while keeping that signature Hifiman technical performance. DEVA PRO is an interesting proposition from HIFIMAN because it is based on headphones with a large planar transducer and stealth magnets. Having that in mind, I expected a lot by the midrange of the Deva Pro, and I wasn’t disappointed…quite the opposite actually.

The battery life is about 8 hours, and this module packs some meat, driving the Deva Pro very effortlessly and with authority.

I imagine this is actually intentional though because this also allows for a bit of cup swivel, alleviating one of my only complaints about HiFiMAN's excellent Sundara. Obviously these are not a set of bluetooth headphones that you would use on a plane or other transport, but the commodity of being wireless whenever needed, without a loss of quality, is something to be praised. The unique Bluetooth dongle turns DEVA into a powerful wireless headphone, supporting advanced high-resolution codecs such as Sony's LDAC and Qualcomm's aptX HD, making it well-suited to most currently available high-definition streaming devices. Speaking with a number of engineers on the subject, it seems pad seal is one of the parameters for this ‘slam’ quality, and due to the Deva’s rounded shape, you do get a decent seal. And in this latter sense, the Deva’s timbral character comes across as a bit dry to me - almost reminiscent of the older HiFiMAN headphones (think again the HE-400i).Meanwhile, the neo-supernano diaphragm refers to the nano-scale thinness of the diaphragm itself, with a sub-micron level voice coil traced onto the diaphragm. What’s worth noting is that the Deva Pro has a shinier and more pronounced treble, which could be a hit or miss for some people. But, I am still able to test it with R-2R DAC sound -- as I've been listening to this primarily on my Spring 3 KTE DAC, as well as the Cayin RU-6 portable DAC/Amp -- both custom R-2R DAC implementations. However, we are not just comparing sound, there are so many other things that fit into the equation. So, the overall presentation of both versions reminds somehow similar, offering a rich, smooth, and romantic tone paired with great detail reproduction.