Quad Era-1 Planar Magnetic Headphones

Product Information

Since 1936, Quad has been responsible for some landmark audio products, but none more famous than the iconic ESL electrostatic panel loudspeakers. In a new ERA for Quad, they've drawn on their expertise with electrostatics to design these outstanding planar headphones, ERA-1. Quad engineers have developed a planar magnetic drive film technology which delivers a fast, open and transparent sound - similar in performance to the world famous ESL loudspeakers. Again they sound remarkably similar. They are very similarly tuned. The biggest difference is that the ERA-1 has a tighter and better defined bass, whereas the 109 is a bit more bloomy and punchy.

Given the heritage of Quad and their electrostatic speakers, it would not be fair to do this review without comparing their first headphones ever to an electrostatic. Quad themselves say the ERA-1 builds on their heritage and experience with electrostatic speakers, even though the ERA-1 actually is a planar magnetic headphone. In terms of sound performance, HD660S sound tinier with worse soundstage and depth, it is very up-front by comparison, really. HD660s has a nice midrange, a good mid-bass and treble response. However, ERA-1 is doing all that at a higher level, there is just more or everything. ERA-1 have just overall more information, are sounding more open, deeper and more natural. HD660S are not bad by any means, ERA-1 is just overall a better headphone. Driver complement: One low mass, planar-magnetic driver with patented non-linear vibration suppression technology. Drivers are matched to close tolerances. As a result, treble is also airy, extended and detailed. Listening to some fast drum solos I was happy to hear clear and real cymbals, I was hearing its start and finish, not a single blob of muddiness. Treble is also biting and has a lot of presence and detail; however, it is never bright/harsh sounding.With regards to desktop amps, the Fiio K5 PRO ESS (with external source) does a very fine job, slightly warm sounding and certainly a good match. Schiit Magni 3 Heretic works absolutely fine, and the Topping A90 too. The Monolith THX AAA 887 stands out. It is superbly in control and very neutral in the right way.The Ukrainian Rebel Amp is also fabolous with the ERA-1. You should also know that Arya has a linear bass performance, so if you craving for a bass-canon headphone this will not be for you but if you craving for a clean, transparent, detailed, layered and linear bass response – then this is for you. All my former planars needed gobs of power and most of the time you would end up be very limited by portable solutions. ERA-1 are very different in this regard.

Quad states that ERA-1 have a sensitivity of 94 dB per one mW of power, it also has a nominal impedance of just 20 Ω, for a planar-magnetic headphone this is very unusual. Running a water-fall plot revealed this impressive reading, in terms of frequency response Arya is absolutely close to Perfect and is considered reference even at this price point. This water-fall shows the only con Arya is having and that is the decay of the bass, is it a bit slower than the rest of the spectrum. Since the headphone market grown exponentially in the past years, Quad decided to have a small slice of that huge pie.On top of that the bass is rumbling like crazy now, there's no comparison with the velour pads that sound thin in comparison. I think the transparency is not optimal because there is an additional foam layer that comes attached with the pads, but the sound is still quite clean and sharp overall, no complaint here. This sounds really good on the HD660S2. The bass is good and punchy, the presentation is very enveloping. Nice amount of detail. The soundstage is not big but still open enough to feel that you’re listening to an open headphone. Unlike ordinary headphones that use mass-produced dynamic cone drivers which can hamper transient response and cause an uneven frequency response, Quad's cutting-edge planar magnetic technology delivers a more natural and accurate sound, ensuring you hear every nuance of a recorded musical performance.

The bass is tighter and more detailed with the ERA-1. Cohen’s voice is very nicely rendered by both headphones. Lots of textures and nuances. Weighting just 404 grams (14.3 oz) it is among the lightest planar-magnetic headphone I put my hands on. Arya has a clever weight distribution mechanism that is mostly relying on two things: on the super-wide and extra-large headband that is already evenly applying pressure on the top of your heard and it is also relying on the huge and soft ear-pads that will absorb side pressure. In my opinion Arya are among the least head-crunching headphones I tested so they are scoring great marks in terms of comfort.What excels with ERA-1 is actually a combination of multiple factors that as a whole makes them truly special: Crazy speed & impact, tremendous slam, good transparency and depth, great tonal balance without noticeable flaws and very easy to drive especially for an ortho-dynamic headphone. In general, with planar-magnetic headphones I observed much smaller changes after burn-in compared to dynamic headphones. However, ERA-1 are slightly different, they will sound at their best after few hours of playtime, after about 50 hours the difference became much smaller. Before moving into the frequency response ERA-1 has very high levels of transparency and depth. It is a night and day difference between them and a pair of Sennheiser HD660S or Audeze LCD-2 (original) that I have besides me.

Design wise I do find ERA-1 quite un-original and plain looking, nothing too fancy in my opinion. Put them close to 100 USD headphones and they will most likely look the same. A complete straight line from 20 Hz to 1Khz and just a small deviation in the treble area that is just normal behavior. The Meze has got some serious bass punch. They sound quite similar in many ways. The ERA-1 has a tighter bass, the 109 Pro a bit more oomph. The soundstage is similar, nice and spacious with both. They feel similarly bright with this quite bright-sounding song.

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I like that Arya is showing all that important micro-detail information but in a non-aggressive way. Very non-Sennhseiser-HD800-like but natural somehow. It plays every small micro-vibration and detail but doesn’t scream: Look At Me How I Do It!