Review: Abyss Diana Phi – Flash Gordon

Package:

The Diana Phi comes in a compact silver logo embossed black cardboard box that beholds the headphones, the selected cable and a canvas carry-case. There isn’t a lot of accessories in the package, but in the end, all you need is your headphones and the cable.

I think a second pair of cables would have been nice as standard. Maybe pack a 6.3 mm and a 4 Pin XLR cable in there to use with multiple amplifiers. While I am totally fine with the 4 Pin XLR cable I chose, it might be good to add that option. Of course you can always buy a secondary cable, but for the price Diana Phi is going for, a second set of cables should be included.

Abyss Diana Phi

Build Quality and Comfort:

The entire body of Diana Phi is milled out of a solid block of aluminium. The earpieces and the sliders are covered in a titanium grey ceramic coating, which gives the Phi a very nice feel in my opinion.

With only 350 grams of weight, the Diana Phi is amongst the lightest of high end headphones. Diana Phi comes with what Abyss calls an EMotion headband, which magnetically adjust to the listener’s head and contours it for a comfortable fit.

The headband is rather thin and padded with just a little bit of soft Alcantara on the bottom. The top of it is covered with real leather. The red stitches around the grey leather give a nice accent. The earcups have this beautiful Fibonacci pattern on each side. As a lover of numbers and geometry, I truly admire this pattern and style.

On the bottom of the earcups you have the 2.5 mm mono ports for the cable. Though the 2.5 mm plugs aren’t considerably robust, Abyss has put them in recessed sockets for improved stability and support. This makes me less worried about breaking the connectors than on let’s say a HiFiMAN headphone which uses the same connection.

Abyss Diana Phi

The earpads of the Phi have also been changed from the original. They are now bigger and sport more room for your ears to be placed in them. They are attached with pretty strong magnets and can of course be replaced. If you take the pads off, you’ll have access to the serial number of your unit.

Abyss proudly makes their headphones in the USA, and that’s shown a few times on the headphones too. When you glide the sliders all the way up, you’ll see the US flag and underneath the earpads it also says “MADE IN USA”. I for one am glad to see them not outsourcing their production.

The design of the Diana Phi is best described as funky with its curved rectangular shaped cups and straight forward headband. The Phi displays a high clamping force when you hold it in hands, but the contrary is true when you place it on your head. I never felt any discomfort from them.

The low weight also has a nice play in giving the Diana Phi good comfort levels. Though I feel the padding of the headband could’ve been improved. Now, after about three hours with them on my head I can notice pressure points to start building up on my scalp. Given the goal of Diana Phi to become the world’s thinnest boutique headphone, it was inevitable to make compromises. Therefore some design considerations must have been made in order to achieve said goal.

Sound on the next page.