Technical Performance
Overall resolution is satisfactory and the transparency level is good, although it’s not like a Beyerdynamic headphone. This is instead a warm and organic approach with great fullness and body. But in its own presentation, I find these two points quite good. When it comes to soundstage it’s fairly wide and deep, more so than what I expected. Of course, a full-size over-ear would probably perform better with a bigger magnitude. That’s why I’m now quite curious about Erzetich’s full-size headphones.
The instrument separation is wonderful to me with a great background. There’s good stereo imaging as a result of nice positioning. The tonality is exemplary with this headphone and it’s one of the best I’ve tried in the sub-1000$ range, to be honest. Detail retrieval is excellent and unexpectedly good from this kind of presentation. Since the headphone is noticeably darker than most, it still has great detail and resolution. There’s great coherency and balance with the Thalia as well.
The Thalia is designed to use with portable equipment like smartphones and DAPs, or portable DAC/Amps. It has 32 ohms of impedance so it’s like an IEM driveability-wise. You shouldn’t have to worry about driving this thing. With the AK SP2000, I only needed about 70-80 volume in the home environment.
And yet, I have to say that the headphone benefits from a portable amp like the great Dethonray HA-2. It sounds faster with a better pace and dynamism overall. So although it’s designed as a go-to headphone on the go, it still benefits from a dedicated portable amplifier.
Conclusion
Erzetich Thalia surely surprised me with its musical and dark approach with fantastic tonality and realistic performance. It reminds me of the legendary HD650 with that dark approach to music. It’s all about music and enjoyment with this headphone. Other than its great sound, it has a unique design with its genuine wood cups, all hand-made assembly, and an authentic look.
There are some on-ear headphones that I really liked through the years. The DT1350, the SR80e, and RS-1 are some examples. Erzetich Thalia has managed to be one of those headphones in my journey. Therefore, I would like to place it in our Best Headphones list for its wonderful approach to music and especially for its mid-range performance.