Picture Sunday: Malvalve’s Creation

Disclaimer: The stars of this weeks’ picture Sunday is the prototype Malvalve headphone. This post is a part of our Picture Sunday series.

 

It probably isn’t the first time you’ve seen this headphone appear on Headfonia as this Malvalve creation has been in our Canjam Europe reports before. It obviously still is a work in progress as we can see in the picture below that it’s form has changed over the years. This picture was taken when the show was still held in Essen.

The biggest change of course has been done to the headband/suspension system as it now it much bigger and impressive, yet more comfortable. You can now see a double metal construction as the pics clearly show.

Putting on this headphone isn’t easy as you need to get the 3 suspending leather bands correctly set on your head. The company owner helped me get it right for my head and then he adjusted the headband width and the speaker angle to get the best sound.

Once correctly installed – it basically is the same system as the AKG K1000 and the new MySphere – you get the most wonderful sound possible. I was surprised to read that some people really didn’t care for it but I found it to sound extremely good. Of course if the headphone isn’t set up right, you simply don’t get good sound. And then there’s the fact that you’re at a show, a place where no single open constructed headphone sounds as good as it does.

Last time I checked, and that was with the old headband, the price was already over €5000 so I’m sure it’s even more expensive now already. You either love or hate the industrial/Frankenstein look but I do look forward to seeing a finished version of this creature as it sounds absolutely great.

So, what says the people, crazy or awesome?

4.1/5 - (11 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

1 Comment

  • Reply December 11, 2017

    Jobbing

    Last time I checked (in Essen) it was €12.000 for this showstopper as you’ll definitely need that matching high voltage Malvalve tube amplifier to get this AMAZING sounding set singing. Last year I couldn’t believe my ears, sat over at their booth for ages. The involving way of listening, absurd accuracy of representation of my favorite tracks made me ecstatic, admittedly these actually made me cry of joy. When attending to the next headphone exhibition the Malvalve booth certainly will be the first stop for sure.

    Good job Lieven for bringing these headphones to the attention of the headphone community and general public, Malvalve really deserves the exposure as to me they have set a new sonic bar with this creation

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