Little Dot is making headphones now. Yes, the brand that is mostly known for budget hybrid-tube headphone amplifiers of various sizes is now dipping their toes into the headphones market with this new headphone called the "GYFU", which apparently stands for "A Gift For You." (I will assume its a translation to Chinese thing, as the acronym doesn't match the sentence layout)
This headphone retails for $549 and was provided by Linsoul for review. The headphone is purchasable on Linsoul's store at http://www.linsoul.com.
Headphone Configuration
The Little Dot headphone isn't just any ordinary headphone, as they are marketing their first entry as a "Triple Driver" headphone. It features a 50mm main nano-composite driver, a small 8mm driver which reminds me of an IEM driver and a "bass reverberation chamber," whatever that means. I would have assumed its a passive radiator, like what is found in speakers, but I did not see such things in the exploded view of the driver configuration in the marketing photos.
The headphone design is pretty attractive from afar. It has zebra wood round cups that has a light brown stain and a very nicely designed grill. The headphone is open-back and will leak sound out.
The headband looks fairly generic, but also simple and low-key. The metal yokes feel solid and also swivel 180 degrees in either direction, making these very easy to wear for most head shapes.
The included pads are a hybrid perforated design, featuring protein leather (fake) exterior with the perforations, and a cloth liner material to give more breatheability and comfort to your face. The round pads are actually slightly larger in diameter than the cups, which makes them look a little awkward.
In general, I feel like the overall look is simple and easy enough on the eyes. It does not flash premium, but also does not look cheap either. The comfort is pretty good, and these headphones are generally lightweight for longer use time.
The cable included is a cloth-braided cable with very fancy connectors on either end. The cable terminates in 3.5mm on both cups as well as the headphone jack side that would connect to an amplifier or audio player.
One other thing to note on the presentation is that this headphone comes packaged with a very fancy custom wood box that acts as a somewhat large and heavy carrying case. I found that it is a nice looking box and great packaging, but in my daily use, I just put it away and never looked at it again, as I don't find a wooden crate very practical for daily storage and use.
Sound Impressions
The GYFU has a sound signature that I'd say has a punchy low end, marked with a slightly strained and peaky upper-midrange and slightly bright highs. The overall tonality has an interesting mix of not wanting to sound lean, but ending up sounding lean, and also coming across a tad nasally and tinny because of this.
The headphone graphs a bit better than it actually sounds in my opinion. That said, though, the areas where I mentioned in my initial impressions do show up as peaks within the frequency response, unfortunately, and the graph above shows the deviation from my personal target curve. It's amazing how small little shifts can cause something to sound that much different.
I listened to a variety of music with the GYFU on various systems. My main system is a combination of the Chord Qutest and Bakoon AMP-13R, while my secondary system used was a Topping D30 Pro and A30 Pro stack. Finally, I also spent quite a bit of time using the GYFU with the Lotoo PAW 6000 Digital Audio Player and the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm dongle paired with my phone. My impressions don't really change too much from device to device, as I don't think this specific headphone scales greatly with any system, and, if anything, I'd prefer it with a warmer chain.
Listening to this headphone with Tegan and Sara's various tracks, I found the vocals to be especially pitched up, with a lack of weight and more of a light metallic sound than I would have expected. That's saying something considering these twins already have a higher pitched set of voices than many. The low end response on many of the tracks from their "Love You to Death" album sound nicely weighted and fun, though lacking some texture and depth, especially on the harder hitting tracks.
In Air's "Moon Safari" album, I found similar issues, though not nearly as pronounced. Across various songs, like the female-vocal led "All I Need" and the male-synth'd vocal "Remember", I found that certain synth instruments sounded a tad sparkly and bright, though also dull and flat. Again, the low end felt full and strong, but the upper-mids and treble just had an imbalance of good and bad that always shined the spotlight on the harshness more so than anything else. Unfortunately, I don't find the GYFU very smooth, which has become something I really look for in the treble range nowadays.
In "Something in the Way" by the Beatles, George Harrison's vocals sound solid, and I don't feel too much of the nasally pitch, beyond what is already present on the old track. The bass plucks have a nice weight and feel to them and are well defined and separated from the left channel, while the guitars come across nicely on the right end, though occasionally are presented a tad brighter than I'd expect. In this particular track, I feel the GYFU headphone does its presentation rather well, though there's still a bit of trouble in the bridge sections where the snare drums come in and sound a tad dull and not really accurate presented.
Overall
Little Dot's first attempt here seems like they are trying a bit too hard right out of the gate. In hindsight, I don't think any of these multi-driver headphones have fared too well in the past, and I personally think this one is just an "alright" headphone, but for its asking price, there's plenty of much better competition at lower costs and from bigger companies.
While I do like the overall wood cups and grill style, I find the overall look of the headphones to be a bit of a distraction more than something I think looks very attractive. The sound also doesn't play that well with my ears, although it does work with some music.
I do hope there's more attempts from this brand and others from the Chinese market as there's a lot of growth potential here. Unfortunately, at the $550 asking price, I'd recommend a laundry list of other items. If this had been half the price, it may have been more competitive (or may be not either).
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