What should you expect when you buy the ‘best’? Or is it all much ado about nothing?
Abyss Headphones is having a bad week. They’ve likely found that knee-jerk reactions aren’t as beneficial as considered and professional responses. In case you’ve missed the drama making the rounds of the popular headphone enthusiast sites, I’ll do my best to fill you in.
About Abyss
To set the stage, we should review who Abyss is, and what products they produce. Abyss Headphones is a division of US-based JPS Labs LLC. JPS Labs, founded by Joe Skubinski, has been in business for 30 years, primarily a high-end cable manufacturer. In addition to Abyss Headphones, they also produce StackZilla audio component racks.
Abyss headphones are designed by Joe’s son Eric, and they claim that “we engineer, machine, and assemble our headphones from scratch using the finest materials.” The current Abyss lineup is:
- Diana v2 – $2995
- Diana Phi – $3995
- AB-1266 Phi TC – $4995
Of note, JPS Labs offers a couple of upgrade cables for the Abyss headphones:
- JPS Labs Superconductor HP upgrade cable set for Abyss AB-1266 – sale price $1990 ($2200 regular price)
- JPS Labs Superconductor HP upgrade cable set for Abyss DIANA – priced from $1400
All this information has likely led you to form an opinion. Certainly, headphones made by a company offering $1400-$2000 upgrade cables is a controversial topic for many headphone enthusiasts. Regardless, I think it’s fair to assume that Abyss declares their headphones to be of the absolute highest quality.
While it’s always difficult to make a value judgment or any sort of return on investment argument for products at the top price tier, generally we should be able to have trust. Trust in that when purchasing from a boutique manufacturer, one should receive a level of quality in materials, design, and support that is proportionate to the price.
Certainly, the Abyss headphones have many fans, and generally, they are described as being near the pinnacle of sound quality, with unmatched resolution and neutrality.
So what happened to cause all the drama?
ASR Review of the Abyss Diana V2
AudioScienceReview published their review of the Abyss Diana V2 on Monday, Jan 11. The review highlighted some serious concerns, including limited sub-bass response and high measured distortion.
“Conclusions
On the physical side, I think you are getting decent offering in the form of “luxury” when it comes to this headphone. Unfortunately, nothing like that comes along on the fidelity front. Both subjectively and objectively there is no there there. [sic]
I like to see near perfection as far as distortion is concerned even if they thought different tonality was merited than our target. At the same time I can’t imagine anyone being able to make a good case that you should have a chunk of your spectrum taken out from the lower to middle treble. This is where a lot of “air” and sense of “hi-fi” exists in music…
In summary, I can’t recommend the Abyss Diana V2.”
In response to critical comments regarding his review, Amir Majidimehr, the founder of ASR, went on to say, “Yes, I have read the other reviews where people say they died and gone to heaven after listening to this headphone. Don’t ask me to rationalize their experiences. I am here to rationalize mine. :)”
The initial Abyss response to ASR
The official ABYSS Headphones account defensively responded to this criticism in a YouTube comment. “Amateurs need lessons on proper operation and limitations of their test gear before pretending to be someone they’re not.”
Unsurprisingly this didn’t alleviate any concerns and served to add fuel to the fire. In the world of online marketing, this was clearly a blunder.
Later, in a couple of Reddit posts, Abyss answered questions regarding this YouTube comment (now deleted). “So you do agree that this comment was very unprofessional and doesn’t speak for the company as a whole?”
“Yes. That comment doesn’t represent the views of Abyss Headphones and doesn’t belong on the company account. We’ve made some internal changes regarding how social media and YouTube comments are handled.” – Abyss-Headphones
”Here at Abyss, audio is our lives both as a career and as a passion. I know I speak for myself and the team when I say that we definitely take every comment and critique very seriously. In this case a member of the team was upset and left a comment that has since been edited.
I would like to clarify that as a team we’re not calling anyone Amateurs. We understand that review-publications have a passion for audio just like us at the Abyss team, and just like the rest of you here.” – Abyss-Headphones
The second Abyss response to the ASR review
Finally, Abyss commented directly (on Reddit) regarding the concerns raised in the ASR review. “But what about the distortion in ASR’s measurements?”
In response to the measurements: We respectfully don’t believe this is representative of our products or internal measurements. We could publish internal measurements but we believe to avoid the perception of potential bias it’s best for a 3rd party to measure and publish results. We’re currently in the process of getting this set up.” – Abyss-Headphones
Head-Fi weighs in
Jude Mansilla, the founder of Head-Fi stepped up to address the ASR review and posted his own measurements and conclusions. It should be pointed out that Abyss headphones are currently a financial supporter of Head-Fi and that, in the past, Head-Fi has been accused of less than objective responses regarding previous critiques of their sponsors.
“AudioScienceReview used a GRAS 45CA (with GRAS RA0402 ear simulators) and we used the Brüel & Kjær 5128. We also have the same GRAS 45CA setup as AudioScienceReview and have measured with it for six years, so I am very familiar with it…
I agree with Amir at AudioScienceReview that this is an interesting, challenging headphone to measure…Even then, additional care was required with the DIANA V2 as tiny movements over the fixture with this headphone could break seal and radically alter the bass response in one or both channels…
After testing on our GRAS 45CA (identical in configuration to AudioScienceReview’s), I suspect that the results we are seeing in the measurement in Fig.1 were likely due to issues of placement of the headphone on the measurement fixture…” – Jude Mansilla
I suspect our measured THD may be lower than AudioScienceReview’s for a couple of reasons: First, we use a Herzan acoustic and vibration isolation enclosure… Second, our measured frequency response had quite a bit more energy approaching 20 Hz… Since both AudioScienceReview and we are expressing THD as a ratio, this should lead to a lower measured percentage in our measurement given our higher measured output there…
I have not looked at all of AudioScienceReview’s headphone measurements, but certainly with this one I think AudioScienceReview should consider re-measuring it and working on better and more careful placement of the headphone on their measurement fixture. Again, we would like to improve our DIANA V2 measurements by adding a two or three more seatings ourselves. I do strongly agree, though, that the ABYSS Headphones DIANA V2 is more challenging than most headphones to measure.” – Jude Mansilla
ASR’s response to Head-Fi
Of course, Amir of ASR had a response for Jude:
“I am really disappointed in Jude not calling this out as a high distortion headphone. Nothing like this is acceptable. By papering over this, he is encouraging them to keep building non-performant devices.
Jude did the same thing when we had disagreement with Schiit electronic products. Produced a bunch of graphs, confusing average person when reality was 100% on our side. I hope he doesn’t continue to play this role and becomes an advocate for consumers, not help companies paper over flaws…
In other words, Jude’s frequency response measurements highly correlate with my assessment. Indeed I could develop my EQ using his measurements and arrive somewhere close to where I am!…
Really, it seemed like an aimless effort to spit out a bunch of chart hoping folks get confused and just jump to the punchline that I need more experience. No Jude. You need to verify what you are measuring using listening tests and do more measurements to know what is good, and what is not a good headphone.” – ASR
The drama continues on Head-Fi
Somewhat in contrast to the public apology above, both the official Abyss account and Joe Skubinski have continued to post on the Head-Fi thread. Immediately following a user comment ending with “…don’t succumb to the sycophants,” the official Abyss Account posted a link to a clip from the 1983 movie Wargames.
Confusing? Vaguely threatening? It’s certainly open to interpretation. The post did seem to set the tone for following comments from Abyss founder, Joe Skubinski, who appears to be on the warpath regarding Amir and his ASR review.
“In the case of ASR’s measurements… The fact that they published these measurements (with notations on the graphs on how bad the measurements look) seems to point to some sort of biased intent. These are not objective measurements, this is how THEY made them look, subjectively skewed. Anyone in the know who does headphone measurements for a living knows it…
So the question is, why ASR knowingly published flawed measurements? So far the only reason given is they wanted to show how the headphone would ‘sound’ with a gap between ear pad and head. IMO this is nothing but BS, plain and simple.” – Joe Skubinski on Head-Fi
This sort of public sniping in the forums isn’t the sort of professional response expected from a company. Please note that the concerns being raised may be entirely valid, it’s just the tone that is surprising. I can’t help but think that putting aside emotion and establishing a direct (and perhaps offline) conversation with Amir would be far more constructive.
This would help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and measuring the same things, and perhaps they might discover that the gap isn’t as wide as what is being created by airing this for all to see.
Certainly the public impression would improve.
Pictures of Wrinkled Abyss 1266 Drivers Appear on Reddit
While all the ASR drama was going on, a couple of Reddit r/headphones posts (post 1, post 2) gained notoriety. In these posts, two unconnected owners of the TOTL Abyss 1266 opened up the cups to take a look at the drivers. What they found were wrinkles all around the edges of the planar diaphragm material.
Theoretically, wrinkles in the thin driver diaphragm will have an unintended impact on the sound generated by the driver.
Cable concerns
Feelings around the eternal cable debate also stirred the pot. The thin internal wires pictured in the 1266 photos have caused an uproar. The company sells $2000 upgrade cables and the appearance of the internal wiring is of stark contrast.
The Abyss response to the Reddit photos
These pictures led to further responses both from the official Abyss account and from YouTube reviewer and current Abyss employee DMS. Unfortunately, these responses to the driver images were somewhat unclear, accusatory, and contradictory. DMS weighed in with regards to the 2017 driver post:
“I work at abyss and personally felt the need to clarify. This is NOT a Phi-TC, it’s an older model and isn’t representative of our production drivers.
Edit: It looks to me like this driver has actually been damaged. I’ve seen drivers from this era around and they don’t look like this. Generally they hold up really well unless someone tampers with them or exposes them to extreme circumstances.” DMS-Official
The official Abyss account also initially implied that the driver imperfections were likely the fault of the owner, would not pass quality control measures, and that current production models do not show this issue.
“The headphone pictured is NOT an AB-1266 Phi TC, it’s an older model that we no-longer produce. From the pictures it appears to be damaged either from (I would assume unintentional/accidental) tampering or extreme operating conditions.
Our TC models have a very different looking driver and tight QC. The headphone pictured wouldn’t pass QC and we certainly wouldn’t allow it to be shipped.” – Abyss-Headphones
Abyss official statement
Abyss attempted to address the concerns by releasing a somewhat obtuse statement, stating that the wrinkling is perfectly normal for the 2013 version of the 1266 headphones. However their response regarding the 2017 driver is open to interpretation on whether the wrinkling is normal or not. “This driver still changes in tension during use to achieve optimal operating tension. As a result of these changes, this driver did not have as low of a resting tension as the original (OG) AB-1266. The difference we’re talking about here can be rather subtle.”
Normal or not?
“Here we’re looking at two different generations of drivers. It’s important to note that neither of which are representative of the current TC model in both design and construction.
In the case of the original AB-1266 driver (production year 2013) these wrinkles pictured are normal… This picture is normal for the 1st generation design…” – Abyss-Headphones
It’s tough to know what to trust when the story seems to change. Are the wrinkles perfectly normal for these models and do not adversely affect the sound? If they are normal, then isn’t it odd to assure readers that current drivers do not show this wrinkling, and to imply that it was as a result of the owner’s negligence, or “conditions far outside of normal use”?
One owner’s response to Abyss
The owner of the 1266 headphones (2013 version) addressed the implications raised by Abyss through many comments (summarized below). He made it clear that he’s generally very happy with how the headphones sound, but is dismayed by the driver’s appearance and the response from Abyss. He also posted a video of opening up the left cup. Again, driver wrinkling is clearly evident.
“This is my personal 1266 that I opened after I saw the pics of the russian guy’s driver. If you click on the imgur link there are 2 more pictures. It is not the angle. The driver is super uneven and wrinkled around the edges…
i literally just took out the 8 screws. carefully lifted open the lid. took a few pics and then put the screws back in. i was super careful and I am an av engineer with electrical and audio soldering skills. so i felt pretty comfortable doing it…
It has lived in my temperature controlled room. They sound fine. The bass only rattles the whole headphone and sounds bloated if i crank my mjolnir 2 to like 3-4 oclock volume…
I’m not sure if it sounds wrong because this is the only 1266 i have ever heard. I was extremely disheartened to find the wrinkles though on my driver as that can’t be good for sound quality. I don’t know if this is just normal break in or if my drivers or damaged, but i certainly did not put them in any extreme temperatures to damage them and and I babied them…
…they sound no different from before or after i opened it. I have never heard another 1266. so i don’t know if they have any tonal abnormalities. i will try to try a phi tc soon to compare. hopefully abyss will let me upgrade to the phi drivers at a discount or on the house. Honestly I enjoy them better than my HEKSE and hd800. superior imaging and detail.”
It appears that this situation could have been easily handled. Doesn’t it seem obvious for Abyss to immediately contact the affected owners directly and initiate a warranty repair? To head concerns off at the pass? It is not unreasonable to expect companies to step up and prove why their headphones are worth a premium.
In the end, it all comes down to service.
All companies should take care of their customer’s concerns, regardless of whether they consider them valid or not. However, rather than displaying concern or care, the tone from Abyss was defensive and full of blame. And let’s not forget, these customers paid $5000 for these headphones.
Boiling It All Down
There is a lot of information to digest. In a nutshell, there are two different issues raised with Abyss this week. First is the ASR review:
Secondly the pictures of wrinkled 1266 drivers on Reddit:
Further Questions and Considerations
We are left with a lot of outstanding questions that should be considered before we draw any conclusions.
- Are the ASR results indicative of a problem? Did ASR measure or interpret the results accurately?
- Can we trust the Head-Fi measurements or conclusions of their sponsor’s product?
- Are there driver quality control issues in previous or current Abyss models? And if so, do wrinkles in the drivers negatively impact the sound, or are they (as later claimed) meant to be there?
What Should Abyss Do?
First and foremost, Abyss should take a proactive approach to resolve their customer’s concerns. They must not allow isolated incidents to blow up and (perhaps permanently) color the community’s perception of their products.
Clearly, Abyss has communication issues. Knee-jerk responses, contradictory information, and customer blame does far more lasting financial and reputational damage than offering the occasional repair.
Abyss really needs an available publicist to draft all company communications. Then they must follow up internally to ensure that their employees know and follow proper communication procedures. In short, they should learn from this situation.
Step up and offer a lifetime warranty. Sure, this may impact the bottom line, but it’s the right thing to do for customers who pay for these TOTL products. As I tell my six-year-old, every time we make a mistake, it presents an opportunity to learn and improve.
u/RealLordTequila here. I don’t actually own the AB-1266, neither I’ve have heard them. I didn’t know about the Abyss drama prior to posting the picture, I found them when looking at the Snorry SI-3, which I’m interested in buying, and the Snorry NM-1, which I’m also interested on acquiring when my economic means improve.
(As a side note, I personally recommend that http://www.headphonesty.com takes a look at them at headmusic.ru , because these past week I’ve become aware of a huge Head-Fi community that mainstream doesn’t cover at all. At minimum three to five companies that do not break into mainstream. This could be something as huge as the current Chi-Fi movement, in my opinion. I am not an electrical engineer, but the Non-meandering diaphragm patent Mr. Sergei has in his website may be as revolutionary as JPS Labs’ debut in the headphone scene).
All in all, sorry for the confusion. That is not my headphone. It’s from some Madlad Ukrainian guy who posted these pictures at a Russian Forum back in 2018. I can provide the source if asked.
Thanks for weighing in and participating in the discussion! Yes, please provide the original forum link.
I’m hearing a lot about Snorry over the last few weeks. I’d love to have the opportunity to review them.
Cheers!
Here is the original forum link.
https://www.dastereo.ru/t/abyss-1266-phi-kachaet-pleer-i-drugie-prikoly/32028/43
Have a good day!
Thank you! We’ve added it to the article.
Hi. I am the guy that opened the 2nd original abyss 1266 and posted the video opening the left driver. Abyss has still not reached out to me as of Monday 1/18/2021. I even commented on their post on reddit about the driver with no response from them. Not sure if I should reach out to them via email or phone or just wait for now for them to get all their ducks in a row. But I am still not sure if my driver is damaged based on their first comment or not damaged based on their second comment. Since then I have had a chance to listen to a phi tc and i’m thinking about taking a peak at the driver and posting pics. The phi tc sounds better in every way and is warmer while still keeps the insane detail of the original driver but has less slam. the phi tc also has a better instrument separation and timber somehow. The original still sounds better in my opinion compared to other TOTL headphones i’ve tried like the lcd-4, meze empyrean, hd800s. the phi and the original might be tied with my HEKse. Never heard the Susvara. But the HEKSE has a taller soundstage with the same detail as the 1266. the hekse has worse instrument separation as it is taller than it is wide but overall is a tie with the 1266 in terms of performance and enjoyability. The hekse just doesn’t show you as well of where the instruments are in the mix but the vocals sound way better on the hekse even over the phi tc. so vocals, larger driver/sounstage, more sub bass, easier to drive, more comfortable and warmer that the phi-tc. But the phi tc does everything else better, detail, instrument separation, tonality, bass detail. accuracy.
Back to the original 1266 compared to the Phi TC has better slam and that’s about it. the phi tc beats it in every way. The og simply can’t compete with the tonal balance and accuracy of the phi tc. Also the og 1266 distorts way more easily at lower volumes in the bass with song’s like billie eilish’s bad guy and other bass heavy tracks like slow dancing in a burning room by john mayer. while rotating the pads and readjusting the headphone on your head only fixes the problem up until a certain volume level before there is nothing you can do about the bass rattle. the phi tc does not distort or rattle until much higher volume and handles this issue much better than the original 1266 does. I’m taking like 2-3 o’clock on a mjolnir 2 on the volume knob. My chain is Yggy, Freya+, Mjolnir 2.
Anyway what do you guys think I should do about my OG 1266 driver?
Should I post pics of the phi TC driver?
Let me know
It’s great to get your input! Please keep us updated on any changes.
Perhaps contact Abyss directly via their official channels and see what they say regarding your drivers?
We will happily update our coverage if you do have the opportunity to share any pics of the phi TC driver.
Cheers! Thanks!
Buckle up, because Abyss is going bye-bye, at least in my book for now. When company sells cables worth as much as the headphones, something smells a little fishy.
In the discourse about the Abyss headphones, if you go to their you tube channel,
Eric the chief engineer is not the son of the owner, who also appears in their
videos.
Thanks for pointing that out. We will update.
Excellent write up Trav. And yes, Abyss lands on the blacklist along with IMR and Campfire Audio for shady business practices, lying to customers and treating them as nothing more than walking wallets.
None of this drama is surprising. Abyss told us to “do your own research” when it comes to cables. I did and posted my findings:
Joe Skubinski of Abyss Headphones and the $300 Eupen power cable scam.
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/l09imb/joe_skubinski_of_abyss_headphones_and_the_300/
I opened my phi tc. Not as many wrinkles but still some along the edges in the black area as you can see in the first pic.
https://www.reddit.com/user/HodorNoMoreHodoring/comments/l29k8k/just_opened_my_abyss_1266_phi_tc_driver_this_is/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Regarding the ASR measurements, Abyss’ headphones are known to have exceptionally strong magnets (I remember DMS mentioned they can stick to the side of a car). It is very possible that this may have had an impact on the measured results. Planars have historically been difficult to measure because of this. Zreviews, for example, constantly complains about the troublesomeness of recording sound tests for planar drivers. Additionally, it is worth noting that reviews by objectivists and reviews by subjectivists both have a place in this community. There is often a pressure to pick a side, and I personally think that both should be considered in order to make a well rounded evaluation of a product. ASR has been known to give bad reviews to generally well received products, like the aforementioned Diana and Focal’s Clear. Does this mean these are bad headphones? No. Does this demean Amir’s credibility? Also no.
In regards to the wrinkled drivers, this is absolutely unacceptable. If Abyss wants to regain credibility and respect, they would offer repairs. If they refuse, they either don’t care about their customers, or they don’t believe in their product. The fact that their base warranty competes with those of gaming peripheral companies does not give me much confidence in the latter.
That’s why i don’t go to HeadFi anymore, which i used to frequent.
I guess Jude is often busy and couldn’t care less about small fry like me, but i did get a really strange feeling from him while i was there. And if they think their measurement showed enough difference to merit their response in support of the sponsor… Well, i guess my gut feeling was tight.
Woops, i meant to say my gut feeling was right, not tight…
I have a question. What is this really all about? Do the 1266s of any generation perform as they’re supposed to or not? If they do, what is the point of this article? If they don’t, then why wouldn’t you take your 6000 headphones back to the manufacturer and make sure they do? If your car had a rough idle you’d take it in and have it looked at, but not a pair of high-priced headphones? This article has all the earmarkings of a hit piece. Question is, why? What is the motivation? I’ve not seen one review on the Abyss line that says they’re not what they say they are.
Those that can’t hear, measure.
I have been using abyss 1266 for a few years. Personally I like the sound of them. I wouldn’t say that they’re perfect by all means. From the first day I got them, they had issues with distortion. I feel that the more they get warmed up, the better. But then again you wouldn’t have to start your Ferrari for thirty mins to go for a proper drive, would you now? Next to a music company like Moog, I feel that Abyss couldn’t ever compete. I feel that when you BLOW 10k, that you more or less shouldn’t ever have to buy another product of the same kind again. I love how Abyss states that the powder coated material is amongst the worlds strongest. Bc it is not true. Two weeks after I got them they already had paint chips and scratches (and I babied them to the point that they’ve never been against/in contact with anything harsher/rougher then an infants butt. The Pads are glued, to which you can easily see that it’s been glued. So does it really measure up to being the best headphone? Maybe or maybe not. (For years Rolls Royce stated that their cars were the best in the world, but secretly deep down within everyone knew it was the S class Benz that took that title) What they’re missing is customer appreciation, instead of milking people for 10k, it would be nice to have upgrades available. For a reasonable price. Would I do it again? Hell NO. But then I look at these items as a tool, not a treasure.
The connections to the driver look like cheap bell wire
Without getting into a pointless controversy about the correct or incorrect measurements, I’d like to point out that ABYSS hasn’t invented anything, uses planar drivers like the competition, and that neither the headphones they produce, nor the cables (even from JPL), nor the electronics of any kind deserve to cost so much in general!
If they’d invented a revolutionary new transducer that was different from anything else out there, or simply introduced DSP processing of rare intelligence to improve the three-dimensional rendering of audio, asking for a price tag that reflected that might be a good idea.