AAW Halcyon Sound Impressions

Summary

With filters and tip recommendations, the Halcyon has a bit of a chameleon-like presentation so it is better to start with the ‘norm’ filter which is halfway between the Bass and Vokal filters in terms of sub-1k dB presence.

This is a colored and slightly V-shaped curve with an emphasis on the sub-to-midbass to around 200Hz, a 1-3k forward elevation in the mids, and a dominant lower-treble with a slightly softer upper treble.

The Halcyon has all the hallmarks of a tuning designed to ‘tickle your fancy’ if you are into modern pop, EDM, and synth. That means a planted and powerful low-end, forward vocal presence and percussion passages as well as an airy treble delivery with plenty of headroom.

All the key areas your ear tends to pick up on are to the fore so I would term it as a highly contrasting, or an exciting type of presentation rather than a reference or laid-back sound.

Sub-1k it inherits a bit of warmth but not too much due to a 200Hz to 600Hz drop into the lower mids. Lower-mids instruments tend to sit behind vocals and exude that typical V-shaped contrast of sub-bass power and ethereal electrostatic upper order harmonics.

Instrumental timbre beyond 1k is to the light and airy side with a clean overtone but not a hard-edged attack or naturally sibilant.

Staging

The Halcyon does quite well for staging with excellent headroom and an airy treble from those quad-electrostatic drivers. The depth is particularly good also, especially when you up the bass levels using the filters.

What impresses me the most is how the Halcyon electrostatic treble can deliver a clean treble without sounding overly forced and peaky. However, poor tip choice and a bright source can at times draw too much attention to anything crossing that 5-6k elevation and that is where I tend to PMEQ or tip roll to introduce a more liquid overtone.

In terms of imaging vocals are to the fore, lower-mids instruments to the rear with anything below 200Hz leveling out with the vocal positioning. Treble is more forward at 5-7k compared to 8-10k so percussion and high-pitch synth notes can resonate a little louder.

‘Bass’

If you are buying the Halcyon to let rip on the low-end then the bass filter is likely going to be stuck on the drivers permanently. It also applies if you like a little more meat on the instrumental bones up to 1k.

The bass filter will give you about 5-6dB more than the Norm filter and around 8-10dB more than the Vokal filter but it is not strictly a cut-off at say 200Hz where the majority of the changes are felt.

This is a venting filter on the dynamic driver so its tweaks are right up to the first crossover into the BA at around 1k. That means a little more warmth creeping up into the lower mids with a bit more body and presence. These filters, combined with the Final E tips, are my go-to on the Halcyon for the majority of my electronic music.

‘Vokal’

The Vokal doesn’t really flatten the low-end, rather it attenuates more than either of the two other filters sub-100Hz so you get less sub-bass presence and power. This, in turn, leaves a slightly cooler sound signature with a bit more mids and treble dominance. You get less of a low-high contrast, less staging depth, and overall a slightly brighter sound.

You can mitigate this with the foam and SpinFit tips which amplify a bit more warmth and body into the Vokal sound so that voicing, whilst clean, is not harsh or unnaturally sibilant sounding. It still misses some critical depth for me so strictly one for mids fans who do not need a heavy low-end.

Stock Tips

Switching from the stock single bore silicone to the stock foams will introduce a mild upswing in warmth in the instrumental timbre and voicing. Combined with a slight attenuation of the treble presence the foams produce a sweeter overtone in the Halcyon compared to the silicone tips.

If you are planning to stick with the norm filter and stock tips the foams have a better harmonic balance for me. The silicone tips tend to sound too lean, especially in the mids where those BA drivers above 1K need a bit more support.

Final E Tips

Using SpinFit and Final E is where the Halcyon really can show what it is capable of. The Final E tips are the cooler, higher contrast sounding of the two tip choices with an immediate upgrade in the Halcyon’s sub-bass slam and definition compared to the stock silicone. Treble also sounds clean and airy and also more refined with that slight edge in the attack gone for me.

The only caveat with Final E is the lack of presence or body in the mids which the stock foam tips have a slight edge on, (SpinFits also). Final E’s, therefore, tend to be better with EDM and synth where midrange instrumental weight is less critical. They are also a blast to use with the bass filter and far more potent sounding than the stock silicone tip performance.

SpinFit Tips

The SpinFits are more balanced sounding with a blend of warmth and upper mids sweetness in the timbre and the ones I recommend using with the Halcyon for the widest genre applicability. They tend to sound airier than the foam tips but nowhere near as shallow as the stock silicone or as aggressive and high contrast sounding as the Final E.

Overall, a smooth-sounding tip roll and one that I would recommend using in conjunction with the Vokal and Norm filters where the low-end is not so critical an experience. These filters tend to bring out a bit more midrange and treble presence where that slightly warmer effect of the SpinFits helps flesh out the resulting sound better than the stock silicone tips.

Synergy

Efficiency

The Halcyon is rated at 24Ω and 104dB SPL. That sounds about average and certainly not the most sensitive of ratings. In fact, with the Lotoo PAW Gold Touch in balanced low-gain, I was running the Halcyon just marginally lower than the Canary which is rated at 16Ω and 100dB.

Before you say, “oh I thought gen 2 transformers made the Halcyon electrostatic drivers more efficient?”, you do have to remember this is one transformer and 4 e-state drivers, not ‘1 and 1’ or ‘2 and ‘2 so that’s the payoff right there in terms of efficiency.

Truth be told, I did find myself going for either a stronger balanced output or a higher gain setting in our tested DAPs with the Halcyon. That additional headroom and better current, (volume) control felt more natural and or a better fit for the Halcyon. That included the E02/N6ii pairing, Lotoo’s PAW Gold Touch/6000, as well as the FiiO’s M15.

The flip slide is no noise. The Halcyon painted a perfectly black background on every DAP we tested, balanced, and unbalanced. It has impeccable control of regular source noise floors which does not surprise me gives its 104dB SPL.

Pairings

There was one very clear winner with source pairings and that was the Hifiman R2R2000 Red Edition. Let us push back a bit from that headline statement to explain why.

I had expected the Halcyon to sound top-dog with the Lotoo PAW Gold Touch and it does come a close second but for a little uptick in the treble that creates a little too much emphasis. You can PMEQ this by 1-2dB around 5-6k and it sorts it out though.

Cayin N6ii/E02

Switching to the Cayin E02 and E01 gave me a more liquid sound without losing the treble brilliance, however, it was never a home run. The odd time I got a brittle treble synth run or percussion that did not sound quite right.

Stormzy’s excellent ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ album has a few tracks such as Bad Boys which has that digital snare brush effect that can sound a shade too emphasized on the Halcyon. You can adjust for this with the foam stock tips which do add some welcome body and a more liquid tone to the Halcyon’s upper mids.

FiiO M15

The FiiO M15 works better with the bass filter on the Halcyon. It is just too reference and safe sounding with the Norm filter on what is already a fairly neutral-sounding player.

Throw in that additional Bass filter and Final E tips and it is a lot more fun. And no, the treble does not become glassy or brittle sounding on the M15. The excellent treble articulation makes this more of a ‘hi-fidelity’ pairing.

Hifiman R2R2000

This brings us full circle to the Hifiman R2R2000 Red Edition. The R2R2000 Red introduces a bit more warmth, much like the Cayin and Lotoo’s PAW 6000 but at the same time dramatically expands the mids on the Halcyon producing a beautifully textured vocal delivery and some excellent low-end power.

However, what I like most is how it adds a little sweetness to the Halcyon’s treble without diminishing its headroom or clarity. Combine this with SpinFit tips and you not only get a very immersive sound but also perhaps the most natural pairing of the tested DAPs.

Select Comparisons

Wavaya Octa

€1590

Technical

The Octa is also an electrostatic hybrid though this version is a custom format as opposed to universal. What makes this an interesting comparison is that for similar money the Octa also uses a quad-electrostatic driver configuration with 8 drivers in total though a gen 1 dual transformer design.

Also, whilst the Octa is a hybrid it is not a ‘tri-brid’ with Wavaya electing to use BA and electrostatic whereas the Halcyon uses dynamic, BA, and electrostatic.

The configuration inside the Octa is also a little unusual. The double driver for the low-end is a full range plus woofer with its own crossover covering the sub-to-midbass range. You then have a super double tweeter for the mid to upper mid frequencies and another full-range cover the upper bass to lower-mids. The electrostatic drivers are for the highs and super highs.

AAW keeps it much simpler for the Halcyon with a 4-way splitting the mids into 2 groups, then the lows and the quad electrostatic for the highs. The other big difference is the use of the BassFlow Control system on the Halcyon allowing you to adjust the level of low-end by up to 10dB. With the Octa, the FR is fixed.

Design

I won’t comment much on the design comparisons as one is custom and the other is universal. The Octa is supreme for fitting and looks gorgeous whereas the two-tone Halcyon could do with better tips such as SpinFits or Final E but it is much smaller and lighter than the unique porcelain finish of the Octa.

Both have good cables, the IPX terminated Linum™ G2 Super BaX™ cable is very light and I do love those easy insert and detach IPX sockets. The Hera on the Halcyon is a little heavier but a very attractive 2-pin 0.78mm military green design with a high-end 1.2m 24AWG UP-OCC Cryo-silver Litz Type 5 wire.

Performance

The Octa is rated at 19.5Ω and 100dB SPL and the slightly harder of the two to drive in terms of current on paper. However, in real world testing the Halcyon was actually more demanding for current by a good 10 steps in low-gain on the Lotoo PAW Gold Touch.

Neither are overly sensitive to high noise floors so you get a black background on output stages from the FiiO M11 and Cayin’s E02 pairing.

In terms of tuning, you can tell right away which IEM has the dynamic driver, the timbre is just different, (Norm filter mode). The Halcyon reaches much deeper and sounds the more powerful of the two IEMs, especially with the bass filter inserted. Even with the ‘Norm’ filter, however, the Halcyon is the heavier hitter.

The Octa, however, has a much more dominant midrange presence with a slightly smoother vocal delivery. The Halcyon’s treble extends further and has more of an electrostatic timbre for me. That means cleaner, more energetic but still lacking in harshness or unnatural sibilance. Mids to upper mids instrumental weight is a little leaner than the Octa’s warmer midrange.

The relaxed liquid nature of the Octa quad-electrostatic is more symbolic of how much harder it can be to drive those gen 1 transformers. I still love the timbre mind you, I think Wavaya got the balance right but nevertheless, the treble comes in secondary to the excellent BA mids tuning.