With both of these now sold I want to talk about them a little in retrospect (btw all headphones tested on the site are purchased). From what I gather Gold Planar has been the OEM for many headphone and speaker drivers before releasing their own models, the GL-series which include GL2000 (planar), GL850 (AMT) and GL1200 (ribbon). Indeed that’s a wide range of driver types which demonstrate impressive skills to be able to manufactuer and tune all these driver types. But are they well tuned enough? Let’s again pull out the graphs.
Hmm… not too bad? or at least the GL2000 doesn’t look as ‘exotic’ as the GL850, the latter whose FR basically seems like a compensated one. But the above measurement is uncompensated which means the GL850 lacks quite a lot of upper mids and treble energy. That’s indeed partly how they sound to me. What you hear immediately from the GL850 would most likely be the extremly laid-back and relaxed mids. Vocals are quite thick and boxy while unaggressive and withdrawn at the same time making for a weird listening experience. Treble on the other hand doesn’t sound as strange though, but more present than the graph shows at least to my ears. Maybe it has something to do with the driver size – based on the AMT driver the GL850 in theory has a lot more effective diaphragm/driver area than conventional designs. Bass on the GL850 is quite flat, but dynamics and punch aren’t too bad even with the roll-off, which I guess is another blessing of the driver type.
Headphone reviewed: Gold Planar GL850
Tonality: Lower-mids centric, full and lush vocals that is laid-back at the same time. Some instruments can sound ‘off’ but treble and bass aren’t as bad as the measurements may look. In fact cymbals and drums sound quite authentic on well-recorded music. There’s also quite a lot of air, which along with the somewhat exotic mids can offer a very relaxed and lush yet airy sound, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Technicality: Generally ‘ok’ technicality. Punch and slam is just passable, I would certainly prefer dynamic cans or planars at the same point. Resolution isn’t outstanding either, as you could probably imagine given the hole in the upper mids. Highlights are stage width and the ‘density’ of sound, which may seem like they are contradictory but actually both quite well managed here.
The GL2000 on the other hand sounds quite ‘bland’ to me. Nothing really stands out when you listen to them, although that also means there’s no major drawbacks in terms of tonality. I have read comments that they have a very honky midrange and I guess that’s partially due to different pads (and pad revisions). Base on the D-shaped hybrid pads I don’t feel they are that honky, although there are certainly such inclination. I guess the first thing you hear with the GL2000 would be its forward midrange (thanks to 1khz and 5khz bump), but other than that, they sound like a very ‘mainstream’ or ‘average’ headphone.
Headphone reviewed: Gold Planar GL2000
Tonality: ‘Neutral’ with forward mids. A little honky and boxy but not enough to ruin the whole balance, though certainly very forward and almost ‘in your face’. Bass isn’t too impressive given the extension is not as good as other planars. Treble is a little unexciting due to the lack of energy in lower treble range between 7-9khz. Upper treble has a lot of air though.
Technicality: Again generally ‘ok’ technicality that is not competitive among planars in the price bracket. Many have complained about the lack of macrodynamic impact and that’s how I hear it too. I guess the main culprit is the lack of bass extension and somewhat subdued treble, both of which are critical for reproducing percussion instruments. On the up side there’s a lot of air which translates into quite big and open soundstage. Again a strange combination with foward vocals and open sound that might suit some listeners.
Pads: Somewhat ironically the best combo I found for these headphones are the default pads, but on the other headphones. That means the GL2000 sound the best with the default pads of the GL850 and vice versa. Let the measurements talk:
Enough said? So if you happen to own either of these maybe trying the other pads from Gold Planar isn’t a bad idea.
