ETA Mini Closed Circumaural Headphone

IMPRESSIONS THREAD HERE

I’d like to introduce the ETA Mini Closed headphone! We have been selling this headphone for a few weeks now, but I finally have enough parts on hand to go slightly more ‘public’ with this launch. I have enough to make about 9 pairs in the next few weeks, with more parts on the way on a routine basis. There are currently over a dozen pairs already in the wild. Each headphone is made to order.

This headphone was optimized for general purpose use, comfort for longer listening sessions, and passive isolation. The tuning goal was a sound signature that suits a wide range of genres and systems. It can be ordered through our website for $400USD - https://www.etaheadphones.com/product-page/mini-closed



Some quick bullet points regarding features of this headphone -

• Over-ear design
• Horn-inspired front waveguide with angled drivers for improved imaging
• No parallel surfaces in the rear portion of the design relative to the driver seat (helps scatter reflections, smoothing resonances, dips and peaks)
• Significantly deeper cups than many larger closed back headphones
• 50mm drivers in black metal casings, with graphene diaphragm, polyurethane suspension, N52 magnet, and 32 ohm CCAW voice coil (same driver as Mini Open)
• Easily driven from low-powered and portable devices (100dB/mW @ 32 ohms)
• Pressure-controlled damping without the use of foams or batting in the rear cavity
• 99% sealed design, with small throttled vents on the baffle and back cap
• Detachable back caps with seal locking mechanism, using 3 screws and embedded brass inserts for improved durability with repeated disassembly and reassembly
• Recessed 3.5mm dual socket connectors and improved connector tightening mechanism for a more refined appearance and superior longevity
• Familiar OEM headband, but with added rubber washers for smoother rotation and less self-noise compared to previous models
• Lowest distortion of any ETA headphone model to date
• 250 grams fully assembled

We received some outside consultation/assistance to be sure Mini Closed is the most robustly built and visually attractive ETA model to date. I’m very excited to get more ears on this one - no fiddly BS/tweaks aside from rolling pads to taste if desired. Just plug and play + built to last!

More pictures:

 

Looks very "professional".

Quick question: Why the large grill if it's a closed headphone?

 

Mostly for the look.

There is a ~16mm circular vent on the back cap (you can see the darker spot in the image above), and the inside of the cap is lined with thin adhesive felt. The pattern hides the visibility of the felt through the vent hole from the outside, but having the pattern just in the vent area looked kind of funny, so we spread it to cover the whole rear face. The areas around the vent are solid underneath the pattern.

 

Yup. The ‘grill’ is a super classy solution to concealing the vent.

 

@E_Schaaf Could you verify whether or not a headphone cable is included?

 

No cable included.

Choice of headphone cables is a pretty personal thing. Instead of including one to meet a certain proportion of BOM and have it there by default, I'd rather include none so that those who use their own cables don't have to pay for a redundant item, and those who want a basic cable can spend as little as they please.

That said, in the interest of being accomodating, I am considering stocking some aliexpress cables as an add-on option at my cost to obtain them, but at the end of the day it's no different than someone simply purchasing their own independently (in fact, cheaper that way since another leg of shipping doesn't have to be accomodated).

 

Was there a loaner for these ? I don't have a closed back and these are super interesting, plus I have a cable

 

I will put up a loaner thread shortly! There are already 2 pairs in rotation, I need to port over the current rosters and make room for more listeners.

 

hello,
@E_Schaaf, dude! very nice looking cans!
now to convince Mrs. ForBin,
cheers!

 

Don't have any serious full length impressions to post (yet), but just wanted to say that I picked this headphone up a week ago and it's seriously awesome. I can't remember the last time I heard a headphone that sounded so fundamentally correct, had no real timbre issues and was completely musical that wasn't a Sennheiser; and it's also closedback, really cheap in the grand scheme of the market, and it doesn't require a nuclear powered amp to sound at its best (this is a pretty big and interesting one because it's both a plus for convenience and a minus for performance ceiling).

Of course, it's not perfect, and eventually I want to write a full length article about where I think it could do with some improvements, but as a whole I am incredibly satisfied with how it sounds. People should be and need to be talking about this over literally every playnar ever made, and probably every other closedback on the market as well.

 

Are you able to listen at a realistic volume comfortably for a few hours? Does it make you want to turn up the volume - because it’s so damn awesome? Does the headphone make you squint your eyes from time to time due to unexpected FR behavior?

 

Yo, not animus but I can pitch in my impressions:

The darker leaning signature and low distortion do invite a higher volume for everything to click into place nicely (for me), 'realistic' as you say. So yes.

Not so far! This is often pad-centric behavior. I picked what had the most strengths vs weaknesses to my ear, I believe the stock pad choice is also what I settled with.

 

Can anyone speak to great synergy (or bad) with RU6 dongle ? For some reason I see myself sitting in a chair in the dark lit room with these closed backs and a RU6 and my cell phone. Any thoughts on pairing them with the loaner RU6 if possible to do this ?

 

Not sure what "realistic volume" means, but I like to listen to everything and anything loud, and I was never once uncomfortable doing that with the Mini C. As for unexpected FR behavior, I really haven't noticed any at all. There aren't any weird treble peaks or anything, and being able to roll pads to taste (I use suede versions of the MDR stock pads) means there's a lot of control over exactly how the upper midrange and treble behave.

 

Focal Stellia for $3k with 40mm driver or Mini for $400 with 50mm driver? Not exactly a hard choice to make. Thank you ETA for your common sense performance and pricing!

 

Here are some MiniDSP EARS measurements with stock compensation. This is using the stock MDR Solid Sheepskin earpads.

ETA Mini Closed:



ETA Mini Closed vs Sennheiser HD6XX Stock w/ worn earpads (50dB y-axis):



Measurements are pretty tough to replicate on these due to the angling / waveguide and close distance so YMMV.

Will post Distortion / CSD shortly with FPC soon as I get it back up and running (was down for a while)

 

Aspiring to great sound is wonderful. But if the headphones are heavy, long sessions may be out of the question.
ETA Mini at 250 g has my attention.

Here are some headphone weights for comparison:


I can handle the HD800 for hours. HE-500 is off my head after 15 to 20 minutes.
Amazing how an extra 170 g takes a toll on neck muscles.
Stellia is a 90 minute session at most before needing a break.
ETA Mini would appear to allow much longer listening sessions with less wear on the neck.

 

I don't have the world's most accurate scale but the driver itself weighs about as much as the printed parts (35 gram driver, 35 gram shell for each side) - the rest is the headband, the screws, brass inserts, connector, wires and liners. Lightweight is part of the magic of a 3D printed build, not to mention the CFPETG filament is highly durable at least in terms of impact resistance. The shells practically bounce off the floor if dropped (don't do that though! )

 

I have a lab scale with a calibrated weight set. I can weigh the ETA Mini when I receive it.