The “Baby HE-1”! – The Warwick Bravura Review
The High End Electrostatic Headphones to get? We find out if the Warwick Headphone and Amplifier System is worth it’s asking …
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February 4, 2026
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"Harmony in Every Heartbeat
The High End Electrostatic Headphones to get? We find out if the Warwick Headphone and Amplifier System is worth it’s asking …
source
microphonic cable on such an expensive system?
These really interest me how would they compare to my Stax SR 009 + Mjolner kgsshv carbon ?.
please do neumann ndh 30
All pros and cons aside, I am really glad to see other manufacturers getting into what used to be a very niche technology. Who knows, in few years ES may become more affordable and plentiful to choose from? I for sure benefited from progress in planar headphones; now I own three.
2-7k$.. sure..
no, thanks.. not even serious
I wish you would try equalizing headphones (I know, kinda seems silly for a 7k headphone, but I'd be willing equalize anything lol). Like if you could have just added to the bass quantity n seen how it then compared to a planar, that would have been interesting.
Not gonna lie, that video title made us click 👀
That music in background… is so creepy 😛
I've heard all these at Amsterdam. my favorite headphone was The Composer and E3, left all of it in dust.
Josh still makes the best videos
Better fit and finish over the he1? I have the he1, I’ve played with the bravura. Not even close. Knob feel for one. Marble for other. Stamped metal appearance on bravura. The headset yokes peel in color on the bravura.
Unfortunately I will have to disagree.
Good call on the LDR Young and Beautiful, the two bass notes are something I look for too. A system that doesn’t get the lower note is a nonstarter for me too. He1 does that in spades.
The older Sonoma Model One system is 5000 euro. I listenend to this system a few years ago. But they only had soundclips with vocals on the show. It does not sound like the HE-1 to my ears. The HE-1 is warm sounding with the tubes. I think the Warwick headphones are tuned with a digital equalizer in the energiser/amp.
Electrostatic headphones do not have the dynamics of other types of headphones. My refenerence is still the Denon ahd 7200 for bass. It is very fast and precise. And it hits very hard. My Ultrasone Pro 900i punches harder, but lacks the resolution. The Meze Liric (not the 2) surprised me at a show. The bass was very deep and overwhelming, but it was sloppy. But maybe my amplifier could not control the bass: Rupert Neve RNHP.
With real live music, big drums or other instruments can go very low. So I disagree with Joshua. With 'real live music' you need (sub) bass.
I have mixed feelings about this review. As an owner of the Bravura (alongside other headphones like Susvara, OG Utopia etc), most of what you mentioned is accurate, except for the sub-bass complaints. While there is a little less sub-bass quantity compared to planars (i.e. Susvara on a good chain), the sub-bass quality is actually excellent. The sub-bass issue you encountered might be a track specific issue as the Sonoma employs a degree of DSP – a while back I had a weird issue with one of my tracks playing really soft (out of the 1000s that I tried). I fixed it by downloading it again from another source.
While the silver version of the Bravura system does cost $6000, I think its actually good value considering the timbre, clarity and especially the resolution of the system. It trades blows in terms of overall sound with good Susvara chains that cost significantly more than $6000. [Edit: Some of the alternative headphones mentioned in this video are not at the same level in terms of either timbre (i.e. empyrean 2 has a more colored/fun tuning) or sheer ability to resolve details in recordings while still maintaining a high degree of naturalness/musicality. The Bravura system is not for everyone. It has clear downsides in being a closed system and in terms of ergonomics for some folks, but I think this review understates how good it is tonally and technically.]
Agree that there are some ergonomics issues regarding the clamp force and cable. The clamp force was not an issue for me but a few friends I know who tried the Bravura found the clamp force excessive (prospective buyers should definitely try and see if this is an issue before buying as its a potential deal breaker – it does loosen up slightly over time but not by much). I honestly didn't find the cable that bad (slight micro-phonics, but nothing excessive) but the length will irk some people for sure.
Shangri La Mini is so much better guys
The moment i switchwd to another Video, when you dropped 7000 dollar price, cya
It's worth noting that any analogue signal input to Warwick amp goes through an additional A-D conversion, so that the internal DSP can "obtain the desired response." It's difficult to find more detail about more specifics, but I suspect that at the least, Warwick is EQ'ing the frequency response ("neutral" FR noted but unable to do enough for sub-bass). In such cases, usually what suffers is dynamic headroom and possibly a bit of purity of sound is lost (compared to non-DSP'd version).
$7K? The real cost is the buyer’s remorse…
See if you decided to show those to someone who didn’t know what they are or what they cost, how much do you think that they would guess the headphones cost, just by looking at them?
an open box bravura + sonoma for 4.5k is absolutely incredible. trounces anything in the 4-5k price bracket (other than perhaps a susvara, but then youd have to buy a system to run it).
You keep speaking about the speed like even a dt880 was slow