The Weigh-Up: HEAVYS – Headphones Engineered for Heavy Music (Gear Review)

You might remember a little kickstarter campaign a few years ago where sound engineering mastermind Axel Grell (known for his great work on Sennheiser and more) came up with the idea of architecting a pair of headphones, specifically for heavy music fans. At first many of us were sceptical; was it the real deal? Was it all a hoax? It didn’t feel like long after before HEAVYS released their prototype pairs to early adopter investors and the reviews started coming in hot from audiophiles alike!

Then HEAVYS jumped on the marketing train, and they went hard. If you remotely listen to anything with nothing more than a second of a breakdown, you’d be seeing this brand across your social feeds. So eventually, you’re kind of like – what gives? What’s all the fuss about? Maybe I am due an upgrade?!

Editor in Chief Browny and I thought it’d be remiss of us to not try a pair before making our assessment on the product. The two of us were rubbing shoulders at BIGSOUND 2024 in Brisbane when Browny gave me my pair that had just shipped across the world (within mere days); and that’s when I put them on for the first time and locked in Darko US‘ supercharged ‘Looking Glass‘.

This was the moment I realised HEAVYS were the real deal.

HEAVYS pride themselves on the immersive audio experience of 8 drivers with the objective of imitating a live gig experience, and they do a pretty damn good job of that. With their fun and gimmicky active noise cancelling function called Hell Blocker™ where a demonic voice announces the mode, you know you’ve found your brand.

I’ve intentionally sat with these headphones for a couple of months to truly immerse myself in the sound quality and experience so I could provide an authentic and genuine review for fans. What’s important for me when it comes to headphones, is that the pair of choice stands the test of time across different situations when required. For me, this came down to airplane travel, focusing in the home office and working out at the gym; so here’s how the experiment went.

Experience #1 – The Flight

My ontological journey with HEAVYS began on the plane ride home from Brisbane to Melbourne – spanning a couple of hours – which gave me time to get through some heavy deathcore records that I love like Lorna Shore‘s Pain Remains and Chelsea Grin‘s Suffer in Heaven. I popped the headphones on, tinkered myself into the optimal fit on both my ears and head and wiggled them to perfectly sit on my ears – which was very comfortable by the way. With the highly intuitive button navigation, I quickly got them paired with the demonic voice telling me “power on” and “connected“.

I started off with the former album without Hell Blocker™ activated, so the sound of jets murmured in the background, but only briefly during the intro orchestrals. The pilot’s navigation quickly faded into the abyss as Lorna Shore delivered the ultimate test track – ‘Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer‘. The sheer clarity was the first thing I noticed. Now bear in mind, I’m moving from a 2019 pair of Sennheiser HD.50’s which is half a decade in technology advancements. Nonetheless, I was shocked by the crisp instrumentation pouring through the cups into my ears.

As I cruised through the rest of the U.S. deathcore giant’s crushing album, I played particular attention to the Pain Remains trio ‘I-III’. Admittedly I was expecting a bassy headline from the pair, particularly as that’s what the latest pairs of Bose and Sony’s are boasting, but that was countered by the HEAVYS volume. At this point I convinced myself that the volume and clarity outweighed the bass, but more on that later. As I got through these three stunning tracks, the drivers were working hard, delivering me every single considered production element that the band recorded – it picked up tones and subtleties that I hadn’t quite captured before; this was new.

I experienced the same thing on Chelsea Grin‘s ‘Yhorm the Giant’, but this time with Hell Blocker™ “activated“. Any remnants of human life were scrapped once this active noise cancelling function turned on, it took me into another universe. Notwithstanding the advancements in noise cancelling since my 5-year old former pair, I was blown away at how I could listen to deathcore without even knowing I’m on a flight, audibly at least. Whilst vocalist Tom Barber‘s vocal style varies with a gruffer approach to Lorna Shore‘s Will Ramos, it was Barber’s minute intonations that I picked up and appreciated; this was raw and heavy – and a great first experience with HEAVYS.

Experience #2 – Working at Home

With a very full life right now as a new dad, working from home in my 9-5 corporate job as an Organisational Psychologist and working nights and weekends on Co-Editor and Deathcore Connoisseur duties for Wall of Sound – I need to eliminate distractions. To my wife’s curiosity, I started a day on the tools while our 1-year old was toddling and made himself heard; it was time to put my new cups on.

“Power on“, “Connected“. Alright metalcore, what have you got for me? Void of Vision‘s gothic What I’ll Leave Behind was my LP of choice for this situation. I started trawling through emails as the high production record kicked in. Vocalist Jack Bergin sounded like he was screaming the lyrics in the same room as me. The guitars were grooving as if I was the sound engineer and the drums were pounding as if the kit was downstairs in my house.

When HEAVYS say “immersive”, these guys mean it. I was really impressed.

Next up was Knocked Loose‘s You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. Now, this band pride themselves on chaos as they fuse genres of metalcore, hardcore and everything in between. With sonic buzzes and raspy vocal bursts, my HEAVYS captured it all, as in like – even when Bryan Garris missed a beat and viscerally dropped his vocal flow in the studio, that live experience continued. Often with headphones, you can mix with equalisers and all the rest, particularly with DSP and device stock options like the “Metal” pre-selection, but often this just dials up one thing; not with HEAVYS. Every instrument had a role as I got through this record, and it’s where you focus your mind – if I wanted to go deep on drums, it was there for me, if I wanted to nod along to the bassist, there he was; unbelievable sound quality.

Experience #3 – Lifting Weights

I’ve read some reviews about HEAVYS at the gym and treaded carefully with warnings about the bulkiness of the pair falling off and the issue of sweat resistance becoming a problem. Part of me wanted to be sensible and just respect the community’s stance and not risk damaging the product, but the better part of me had to try it.

At 7am, I walked into my local gym which had Top 40 music blaring through the different speakers, which to many of us metalheads is the proper idea of pure hell, and not the kind of hell we like. I popped these bad boys and and didn’t even hesitate with my new favourite escape from the world – “Hell Blocker™ activated“.

I was really excited to hear how Boundaries‘ latest record Death Is Little More would go and I needed to keep that modern metalcore theme going. During my warm-up I tinkered with the pair to fit carefully on my yet-to-sweat ears. I was pleasantly surprised that the set didn’t sway too much as I moved across my warm-up. Even as I progressed into a bench-press, I just needed to tilt the bridge onto my forehead as gravity won’t allow any pair to stay on.

Tracks like ‘Darkness Shared‘ burst through at lossless quality (as I switched to TIDAL for the full audiophile experience). My fellow gym peers were working out silently as I was ready to tear up a circle pit with the pounding that ensued in my ears, and this is before the updates – more on that in a minute.

I proceeded through my whole workout with no physical constraints from the HEAVYS and found myself pumping the guns harder than usual with the sheer power that the pair were channelling.

Firmware Update & HEAVYS App

There is a HEAVYS Facebook Group where users/fans discuss the benefits and shortfalls of the product, with many complaining about volume, bass deficit and mediocrity in sound. I personally never experienced any sound issues per se and found the pair incredibly loud, but there was something missing for me – and I think it was all about that bass.

In the last week of November 2024, HEAVYS silently launched beta versions of their new app where you can download the latest firmware updates and also manage an in-built equaliser.

Absolute gamechanger.

I didn’t waste any time and downloaded the app and update, and followed the community’s advice on mixing; hot tip – bass turned the fuck up.

I turned on a big favourite of mine – Currents‘ The Death We Seek. Oh my dear god. This was the X-factor I was missing. The combination of latest firmware and bass equaliser with “Hell Blocker™ “activated” and using TIDAL as the preferred streaming platform – was the kind of magic I didn’t know I needed in my life. The bass pounded in my ears without sacrificing the diamond quality of the album’s mixing. This is the ultimate at-home experience of feeling like you’re at a show. This was the ultimate power my pair were missing and I just couldn’t put my finger on it. The best thing of all is that you can adjust the equaliser based on different albums and genres you listen to.

The best part of all is that HEAVYS are partnering with dozens of bands globally to create custom branded shells that customer can buy and rep around the place; seriously cool stuff and just one more proof-point that the company are as passionate about heavy music as we are.

I wholeheartedly recommend HEAVYS as your primary heavy music headphones. These have not yet blown up in Australia, but they’re about to and Wall of Sound are proud to be part of the journey.

At our very own BIGSOUND Heavy Music Industry Mixer, we held a competition to give away a free pair in exchange for punters allowing us to film their genuine reactions while listening (see the results below). Safe to say that the local metalhead’s expectations were met and following the latest firmware updates, we’re all in.

This is just the beginning.

Review by Ricky Aarons (@rickysaul90)

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HEAVYS are available now. Learn more at the website

Specs:

• Full size around-the-ear headphone
• Dynamic Drivers
• Drivers per side 4 (2 low / mid range speakers, 2 high frequency tweeter)
• Frequency range 5 Hz to 46 kHz / 5 Hz to 24 kHz as Bluetooth headset THD at 100 dB SPL, 1 kHz: >0.05%
• Weight 410 g / 14.5 oz
• BT Version 5.1
• Codecs SBC, AAC, aptX adaptive
• Battery lifetime up to 50 h
• Noise Cancelling High efficiency PNC combined with a mild ANC for lowest levels of perceived disturbance (labeled HB: HellBlocker)
• Modes Wired Pure Passive, BT Passive, BT ANC, BT Transparent
• Max SPL According to IEC 62368-1
• Voice Pick up 2 microphone end-fire array
• Controls Volume up / down, play / pause, next / previous song, take / decline / end a call
• USB USB-C socket for charging and digital in