Living with Venture Electronics Supernova Over-Ear Headphones

Buying this thing was really a follow-up thought after buying that Venture Electronics DAC earlier — the over-ear looked like it had decent specs, and it was pretty cheap too.

This purchase didn’t seem to require joining the Discord group, even though I’d already joined it.

Shipping was as slow as ever, and the packaging was as bare-bones as ever when it arrived, but the headphones themselves were fine.

I plugged them straight into the stock DAC they came with and ran through a few songs of different styles, and the tuning direction became pretty clear right away:

• Wide soundstage
• Mids pulled way up — the legendary “vocal” sound
• Very weak bass

Put simply, they suit classical and symphonic music, and the more acoustic the instruments the better. For modern electronic styles they’re a poor fit — all those effect units turn harsh through these.

Honestly, though, most music production these days is assembly-line work in a DAW with samples or effect-suite presets, and actual acoustic instrument recording is rare because it costs too much — unless you’re listening to the Genshin OST, and even that has been adding more electronic elements lately (Inazuma especially).

Music that suits them:

Skaters’ Waltz

• https://music.163.com/#/song?id=26090119

Liyue

• https://music.163.com/#/song?id=1492276411

Music that doesn’t:

• Any EDM with 808 backing, effect units, or Autotune piled on

In short, “the more expensive the recording, the better they sound,” and the more complex the arrangement with heavy post-processing effects, the worse.

That said, even if they render electronic effects harshly, they’re not unlistenable. For 299 yuan, a touch of the monitoring flavor is honestly worth it — especially since you can swap cables on both ends.

You can think of it as a special version of the Philips 9500 over-ear, except this one leans closed rather than open. That’s an awkward spot, though: if you don’t mind open-back, the Philips 9500 is far better.

Oh, right — the fit is so-so. Wear them long enough and you’ll still feel the clamping.