This is a review and detailed measurements of Kennerton Rognir (Rögnir) closed back planar magnetic headphone. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. Rognir comes in many colors but cost seems to be the same € 3,250 (US $3,770).
Clearly high quality material is used in construction of this headphone:
The look is a bit fussy for my tastes but you may think otherwise. Fortunately despite its weight this is a very comfortable headphone to wear for me:
The cups are round and have an inside diameter of 60 mm and depth of 22mm.
Note: The measurements you are about to see are made using a standardized Gras 45C. Headphone measurements by definition are approximate and variable so don't be surprised if other measurements even if performed with the same fixtures as mine, differ in end results. Protocols vary such as headband pressure and averaging (which I don't do). As you will see, I confirm the approximate accuracy of the measurements using Equalization and listening tests. Ultimately headphone measurements are less exact than speakers mostly in bass and above a few kilohertz so keep that in mind as you read these tests. If you think you have an exact idea of a headphone performance, you are likely wrong!
It was not hard to fit the unit on the measurement fixture.
Kennerton Rognir Measurements
Let's start with our usual frequency response:
Whoa, what is this? Why such a chewed up response? I don't think I have ever seen so many variations at such low frequencies in a headphone. I had to filter the heck out of it to get some idea of what the response looked like:
Is it me or the ups and downs have a repeating rhythm from 200 Hz to 2 kHz? Anyway, not good no matter how you look at it including our relative frequency response:
Distortion at 94 dB is low but we need to boost the very area where it is the highest:
Every measurement points to the same acoustic disturbance including group delay:
Typical of planar magnetics, its impedance is flat and low:
Sensitive is a bit better than average:
So you should be able to drive it with many devices.
Rognir Listening Tests
I was listening to my every day Dan Clark Stealth before switching to the Rognir and boy did it feel like someone turned the lights off! Every bit of life got sucked out of music with no highs. The sound was flat and boring with no spatial effects. Given how bad the frequency response was, I was not hopeful that I could improve it much but I was wrong:
Every filter worked to pull up the performance of this headphone. The sum of those 5 filters transformed this headphone like nobody's business. Spatial qualities came back in spades and combined with thundering sub-bass, it was a delight to listen to it. Power handling is superb when driving it with my RME ADI-2 DAC, easily sticking a subwoofer in each of my ears as I turned up the volume for a second!
I was very surprised at the effect of the little filter at 880 Hz which I added at the end. It really improved clarity of the headphone and seemed to reduce its distortion.
Conclusions
Company says they designed their own driver which I guess is good. What is not good is that the design does not seem to have benefited from simple closed loop of measurements to identify the acoustic events that cause all the variations we have seen. Out of the box the sound is just not good for any level of money let alone what they charge. In a lucky turn of events however, equalization is superbly effectively in giving life to these headphones and making them quite worthwhile.
Out of the box, I cannot in any shape recommend the Kennerton Rognir. With equalization, it turns from a frog to a prince and so very acceptable and even great.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Clearly high quality material is used in construction of this headphone:
The look is a bit fussy for my tastes but you may think otherwise. Fortunately despite its weight this is a very comfortable headphone to wear for me:
The cups are round and have an inside diameter of 60 mm and depth of 22mm.
Note: The measurements you are about to see are made using a standardized Gras 45C. Headphone measurements by definition are approximate and variable so don't be surprised if other measurements even if performed with the same fixtures as mine, differ in end results. Protocols vary such as headband pressure and averaging (which I don't do). As you will see, I confirm the approximate accuracy of the measurements using Equalization and listening tests. Ultimately headphone measurements are less exact than speakers mostly in bass and above a few kilohertz so keep that in mind as you read these tests. If you think you have an exact idea of a headphone performance, you are likely wrong!
It was not hard to fit the unit on the measurement fixture.
Kennerton Rognir Measurements
Let's start with our usual frequency response:
Whoa, what is this? Why such a chewed up response? I don't think I have ever seen so many variations at such low frequencies in a headphone. I had to filter the heck out of it to get some idea of what the response looked like:
Is it me or the ups and downs have a repeating rhythm from 200 Hz to 2 kHz? Anyway, not good no matter how you look at it including our relative frequency response:
Distortion at 94 dB is low but we need to boost the very area where it is the highest:
Every measurement points to the same acoustic disturbance including group delay:
Typical of planar magnetics, its impedance is flat and low:
Sensitive is a bit better than average:
So you should be able to drive it with many devices.
Rognir Listening Tests
I was listening to my every day Dan Clark Stealth before switching to the Rognir and boy did it feel like someone turned the lights off! Every bit of life got sucked out of music with no highs. The sound was flat and boring with no spatial effects. Given how bad the frequency response was, I was not hopeful that I could improve it much but I was wrong:
Every filter worked to pull up the performance of this headphone. The sum of those 5 filters transformed this headphone like nobody's business. Spatial qualities came back in spades and combined with thundering sub-bass, it was a delight to listen to it. Power handling is superb when driving it with my RME ADI-2 DAC, easily sticking a subwoofer in each of my ears as I turned up the volume for a second!
I was very surprised at the effect of the little filter at 880 Hz which I added at the end. It really improved clarity of the headphone and seemed to reduce its distortion.
Conclusions
Company says they designed their own driver which I guess is good. What is not good is that the design does not seem to have benefited from simple closed loop of measurements to identify the acoustic events that cause all the variations we have seen. Out of the box the sound is just not good for any level of money let alone what they charge. In a lucky turn of events however, equalization is superbly effectively in giving life to these headphones and making them quite worthwhile.
Out of the box, I cannot in any shape recommend the Kennerton Rognir. With equalization, it turns from a frog to a prince and so very acceptable and even great.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
