Degauss Twelve Drivers – top class earphones

Some time ago I had the pleasure of testing good earphones for smartphone Degauss Noir, which made a great impression on me in terms of sound detailing and how well they handled high volume. They are still available for sale and in my opinion they offer a great price-quality ratio. At one time I even thought that they were the top of the manufacturer's possibilities but... recently, I came across earphones, which made my jaw drop to the floor and I had to raise the bar even higher. Let me present Degauss Twelve Drivers.

I will start with the biggest curiosity that has a direct impact on the quality and sound characteristics.

As the name suggests, the earphones have 12 balanced armature drivers. They are diametrically different from typical, popular dynamic drivers. I will not go into technical aspects, but the most important thing is that the armature drivers can be much smaller than dynamic ones, while maintaining high efficiency. They usually deal great with generating medium and high tones, offering truly impressive detailing and purity of sound. On the other hand, in some earphones they can generate lower bass power. How did Degauss deal with this?

Degauss Twelve Drivers have six armature drivers on each side. Two of them are bigger and they generate low tones. The other four are smaller – two of which have been tuned for medium tones and the other two for high tones. It is worth adding that there are three mouths of the sound channel – one per pair for each: low, medium and high frequency drivers. The sound pressure turns in a special nozzle and goes to the main mouth running straight to the ear.

The manufacturer has done a great job not only when tuning individual drivers, but also when designing the internal and external structure. Precision is very important in this case. Thanks to it, the Degauss Twelve Drivers offer a beautiful sound and are light and comfortable at the same time.

The Degauss Twelve Drivers have been very cleverly designed. They have MMCX connectors, which in themselves are not new, but you can connect them up to four different types of wires. We get two as a standard – an interesting-looking, braided audio cable, with a 3-pole plug (only music) and a thinner 4-pole with a controller and a microphone (music + phone calls).

If you are an iPhone user, you can optionally buy a cable with a Lightning plug.

However, the Bluetooth cable is the most interesting. It has a built-in electronics and a battery. The earphones are connected to it via MMCX.

Both wires have the same length and offer similar sound quality. During the test I used these earphones mainly in combination with a good HiFiMAN EF100 headphone amplifier, because the Degauss quality is so high that I did not want to limit it with the smartphone I had at hand (OnePlus 6 and iPhone XS).

The controller with a microphone despite of voice calls allows you to adjust the volume, turn on playback / pause and switch tracks.

The enclosure is plastic, which in combination with the built-in drivers makes the earphones light. Even more important is that the inner surface is naturally rounded and contoured, so the earphones fit comfortably into the shape of the ear.

In my case, wearing Degauss Twelve Drivers was very comfortable and hassle free. As you know, MMCX connectors allow you to rotate the earphones by 360 degrees, so when setting up, it is worth paying attention to the appropriate rotation of the enclosures, so that the headband is on the right side. There is nothing complicated about it, you just have to get used to it.

There is no chance that earphones will fall out of the ears during normal use. They hold firmly thanks to the thin, flexible straps that are placed behind the ears.

Generally speaking, comfort and ergonomics are very positive. After a few minutes I forgot that I have the earphones in my ears.

The set includes 4 pairs of silicone ear buds (1xS, 2xM, 1xL) and 3 foam pairs (1xS, 1xM, 1xL). They offer very good insulation at the level of 25 dB.

There is also a small protective bag made of durable, though slightly stiff canvas. Useful when carrying earphones.

• design: in-ear headphones, wired (with the Bluetooth wireless option)
• drivers: armature, 12 in total (6 on each side)
• transfer frequency: officially 20 – 20,000 Hz (unofficially it is wider)
• impedance: 20 ohms
• sensitivity: 100 dB (+/- 3 dB)
• insulation: around 25 dB
• cable: two 1.25 m cables in the set (one of them has a MEMS microphone controller)
• plug: 3.5 mm mini jack + MMCX earphone connectors
• microphone: yes, in one of the cables
• other: optional cables with Bluetooth or Lightning connectivity, 4 pairs of silicone ear tips + 3 pairs of foam ear tips

The Degauss Twelve Drivers are simply beautiful. I was delighted with the Noir model, and in this case... I can only write in superlatives.

Let me start with something I just did not expect. The low tones are strong, they can resound long and descend low, pleasantly vibrating. This is not typical for all armature drivers. In fact, most types of earphones, I used to deal with, used the "mixer" only for mid-tones and soprano (eg Degauss Noir) or did very poorly in terms of bass (eg Creative Aurvana In-Ear3).

Twelve Drivers earphones are different. Here we have two large chambers with built-in drivers, which generate not only high sound pressure, but also can reproduce surprisingly low frequencies. Completely honestly – if someone lend me these earphones and said that they use dynamic drivers for bass, without a doubt I would believe it. The bass is just so good.

There is one condition – it is necessary to choose the right size of the ear tips. These are in-ear headphones, so to generate the correct bass sound they must have a perfectly sealed, closed space. If the tips are too small or too large, then it does not make sens. They will not seal if they are too small, and if too large they may deform and also leave gaps through which the sound pressure will escape.

In combination with a good HiFiMAN EF100 headphone amplifier, the earphones simply impress with detailing, purity, separation and dynamics, but you can use them with a smartphone as well. Interestingly, when connected to the phone, the OnePlus 6 generated even softer and stronger bass although – of course in terms of purity, separation, detailing and dynamics – the smartphone had no chance with the amplifier. The volume, however, was high and the overall impression was very positive.

I expected the highest class and that is exactly what I got.

Degauss Twelve Drivers earphones surprised me with much stronger low tones than I have expected, but they did not surprise me with the medium and high tones. Here I was expecting the highest class and that is exactly what I got.

We can clearly hear that the sound is not accidental, but it has been precisely designed. Although the earphone enclosures only contain armature drivers, Degauss made sure that the sound was vivid, entertaining, dynamic and fleshy. It is definitely not flat. Indeed, high tones are very detailed, analytical and slightly cooled, but mid-tones have not been withdrawn, only slightly warmed. They are still very clear and present in most musical genres. Plus strong, down-going and bouncy low tones have been added to this.

Such a mixture gave fantastic effects that make the music interesting. The earphones are great for the entire spectrum of musical genres. In my opinion, first and foremost, for a variety of electronic music, but also jazz, rock, metal, rap and classical music sound very good.

The high tones are precise like a scalpel, and the only small drawback is that in some songs they can be a little too sharp. In my opinion, this does not occur (does not bother) while listening on the smartphone, but when the earphones are connected to a higher class amplifier, sometimes the sopranos can become a little unpleasant (only at high volume).

I do not know how exactly Degauss did these drivers, but certainly there must be a bit of magic in it, because Twelve Drivers earphones fit perfectly well with every song I played on them. Most of the songs in the test were played from files compressed without loss (FLAC).

Susanne Sundfør – Fade Away – Maps Remix: Spacious, light sound with lots of air. A clear but slightly hovering vocal, wide soundstage, excellent stereophony, good detailing. The medium and high tones play the main role. The low ones are quite hard and combine well with the midtones.

John Tejada Vaalbar: Excellent separation, bouncy low tones, fairly wide soundstage, clear medium and high tones. The sound is bright, strong and precise.

CHVRCHES –The Mother We Share: In the foreground very bright, strong and spatial vocal – exactly as it should be in this song. Medium and high tones dominate in the sound. Low tones are rather hard and short-lived.

Iggy Azalea, Rita Ora – Black Widow: A super-wide soundstage, a lot of air, vocals and generally the whole middle and top of the sound range is light and spatial. Low tones in the background, but surprisingly soft and strong. They go amazingly low for built-in drivers.

BANKS – Goddess: Long-lasting low notes and nice vibration. The piece has a pleasant, soft character. You can hear a lot of space, very good detailing and good separation. The vocals have to fight a bit in order to stay on top. Dynamics and purity at a high level.

INGRID – Double Pedigree: Here you can appreciate the beautiful mix of strong, soft, and at the same time bouncy low tones, very clear, pure, strong vocals and very precise high tones.

YG – I'm a Real 1: Focused on very low bass. Sounds good on the tested earphones. Soft low tones are present. Mid-tones and high tones in the background.

Cradle of Filth – Frost on Her Pillow: A surprisingly good separation – one of the best I've ever heard on the earphones. A clear guitar. Neither the vocal nor the drums are blurred. A bit too few low tones, but medium and high tones are present. The soundstage is quite wide and deep.

Degauss Twelve Drivers definitely belong to the best in-ear headphones I have ever tested. Above all, they deserve a lot of praise for the use of various sizes of armature drivers that have been perfectly tuned. As a result, they offer not only very detailed and strong high and medium tones, but also a solid portion of soft low tones.

They perfectly match the character of the song, impress with precision, separation, dynamics and lightness. They fit many different genres from electronics, through jazz, classical music, and metal.

They are well-made, comfortable, do not fall out of the ears, have many silicone and foam buds in the set, MMCX connectors, as well as two different wires (including one with a controller and a microphone for talking) and a protective bag. They cost 299 euro, but the quality they presented in my test allows me to fully recommend them. Degauss Twelve Drivers are simply impressive earphones that give a lot of fun while listening to music at home from the amplifier, as well as on the way from your smartphone. It is also worth noting that the producer offers a free delivery and 14 days for returning the earphones (even if they were used).

• very high sound quality
• excellent detailing, purity and dynamics
• surprisingly strong low tones as well as armature drivers
• MMCX connectors
• two wires in the set (with microphone and audio only)
• optional Lightning and Bluetooth cables (modular design)
• 4 pairs of silicone earbuds and 3 pairs of foam buds
• flexible  headbands hold the earphones firmly in place
• suitable for listening to music from a smartphone or headphone amplifier
   
• high price