Kiwi Ears Altruva are a set of wired headphones that have an opened backed design. They connect via a standard audio jack interface, which has a built in adapter so it's compatible with 3.5mm or 6.35mm connections.
I usually spend about an hour a day on video conference calls (sometimes much, much more than that) and I have a set of headphones that I use for this. Actually, I have used the same headphones for this purpose for the last 5 years so when Kiwi Ears reached out to offer me the Altruva headphones I was keen on giving them a go as my daily drivers.
In this article we will look at the Kiwi Ears Altruva headphones, their build quality, functionality, and how they sound.
Disclaimer: Kiwi Ears sent me the headphones for review, but they did not read the review before hand nor do they have a say in the opinions of the review. All the pictures in this post have been taken by myself, all opinions and observations are from my own use of the earphones over the last few weeks.
Package Contents
The Altruva headphones come in a sturdy box that uses a minimal amount of plastic packaging.
Also included with the headphones is:
- Detachable Audio Cable (3.5mm to Dual 3.5mm)
- 6.35mm (1/4 inch) Adapter
- Extra Pair of Velour Earpads (Left & Right)
- User Manual
There isn't much in the box aside from the headphones themselves, so let's take a look at them.
The Headphones
The wood isn't real wood, it's a plastic wood effect, but it looks good and gives the headphones a warmer, more natural, look.
Here's a side view of the headphones, with the included velour earpads.
As a side note, the specs of white you can see in the above images is from the packaging. They are fresh out of the box in this image; I haven't even put them on my head yet!
Features/Specs
The specifications list of the headphones is as follows.
- Driver unit - 50mm Dynamic Driver
- Impedance - 32 Ohm
- Sensitivity - 98dB ± 3dB
- Frequency response - 20Hz - 40Hz
- Plug - 3.5mm + 6.35mm adapter
- Cable length - 3 meters
As the headphones do not have Bluetooth support there isn't much else to add to this list.
How Do They Sound?
Perhaps the most important part of any headphones is how they sound, so let's dig into their sound reproduction abilities.
Looking at the sound profile from earphonesarchive.squig.link shows that the Altruva headphones follow the centre line quite closely, with the right and left sides being closely matched.
The headphones themselves seem to be focused in the medium/high frequencies and have quite a high bass presence. There's a clear distinction between the low and high meaning that listening to music or watching films is not spoilt by muddy audio.
The open backed design gives the sound a little more space, which gives the audio a more open feel.
The audio quality itself is very impressive. It's able to handle the same scenarios as my existing studio headphones with a much higher feeling audio fidelity. It has very little trouble with multiple instruments and sounds in the same frequency band, and despite being the same pitches, I can still hear the differences between the individual parts of the song.
I listened to a wide variety of music tesing these headphones out. Including synthwave, classical music, rock, heavy metal, and even some slam core. They were able to reproduce all of the music with great accuracy. Even some of the heavy bass explosions of some slam core bands were no trouble for the Altruva (and they can be very intense).
Blood Incantation's Timewave Zero, an album of ambient and complex sound, is always challenging to speakers. The low brum of the Moog and the high pitch of the Behringer are difficult for some speakers and headphones to separate into separate sounds. The Altruva's manage this and the occastional acoustic guitar with light background chirps and knocks are quite clear.
Whilst testing the headphones I heard quite a new parts of songs that I have listened to a dozen times and not heard before. For example, in the song 1:18 in III by Kobo and Marine, there's a little background rumbling of popping-thunder which adds a surprising amount to it. In James Horner's Star Trek II soundtrack the blaster beam instrument can be heard clearly in the back of the orcestra with it's thumping harmonics.
Gaming in the headphones is a great experience thanks to their great directional audio quality. In fact, their directional quality and fidelity make them outstanding gaming headphones.
In Battlebit Remastered I was easily able to differentiate between the different levels of gunfire and it really helped me to be able to know what weapon was my opponent was actually using. Being able to tell between LMG and Assault Rifle is quite useful, which I could do with any headset, but with these I could tell more or less whatever gun the opponent around the corner was using.
I didn't realise how immersive Noita was until I had these headphones on. Water trickles as it pours, mobs scuffle and growl in the dark, metal objects clang as they fall. Of course, the game is still hard as nails, but it sounds way better.
The bulking capital ships in Homeworld make a decent rumble, with the swoop of strike craft flying past on bombing runs. The music in Homeworld is excelent, but the immersive sound really stands out with the Altruva.
How Are They To Use?
The headphones have some pros and cons to their design.
Pros:
- The cable they come with is good and long, with an integrated large and small audio plug on the end.
- Having only 32 Ohm of impedance means that they can be powered by pretty much anything. Even a phone will be able to provide power to these headphones.
- They are comfortable to wear. The thick elastic head band allows the headphones to sit in place and not compress your head too much. I had the headphones on for a long 3-4 hours meeting and continued to listen to music with them afterwards without any discomfort.
- The ear cups are very deep and soft, meaning that your ears are fully enclosed.
- They have a metal construction and are quite solidly constructed.
Cons:
- The headphones are very rigid, meaning that they don't rotate to fit your ears. Your ears are slightly at the back of your head, so headphones need to rotate slightly to allow then to curve around the back of your head slightly. This is overcome by the large ear cups.
- They come with a set of velour earpads, but swapping them over is a bit of a pain. Pro tip, if you rotate the ear cup on the headphone it actually comes off, which makes swapping the earpads easier. Not easy, just easier.
To be fair, the design of the earpads is actually an industry standard. This means that if you wear these headphones so much that you wear out both sets of earpads, then you should be able to buy a replacement.
Conclusion
The Kiwi Ears Altruva are a very good set of headphones, especially considering the price point. I have been using them for the past month on a daily basis and they have done the job perfectly.
The cons I listed above aren't severe negative points; they are just minor things that don't get in the way of the experience.
They have great sound reproduction, even at high volumes, and the tonal quality of the sound is great across the board. The open backed design of the headphones means that the soundscape is slightly more open feeling than my other closed back headphones.
I drove these headphones through a Focusrite Vocaster One, plugged into a USB-C connection to my computer, and most of the music I listened to was through Tidal, so if the headphones weren't good enough I certainly would have been able to spot it. With just 32 Ohm of impedance it was possible to power them through a phone as well, and they sounded just as good in that situation as well.
If you are into gaming or movies then these are also perfect as they have exceptional directional quality. The sound really does appear to come from different directions in the audio.
These are a solidly built set of headphones that I'm sure will be in use for many years to come. I'm very happy with them.
If you like what you read here and want to get a set for yourself then the Altruva can be found on the Kiwi Ears website. They come with a 1 year warranty, but feel so solidly built that I don't think I'll be needing it at all.
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