Palma DHS-1: Open or closed, always tuned to the music

When brands launch their first products, they usually start with catch-alls offering accessible solutions to appeal to the widest audiences possible. Not Palma, who have the high-end of the headset world in their sights, the very high-end even. Priced at over €2,000, the DHS-1 really only wants the cream of the personal audio enthusiast crop.

The price tag is partly justified by the quality of its presentation, materials, and accessories. Each DHS-1 is handcrafted in the brand’s homeland of Spain. However, your main acquisition really is the functionality that switches the headset between closed and open operation. In any case, the DHS-1 intrigues and invites exploration.

General Presentation of the Palma DHS-1

As mentioned, the DHS-1 is the Spanish brand Palma’s flagship headset. As is often the case, the product is a response to a gap in the market. Indeed, the founders, fans of high-end audio, would often find themselves undecided between open or closed headsets, with their qualities making them preferable in different situations. The idea for a hybrid headset struck them quite automatically. Remarkably, they found none for sale, so it is the first to offer this functionality with a manual switch that moves one to the other without forcing you to take the headset off.

Usually it’s one or the other; you can’t have it all. With a closed headset, the ear cups are closed to contain the sound. With an open headset, the ear cups are transparent, allowing sound to escape. With refined critique bordering on exaggeration, open headsets offer a truer soundstage, while closed headsets have a better handle on bass. Well, the DHS-1′s got it both ways.

The headset is made exclusively from high-quality materials. The headband is wrapped inside and out in genuine leather. The adjustable arms that connect it to the ear cups are chrome-plated metal. The ear cups themselves are made of wood, and their thick memory foam cushions are covered in soft leather. The back of the cups sport flat metal discs.

Inside each cup, a large 50 mm diameter driver resides. As such, it’s worth noting that this headset hangs with the heavyweights. Weighing in at 490 grams, it’s at the top of the scale. However, it doesn’t feel as heavy as you might fear. The pressure distribution over the head and the slight pressure of the cushions around the ears is ideal, and the headset ends up feeling relatively quite light, although it is still not intended for portable use. Ultimately, the comfort is appreciable. The ears don’t even overheat after long listening sessions.

The pads can be removed and replaced. However, they aren’t magnetised and are kept in place by their leather rim fitting into a fine groove. It’s best not to remove them if you don’t need to, as putting them back in place gets fastidious. Fortunately, pad changes are not an everyday requirement, far from it. It’s quite a basic mechanism, but it keeps everything in place and secure.

Using the Palma DHS-1

The DHS-1 comes in a transport case as imposing as the headset itself, as it doesn’t fold at all. You’ll be sure it’s well protected at the very least. Opening it up, you’ll find a compartment dedicated to the headset. It is additionally protected by a fabric bag sufficient for occasional, relatively risk free transport without the case. There is a second small fabric bag to be found in a mesh pocket. It contains three cords, as well as leather clips for easy winding.

There is a 2.5 mm mini-jack connector below each ear cup. This lets you choose your cord based on your source. With a home amplifier, for example, you would likely want to use the one ending with a 6.35 mm jack. This is also the longest at 2.80 m. The 1.20 m cord with a 3.5 mm mini-jack would be better suited to a smartphone, while the 1.20 m cord with a 4.4 mm mini-jack would pair well with a DAP. The DHS-1 gives you options. Few manufacturers offer all three types of cords. Thanks to its 32 ohm resistance, it’s quite universalizable.

Staying on the topic of choices, it’s up to you to decide if you prefer listening in closed mode or open mode. Your advantage lies in being able to switch modes based on your tastes or the style of music you’re listening to. The metal discs on the outside of the cups operate a shutter disk to open or close the headset. You simply need to rotate them a few degrees to switch from one to the other, and can easily check by looking at the multiple openings: either they appear closed, or you can see through them. Nothing complicated here.

Palma claims a very smooth response curve, having limited excessive discrepancies in level across all frequencies. It’s quite linear from the low end of the spectrum to the low midrange. After that, it conforms to the sound signature the  Palma creators wanted to give their headsets. The small manual provided in the box indicates a different frequency response range depending on whether it’s used in closed or open mode. The same goes for sensitivity, which varies by 2 dB in favour of the closed mode.

At a Listen

We conducted our trial using a 4.4 mm connection between a FiiO KA3 USB-C portable DAC and a Mac computer. Then, we switched to our home system, connecting the DHS-1 to a Mytek Brooklyn+ preamp/DAC via a 6.35 mm jack.

The DHS-1′s playback is excellent, marked by finesse and elegance. The Ezra Collective’s latest contemporary jazz album Dance, No One’s Watching sounded lively and natural. Its timbres were well-preserved across the spectrum, with agile responses to the accents. Despite its using a classic electrodynamic driver, it was almost reminiscent of a planar magnetic headset’s signature.

We continued with electro from SOPHIE’s posthumous self-titled album. Fans of bass-junkie Bluetooth headsets would’ve been in for a surprise, as the DHS-1 shows no emphasis in that area. It respects the recorded level and can easily be percussive when needed, or create layers of sub-bass that surround our head without any trailing but with beautiful depth. You will also enjoy a wide three-dimensional soundstage with both width and verticality, with the headset fading into the background almost as though it’s disappeared off your head. However, it’s worth noting that the difference between closed and open mode has a limited impact on the result, leading us to conclude that the DHS-1 is refined beyond the point of needing to really lean on either.

The closed mode somewhat limits sound leakage from the headset outside, though not significantly. It remains quite discreet both ways, neither entirely closed nor entirely transparent, genuinely in between. It should also be noted that its overall isolation is quite poor.The DHS-1 is best enjoyed in a quiet room as if it were an open headset, even when it’s closed. In any situation, it rewards with what we might call freshness. It provided magnificent listening experiences on quality production pop, such as Kimberose’s album Roses.

Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, performed by the Pittsburgh Orchestra, unravels over a beautiful soundstage that leaves lots of air between instruments. Its sections are easily distinguished through width and depth and the sound surrounds one completely. The timbre quality reproduced by the DHS-1 is again exemplary, with precise mid-high frequencies and powerful crescendos that have the room to leap to their heart’s content. Only truly open headsets could go further in terms of layering.