Kennerton Rognir Karelian Birch – Blue

Pros:

     Absolutely Gorgeous

     Good Sound

     Good Accessories

Mediocre:

     Headband Suspension Stiffness/Fit

     Cable

Bull:

     Price

BLUF: The Kennerton Rognir are excellent closed-backs, if a bit expensive. The headband suspension system leaves a little to be desired, but a lighter cable helps fix that. Mids and highs could use some work, but comfort and soundstage/imaging are top-notch.

Up for review today are the absolutely gorgeous Kennerton Rognir Karelian Birch – Blue planar magnetic headphones. Let’s get the Elephant in the room out of the way first – Kennerton Audio is a Russian company. Headphones and politics don’t, or at least shouldn’t mix since we’re all after the same thing – audio perfection. Kennerton themselves have stated that they had nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine and that they are uninterested in the politics behind it. If you choose to support them or not, that is entirely up to you – I picked these up used, so I sent $0 to Kennerton, but they retail for about $3,650. Sanctions placed upon Russia may make them hard to get a hold of, and I really wonder what Sasha from the Ukrainian SASH Audio’s opinion of Kennerton is, but that’s a discussion for another time (like when my SASH TRES SE come in – assuming they don’t get blown up first.)

Comfort/Build (Can you wear it for long periods, or will it fall apart after 1 use?): I have a couple notes on this. First off, these are easily some of the most gorgeous closed-back headphones you can get excepting some of the ZMF stabilized resin closed cans. I refer to them as the Starry Night Headphones. OK, so the shells are beautiful, but how’s the rest of the package? The Rognir uses a suspension system, which means two strips of metal running around the outside which provide a lateral clamp, covered in thin leather for looks with buttons on the top, and an internal head pad suspended between those that sit on the head for vertical pressure. The pad isn’t adjustable per se – there are springs loaded into the headpad that extend or retract the headpad to fit your head automatically. It’s a system that requires far less fiddling than a normal click-adjustment headband, but I find that it slides down over time and doesn’t provide enough vertical tension to stay in place over time. It’s a relatively minor quibble and one that is easily fixed by a lighter cable like a Corpse Cable. The rest of the headphones are fairly industrial in appearance but well-built. The leather case and plaid cloth bag are nice touches. Overall, the headphones are very comfortable as long as you don’t mind adjusting them every so often.

The cable on the Rognir is…odd. To start with, it uses mini-XLR connections in each cup, which makes it hard to replace. Then, it uses 50-year-old vintage litzendrat (litz) special series wires inside of loosely wrapped paracord down to an XLR-4 connection. It’s large, heavy, long, tangly, a bit unwieldy, and doesn’t really exude the quality that something like a Corpse Cable can pull off. Oh, and at 50 years old, you must wonder if these belong in a box inside a warehouse with Indiana Jones looking for them. Copper doesn’t corrode like other metals unless subjected to a poor environment (moisture,) but do you really want your cable on your new $3,650 headphones to be from the 70s? There are very few things from the 70s I still want in my life, special series or not. So, while the cable works just fine, maybe a new one from Corpse Cable is a good investment. Overall, the Rognir obtains a 3 (Average) in this category.

I am powering these headphones off of my home theater desktop setup which consists of an EverSolo DMP-A8 Streamer/DAC that feeds into an iFi iCAN Phantom AMP through 3-pin XLR connections. This combo eliminates the need to be hooked up to my computer as a source and the Phantom can power anything from sensitive IEMs to E-stats to power-thirsty planars – allowing me to use the same setup for every review going forward. The Rognir is pretty typical as far as power requirements go to drive it – it’s certainly not Susvara or CA-1a difficult to power. I’m running it at 35-50/100 on the Phantom with Low gain.

Below are the test tracks used to test each headphone we review – there are a couple changes to refine this. The songs are in order to test sub-bass (bass you can feel) first, followed by mid-bass (bass drums and bass guitars – bass you can hear), then a spectrum of mids evaluating different instruments and vocals (where most of the music is presented), then highs (higher pitched instruments and cymbals) and lastly sibilance (sharp S sounds).

Lows (Sub-bass/bass quality and quantity): There is some excellent sub-bass on “…Ready For It?” – it reaches low and rumbles exactly like it should. “Seven Nation Army” also hits well in the lows – this is Among the Best levels of sub-bass and mid-bass, but it also feels a little more flat and hollow than the JM Audio XTC2.5, which is still some of the best bass I’ve ever heard. The mid-bass falls a little flatter and less emphasized than the sub-bass, but it’s still good with decent slam and impact on “Sail.” It’s not the best, but it’s still good enough to earn the Rognir a 5 (Among the Best) on Lows.

Mids (Vocals/Instrument clarity and presence): “Liar” hits all of the details including some unwanted ones where you can clearly hear the fingers running across the guitar strings. Female vocals come in clearly and move around like they’re supposed to, but the overall presence of the song comes across as sharper, more distant, and less-warm than I would like. Nonetheless, the Rognir is extremely detailed and doesn’t sound like a closed-back headphone. Guitar strings sound well-placed and accurate while male vocals on “Landing In London” come across beautifully. The guitars on “Narrow Mouth” sound excellent and the vocals are forward and accurate. The high notes on the piano on “Wide Awake is a touch sharper than I would like from a headphone, but the lower notes sound full and well-presented. Overall, the Rognir earns a 4 (Above Average) on the Mids, especially for detail and how good guitars sound – not perfect, but very well done.

Highs (Cymbals/High pitched vocals or instrument quality and presence/Sibilance): I can’t quite hear the cymbals on “By the Way” – they’re there, but they aren’t presented as forward as something like the XTC2.5. “Otherside” has the same issue where you can hardly hear the cymbals unless there is almost no other music present. Every once in a while you’ll hear them, but it’s not where I want them to be on this song. Also, there’s some significant sibilance present from the Chili Peppers and Skillet’s “Awake and Alive.” There is also sharpness on Coldplay’s “Adventure of a Lifetime.” So, low high presence, but high sibilance puts the Rognir at a 3 (Average) for highs – still better than headphones that have no highs presence at all and also have sibilance and sharpness – they exist.

Soundstage/Imaging (How big and accurate the song sounds: The soundstage is brilliant on the Rognir. I said earlier that these don’t feel closed-back and it’s true. The Rognir have one of the most expansive soundstages I’ve heard, but still manages to sound a lot better than the Sennheiser HD820. They compete quite closely with the XTC2.5 here, and that’s no small feat. Imaging is also decent, but not quite as good as several other headphones I’ve heard lately. The drums come in behind my left ears and the vocals are in front of me, but the guitar on the right side doesn’t feel as present in the front-right as it should. Still, this is an easy 5 (Among the Best) for this category.

Value (Cost vs Performance): Oof, this is a tough one. You get good sound quality, gorgeous ear cups, a mediocre cable, and some nice accessories at a price higher than the Abyss Diana MR and quickly approaching a used HiFiMan Susvara. How about closed-backs? In this price range, you have…nothing. The DCA Stealth are $500 more and mostly replaced by the $2k DCA E3; the Focal Stellia are $500 less and practically ancient at this point with different drivers – they’re also subjectively an ugly color; below that you have the Liric at $2k also – so $1,500 less, and way more portable, but far less good looking. So, ignoring the Stealth and the ridiculous $5.5k HiFiMan HE-R10P, the Rognir is more expensive than the Liric/E3 by $1,500. That’s not even mentioning the $1,400 JMA XTC2.5 – 1/3rd of the price of these with overall better sound. So, while these offer a look that literally no one else has, unless you’re REALLY into that, the value here is pretty bad – these should run $2,500 to be competitive. The score here is a 2 (Below Average.)

Conclusion: The Kennerton Rognir Karelian Birch – Blue is a truly gorgeous headphone, and it makes for an excellent art piece on a headphone stand. It’s even a really good closed-back, but the cable, the slowly fighting gravity head pad, and the price really hurt it overall. But damn, this is a good-looking headphone. Also, the sharpness and sibilance are pretty rough, but at least the soundstage is excellent and the lows are surprisingly close to the top dawg. They need some tuning on the highs to be truly amazing, but they still come in as really good closed-back headphones.

Bytes & Bull Overall Score: 4 (Above Average)