Hello there! I was doing some searches around the forum looking for impressions of the Diana V2 and I noticed that we don’t have a thread for the Abyss headphones! I only put the Dianas in the thread title since the 1266 is pretty different, but I dunno, maybe they should all be together in one thread.
Update: This thread now also includes the Abyss AB-1266!
Anyway, I would love to hear any thoughts from people who’ve owned a Diana V2!
Made it a combined thread since I think that’s easier with the more limited amount of models, and there’s a good chance someone considering one might be interested in the other
I find it perplexing that the same company that gave us the styling for the 1266, also gave us the styling for the Diana. Leaves my brain a does not compute mode.
The 1266 is an exercise in how you produce a headphone chassis with a CNC mill and flat stock, it’s quite clever, but I don’t think there were any other considerations in the design.
It’s so recognizable, it’s likely impossible for them to change it at this point.
Now if only they could figure out combing diana aesthetucs with 1266 comfort. Fingers crossed when my diana TC arrive the new pads make them long term wearable. It seemed like they would from the new diana v2 I tried for about an hour but sometimes extended wear is different than expected
It will be interesting to see what design choice they go for with the upcoming closed back. I would imagine it would be part of the Diana line but there is not much room behind the driver if they just seal the back.
Also they don’t seal on the diana (or shouldn’t) like the 1266 (well the diana is a partial seal, no seal on the 1266 at all) so I wonder how that will work out for their closed
yah. Im currious what the actual design goal is here. are they targeting isolation? Sound leakage? Both? Thats kinda the biggest question that will determine how they go about it. Given how poorly diana perform with a full seal I cant imagine their closed back wont be highly ported, but if there is no more isolation or reduced sound leakage, why even make it?
I’ve modded (essentially the DMS mod) the pads on my V2 and added a thin rubber gasket between the driver housing and pad baseplate. I did all this to ensure a complete seal. For two reasons:
The result is thus (fancy word use = authority 
):
Better LF extension and more accurate/fast transients, better detail.
With a port (gap between housing and pad) you get more “robust” bass that’s more fun and enjoyable on stuff like electronic, rap, rock/metal. However, it’s the type of “fun” you can get out of a $100 can. In other words, a lot of boom but relatively unsophisticated.
You can actually get a lot of that boom back while retaining LF extension and general bass technicalities with the right amp. I’m currently using a BHA-1 and can’t imagine why someone (other than the most hardcore bassheads) would need anything else in that department from the Diana.
I mean, if you’ve ported the pads (esentialy) then you dont have a sealed system. Maybe this makes a better acoustic chamber within the cup but the airloading will be as if the seal has been broken by a small amount. Tbh after reading about this mod for the first time a few days ago I dont get why abyss didn’t just run with dms pads that has been ported i just dont understand. Also kinda sad I didn’t discover the mod while i had my dv2. Makes perfect sense to do it just never tried it and instead had fit issues to make sure I didn’t have a full seal.
When I first got my Diana V2 I was meh about them. Then 3 things changed that. I got the new version pads, a beautiful audio headband wrap, and I slightly bent the headband and arms backwards to open up the seal a tiny bit up front towards the thinner side of the pad (stock pad positioning). Those 3 things made them go from meh to my favorite headphones both for comfort and sound.
Nice! Would you mind sharing what specific headband wrap you’re using?
That’s looks like it’s a stock headband. 
Yeah, it comes right down to the seams. It looks like it’s made with precise measurements.
It does in person too, totally looks stock.
Someone in Discord asked me about the Diana V2 and I still haven’t posted any impressions about it here in the forum, so I figured I’d copy/paste what I wrote in chat:
So a bit of context, these are literally the only high-end planar I own, so what stood out to me the most at first was that “plucked” quality that I’ve heard reviewers describe planars having. Not sure, but I think it’s the transients (attack/decay) that are slightly fast, so it /sounds/ like detail, and the separation is really nice, but it also sounds a bit unnatural to me. But that quality seems to really shine on complex music and/or music that’s already unnatural like electronic.
I also think I went in with an expectation that these were going to have some kind of bass emphasis (since everyone talks about the 1266’s bass), but they don’t sound warm or particularly punchy to me, I actually find them to be nicely well-balanced, though that varies with how much of a seal you’re getting. The pads are magnetic and rotate easily, so it’s not hard to rotate them 90 degrees for less of a seal and more mid-bass. (It almost reminds me of running a low-impedance dynamic off of a high-impedance output: it warms up, but gets looser.) I do maybe wish they had a bit more space/depth to the sound.
EDIT: Note that if you rotate the pads to break the seal more, it also puts the drivers slightly further away from your ear, so it does help a tiny bit with sounding more spacious, also I needed to bump the volume on my amp a little in that configuration. Also, just in general, the Diana isn’t particularly hard to drive or anything, but they are decently low sensitivity, and so they want more gain than just about any other headphone I own. Amps that I normally run at like 9-o-clock for Focal/ZMFs I’m running at like 12-o-clock for Diana.
Comfort is really great, actually! Even my girlfriend Ellen who has a small head and usually has /some/ kind of comfort issue with just about every headphone likes the fit of the Diana, so that’s a huge win. Note that I bought mine used, so they have the old earpads, but I have the new pads coming in the mail next week to compare.
Mind if I ask what pads you have for dv2? I can’t remebet
I have the old earpads, but I’ll be getting the new earpads really soon.
Completely missed that. Sorry
