Introduction

Nectar Sound Research, LLC is a 1-man entity that I knew almost nothing about until very recently, and am glad to have changed that for the better. Better known simply as Nectar Sound or even Nectar, this is almost a business case study in the making as to what happens when an electrical engineer goes down the audio rabbit hole and realizes there is potential to do more than what is out there. What if I told you that said person had not even listened to any other headphones of the same category until he made his own beginning in 2019? Something like this would be unheard of when it came to more typical dynamic driver headphones or even planar magnetic sets, and yet the wacky world of e-stats is full of such stories. Take the Headamp Blue Hawaii Special Edition featured in our first electrostatic headphones review, for example, which itself was a love project from a single person that resulted in a company with multiple employees and a dedicated workspace now. Would Nectar Sound be following this same pathway of success?


To do this, I approached the person behind the outfit and expressed my interest in reviewing the product that made him famous in the smaller e-stat world—the Nectar HiveX. You can see how the HiveX in its current form came about thanks to these refreshingly honest videos on a personal YouTube channel, whereby the prototypes themselves were of interest to customers after a single listening session. You will also see him build, and share plans for amplifiers, and this thought process of helping the community translates over also to the Nectar Sound website, wherein you will see helpful notes about amplifiers that are currently still the entry barrier for e-stat headphones. This full transparency was obvious in his detailed emails to me, wherein I learned a lot about how the HiveX came about in its current iteration following the Nectar Pollinator and Hive. I will also note here that a dedicated review sample is not a trivial cost to cover for a fledgling 1-person outfit and so I must thank Nectar Sound for helping make this happen. This is a product that many readers have been requesting coverage for—more so than I can remember for anything else since I started reviewing audio gear—so let's not waste further time and get going on the next page!

Unboxing and Closer Examination

The photos above will hopefully explain why the unboxing and closer examination pages have been combined together here. I wasn't expecting fancy packaging on the Nectar HiveX and we end up with something practical in that it tells you this is a Nectar Sound product courtesy the large logo on the white cardboard box, as well as protects the headphones on their way to you. Open the box to find a congratulatory note for the purchase in addition to a few other suggestions and tips that are worthwhile to go over. Indeed, the purchase process for the Nectar HiveX itself involves talking to the person and making sure you are getting what you are looking for! The order goes via PayPal currently wherein the invoice comes along with aptly named PDF documents titled "Good to Know" and "Use and Care" providing more tips and notes to start your user experience with the HiveX on a positive note, and maintaining it that way for hopefully years to come. I appreciate this, considering the HiveX is one of the most approachable entry points to the e-stat world, and people need to realize they are quite unique in how to use and handle compared to basically anything else. The headphones themselves come inside a two-piece plastic clamshell with a plastic wrap around it to keep them clean and dust-free. There's no carry/storage case here thus, but you can get an aftermarket hard case with pluckable foam such as the Lykus 3310 that fit these headphones and attached cable quite easily, for a reasonable price.


I wasn't sure what to expect with the Nectar HiveX beyond simply the few photos and the occasional video online. I am happy to say that the HiveX as it sells in 2022 is not a raw product by any means and I'd say industrial elegance is a good phrase to describe them. The all-black color scheme, as it ships out of the box, makes for a clean looking set that looks quite the part. The headband assembly is sourced from a US company but ultimately made in China, and is the same as what was used on the JVC RX700, among other headphones from yesteryear no doubt. It's a suspension-style headband with a thin single curved band and a massive fabric suspension support with foam filling which goes over your head. I would have liked to see ventilation holes to prevent hotspots being formed here, but the extra surface contact area does help on the comfort front either way. The frame is 3D printed using an SLA printer (resin) for good quality smooth prints made out of an ABS-like resin. They are then sanded, spray painted with automative-grade paint, and then clear coated, to make for a tough exterior compared to typical FDM prints, but still not as shatter-proof compared to injection-molded plastic, let alone metal parts. The clear coat and paint can also take months to fully cure so it's recommended to not place them on sharp surfaces and clean/wipe using soft microfiber cloth. Note the L/R markings on the outside to help indicate the left and right channels, and I also appreciate the tactile dots that help visually-impaired users do so via touch.


The inner side reveals the headband assembly is screwed in place and thus easily replaceable just in case. I also would direct your attention to the stitched suspension band neatly tucked in the ends here, as well as the steel rod that is folded inward in a U-shape and going into what is effectively the yokes. There are discrete sizing steps here allowing headband sizing up and down with the clicks helping users match up both sides. While the steps themselves could be slightly finer I do acknowledge there are enough steps to help accommodate customer's heads small or large alike.


There is a pivot point where the yokes meet up with the ear cups themselves and this allows for the HiveX to have decent horizontal cup swivel. This is combined with the C-clamp keeping the ear cups in place that allow for rotation of the ear cups in the third axis, to where I am happy to report the Nectar HiveX has enough leeway in all relevant degrees of freedom to fit pretty much anyone, irrespective of head size and shape as well as their ear shapes and locations on the side of the head.


The ear cups on the HiveX are made the same way as the yokes themselves—in the garage of the guy behind the Nectar Sound brand. He's also the one who finishes them before assembly and subsequent testing; saying this is a product of elbow grease and love would be an understatement. I did notice some minor squeaking where the ear cups meet the headband when deliberately moving them around to test the build quality and for photos, but it's not a dealbreaker by any means and is likely down to the 3D print tolerances as well as the resin/clear coat curing itself. The good thing for consumers purchasing the HiveX is that all the various trials and iterations that went into making this mature product has led to several improvements over the last couple of years. One of these pertains to the sponge insert you see on the outside of the ear cups which would make some possibly wonder if the HiveX is a closed-back set of headphones. The sponge insert is acoustically transparent—at least as it pertains to the human ears as per Nectar Sound—and we will test it ourselves to be sure. What it does is help protect the actual e-stat transducer inside which can be accessed by simply be pulling off the sponge as seen above. I do not recommend doing so since you can now introduce dust—and possibly worse—inside but now you do get a taste of the sweet nectar inside.

I'll paraphrase what Nectar Sound said about the drivers here—the drivers are made up of multiple parts, including two gold-plated stators that were self-designed and manufactured by a company to his specifications. The diaphragm itself is a hand-tensioned ring on a circular spacer ring, with the tension beginning from the center radiating outwards to allow for finer control over driver resonance and also allowing the precise tension to impart a deeper, more natural sound. The diaphragm is then glued, measured, and coated with a permanent electrostatic coating in-house before being sandwiched between the stators with wiring, soldering, and fixing into the ear cups, also done in house. The sponge insert replaces a crumpled mylar dust cover used in earlier models that was less reproducible in practice and, at least in my mind anyway, allows for Nectar Sound and potential modders to play with different density foam inserts as well as other materials altogether to see how the eventual sound signature would present. For now the goal is to simply protect the drivers while allowing the customer a careful opportunity to listen to the HiveX as open-back as possible when the inserts are removed.


The ear cups and pads meet up naturally towards the bottom in the absence of anything in between, owing to the gentle inward clamping from the headband/yoke assembly. The Nectar HiveX currently uses 100 mm sheepskin leather Orion pads that are large enough and deep enough to fit most ears without them touching the drivers, but I do have an issue in how these ear pads are attached. Note how it's just three small pieces of hook-and-loop fasteners at the top and sides per pad and there is plenty of room for more/longer sections at least. I had one of the ear pads work itself slightly loose out of the box already, that had to be attached myself and it was not a very precise or secure method, with more leeway for errors than I'd like. I did pass on the feedback to Nectar Sound who is going to come up with a better/more secure way sooner rather than later. On the plus side, it does allow for customers to pad swap easily, should they not find these contoured pads to seal well or be comfortable enough. I have no issues with the pads themselves; they are quite comfortable with medium density foam filling and are stitched well to also allow for good contact all the way around the ears—the HiveX is clearly an over-ear set of headphones! I should also point out that Nectar Sound has added in a protective cloth cover on the inner surface of the drivers—once again tensioned and glued by the same person—so that if you end up pad swapping with something that does not have a dust cover then you are still covered here, literally.


The Nectar HiveX is perhaps the 8th or 9th set of e-stat headphones I've listened to thus far and only one of them have had detachable cables. It's a given then that the typical electrostat headphones would have fixed cables, yet somehow no one has realized it is worth adding in stress relief to the cable attachment point, given all the undue tension and pulling in various directions it would inadvertently go through. Seeing one in the HiveX, especially when it's such an engineer's solution in coming up with something that works first and looks good second, made me laugh and appreciate it all the more. The cable is another of Nectar Sound's in-house creations, down to the individual wires being cut to length and assembled in the harness, the 3D printed, painted, and screwed connector housing, and the pins assembled in the connector by hand. The Nectar HiveX is a modern electrostatic set of headphones running off the 580 V STAX Pro Bias and thus we also get the same 5-pin standardized STAX-style connector at the end of this 7-foot-long flat ribbon-style cable. As with all e-stats, remember to discharge the cable and drivers by simply touching the pins with your fingers. Also, when it use, you can easily place these on a stand off the headband itself but it's recommended to have a dust cover and/or place them in a closed case when not in use, to minimize dust entering the acoustic chambers.

Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the Nectar HiveX on a mannequin head that I bought recently to better show how headphones would look on the human head. Note that it's slightly under average sized, so account for the discrepancies accordingly. As with all headphones, getting a good fit and seal is crucial, so make sure to properly use the pivot points and height adjustability of the headband and ear cups. In this case, the multitude of swivel and cup rotation options make for an extremely customizable fit for basically anyone. The large and deep ear pads are also very comfortable in use, and prevent your ears from hitting the inside of the cups too. This is crucial for reasons we'll get to shortly, but overall I'd rate the HiveX as easily among the more comfortable headphones tested to date. The massive suspension band combined with the average clamping force work well in letting you forget that these weigh ~380 g without the cable. Not the heaviest by any means and this is where the 3D printed resin parts come in handy, but not a lightweight either. The side profile taken with and without the sponge insert also should give you a better idea of what to expect. Overall, especially given these being e-stats, you are not really going to use them in a public environment anyway, so the semi-open nature with the sponge insert and the fully open-back mode without isn't a big deal for passive isolation anyway. It's still best enjoyed in a quiet environment though.