Retro look with a modern sound.

Pros:

Surprising warm & thick bass for on-ears

Beautiful retro & metal craftmanship

Premium look & feel.

Easy to drive even from cellphone

Big sound stage

All-rounder- Good with most genres

Cons:

Thin, flimsy cable- material winds up the cable Clamping force is a bit tight

I am an audiophile from sunny South Africa and on-ears have always had a special place in my heart. In my high school years in the 90’s I used a Sony Walkman for about 3 years and my source was cassettes with songs I recorded of the radio. When I saw pictures of the Distant Mountain I immediately thought of my Walkman days and jumped at the opportunity to review these when Roseselsa offered me a pair in return for my honest opinion. I received my package within 16 days.

Unboxing:

The Distant Mountain sells for $64.99 and the packaging reflects like products I have received that cost $500. The big white premium cardboard box has a beautiful picture of the distant mountain on in front. The back features the specs. When you fold the box open the right-side houses the on-ears and in the middle, there is a part that stores your extra earpads. On the left is a compartment for your cable and also a compartment for your Roseselsa Acrylic mascot.

Look & Build:

In the looks department, the Distant Mountain scores full points. Machined metal and lambskin leather dominate the whole built. No plastic in sight. The retro designs take you back to the 70’s, the golden era of sound where manufacturers still had pride in their work and wood and metal was the materials vs today’s plastic builds. The clamping force was a bit tight for the first few uses and I think it will ease out with time. The lambskin leather headband beats the old Koss porta pro design that pulls your hair. If it was not for the cable, I would have given the Distant Mountain full marks. I don’t like canvas type cables. I also like big and bulky braided cables, so I will definitely be ordering a big black aftermarket cable in 4.4mm. The Penon Space 4 cable comes to mind. One very big positive vs Over-ear headphones are that there is no sweating of your ears. The foam pads are very comfortable and you can also order some after market ear pads in different colors if you like. The design is also very commuter friendly if you do not want to wear big full on over-ear headphones in public.

Specs:

Driver Units- 40mm Diaphragm Driver

Total Harmonic Distortion- 2% @ 1000Hz

Sensitivity- 115dB @ 1mW

Impedance- 32 Ω

Frequency Response Range- 20 – 20000 Hz

Interface Type- 3.5 mm

Cable Length- 120 cm

Connector Type- MMCX

Connectivity:

The Distant Mountain comes in a 3.5mm termination so you can hook it up to your phone, laptop, pc, tablet, Dap. They are not hard to drive at 32 Ohm and 115db sensitivity. I listen to them mostly connected to my Fosi Audio SK01 headphone amp that runs to my pc.

Sound:

The first thing I have to speak about regarding the sound is the bass. I asked Henry at Roseselsa how they managed to get the amount of bass out of the on-ear Distant Mountain and his answer was:

I don’t know either but our acoustic engineer managed to do it. We got feedback that the popular tuning style overseas had more bass than it in mainland China. So, we gave it a try.

This answer means one thing and it is a very good thing. It means Roseselsa listens to customer feedback and does something about it. As my introduction indicated, I am a big lover of on-ears as they bring a type of nostalgia back from my younger years where I still listened to the music and not the gear. The Midbass is thick, fast and punchy. I thoroughly enjoyed almost my whole electronic dance music Tidal collection. Songs like Metro- Kevin de Vries, Mau P I had on repeat so good it sounded. There is not Skullcandy type of sub bass but if you understand that there is no seal with on-ears you will appreciate the amount of bass that the Distant Mountain produces. In the area of listening fatigue and hearing damage the Distant Mountain also shines as there is no seal like an in-ear monitor to pressurize your ear canals. Even on well recorded audiophile music the Distant Mountain impressed me with the sub bass rumble it produced on Fading Sun- Terje Isungset. Also the sounds coming from the cello on Can’t stop running- Adam Ben Ezra sounded thick and powerful.

One would think that with all that bass the mids would suffer and the highs would be over shadowed but that is not the case at all. I f you have an earphone with recessed mids then Alison Krauss’s voice on These Days sounds a bit thin but the Distant Mountain put that voice in its own space and time and the drum rolls in the background never overshadowed it. I love Native American music and Andrea Krux’s voice on Native American Female Vocal (ft. Rafael Krux) resonated with my soul. Male vocals like Valleys of Songs: The Best of Welsh Male voice choirs sounded beautiful and I listened to the whole album. The only instrument that did not impress me that sounded a bit an unnatural was the piano. There is a certain “ping” sound the higher notes make when the key is struck that was very recessed for me.  

To me the Distant Mountain sounds “W” shaped as the highs were just as impressive as the mids and lows. From very high bells & whistles to flutes and the bass never got in the way and the treble stamps down its own authority. Think of the typical Chinese market bright sound with added bass.

No matter what mainstream music genre I threw at the Distant Mountain, it handled that genre with poise and ease. The only genre I did not try was Pop as I don’t listen to it. From Sepultura- Dead Embryonic Cells to Andrea Bocelli- Con Ti Partiro when I say the Distant Mountain is an all-rounder, I don’t mean it does most genres just ok. It means it does most genres really well and can double as an audiophile pair for some critical listening or for just relaxing with some thumping bass EDM music.   

Conclusion:

If this review was based solely on sound, I would give the Distant Mountain 5 stars and a perfect score. The sound exceeded all my expectations and I never expected the Distant Mountain to blow me away like this. If you as me who should buy this, I would say everyone should buy this. If there is a product that deserves to be hyped then it is these Retro looking on-ears. The price makes it a no-brainer. If there ever is an update version, I would love it if Roseselsa just ads a 4.4mm thick, heavy braided cable.