Welcome to a new instalment of the ongoing Headphones in Pictures series, where I present you with new headphones in blog articles rich with pictures. When I came back home from holidays I found a small packet lying on my desk – it was from Venture Electronics. It had a couple interesting earbuds inside, the Monk Plus SPC and the Asura 2.0s. The first is a new version of the popular $5 Monk Plus, while the latter is an improved version of the Asura 2.0 which has superseded it to be the only one on sale.
The Monk Plus SPC is basically a Venture Electronics Monk Plus with clear housing and silver-plated cable (hence the name: SPC, or Silver-Plated Copper). It is a limited edition which will eventually run out sometime in the next few weeks. The visual difference is striking, although Lee swears there are differences in sound because of the different cable, too – I have yet to try them out and do a bit of A/B testing to find if this claim holds true. There’s a lot of debate in the audiophile community over the differences cables can introduce and while some people claim it’s snake oil, other people claim they can indeed hear differences. I’ll post an article in a few days with my thoughts on the earbuds and on the broader cable matter.
The Asura 2.0s is a revamped version of the previous Venture Electronics Asura 2.0 (which was also in the last Headphones in Pictures article!), featuring a silver-plated copper cable, more premium finish (i.e. jack connector, Y split…), a chin slider and other minor adjustments. Since the Asura 2.0 has become one of my favourite headphones, I have great expectations. The cable is rather stiff, as was the previous one. I am going to publish a “vs” review article comparing it to the Asura 2.0 instead of a full-fledged review, though I may change my mind if differences are striking enough to be worth it.
As you may have noticed, both earbuds have a 2.5 mm jack, which can be used with balanced outputs on players such as the Aune M1s or FiiO X5 III – whose reviews I will update in a few days.
One last thing: the rock-like thing you see is in fact a piece of glass. It was thrown in a lake and they retrieved it after some 50 years. It was a small present the people at the Camping am Nationalpark gave me after my stay there. You can learn more on my (mis)adventures in Germany reading my latest blog post, Back Home.
Hey, that’s a nice rock.
Can we get a review of the rock?
Sure! Here’s a quick review.
It’s ~300 g (may be 50 g off, I did not use a scale) and it is mostly smooth. A small patch on the lower side has actual rock in it, while the rest is made of glass. The interior is cracked and this creates very nice images when lights shine through.
Now, on to the most important part: the sound. Given it’s glass, I would say that the best term to describe it is “transparent”. It’s nothing like so-called “transparent” headphones – you haven’t heard anything *this* transparent, believe me.
Just be aware it does not play nice with turntables as the pin makes a terrible screeching sound. It’s really great for all those classic rock bands, though, even if I swear it plays nice with everything rock from Cambrian onwards.
Hope this helped!
Are these balanced earphones?
Thank you.
Yes, they are indeed!
How much for the rock? (I’m serious)
Hey Jimmy,
Thank you for your offer, though I’m afraid I won’t sell it. I had a car crash and this was a gift “so that you could have a good memory of your stay here” (using the words of the giver) – it’s one of the few good memorabilia from my vacation in Germany this past August (the bad memorabilia being a large bill to fix the car…). You can be sure it will appear in future articles, though!