[REVIEW] Monster Turbine Pro Copper Edition - Page 2

But you sacrifice bass depth, definition, and control with wider bores versus Sony hybrids and stock tips.  You still won't get sparkly treble with wider bores, though the mids and treble will sound a little better.

This depends.  I find this to be more a function of the type of silicone used rather than the bore size.  If you use a thinner silicone it will have the effect you say w/ less impact, focus and loss of control.  An example of this would be something like the Meelec M9 'balanced' tip.  The wide bore bi flanges I use have thicker silicone and tend to really balance out the Monster signature w/o sacrificing the bass quality.  It simply doesn't slam as hard and big as say the stock supertips but all the other qualities are intact.  So IME what you describe is more a function of material choice rather than bore size.  I use wide bores on the Xcape and the DDM1/2 simply because they have large nozzles.  They don't suffer in bass response because of it.   

On the other extreme, Sony hybrids will help the Coppers achieve the most focused, subsonic bass possible, but you sacrifice mids and treble balance a bit.

The stock tips are a really good mid-way compromise between the two extremes, in my opinion.

I agree w/ this part except I find the stock tips do enhance the sub bass as well though YMMV based on tips size and fit, etc.

Ear hooks are another missed detail. The ear hooks themselves are well made, but the strain relief (when the earpiece is clipped onto the ear hook) is positioned at the wrong angle. The ear hook forces the strain relief of the earpiece to point downward, pushing it (and the cable) against the ear lobe. It would have been much more natural to have the strain relief pointing a few degrees forward.

Onto the IEM itself – The housing is full metal and very well made (and a tad heavy). The design idea of the whole Turbine series obviously comes from Monster’s own Turbine RCA connector, and it actually looks pretty good on the earpiece as well. The cable is the rubbery, slightly springy type with decent thickness. They look like they should take stress well, and I guess that’s the underlined assumption for anyone buying IEM from a company that makes expensive cable. Microphonics is acceptable, neither great nor bad. The Y-splitter and mini plug looks quite good too, but I won’t mind better strain relief on them. The only build quality issue I detected so far is the infamous driver flex issue that seems to bother the whole Turbine line of IEM. Driver flex is when the diaphragm flexes around due to the pressure caused by insertion and makes a scratchy sound (and in worst case, pressure can cause the speaker to be quieter than usual temporary and you will need to adjust the earpiece for it to return to normal). It usually happens to IEM with a fully sealed acoustic chamber like the Turbine. I would suggest Monster just make a very small vent on the base of the nozzle to fix the issue. As long as the vent is small enough, it shouldn’t reduce performance or affect the sound too much. I haven’t heard that driver flex will damage the transducer itself, but it is quite annoying and I can’t imagine it could be anything good for the IEM in long run.

Overall I have a positive impression with the Copper’s build quality. The eartips and ear hooks are more or less minor issues while the driver flex can be a little annoying, but they don’t subtract all the pluses from the IEM. I do however hope Monster can further refine the Copper, especially consider the high MSRP.

Strain relief pushing against ear lobe.

Well ClieOS is using the newer batch of the Coppers which don't seem to split nearly as much as the first batch and it will apparently have less strain-relief issues. 

Burn in the Coppers a lot more then let us know what you think.  =]  (I didn't keep track of how much they need, though.  It isn't an excessive amount like some headphones.)

I was slightly underwhelmed by them at the beginning versus my Hifimans (RE0/ZERO/252).  Now I find them to be an improvement over the Hifimans in a number of ways.  I also find them more transparent than any of the former three.

I thought at first that it was perhaps a FR difference that somehow made the hifiman's seem a like they are painting a less complete picture, but EQing did not help.  The Coppers are even more analytical.  Burning them in also made them smoother.

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More transparent and analytical than RE0? That's interesting! ClieOS said the MTPC were warm and lacked high-end sparkle. I'm quite new to this, but isn't that the opposite of transparent and analytical?

I've been thinking about getting the MTPC for a while, but I'm not sure if I'll like their sound sig. What I want in an IEM is a very transparent, detailed sound, with RE0-like high-end sparkle, but with a more full-bodied sound than the RE0; on the other hand, I really don't like warm sounding IEMs. I'm kinda confused. Are the MTPC for me?

I feel like I could stand on my Coppers and they'd be no worse for wear.

RE0 and MTPC are both warm IEMs.  To my ears, at least.  RE0 is more natural-like to an extent, MTPC is overall more refined, just lacks treble sparkle, but that doesn't make it any less analytical or transparent.  Out of my desktop rig, I find MTPC to be less forgiving, but with well-recorded material, more eye-popping.  It is not a massive difference, I love both IEMs anyway.  A prefer a little bit of warmth, so these IEMs are to my taste in that aspect, among others.

The Hifimans also sport that special characteristic of getting the harmonics "right" for awesome timbre, which is rare in headphones/earphones in general.

If you want a more balanced sound, try RE252 with UE medium buds like those on TF10.

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Thanks for your reply!

Anyway, I still think I'm missing something. For me the RE0 are bright sounding, and not warm by any means. By "warm sound" I understand a mid-centric sound, and RE0s are not mid-centric, am not I right?