GCooper
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2011
- Posts
- 30
- Likes
- 22
The Martin cans arrived late this week! Phenomenal quality construction. The red and black cocobolo chambers are magnificent, as are the bare aluminum mounts and the leather headband. Turbulent X drivers inside. The wiring is basic- black 22 AWG silver plated copper with a Paiiliccs 3.5mm plug.
The bottom line though, is how it all works as a unit. It is beyond anything I could have wished for. Listening fatigue is absent. Sibilance is not relevant-it isn't there. Midrange is liquid, continuous without being mushy. This is not a set of cans for folks into metal, electronic music or someone who likes thumping bass. The low end is wonderful but not dominating the sound field. Instrument placement is good. Feeding the Little Dot MK III (with 6BE6 tubes) from HDMI connection via the Turtle Beach DSS2 the Surround Sound effects are excellent. (The equalizer settings are useful as well. If you like listening to movies or other sources that heavily use surround you may want to add this to your audio chain.) My standard test for any sound gear is to throw some uncompressed Maddy Pryor and Steeleye Span at it, particularly the "Now We Are Six" album, mastered by Ian Anderson. No chattering, harsh notes or muffled drumming through these cans! It is possible to hear nuances in the music I couldn't detect 30+ years ago using an LP or cassette mastered from the same originals used to create the current CD version of the album. Listening to Azam Ali of Niyaz on these headphones is a better experience than using the Alessandro Music Series One (original version).
The only changes that I might have made would have been to have ordered a longer cord--3' isn't long enough for my purposes. I'd consider jacks on the cups as well. Maybe there's another purchase in my future?
The bottom line though, is how it all works as a unit. It is beyond anything I could have wished for. Listening fatigue is absent. Sibilance is not relevant-it isn't there. Midrange is liquid, continuous without being mushy. This is not a set of cans for folks into metal, electronic music or someone who likes thumping bass. The low end is wonderful but not dominating the sound field. Instrument placement is good. Feeding the Little Dot MK III (with 6BE6 tubes) from HDMI connection via the Turtle Beach DSS2 the Surround Sound effects are excellent. (The equalizer settings are useful as well. If you like listening to movies or other sources that heavily use surround you may want to add this to your audio chain.) My standard test for any sound gear is to throw some uncompressed Maddy Pryor and Steeleye Span at it, particularly the "Now We Are Six" album, mastered by Ian Anderson. No chattering, harsh notes or muffled drumming through these cans! It is possible to hear nuances in the music I couldn't detect 30+ years ago using an LP or cassette mastered from the same originals used to create the current CD version of the album. Listening to Azam Ali of Niyaz on these headphones is a better experience than using the Alessandro Music Series One (original version).
The only changes that I might have made would have been to have ordered a longer cord--3' isn't long enough for my purposes. I'd consider jacks on the cups as well. Maybe there's another purchase in my future?
