Is the monster turbine pro gold worth 200 dollars?

I'd say the MTPG and MTPC are worth it at about $200. I found sound quality wise they're both quite pleasing, but I preferred the Coppers. They do feel weighty as far as IEM's go, but I found them to be very comfortable with the right tips attached. You may want to look into getting an extra set of Super tips, as mine kept wearing out and falling off.

I'm sorry, but I'd have to disagree. I'd put both them and the Shure SE535 in the same category with bland, somewhat one-note bass and unremarkable for their price. The Monster Turbine Pro Gold does have a lot more bland and booming bass though. Personally, I prefer the sound if the Klipsch Image X10, or even the S2 to the MTPG bass wise. That being said, the build quality on the Turbine seems very durable, and it looks a bit more flashy than the others mentioned.

Oh, and I love Monster Supertips!

The SE535 has bass that whups the Turbine Pro Gold's bass easily.. it DOES have dual bass BA's for a reason, y'know. The creamy midrange of the SE535 sounds more like shure shoved three midrange balanced armatures in although the bass is still excellent.

 

For the detail/balance obsessed audiophile the Turbine Pro Gold is pretty bad value for money based off sound quality alone. They are reasonably balanced with a slight emphasis on bass, but they can't keep up with many of the single and multi balanced armatures in the same price range (such as the TF10, DBA-02, etc). It does have a nice build though, reinforced through the lifetime gurantee.

What? The 535s are almost a polar opposite from "one-note bass".

Ya..it's metallic gold heavy..some guys have tiny ear canals...so fit is an issue.
The super tips are great if u can get a good fit there too, cos of it's bullet head shape..
Tends to unseal if the fit is not right..especially on the move.
if I use a comply...which holds better in my canal, the top notes are muted somewhat..
Taking way the golden honeyed sound of this lovely iem.

When I had it, I only use it when I was stationary...it's a troublesome iem...but I enjoyed it.


The 535 is all-round more powerful sounding across the range..more more bodacious..
I like this one too.

I won't buy the gold again....I might accept a 535 if given one...
I would buy the w4...just love the spaciousness of this gem.

If you consider that the MTPG comes with an amazing set of accessories, packing, and warranty, then I'd say $200 is not bad. If they didn't come with all this, IMO even $150 would be a fair price. 

 

If you take care of them, and don't plan to use the warranty, then consider getting them used. I currently see them up for as low as $120 used on Amazon, which I consider a steal. 

Edited by seekadds - 7/12/12 at 7:34am

 

To the both of you, I'd like to say that I respect your opinions... providing you have actually auditioned the Shure SE535. I realize it has dual bass balanced armature drivers, but the tuning and crossover also makes a difference. For that matter the TripleFi 10 also has 2 bass drivers, but one is tuned for midrange. As for one note bass, I've owned the Etymotic Mc5 and Hf5, and while they are incredibly detailed and accurate, they bass isn't terribly textured. In fact, I think the Koss PortaPro is much less bland in that department. The Shure SE535, while listening to Eye of the Tiger (Survivor), Let it Rock (Kevin Rudolph), and Higher Power (Boston), sounded terribly bland in the bass department.

I own the 535s and I'm not sure how I could describe the bass as being 'one-note'. Coming from someone who has been trying to get even bass down to 25hz in his speaker system(that's really hard to do btw) the 535s were a revelation. I can understand that they might sound bland sometimes but for me that was mostly just adjusting to the clarity of the bass.

 

One thing I have noticed is that they run out of steam at either end of their range a little but I know lots of anti-bass/'high fidelity" officers around here will disagree with me there. The 535 does respond well to a bass boost on my e17 when needed though and something like that could be enough to make the bass sound less bland to you.

 

I thought the triple fi 10 had both bass drivers for bass and one for mid/high? I'm pretty sure it's a 2-way design just like the 535s.

I own the golds. I'm not an audiophile, but I really enjoy their sound. I would pay $200 for them, but you could probably get them even cheaper on amazon. I haven't head the coppers. As for the fit, they are relatively heavy and most of that heft is n the buds themselves. You can wrap the wire around the back of your ear and it will solve this problem, I don't even use the shirt clip anymore. If you want a really good deal I think the monster outlet store has a couple of the Monster Miles Davis IEMS, they're $150 with a retail price of $500. Also watch out for fakes, the Chinese have a fetish for ripping off monster earphones. There is a guide on this site showing the difference between them.

 

"With three armature speakers per ear, audio filters and a passive crossover circuit to separate high, mid, and low frequencies, these earphones deliver all the detail, texture, and emotion of the source." -UE TF10 product page.

 

I know that they have two bass drivers like the SE535, but from what I've heard, one is tuned for bass, and one for mids, (the third being the tweeter that is tuned for treble.)

"Featuring Triple High-Definition MicroDrivers, the SE535 utilizes dedicated tweeter and dual woofers to deliver spacious sound with rich bass." -SE535 Product Page

 

I'm not sure about this one, as all it talks about are the drivers, rather than how it is tuned, or how a crossover is used to separate the audio into high, midrange, and low frequencies.

Anyone have a definitive answer or good source of how they are tuned?
 

If you want a bass heavy iem, you can still get the Atrio M5 with MG7 driver for $110 shipped at Atrio.me with the coupon code CostProg50%. The Atrios are cheap and plasticky looking and have none of the bling factor of the Turbines, but they are much lighter as a result.  They are also designed to be worn cable up and have better isolation due to deeper insertion.

 

You only get a 1 year warranty on the Atrios, but given the price difference, you can almost afford to break and replace the Atrios once anyway.

 

SQ is about the same, with the Atrios having more treble emphasis and slightly more sub-bass impact. Both Turbine Pros are warmer, more laid back, and have better imaging, with the Golds being closer in signature to the Atrios.