mythless
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2009
- Posts
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**To rectify the issue of "Thunderpants", these were not made by Smeggy but another Head-Fier and should not be confused by Smeggy's creation. I will attempt to call them custom orthodynamics however, it should be noted the trade was for a pair of Thunderpants. I do not wish to argue the semantics.**
I need some advice on a transaction that has occurred.
I was approached by a Head-Fier, Bigrock2150, who was into modding headphones on regards on a trade for my Denon D5000 MarkL modded with CoA. He initially first approached me with custom grado:
“They are custom made by me (I'm starting a website that sells them, much like headphile but with many different options), all of which will be available to the public within the next week. “
However, I was not really interested with Grado. However, he PM’d me again about making me a thunderpants and he even stated he would ask Smeggy if he could sell it:
“I'll ask Smeggy(the original maker of thunderpants) if I can sell his Thunderpants on my website, if he says yes then they'll be available for sale, but only for trade as of now. “
So I assumed he would be making a comparable product in both workmanship and sound and trusted the individual. However, that may not been the case. When I first received it, I was not the first to test it. I was out of the country for a month. My friend picked it up and tried them out and he even brought them to a local Head-Fi meet, the consensus was that they expected more and were slightly disappointed with the build quality (miss-matched cable cup length, swiveling cup, buzzing noise in one cup, rod holder were done roughly and “tear out” on the cups) and the sound, well they had no bass. However, everyone assumed that it could have been the amplifiers.
When I got them, I was not impressed by the build quality as well and the sound and addressed them with the maker. He fixed them without any complaint but stated he broke his fingers while re-modding the cups:
“So a fixed as much as I could, Unfortunately I broke a couple fingers while modding them. The result is that there still is tear out on the cups because I'm unable to hold my chisels at this point.”
“As for the bass problem, I tried my best but unfortunately I was unable to increase the bass "impact" very much. However, I was able to make the mids and bass sound more "full". The Bass of the t50rp (the original driver) will never be that of say the D5000 you traded to me but you must remember that the t50rp is only a $75 headphone originally. “
“Unfortunately I can't really do much about the blocks that connect to the headband as they're super glued to the rods, but I'll do my best with everything else. I usually don't make TP's for other people so I really want to make sure you like them. “
I felt empathetic, so I let some of the issues slide, since what can you do with broken fingers. That was my biggest mistake, I was far too trusting.
When I got them, I was still not impressed by the build quality, but I said to myself “If they sound right, it’ll be fine.” My friend told me that was foolish of me. But, again he stated he broke his fingers. There were chips, scratches and rip foam. And, the rod holders were not even secure to the L brackets due to the choice of screws used. I would never have expected this from a headphone that was to be valued equally to my Denon D5000. Too be blunt, I was peeved. Mostly, peeved with myself in trusting the individual as I did not think this trade was equal. The same old story, if I had known, I would never have done it. After a listening session I put the headphones aside in disappointment. They sat on my headphone stand for the time I’ve took the out of the box.
My gear consist of: The amplifiers I used were: Purity Audio Kicas, Audio-gd Sparrow, Rotel RA-1312 and RA-812, HK PM660, and Yamaha RX-V596. I am sure one of these amps are more than capable on powering these drivers. Sources varied from my Fuze, cd players, and turntables as well a tuner.
On December 23, 2010 I took the TPs to my friend’s house to do some testing. We used his HK330B, Bottlehead Crack with speedball upgrade and his huge Onkyo receiver. As a comparison he used his AKG Sextett, though I can’t remember if it was an EP, MP or LP to compare the sound. He has seen the TPs before and he even commented on the workmanship, especially considering the “price” you paid for them. He even identified some build issues that I never spotted: shrink wrap near the Y connector has not been properly done, and is exposing the shielding, a very slight channel imbalance that I never heard but he picked it up (very slight, the treble makes it hard to notice), rough finishes and during the test both cups came loose and now swivel 360 degrees.
At first, I will admit that I did let some of the workmanship slide, but in reality I shouldn’t. All I hoped were the described sound. I tried to resolve this but to no avail. How can anyone be happy with this trade? Sure, on some angles and lighting the cups look really nice, but it does not hide the fact the overall workman ship is poor, again, take a good look at the screws at the bottom of the rod holders…
So, how do they sound? Well, apparently sound is very subjective around these parts and apparently my ears are no good because to Bigrock2150 they sound fine to him. When I first got them they had no bass, and all treble with no sound stage. When I got them back after Bigrock2150 “fixed” them the sound didn’t improve at all. There still wasn’t any bass, maybe a little hump if you listen very careful, but honestly my RE0 produce more pleasing base over these headphones. The treble is far too aggressive and huge amounts of sibilance. Absolutely no sound staging at all, makes the Grado sound further back in presentation. Overall, the sound signature is like an inverted triangle, huge treble and no bass.
Of course, that’s what I hear and I could be wrong. So, being the scientist I am, I’ve done some testing. I gathered 7 people the most notables are: a music teacher and 2 musicians (both graduated from music school). Most of them aren’t really into headphones but enjoy music.
I give everyone 4 different songs, all the same songs, from various music genres. I gave them a form to fill out. Here are the questions:
1) How do they sound? Please describe your experiences
2) How is the treble?
3) How is the mid range?
4) How is the bass?
5) From a scale 1-10 please comment on the workmanship. Please explain your answer.
Here are some of the results:
1) “They sound Terrible.” “It hurts my ears.” “I think my iphone earbuds sound better, at least not as harsh.” “Why do they sound so congested? It’s as if the singer is screaming into my ears?” “(Confused) You really (referring to me) think these sound good? (I never replied to his answer)”
2) “There is too much treble, even in Classical pieces it sounds too tight. They might be ok for rock but, the sibilance would be annoying.” “I don’t like it at all.” “I can’t really enjoy the song.”
3) “They sound fine, I guess. But, when you explained “full” too me, they don’t sound like it, it might be “thin” sounding.” “I’m sorry the treble really overpowers the mid range, I can’t move beyond that.”
4) Here everyone is in agreement, no bass, no thump. “The cellos and bass sound extremely thin, you can barely feel them in the piece, even with rap music I can’t “feel” the beat.”
5) Average was about 6.7, they all said it looked like a rough job they wouldn’t buy it, I didn’t even tell them the “price” I paid for them. They did say the cable looks nice and on some angles the cups were decent. But, overall not that great. I also had to tell them to be extra careful when placing the headphones on and taking them off due to the loose cups.
Guess everyone is wrong too? I don’t think these custom orthodynamics have the Thunderpants sound. If anyone doesn’t know what they should sound like here is the link: ***Click Here***.
I would go on further but, I’m too depressed by this situation. Trust me, there is a lot more than what I am presenting, a lot more...However, I have more important things to work on, papers, projects, work, volunteering etc…I am literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. I was completely and utterly misled by this individual.
As anyone can see I’m not happy with them? Why? They don’t sound what I was suppose to be getting (which was what was agreed upon) and doesn’t look like a $400-500 headphone. Now, I probably could fix some of the issues, dampening, screws replacement, even rod placements if I can get some acetone. But, then again, why should I? I “paid” for a product that should have been equivalent but in my opinion it was less than spectacular. So, what do they do now? They sit on my headphone rack. Did I get a fair trade?
Pictures are below:
What I’ve learned? Sometimes you can’t even trust people who share the same hobbies, even if the person is a Head-Fier who helped people. I won’t lie as this experience has changed some of my views regarding headphones…
I need some advice on a transaction that has occurred.
I was approached by a Head-Fier, Bigrock2150, who was into modding headphones on regards on a trade for my Denon D5000 MarkL modded with CoA. He initially first approached me with custom grado:
“They are custom made by me (I'm starting a website that sells them, much like headphile but with many different options), all of which will be available to the public within the next week. “
However, I was not really interested with Grado. However, he PM’d me again about making me a thunderpants and he even stated he would ask Smeggy if he could sell it:
“I'll ask Smeggy(the original maker of thunderpants) if I can sell his Thunderpants on my website, if he says yes then they'll be available for sale, but only for trade as of now. “
So I assumed he would be making a comparable product in both workmanship and sound and trusted the individual. However, that may not been the case. When I first received it, I was not the first to test it. I was out of the country for a month. My friend picked it up and tried them out and he even brought them to a local Head-Fi meet, the consensus was that they expected more and were slightly disappointed with the build quality (miss-matched cable cup length, swiveling cup, buzzing noise in one cup, rod holder were done roughly and “tear out” on the cups) and the sound, well they had no bass. However, everyone assumed that it could have been the amplifiers.
When I got them, I was not impressed by the build quality as well and the sound and addressed them with the maker. He fixed them without any complaint but stated he broke his fingers while re-modding the cups:
“So a fixed as much as I could, Unfortunately I broke a couple fingers while modding them. The result is that there still is tear out on the cups because I'm unable to hold my chisels at this point.”
“As for the bass problem, I tried my best but unfortunately I was unable to increase the bass "impact" very much. However, I was able to make the mids and bass sound more "full". The Bass of the t50rp (the original driver) will never be that of say the D5000 you traded to me but you must remember that the t50rp is only a $75 headphone originally. “
“Unfortunately I can't really do much about the blocks that connect to the headband as they're super glued to the rods, but I'll do my best with everything else. I usually don't make TP's for other people so I really want to make sure you like them. “
I felt empathetic, so I let some of the issues slide, since what can you do with broken fingers. That was my biggest mistake, I was far too trusting.
When I got them, I was still not impressed by the build quality, but I said to myself “If they sound right, it’ll be fine.” My friend told me that was foolish of me. But, again he stated he broke his fingers. There were chips, scratches and rip foam. And, the rod holders were not even secure to the L brackets due to the choice of screws used. I would never have expected this from a headphone that was to be valued equally to my Denon D5000. Too be blunt, I was peeved. Mostly, peeved with myself in trusting the individual as I did not think this trade was equal. The same old story, if I had known, I would never have done it. After a listening session I put the headphones aside in disappointment. They sat on my headphone stand for the time I’ve took the out of the box.
My gear consist of: The amplifiers I used were: Purity Audio Kicas, Audio-gd Sparrow, Rotel RA-1312 and RA-812, HK PM660, and Yamaha RX-V596. I am sure one of these amps are more than capable on powering these drivers. Sources varied from my Fuze, cd players, and turntables as well a tuner.
On December 23, 2010 I took the TPs to my friend’s house to do some testing. We used his HK330B, Bottlehead Crack with speedball upgrade and his huge Onkyo receiver. As a comparison he used his AKG Sextett, though I can’t remember if it was an EP, MP or LP to compare the sound. He has seen the TPs before and he even commented on the workmanship, especially considering the “price” you paid for them. He even identified some build issues that I never spotted: shrink wrap near the Y connector has not been properly done, and is exposing the shielding, a very slight channel imbalance that I never heard but he picked it up (very slight, the treble makes it hard to notice), rough finishes and during the test both cups came loose and now swivel 360 degrees.
At first, I will admit that I did let some of the workmanship slide, but in reality I shouldn’t. All I hoped were the described sound. I tried to resolve this but to no avail. How can anyone be happy with this trade? Sure, on some angles and lighting the cups look really nice, but it does not hide the fact the overall workman ship is poor, again, take a good look at the screws at the bottom of the rod holders…
So, how do they sound? Well, apparently sound is very subjective around these parts and apparently my ears are no good because to Bigrock2150 they sound fine to him. When I first got them they had no bass, and all treble with no sound stage. When I got them back after Bigrock2150 “fixed” them the sound didn’t improve at all. There still wasn’t any bass, maybe a little hump if you listen very careful, but honestly my RE0 produce more pleasing base over these headphones. The treble is far too aggressive and huge amounts of sibilance. Absolutely no sound staging at all, makes the Grado sound further back in presentation. Overall, the sound signature is like an inverted triangle, huge treble and no bass.
Of course, that’s what I hear and I could be wrong. So, being the scientist I am, I’ve done some testing. I gathered 7 people the most notables are: a music teacher and 2 musicians (both graduated from music school). Most of them aren’t really into headphones but enjoy music.
I give everyone 4 different songs, all the same songs, from various music genres. I gave them a form to fill out. Here are the questions:
1) How do they sound? Please describe your experiences
2) How is the treble?
3) How is the mid range?
4) How is the bass?
5) From a scale 1-10 please comment on the workmanship. Please explain your answer.
Here are some of the results:
1) “They sound Terrible.” “It hurts my ears.” “I think my iphone earbuds sound better, at least not as harsh.” “Why do they sound so congested? It’s as if the singer is screaming into my ears?” “(Confused) You really (referring to me) think these sound good? (I never replied to his answer)”
2) “There is too much treble, even in Classical pieces it sounds too tight. They might be ok for rock but, the sibilance would be annoying.” “I don’t like it at all.” “I can’t really enjoy the song.”
3) “They sound fine, I guess. But, when you explained “full” too me, they don’t sound like it, it might be “thin” sounding.” “I’m sorry the treble really overpowers the mid range, I can’t move beyond that.”
4) Here everyone is in agreement, no bass, no thump. “The cellos and bass sound extremely thin, you can barely feel them in the piece, even with rap music I can’t “feel” the beat.”
5) Average was about 6.7, they all said it looked like a rough job they wouldn’t buy it, I didn’t even tell them the “price” I paid for them. They did say the cable looks nice and on some angles the cups were decent. But, overall not that great. I also had to tell them to be extra careful when placing the headphones on and taking them off due to the loose cups.
Guess everyone is wrong too? I don’t think these custom orthodynamics have the Thunderpants sound. If anyone doesn’t know what they should sound like here is the link: ***Click Here***.
I would go on further but, I’m too depressed by this situation. Trust me, there is a lot more than what I am presenting, a lot more...However, I have more important things to work on, papers, projects, work, volunteering etc…I am literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. I was completely and utterly misled by this individual.
As anyone can see I’m not happy with them? Why? They don’t sound what I was suppose to be getting (which was what was agreed upon) and doesn’t look like a $400-500 headphone. Now, I probably could fix some of the issues, dampening, screws replacement, even rod placements if I can get some acetone. But, then again, why should I? I “paid” for a product that should have been equivalent but in my opinion it was less than spectacular. So, what do they do now? They sit on my headphone rack. Did I get a fair trade?
Pictures are below:
What I’ve learned? Sometimes you can’t even trust people who share the same hobbies, even if the person is a Head-Fier who helped people. I won’t lie as this experience has changed some of my views regarding headphones…
