[chry5alis]

Tyll was floored by the walnut headphones and the teak headphones and the Ebony cups in the THX00. I'd expect a big plug coming from him in the near-ish future.

Have you had time to fit the ebony cups on your eMu headset yet?

And if so would you say there is a noticeable difference between that and the th-x00?

 

[Eudis]

Have you had time to fit the ebony cups on your eMu headset yet?

And if so would you say there is a noticeable difference between that and the th-x00?

Check out my impressions on all the cups

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/4kbf70/woodies_emu_wood_series_teak_rosewood_ebony_and/

 

[Oregonian]

  I bring the E-mu Teak home and is now listening with my audio-gd reference 5.32 mod, Phase Tech EPA-007 setup. No EQ applied.
 
I have my EPA-007 output impedance set at "zero", damping control set at 9:00 o'clock position to achieve similar damping characteristic of my T70 (with output impedance set at "medium", damping control set at 8:00 o'clock position). Usually the better driver diaphragm speed/control the headphone has, the lower I can set my EPA-007's damping control. For comparison, I have to set damping control at 10:00 o'clock position for my MS2e, at 11:00 o'clock position for my now sold Yamaha HPH-MT220, and T1 at 7:00 o'clock position. Thus the Teak's drivers are quite fast, just slower than my T1 and T70
 
The Teak definitely is tuned to have a special "reverb" sound. It is not the kind of "paper cup covers ear" sound one finds with cheap/under dampened closed headphones, but is a tastefully done reverb adding to the mid and treble frequencies. For good, this special reverb does not seems to affect the bass frequency much, so the bass remains clean and tight from the Teak. Female vocal, piano and cymbal sounds beautiful from the Teak. For male vocal (e.g. Leonard Cohen), I prefer the cleaner, "reverb less" signature of the T70.
 
As my home has weaker air conditioning compare to my office, I find the Teak's pleather pads more uncomfortable at home. I just hate the feeling of pleather sticking to my skin. Audeze Vegan pads will be installed tomorrow.
 
Overall I like the Teak, it is complementing quite well to my "neutral" T70

Very interested to hear your impressions.  The Vegan pads don't fit well on Denon/Fostex/EMU chassis so I'd like to hear your thoughts when you put them on on both fit and sound.  I tried them on my Denon LA7000 and went back to the Lawton Angle pads, another option that are lambskin and not protein leather. 

 

[chry5alis]

Check out my impressions on all the cups

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/4kbf70/woodies_emu_wood_series_teak_rosewood_ebony_and/

Great stuff. My cups should arrive tomorrow with a bit of luck.

 

[borrego]

  Very interested to hear your impressions.  The Vegan pads don't fit well on Denon/Fostex/EMU chassis so I'd like to hear your thoughts when you put them on on both fit and sound.  I tried them on my Denon LA7000 and went back to the Lawton Angle pads, another option that are lambskin and not protein leather. 

 
Except the Grados, I have velour/fabric pads installed on all my headphones. Not just on the Teak, I find all non perforated pleather and leather pads I have tried on other headphones will introduce a nassel congestion sound within a very narrow frequency band. It is not so bad if it happens in the bass frequency region, but quite distracting when it is in the mid/treble region. For the Teak, I find this plether/leather pads "nassel congestion" happen in the lower female vocal (Contralto) frequency range. It is quite distracting to the otherwise "airness" sound reproduction in other frequencies of the Teak. I also hope the steeper angled Vegan pads will give a more "frontal" sound stage to the Teak. With the stock pads, the sound stage of the Teak is quite left-right.
 
And of course there is the comfort issue.
 
I am already using the Vegan pads with my HE-500, and I have read many positive reviews of using the Audeze lambskin/vegan pads on the TH-900. So I shall give it a try.
 

 

[borrego]

Audeze Vegan pads installed.

 
Improvement over stock pads: Better comfort (especially in hot weather), slight "nassel congestion" in the lower female vocal (Contralto) frequency range is gone, slightly bigger sound stage (but no increase in depth in proportion, still more width than depth), slightly more bass impact (mainly due to better pad sealing). No change to mid and treble FR as far as I can tell.
 
Even for those who has no intention doing pads swap, I would suggest to remove the stock pads to check the alignment of the foam ring underneath (see below). Because the left/right foam rings on my Teak has different alignments.
 

(see: http://www.head-fi.org/t/802704/th-900-fostex-ez-simple-mods-and-other-fostex-dynamic-variants-x00-denon-more-bass-mid-soundstage-smooth-trebles)

 

[borrego]

With more burn in, I can now use the EPA-007 damping control at 8:00 o'clock possible with the E-mu Teak. Now I would rate the E-mu Teak as having the same level of driver diaphragm control as my T70. For sure the two headphones have different tuning though.

 

[chry5alis]

Some pics here of my ebony and rosewood cups. Been very busy lately so only had the time to try out the rosewood cups. I can report theres a LOT more bass with these but I actually miss the refinement of the teak cups. This is more a reflection on how good the teak are, I think eMu hit the sound signature just right with the teak cups, theyre far better than I expected.


Ebony and rosewood


Teak cups


Rosewood

 

[fjrabon]

Some pics here of my ebony and rosewood cups. Been very busy lately so only had the time to try out the rosewood cups. I can report theres a LOT more bass with these but I actually miss the refinement of the teak cups. This is more a reflection on how good the teak are, I think eMu hit the sound signature just right with the teak cups, theyre far better than I expected.

Yeah, the teak is truly a home run. I think it isn't the wood as much as that the wood allowed Chan to make the teak cups thinner and more "artfully" sculpted on the inside. He said that Rosewood, Ebony and Mahagony would all crack if he tried to make those cups with the routing process they use for the Teak. I think he said he could also do ash and certain types of oak to the thickness of the teak as well.

 

[DarthUnnamed]

Would the teaks be a good recommendation for someone wanting some headphones that are for the most part neutral/balanced with a little bit more bass? I found the HE-400 treble to fatiguing and the mids too recessed, with the bass even being a little too much at times. I also have a pair of Vanatoo Transparent One speakers that are supposedly neutral, and i love those.

 

[zombywoof]

  Would the teaks be a good recommendation for someone wanting some headphones that are for the most part neutral/balanced with a little bit more bass? I found the HE-400 treble to fatiguing and the mids too recessed, with the bass even being a little too much at times. I also have a pair of Vanatoo Transparent One speakers that are supposedly neutral, and i love those.

I would say that the E-MU Teaks are the perfect recommendation for the description you gave.  Although "little bit more bass" than neutral is a tough call, the Teaks have less bass than their THX00 / TH600 / TH900 siblings, so yes, closer to neutral than the typical Fostex sound.

 

[DarthUnnamed]

 
I would say that the E-MU Teaks are the perfect recommendation for the description you gave.  Although "little bit more bass" than neutral is a tough call, the Teaks have less bass than their THX00 / TH600 / TH900 siblings, so yes, closer to neutral than the typical Fostex sound.

Yeah that is good for me i would say, i don't like headphones with too much of a v shape sound signature like the Fostex offerings are 

 

[zombywoof]

  Yeah that is good for me i would say, i don't like headphones with too much of a v shape sound signature like the Fostex offerings are 

I have THX00 and TH500RP as points of comparison.  I would further say that the quality of the bass on the Teaks is very nice.

 

[fjrabon]

Would the teaks be a good recommendation for someone wanting some headphones that are for the most part neutral/balanced with a little bit more bass? I found the HE-400 treble to fatiguing and the mids too recessed, with the bass even being a little too much at times. I also have a pair of Vanatoo Transparent One speakers that are supposedly neutral, and i love those.

Eh, I mean they'd be better than any other Foster/Fostex headphone but to me it really sounds like you're describing a Senn HD650 or HD600.

 

[DarthUnnamed]

Eh, I mean they'd be better than any other Foster/Fostex headphone but to me it really sounds like you're describing a Senn HD650 or HD600.

Definitely was considering those as well. The lowered price is also pretty enticing. Do you know how the pair with a schiit magni/modi stack? Don't plan on upgrading amp/dac anytime soon really
 
Has anyone compared the teaks with either of the senns? I obviously assume they'll be pretty different but I'm just curious