Quote:
Please tell us your impressions of your Amperiors compared to the Mad Dogs. I was considering the MDs instead of the Amperiors, but the need of good source amplifier made me turn to my much simpler Amperiors.
Also, i bought some refurb Amperiors. $160 vs $300 (MD with dog pads).
I do have a Nu Force amp... and i have noticed that it diminishes the bass. So, i am hearing them straight from source.
Thanks
Whoa, I totally missed this! Sorry about that.
Anyway, here go some brief impressions between the two.
They're honestly two completely different beasts. The amperiors are my portable and my Mad Dogs are a home setup, and I can't see the sharing roles; in fact, they're perfect compliments to each other, IMO.
The Mad Dogs are fairly neutral across the board with a slightly darker tonality (it's hard to tell since I've been listening to them for so long, my ears have probably adapted; it sounds pretty close to neutral to me) with a neutral bass, a more prominent, thick and beautiful midrange--though admittedly my experience has me struggling to really pinpoint the midrange--and again, a pretty neutral treble, which is neither recessed nor sparkly. Everything in the music I listen to is represented equally in a holistic way, and I don't feel anything is lacking. The Mad Dogs definitely isolate much better than the Amperiors due to their over-ear design, and are also much more comfortable. Their soundstage is adequate though many have conflicting opinions about it, but altogether this package makes them extremely versatile.
There IS one caveat though, and it's one that made the amperiors a good choice for you: without an amp, they sound a bit hollow and wanting, everything feels a bit weak, flat, and distant compared to my Asgard2/Bifrost setup which breathes life into it.
Now for the Amperiors, they sport a V-shaped signature and are much more forward than the relatively laid-back Mad Dogs. Everything is much more in your face, and the bass and treble are of definite greater quantities than the Mad Dogs, but as a result, sacrifice the reference quality that the Mad Dogs have. This isn't a complaint, just a difference, because their v-shaped signature makes them really fun headphones to listen to on-the-go, though if I were to travel away from my home setup with my Amperiors, I wouldn't mind it at all. The best thing about their v-shaped signature is that neither the bass nor the treble are overdone. The bass is nice, aggressive and punchy but has not once overpowered the music while the treble exhibit the perfect amount of sparkle while surviving more sibilant tracks (IMO). The comfort for the amperior is weird for me, sometimes they clamp my glasses, sometimes they don't, but they are definitely wearable long-term if I don't have my glasses on. The clamp is definitely perfect and these things aren't gonna fall off my head anytime soon.
The Mad Dogs allow me to take everything in at once cohesively, while the Amperiors engage me full-throttle with no holes barred. They're a match made in heaven, honestly. They both are finely detailed, but I haven't cared enough to compare them.
I hope this helps! This was my first attempt at stating my thoughts on headphone here, so I hope I did okay.
