[Coq de Combat]

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Please, do yourself a favor and add the Paradox by LFF to your list of considerations if you're considering modded T50RPs. Thinking back to your posts about wanting something different than a V-shaped signature, and wanting something like the more monitor-type MDR-7550, the Paradox is an easy recommendation to make. I feel it competes with---even surpasses---the LCD-2 and HE-500.
 
 

 
Thank you for taking the time to express your feelings. It really means a lot to me.

Thanks for the suggestion. Now, I'm not entirely sure I want to own several different types of the T50RPs, like the Paradox and the Mad Dogs, so in case I would actually order myself one of them - do I interpret your post correctly that you think you would actually recommend the Paradox over the Mad Dogs? Or, should I rather interpret it as you having only heard the Paradox of the two, and you're, doing the what we called the responsible thing to do, recommending what you actually have heard yourself and not what you haven't heard?
 
Looking at the FR graph of the Paradox, it surely looks as impressive as the Mad Dogs:
 

 
Should I opt to choose the Paradox by LFF over the Mad Dogs, where would I go about to find such a pair of headphones, and at what price would one be able to obtain them?

 

[Vuroth]

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It's truly shocking how bad southern US drivers are in snow.

I recall seeing the carnage when an inch of snow fell on St. Louis, and was apalled.
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It's not often I see people trying to hide their gender either.  Like, they'll freely talk about it but still have a dude avatar to make that less of a thing to weirdos and newcomers (or they just like the particular avatar).
 
Also, nine times out of ten (in my experience, at least), female posters who have big booby girl avatars are TG and that attention's a more positive thing for them.  I'm not judging or anything, that just seems to be how it works.

I don't even display avatars.  So I can't tell if this pertains to here or elsewhere.
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Actually to expand on this a bit more, IEMs also does a better job at a few things why people are buying headphones for. If talking of isolation, IEMs does it better. If talking of portability, IEMs of course does better. Comfort is where I think headphones would've won almost most of the time, but even then, some headphones are heavy or suffocating. I felt like IEMs offer less compromise than headphones.

I think based on my first experience, I want to gain confidence in the durability of IEMs before I take my next step.  Really love the portability and isolation, though.
 
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People have the misconception that IEMs are going to be inferior to fullsized headphones, that for the same amount of money you get more with headphones when the opposite is actually true (you can buy more IEM for your money). I guess in part it's a psychological thing, because IEMs are smaller, and bigger is often seen as better? Plus there's the idea of compromise. Obviously if it's portable and small, there has to be a catch or something. Also it wasn't long ago that many IEMs did suck, and your money didn't go very far. Things have most definitely changed however. I think IEMs are one of the areas in this hobby where innovation is strongest, where there's genuine improvement in products from one year to the next.

I think you've pointed this out to me, specifically, before.  I'm encouraged by these words.
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Maybe I'm in the minority but as far as gender is concerned I've never really given it much thought on here.

Maybe minority, but not alone.  If you get to know people by their words only, things like "smart" or "well spoken" or "considerate" come through without weird gender biases.
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Okay, so you have 10 ball bearings that look and feel identical.  They all weigh the same, with the exception of one, which is of a different weight than the rest.  However, you have no idea whether that oddball bearing is heavier or lighter.  All you know is that it does not weigh the same as each of the other nine.  Using a simple balance scale (two-sided scale with no markings of any kind) - and only three separate weightings - please isolate the ball bearing that is of a different weight than the others. 

An oldie but a goodie.
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Of course you also had your gamer grrrrrrls who were very vocal about being proud of their gender. They'd brag about kicking the asses of male players. But in those cases you'd damn well better be a skilled player, because those male players were going to go out of their way to target you as a result of being emasculated. Some folks would like nothing more than to embarrass someone like that. Most female players just put male on their user profiles to go under the radar.

One of my favourite days of the year is the Hawaii Ironman World Championships.  Every year, I count the number of women in the top 100.  It's never zero.
 
It helps ground and humble me.  Basically, no matter how good/strong/smart/whatever you think you are, there are people of both genders out there who are better.  (Unless you're honeslty world class at something.)  Once you accept that, you're ready to be beat by women at pretty much everything, and it's cool.

 

[mechgamer123]

Just so you know guys, I didn't find that myself, but I saw someone linking to that blog post in the D2-5-7000 appreciation thread.

Yeah, agreed, they do indeed look good in quite a few ways. I'd like to see a few comparisons of the LCD-2 and the Mad Dogs with the Alpha pads to know the sonic differences between them. The FR charts look similar, (I don't know how they differ with noise, and other measurements) but do they sound similar or are they still very different beasts altogether?

I signed up for the headamp.com LCD2 tour, but being in the middle if nowhere up here in WA, I'm last. So hopefully in about 3 months I'll be able to provide some direct comparisons. If you look at some of tyll's measurements on the mad dogs and LCD2s, If I remember correctly, the LCD2 has a bit less distortion overall, but their impulse response is just about the same. The CSDs that purrin made also suggest that the decay of both cans is approximately the same.

Thanks for the suggestion. Now, I'm not entirely sure I want to own several different types of the T50RPs, like the Paradox and the Mad Dogs, so in case I would actually order myself one of them - do I interpret your post correctly that you think you would actually recommend the Paradox over the Mad Dogs? Or, should I rather interpret it as you having only heard the Paradox of the two, and you're, doing the what we called the responsible thing to do, recommending what you actually have heard yourself and not what you haven't heard?

Looking at the FR graph of the Paradox, it surely looks as impressive as the Mad Dogs:




Should I opt to choose the Paradox by LFF over the Mad Dogs, where would I go about to find such a pair of headphones, and at what price would one be able to obtain them?

http://www.head-fi.org/t/644634/paradox-and-mad-dog-comparison#post_9023776

 

[MuppetFace]

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Thanks for the suggestion. Now, I'm not entirely sure I want to own several different types of the T50RPs, like the Paradox and the Mad Dogs, so in case I would actually order myself one of them - do I interpret your post correctly that you think you would actually recommend the Paradox over the Mad Dogs? Or, should I rather interpret it as you having only heard the Paradox of the two, and you're, doing the what we called the responsible thing to do, recommending what you actually have heard yourself and not what you haven't heard?
 
Looking at the FR graph of the Paradox, it surely looks as impressive as the Mad Dogs:
 

 
Should I opt to choose the Paradox by LFF over the Mad Dogs, where would I go about to find such a pair of headphones, and at what price would one be able to obtain them?

 
 
I personally prefer the Paradox over the two Mad Dogs I've heard. Granted, I have no idea what the latest revision of the Mad Dogs sounds like. The ones I heard were probably older versions, but the thing that stood out was how different they sounded from one to the other, which raises some questions about consistency in my mind. There have been some issues with the bass on the Mad Dogs in the past apparently, though AFAIK it gets corrected when you bring it to his attention.
 
Ultimately, what sets the Paradox apart for me is something I've noted before in this thread: the mods LFF uses are very different than those used by others. Whether it's the BMF, Rastapants, Mayflowers, or Mad Dogs, these mods use the same underlying materials and techniques like clay mass-loading. What LFF does is a proprietary technique; I have no clue what it is, but it's different. It results in a sound I personally feel is a cut above all the other mods I've heard in terms of accuracy and linearity. LFF is also an acoustic engineer with quite a bit of experience mastering albums, so he's able to really fine-tune the Paradox by ear to a consistent and extremely balanced level. The other mods are a better choice for those looking for more emphasis in certain specific regions.
 
If you decided on that path, just send him a PM. He's very personable.
 
Edit:
 
Re: impressions by Hans0303090
 
Just FYI, those impressions are sort of an outlier compared to most I've seen about the Paradox (and my own). I very much disagree based on my own experience.

 

[mechgamer123]

I personally prefer the Paradox over the two Mad Dogs I've heard. Granted, I have no idea what the latest revision of the Mad Dogs sounds like. The ones I heard were probably older versions, but the thing that stood out was how different they sounded from one to the other, which raises some questions about consistency in my mind. There have been some issues with the bass on the Mad Dogs in the past apparently, though AFAIK it gets corrected when you bring it to his attention.

Ultimately, what sets the Paradox apart for me is something I've noted before in this thread: the mods LFF uses are very different than those used by others. Whether it's the BMF, Rastapants, Mayflowers, or Mad Dogs, these mods use the same underlying materials and techniques like clay mass-loading. What LFF does is a proprietary technique; I have no clue what it is, but it's different. It results in a sound I personally feel is a cut above all the other mods I've heard. LFF is also an acoustic engineer with quite a bit of experience mastering albums, so he's able to really fine-tune the Paradox by ear to a consistent and extremely balanced level.

If you decided on that path, just send him a PM. He's very personable.

If I may interject a few things, first off, there are 3 different revisions of the Mad dog in the wild (different pads on all 3 and different dampening on the most recent 2 from the other, older one). Also, rastapants was originally designed by mrspeakers, he just then improved upon it and decided to commercialize it.
I must say that my contact with Louis was good when inquiring about the Paradox, but Dan's customer service is truly excellent. I had a cosmetic issue with my set, which Dan Took care of immediately, even though it was Christmas Eve!
Also, if you don't know what LFF does to the paradoxes, how do you know it's a completely proprietary method?

 

[barleyguy]

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I was going to edit my last post, but I think this deserves an own post:
 
http://noblehifi.blogspot.com/2013/02/old-dog-new-pads-review.html
 

 
The purple line is supposedly from LCD-2 and the red is from the Mad Dogs with new pads. It looks pretty impressive.

A 15K peak, as seen in the LCD-2, is often perceived as "bright" or "detailed".  Though if it passes above the level of 1K (the arbitrary flat point), it will often be perceived as "sibilant" or "no bass" (which is not actually lack of bass, it's too much treble).
 
So though those graphs look similar, the shape of the graph up near the 10-15K range should give them a very different sound, with the LCD-2 being generally perceived as more detailed.
 
(Tyll is the master of looking at graphs and guessing what they'll sound like, BTW.  He has a lot of hours of practice.)

 

[driver 8]

Coincidentally I just stopped by to say that the Paradox sounds really good off the HP-P1. It's been my default portable setup whenever I actually leave the house lately.

 

[Idsynchrono_24]

I've always been curious about the Paradox, but the MDs are very nice all on their own. I know a guy who has owned the HD800, SR-007, LCD-2/3, HP-1000s etc and he felt the Mad Dogs did enough things correctly without any overt and glaring deficiencies that he felt the 1-2k premium for the other aforementioned phones wasn't worth it to him. Stuff like that helps me sleep at night

 

[Coq de Combat]

I still can't find any price on the Paradox, even though I have seen some used Paradoxes going for about $300 and the Mad Dogs are about $300 new with Alpha pads.
 
I wish one could audition them to see which one I'd like the better, even though I'd probably like them both.

 

[gelocks]

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Now I have to get a pair to see for my self. So excitebike. 

 
DO IT!!
 
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Those look very nice! So nice, that I better stop looking.

 
Why stop?! You know you want them...
 
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Just so you know guys, I didn't find that myself, but I saw someone linking to that blog post in the D2-5-7000 appreciation thread.
 
Yeah, agreed, they do indeed look good in quite a few ways. I'd like to see a few comparisons of the LCD-2 and the Mad Dogs with the Alpha pads to know the sonic differences between them. The FR charts look similar, (I don't know how they differ with noise, and other measurements) but do they sound similar or are they still very different beasts altogether?

 
I have never heard the LCD-2s but on the Mad Dogs thread there have been people that have posted about this very same comparison... Thing is that some posters do actually call the MDs baby LCD2s (not necessarily using the "baby" moniker... lol) and others say that their sound are very different with the LCD2s being darker but at the same time more detailed...
 
I have to say that the Mad Dogs (which are on my ears right now) are super comfortable and their sound reproduction is top notch and great with most/all genres that I have thrown at it doing a better job than all of the other cans I have owned with the exception of the Ultrasone Signature Pros... (to my ears... YMMV...)

 

[Maxvla]

I still can't find any price on the Paradox, even though I have seen some used Paradoxes going for about $300 and the Mad Dogs are about $300 new with Alpha pads.

I wish one could audition them to see which one I'd like the better, even though I'd probably like them both.

http://referencesounds.com/paradox.html

 

[MuppetFace]

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Also, if you don't know what LFF does to the paradoxes, how do you know it's a completely proprietary method?

 
 
A perfectly valid question. Several reasons.
 
1.) The most simple, straightforward answer is that LFF says so, and I trust he's not lying.
 
2.) I have experience with the "standard" T50RP mods, including mass loading, damping, etc. I've spent time modding my own set, as well as talking to certain individuals who have far more experience than I do in that area. As a result I have a basic familiarity with the types of materials and methods and the ends they achieve. What LFF is able to wring out of the T50RP simply exceeds anything I have yet to encounter, and the improvements cannot be accounted for with those methods alone IMO.
 
3.) Expanding on the above point, the Paradox exceeds any other mods for the T50RP I've encountered with the exception maybe of RD's which is also not public information.
 
4.) LFF has gone to great lengths to keep his methods secret. For one thing, this begs the question of why he'd do this if his methods were the same as everyone else's. It's either because they're genuinely different, or because it's a way to get publicity. LFF sees what he's doing as a natural extension of his hobby more than a money making opportunity, at least in my experience, and he's turned away offers for money in the past. He hasn't shared his mods for personal convictions. I don't want to get into the politics of it too much, but he (and others in the scene) feel pioneers like smeggy didn't get the respect they deserved when others basically took their work, originally published as a free resource to the community, and capitalized on it. You see a lot of people making money off of those mods who don't even give credit where it's due.
 
5.) Expanding on the above point, there are several failsafes in place. When the enclosure of the Paradox is tampered with--- ie. forced open---then it destroys part of the mod. Several people have tried, only to discover they can't replicate the effects and can't get it to sound right anymore. LFF fixes them.

 

[gelocks]

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I still can't find any price on the Paradox, even though I have seen some used Paradoxes going for about $300 and the Mad Dogs are about $300 new with Alpha pads.
 
I wish one could audition them to see which one I'd like the better, even though I'd probably like them both.

 
LFF has a webpage for buying his Paradox headphones... lemme see if I can find it..

 

[MuppetFace]

Maxvla posted the website a few posts up there.

 

[gelocks]

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Maxvla posted the website a few posts up there.

 
Oppss... it seems I hadn't refreshed the page!
 
I might make the Paradox my next buy (even though I have the Mad Dogs). It's been a long time coming. I remember I spoke to Luis about it but at that point I didn't know people that had the Paradox and basically thought that it was too expensive... After listening to the Mad Dogs, seeing how well the stock T50RPs could sound and basically reading other members impressions, I became interested again. I'll probably sell what's left of my collection (which I rarely use) and get the Paradox.
 
BTW, yesterday I received the Yamaha Pro 500s... definitely a Beats rip-off design! lol I look like an alien with those huge things on my head!!!