Introduction   Finding a great isolating closed headphone has been my white whale for years. I’ve gone through the B&W P7, NAD Viso HP50, Denon D2000, Fostex TH-X00, a modded Fostex T20RP, modded XB950BT, and a Beyerdynamics T5p in my hunt. Every closed headphone I’ve tried had their own weaknesses and it became a game of trying to find out which tradeoffs I was willing to accept.   When I saw hype about the Cascadia Audio Talos, a new T50RP mod, I was intrigued. Most T50RP mods I’ve tried, like the Mr. Speakers line, disappointed me in the...

Introduction and Design I picked up the Woodphones 10 months ago, so I've had quite a bit of experience with them in my collection. Despite me having sold off most of my closed headphone collection, the Woodphones will remain in my collection forever as a beautiful closed headphone with some solid positive sound qualities.    What really drew me to these headphones was the design and the customization options. FreqWood (then Architectural Woodphones) tried very hard to really put the experience with these headphones amazing. They came with a...

Introduction and Design I got the Exodus because it was on sale for $49 like new, which is a phenomenal price, and I used them to replace my Brainwavz HM3 as my on-the-go portable. When I received it, the plastic wrappings on the headphone itself hadn't even been broken. I loved the overall look and feel of the headphones before I put them on my head. They felt pretty sturdy, but just from how they look, I wouldn't want to use them as a beater pair of headphones to toss in my bag of anything like that.   Comfort   When I put them on, I...

The Fiio E6, in all honesty, fulfilled basically my portable amp needs. It has more voltage output than my portable media players. It fit very nicely in my pocket. From a portable usability standpoint, it was great.   My main issues were from attempting to use it as a temporary desktop amp. One thing is that, although it can charge and play at the same time, it was obviously not designed to do so. There would be common high pitched whines in the music when it did this. Furthermore, the battery charges at seemingly random points when it is left...

  Introduction: I first wrote this review around the end of December 2011. Ever since then, the modded T20RP has become my headphone of choice. I've used them pretty much every day since then. I've added some retrospective comments that around coming around 4 1/2 months after my initial impressions.     Comfort: The T20RP has a relatively low clamping force with pretty wide pads which fit my ears very snugly. The pads and clamping force didn't bother me, but the headphones were still clamped tight enough to be secure. The headband isn't...

I'm going to level with you -- I bought these headphones for a reason that probably nobody in history has ever purchase the KRK KNS 6400s. I bought them because I thought I might be able to coax a good bass response out of them. I saw the graphs at HeadRoom and InnerFidelity and thought: "These things have the most extended bass response I've seen out of anything in its price range! Only a modded T50RP has that kind of extension under $100! They're underemphasized, but that can be equalized!" Their drivers looked to me like they had the potential to...

Allow me to preface this by saying that I have way more experience with headphones. The only IEMs I've ever owned before this were some cheapie $20 Sony IEMs, the MeElec CW31s, and the MeElect M9-BK. I've sold every IEM I've owned before this one, mostly because I felt like they never got any head time compared to my full-sized cans.   The packaging for the 8320 was about was minimalist as you can get -- there were the IEMs with inserts already on, no alternative inserts, no box, just a small plastic bag.    The design felt pretty solid...

For a while, I was going out and buying all of the little Flavor of the Month headphones, searching for that actual "giant killer." Some of them I found to be pretty solid, others I was a little disappointed that there was so much hype for them. The one FotM trend that I found the most interesting, though, were the East Asian headphones that copied the designs of other companies and then put out a sound beyond their price -- companies like Superlux and Takstar. What attracted me to the Superlux HD 681s were the measurements that Tyll had on them from...

When I first put on the XB500s, I have to say, I was rather impressed by how they felt. The giant pillow pads gave a unique feeling that was far different than typical pleather pads in this price range. My main issue came when I began to actually listen to them. I did notice that the overall build quality felt a little spotty and I worried that I would break them with a relatively minor mistake. The volume was high coming even out of a portable source, so amps are unnecessary.   In their field of expertise, bass-heavy music, I felt like they did...

Like tdockweiler, I'm a fan of forward mids and these definitely bring it. They are excellent for vocals in general, not just for male vocals. They're relatively neutral sounding with a tight, controlled bass that doesn't extend too low. They're far from being "extreme bass" DJ headphones and I wouldn't suggest them to someone who is a fan of real bass heavy electronic music -- I hardly noticed the subbass on these headphones, even when equalizing it up. It is present, but not thumping like I would want for that type of music. One issue I noticed was...

I decided to purchase these headphones after reading the large thread that was praising them greatly. I was in the market for a budget basshead pair of headphones, so it was a logical decision. As soon as I received them, I used them as my primary headphones for a week, while burning them in during the night.   My initial impression confirmed that the tone was very warm, musical, and colored. They were pleasant and non-fatiguing to listen to, with a very nice soundstage, and were a massive comfort improvement over my Grados. I did notice a large...