Takstar Pro 80

Takstar Pro 80s

NOTE: I did not buy the Takstar Pro 80s, I instead bought the Gemini HSR-1000s. By all accounts, these are the same headphones, so I brought my review from there over to here in order to give more people an understanding of these headphones. Please comment corrections if this is not true.
 
Isolation: Okay, but not great. They aren't going to block out the world, but they will make it more manageable. I would like to have something much more isolating. 7/10
 
Comfort: The pad size could be bigger, over a couple of hours they will somewhat hurt my ears.  I can wear them for multiple hours, though. They do not have a death grip. Overall, they are pretty comfortable. If I could find replacement pads that are more isolating and more comfortable, I would buy them in a heartbeat. 8.5/10
 
Sound: For testing the sound, I used this test file. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/69968986/MyMusic/CombinedTestTrack.mp3
The song samples contained are:
 
Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift, Strobe by Deadmau5, Pirate Bay by Savant, I Want It All by Queen, Small Two of Pieces from Xenogears, Home Sweet Home + Title Theme from Earthbound,
Star Stealing Girl from Chrono Cross, Aquatic Ambiance from Donkey Kong Country, For River from To The Moon, and finally the Final Fantasy VII Main Theme performed during Tour De Japon.
 
My main priority when listening to these songs is to question, how well do the headphones provide the intended emotion that the song sets out to create?
 
Songs that did not perform well:
~~~Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift, I Want It All by Queen, Small Two of Pieces from Xenogears, and Aquatic Ambiance~~~
The reason being that these songs are very vocal focused, and the headphones have a dip around 4 Khz, which I personally find to be a very important area for vocal listening. None of these songs provide emotion without EQ. I Want It All is heavily lacking even with EQ. Rock music does not mix with DJ headphones, I believe. It sounds lifeless. The drums are great, but the guitar, man. It makes me sad :c
 
Aquatic Ambiance, on the other hand, suffers from the impactful bass. The song should be relaxing, but the bass breaks any attempt at a soothing piece.
 
Songs that are okay:
~~~Final Fantasy VII Theme~~~
This song, listened to on the best of equipment, will take my breath away. On the Takstar's, this  will only make me smile. An acceptable reproduction, but not the best.
 
Songs that are great:
~~~Strobe by Deadmau5, Pirate Bay by Savant, Earthbound music, Star Stealing Girl from Chrono Cross, and For River from To The Moon~~~
Do you like Bass impact? Because these headphones got it. I'm normally not a bass head, in fact, I'm into treble, but the bass production on these are nice.
Pirate Bay proves that the headphones will do well with dubstep and the like. Strobe has a wonderful kick to it, and the organ is perfectly eerie.
On the other hand, the bass really makes the Earthbound track something else. I didn't even know the bass synth went so low in Home Sweet Home!
Star Stealing Girl might be here and not on "okay" because of the EQ I started using, but it also is a wonderful reproduction of the piece. The instruments are well separated and clear, and I believe that is great. The piano in For River also sounds wonderful on these headphones.
 
The sound is much more transparent than I expected, overall. I love how revealing these can be, but this also can bring some harshness to your listening experience in the treble, making them possibly too revealing for some people. They also do not reproduce vocals as well as I had hoped. The soundstage is slightly better than your average closed headphones. I find these to be a wonderful new edition to my tiny headphone collection.
 
9/10
 
Conclusion:
I found these headphones to be lacking slightly in isolation, comfort, and vocal reproduction, but making up for it in almost every other aspect of the sound.

They beat my DT 770's. That was enough for me. Everything about them was better. Vocal clarity, soundstage....upfront vocals...beautiful and not just for the price.
 
Under rated... people don't know what they are missing.

Takstar Pro80
This is a common reference headphone that has been made by several others.
But from what I've studied, and heard from others, the drivers inside are actually a Takstar Driver that isn't like it's clones.
 
If you're fond of the M50, MDR-7510, then read along.
 
This is not a detailed review, but will contain strong points.
Soundstage in these are ok, compared to it's Open Designed brother.
You receive a package containing the following.
- Tight Bass
- Bright Melting Highs
- M50 Style Bass Done Right
- Slight Beyerdynamic Style Brightness
 
This headphone WILL need Burn In to fully achieve the capacity of what it's designed for.
Also, critical listening is almost the same reference of the MDR-7510, being near pinpoint for a budget headphone.
Bass is something I had to grow used to when first listen came around, and it does pay off. People have numerously called these cans the M50 done right with few features. I can't say you're wrong!
 
I recommend this to anyone who wants to see what would happen when reference headphones meet, & have a child.
This. 
A sometimes Bright, Slightly Warm, Beautiful Mids, Crisp Highs that share the beauty of how precise tings should sound, and a headphone that truly helps you experience what true Burn In feels like.
 
Burn In:
Burn in should take up to 100h. What happens? The Headphones mellow out, they don't become a relaxed sound, but make it more a headphone you can use in Public Environments as a precision piece. The headphone becomes a DT880 Style sort of Bright, More Bass Depth is gained as well. 

How can there not be a review for these budget gems, when I've found so many people recommending them on here? Let's rectify that...
 
(This is basically a copy and paste from my comment in the Takstar thread on here - mods, please delete if not appropriate?)
 
So after a ton of online research on account of the fact that I'm on a strictly budget-sized budget, I took a risk and ordered a pair of Pro80s. Why was it a risk? Because frankly, how can a pair of £34 headphones be any good? How could they be better than my 'much' (to me) more expensive AKG K271? It's gotta be internet hype, right?
 
Wrong.
 
DAMN, these headphones are good! How on Earth can they manufacture, market and distribute these for this price and make money? I have limited headphone experience, but these have to be one of the best cost/performance bargains out there. Sincerely, my thanks to every one of you on here who pointed me in their direction - I'm a very happy boy
 
Thoughts? With no burn-in, they just sound 'right' to me. Not 'Wow, that's clear!' or 'Oooh, that's warm!', just... 'right'. They get out of the way and let me enjoy my music the way I like it to sound. I've always enjoyed a V-scoop EQ, rolling off the treble for playback (as opposed to mixing) and that's what these deliver right out of the box. I have spent HOURS tweaking the EQ in Audirvana to get my AKGs sounding the way I want them to. I just turned it off, plugged in the Takstars and smiled - no tweaks required!
 
To my untrained ears, the bass is strong without being bass boost obnoxious by any means (maybe just a touch flabby?), the mids don't seem too recessed and the treble isn't too biting (something I struggle with on many sets). Remember, this is as per my taste, which I think is different from audiophile neutrality. Given that they are an enjoyable 'fun' listen, I wondered if the detail was lacking, but going back over my favourite test tracks showed otherwise. I can still pick up on the same little nuggets I look for. My analytical AKGs did expose more detail, but I just didn't enjoy them as an experience until I EQ'd quite a bit. For me, the telling fact is that rather than just listen to the key sections of these songs and moving on, I tended to listen to each track in full because I was enjoying the experience. And that for me is the endgame.
 
Soundstaging is decent rather than amazing, but you always have a clear idea of which direction the instruments are coming from. It could be wider/more spacious, but I'm not going to grumble. I mean, come on - these headphones cost less than some cushions or cables!
 
I have the dial on my amp lower than for my AKGs and about the same as my Sennheiser PX200s. I was surprised to find that they sound perfectly good straight out of my Samsung Galaxy S5, too. Given their size / look, I really can't see me taking them out of the house, but it's good to know I can use them elsewhere with no real impact on performance.
 
Niggles? Well, the design is total meh to me. Just... dull. Still, I didn't buy them to look flash. Construction seems solid enough, but I wonder about those cables going from the cups to the band. And the cups are *just* too small for my flapping lobes. They butt up against the cushions in a way that isn't uncomfortable, just ever so slightly distracting and I reposition them more often than I would like. Would the Brainwavz pads fix this?
 
I bought these as a stopgap until I could afford ATHM50x (told you I was on a budget), but TBH, I'm starting to wonder if I can't just skip that step and go straight to HD600/650 (or X2) - any comments/comparisons?
 
Overall, I have to say that I'm very impressed. I have nothing to really judge them against, but I can't imagine there's a better sounding option at this price and I would be very happy with this sound at £100. 
 
Thanks Head-Fi for turning me onto such a bargain