[daniel521]

Quote:

So, got the Sig Pros today.
 
Early impression easily in favour of the T5p for metal particularly, but more time needed. 
 
So far tracks I have compared:
 
Tool - Forty Six & 2: The intro has some great delicate drumming from Danny Carey with a variety of splash cymbals, occasionally strikes them from underneath also. I think the Sig Pros imaged these better and have a wider soundstage to place instruments in, and so they sounded more well articulated there. Besides that preferred the T5p for this track.
 
Pantera - 13 Steps To Nowhere, Throes of Rejection: Two tracks I like to listen to to zero in on drum sounds in their respective intros (also bass guitar sound in the latter). T5p easily outgoing the Sig Pros to my ears here, with a much tighter sound.
 
Guns N Roses - Right Next Door to Hell: Primarily listening to the thundering bass line in the intro, but also listening for the characteristic sound of distortion of the Gibson guitars/Marshall amps (I formerly owned a Marshall Stack and Les Paul, now have a more modest guitar set up since I was never good enough to deserve the LP/Marshall pairing). Again easily prefer the T5p.
 
In all tracks prefer how guitars sound on the T5p, more forward and aggressive (as they should be), guitars on the Sig Pro sound polite and lack bite in comparison.
 
Lots more listening to do obviously, and the Sig Pros may improve of course (if you believe in burn-in that is, certainly I believe in brain burn-in, so as I get more acclimatised to how the Sig Pro present sound they may go up in my estimation).
 
 
Hope this helps, perhaps the OP has some reference tracks in mind that I could A/B also?

Well, I mostly listen to metallica. If you could A/B "The day that never comes" (or "the unforgiven" if you don't have it), "Eye of the beholder", and "The call of Ktulu" that would help a lot! Thanks for the help

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

Well, I mostly listen to metallica. If you could A/B "The day that never comes" (or "the unforgiven" if you don't have it), "Eye of the beholder", and "The call of Ktulu" that would help a lot! Thanks for the help

 
Sure thing, I have all the albums those songs come from. Anything in particular you were thinking of with respect to how the headphones present sound in the chosen tracks?

 

[daniel521]

Quote:

 
Sure thing, I have all the albums those songs come from. Anything in particular you were thinking of with respect to how the headphones present sound in the chosen tracks?

Well, "the day that never comes" isn't really an aggresive song, so I want to know which one sounds better with the vocals, and which one sounds more engaging. "Eye of the beholder" is a song which requires some impact, and body. I particularly don't enjoy when a headphone sounds too thin in this track. Most importantly, however, I want to know which one sounds more fun and engaging. As for "Call of Ktulu", in the first non-aggresive part of the song, I want to know which know which headphone makes the guitar sound more beautiful and refined, and in the aggressive part of the song, I just want to know which one sounds more fun, engaging, and toe-tapping. Sorry if I'm being way too specific  

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

Well, "the day that never comes" isn't really an aggresive song, so I want to know which one sounds better with the vocals, and which one sounds more engaging. "Eye of the beholder" is a song which requires some impact, and body. I particularly don't enjoy when a headphone sounds too thin in this track. Most importantly, however, I want to know which one sounds more fun and engaging. As for "Call of Ktulu", in the first non-aggresive part of the song, I want to know which know which headphone makes the guitar sound more beautiful and refined, and in the aggressive part of the song, I just want to know which one sounds more fun, engaging, and toe-tapping. Sorry if I'm being way too specific  

 
Not too specific at all, being specific helps.
 
My son has woken like an hour and half early from his afternoon nap, so I probably won't be able to test these out until my lunchtime at work tomorrow, will post thoughts then.

 

[daniel521]

Quote:

 
Not too specific at all, being specific helps.
 
My son has woken like an hour and half early from his afternoon nap, so I probably won't be able to test these out until my lunchtime at work tomorrow, will post thoughts then.

I'll keep an eye out on this thread, thanks for the help.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

I'll keep an eye out on this thread, thanks for the help.

 
You're welcome.
 
Subscribing to the thread is easier than remembering to check it, then come here and browse or search for it

 

[NZtechfreak]

OK, so, doing some more listening here at work on my lunch time (lunch is quite a good break when you get to sit down with the T5p and Signature Pros!).
 
Quote:

Well, "the day that never comes" isn't really an aggresive song, so I want to know which one sounds better with the vocals, and which one sounds more engaging.
 
Interesting one to listen to between the two headphones. Difference in bass quantity makes itself felt here, with the Sig Pros having more bass and again rather polite and smooth sounding guitars n comparison. After EQ'ing the bass a little for the T5p bass sound is fine. Because of the guitar sound I find the T5p the more engaging of the two, but no doubt some bias is entering the equation there with me being a guitarist. That said, with Lars awful drum tuning on this album I preferred it overall on the Sig Pros even if the guitars weren't as good - his cymbal and crash hits were less strident and fatiguing. Must try listening to the whole album back to front with each headphone and see how I feel about them over a longer listen - while the Sig Pro is less fatiguing on this particular album they are less comfortable in terms of fit than the T5p so that may balance out their advantage (Sig Pro have a stronger clamping force, smaller ear enclosures, and a less comfortable headband).
 
"Eye of the beholder" is a song which requires some impact, and body. I particularly don't enjoy when a headphone sounds too thin in this track. Most importantly, however, I want to know which one sounds more fun and engaging.
 
Preferred the T5p here as far as fun and engagement, same difference in bass presence and guitar sound in the respective headphones.
 
As for "Call of Ktulu", in the first non-aggresive part of the song, I want to know which know which headphone makes the guitar sound more beautiful and refined, and in the aggressive part of the song, I just want to know which one sounds more fun, engaging, and toe-tapping. Sorry if I'm being way too specific  
 
In the aggressive part the T5p wins easily since it represents the guitar sound better (more forward and has more bite in the distortion), definitely the more toe-tapping of the two. In the intro there was a fair amount of difference to how the guitars were presented, hard to say which was more beautiful and refined. They were more forward and bright in the T5p, a nice sound for that piece, in the Sig Pros they were again smoother and less forward, which also worked well in the intro I thought.

 
Hope that helps some!
 
By the way, since these are for portable use I would think about getting the Jaben removable cable mod T5p if you decide to go the T5p route. I wish that had been an option when I got mine, and thinking about either getting some of those or having the mod done to mine by Jaben (I think they are still investigating whether they will offer it to existing T5p owners, or just sell it new with the mod). I'd get them just from the portability point of view, although it also offers the ability to go for a balanced setup later should you want it (since I'm using mine on the go from an RSA Intruder which offers a balanced output I'll be looking at that).

 

[daniel521]

Quote:

OK, so, doing some more listening here at work on my lunch time (lunch is quite a good break when you get to sit down with the T5p and Signature Pros!).
 
 
Hope that helps some!
 
By the way, since these are for portable use I would think about getting the Jaben removable cable mod T5p if you decide to go the T5p route. I wish that had been an option when I got mine, and thinking about either getting some of those or having the mod done to mine by Jaben (I think they are still investigating whether they will offer it to existing T5p owners, or just sell it new with the mod). I'd get them just from the portability point of view, although it also offers the ability to go for a balanced setup later should you want it (since I'm using mine on the go from an RSA Intruder which offers a balanced output I'll be looking at that).

I can't thank you enough! I'm leaning towards the T5p because of the more forward sounding guitar. A simple bass boost might give it a bit more life, and along with the forward sounding guitar, the T5p can be a great metal headphone for me. I personally don't enjoy distant sounding guitars as it makes the music seem a bit more distant to me. I'll try to test both out, but if I can't, I'm going for the T5p. Again, thanks for the comparison, I'll check that mod out as well.

 

[Bananaheadlin]

Does the metal preferences somewhat apply to hip hop and rock genres too?

 

[PleasantSounds]

Quote:

Does the metal preferences somewhat apply to hip hop and rock genres too?

 
Can't tell much about hip hop, but for rock the T5p is fantastic. I use them through FiiO E17 with slightly boosted bass (+4) and this combo is hard to beat.

 

[amvolante]

I had the Sig Pros, and I really want the T5p.  I'm hoping someone with the T5p can help me out a bit.  When I had the Sig Pros, they had bass that I liked only sometimes.  I prefer a more neutral sound to listen to most music, but then I like having the ability to use an equalizer to boost the bass for other music, like Pendulum for example.  With the Sig Pros boosted it actually sounded like I was in a club.  There wasn't a rumble at all, just really nice and incredibly punchy bass.  Looking through the basshead threads I feel like the odd one out because I hate the "car-with-a-massive-sub-driving-by-your-house" rumble.  I like my bass tight and punchy.  If you boost the bass frequencies with the T5p and listen to bass heavy music, does it start to give that punchy club sound at all?
 
I was looking at the Signature DJs too, and although cheaper, they apparently have the same earcups, headband, and squeeze that the Signature Pros did.  Those hurt my ears after a while and I don't want to go down that road again.  The T5p looks supremely comfy.

 

[PleasantSounds]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amvolante /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
[..]
 I like my bass tight and punchy.  If you boost the bass frequencies with the T5p and listen to bass heavy music, does it start to give that punchy club sound at all?
 

 
This is where the T5p really shine! Their bass is not very prominent - i.e. you may have to use equaliser to get it to the surface, but it's one of the cleanest I have ever heard.

 

[Theogenes]

I just wanted to take a moment to thank the posters in this thread-- I have been going back and forth between the Sig Pros and the T5p for some time, and as I listen to a lot of different kinds of music (but metal more than most other genres), I finally pulled the trigger today on a pair of T5ps from the F/S forums. Reading a lot of the other reviews had me concerned that these might be a poor pairing-- but after reading some like-minded people here giving the Beyers the go-ahead, I felt comfortable enough to give 'em a shot!!! 
 
Tons of thanks are in order here, guys!!!! (Except from a fiscal perspective, naturally 

). 

 

[NZtechfreak]

Quote:

I just wanted to take a moment to thank the posters in this thread-- I have been going back and forth between the Sig Pros and the T5p for some time, and as I listen to a lot of different kinds of music (but metal more than most other genres), I finally pulled the trigger today on a pair of T5ps from the F/S forums. Reading a lot of the other reviews had me concerned that these might be a poor pairing-- but after reading some like-minded people here giving the Beyers the go-ahead, I felt comfortable enough to give 'em a shot!!! 
 
Tons of thanks are in order here, guys!!!! (Except from a fiscal perspective, naturally 

). 

 
Awesome! Hope you'll enjoy them. Which headphones are you coming from, and which sources will you be using the T5p with?

 

[GoSUV]

As a T5p owner, I'd like to offer my 2 cents.
 
1. First of all, the T5p does benefit from a few months of regular use to "burn-in" the drivers. Whether you believe in burning in electronics or not, burning in dynamic drivers, which are just cones moving air, will make them sound like what the original designers intended them to be.
 
2. The T5p although is "easy to drive", and not difficult to get good sound out of your iPhone, but to get really great sound, having a good source and good amplification will really do these top end headphones justice. Having a good amp is not really about getting the music to play "louder", but to give it the power to CONTROL the drivers.
 
3. Some people say the T5p is "bass light", "sounds thin" or "is overly analytical". While I agree to some degree in the overall sound signature of the T5p, but in my personal opinion, the bass is "right" rather than "light". It has quality rather than quantity.
 
4. If you wear the headphones as far forward as possible, like with the back of your ears almost touching the back of the cup, this will give the angled drivers more room between your ears. This will improve the bass response and soundstage. It is almost like a very subtle bass boost that is free.