[Humblepie]

Side note. That Bosshifi B7 I got in my mistake for the B6 I wanted actually has different earpads on it compared to my previous one. Previous one had similar fenestrated earpads, but the ear hole opening was very oval and very small. The new one is like the B7S in that the opening is perfectly round this time. While still too small for my ears, it is definitely much more comfortable overall. The sound isn't that much different either.

Here is the best photo I found of the old one online

And here is the picture of the newer one.

Doing A/B on them right now and trying to see how the sound may be affected.

Update the open pads sound a tad better. The sound is more open and airy. Most people complain that the soundstage of the B7 basically like a closed headphone. I think the original earpads are making that happen. Second, the highes are much higher with the older pads. They are hotter and with some voices very harsh. The newer pads take just a slight edge off those same highes. Guessing the extra air in there is helping with that. The other difference is the foam. The old pads had a thick piece of foam inside them. The new ones don't. it's pretty much panty hose material separating the earpads from the driver with the newer pads. I think this helps the sound a tad.

Lastly the drivers are reversed in direction. My first pair the drivers face from back to front in angle. In the newer pair they are from front to back. From what I've learned is that the proper direction is from front to back facing so the sound bounces off the back of the actual ear before bouncing down inside the canal. That bounce effect is what causes soundstage to sound wider in headphones as well. This is what the Sennheiser HD800s does with its drivers. So the newer B7 sounds better than the older one.

Here is a picture of the two B7's with the left earpads off each. Top is old and bottom is new.

For reference the B7S has the drivers facing from front to back as well.

Here is an image of the Sennheiser HD800s for reference that allows you to see the angle of the driver.

 

[Adide]

I posted My impressions about takstar pro82 in the takstar thread but here is a copy because pro82's are a relevant headphones in this thread also.

------------------------------------

So... I've been living with pro82's as my main headphones for allmost a week now. It is time for some impressions. First of all let's keep in mind that everyone hears differently so ymmv. Anyway I've been into headphones for about ten years now. I've owned about 150-200 different pairs. Most of them low end but some quite high end like Beyerdynamic T1,T5p, Sony MDR-CD3000,Sa-5000, Audio Technica ATH-w1000x, J VC DX-1000, Denon ah-d5000 and so on.

I've been into budget chi-fi headphones since forever...to be precise since the release of superlux hd681. I was also one of the first people on head-fi to own Takstar Hi2050 and I've been speaking highly of Takstar products ever since. So Pro82 is quite meaningfull headphone for me as a successor for one of my alltime favorites hi2050 & pro80.

While I've had pro82, I've been mostly using them with my oneplus3, sometimes with oneplus3+topping nx1 and usually with my desktop setup hegel hd10+spl phonitor. Why all this ramble?

Becausese it is very important to know where person is coming from. What headphones he/she likes or is familiar with. What are his/her soundsignature biases. I must say, I have no sounsignature bias. I lived for years with dx1000 and sa5000. Other being bassy and dark other bright and bass light. I loved them both.

First.. A family photo



I'd like to talk about build quality of pro82's. Like people have said these are very comfortable headphones. Definately an improvement over pro80. Pro80 notoriously has quite bad stock pads and me included prefer to use alternative pads such as HM5 pleather pads. Pads are not perfect, I would have preferred memory foam and more luxurious feel but as far as normal stock pads go these are good.

Detachable cable is a big plus. I especially like that it is not some propriatory plug so any 2.5mm plug will do. 3.5mm woud have been better IMO because if is more popular thus offering easier replacement. I'm not a fan of the cable lengt. 1.6m is too long for portable and too short for home use. It is not unknown to offer two cables at $50-100 price range. Also the plug termination makes no sense. If it is supposed to be portable, it should be angled! Many headphone manufacturers don't get this. Neither does taksar obviously.

The housing and the headband... Well.. This is the stuff I don't like. Pro82's look like a cheap copy of sony mdr-1a. Pro80's were well done copy of classic beyerdynamic design, with pro82's all we have is plastic and lots of it. Despite pro82's more modern looks in this regard it is a downgrade from classic pro80/hi2050.



Another thing I don't like is that the headband has no visible adjuster points. Not a biggy, but it annoys me. Pro80 had the dots pro82 has none. I would not care about it much but adjusting system on pro82 feels a bit loose as new. If it becomes looser over time it becomes a problem not being able to adjust both cups evenly.


Finally... the sound quality. Let's go positive first. Pro82's have very nice imaging. With fast attack these have the ability to distinguish instruments, different drum pieces etc. Midrange clarity is good. Thing sound like they are supposed to. Extra credit for being able to portray the breath on singers voice. Singing does not sound synthetical but like an actual person blowing out(singing) air. Sorry for not so technical explanation. I don't know a better way how to put it.

Soundsignature in general is balanced, quite neutral I would say. Bass extends all the way down low and mids and higs don't have any annoying peaks or dips to my ear. As an overall balance these have improved over pro80, which suffered from somewhat harsh highs. I personally did not find highs on pro80 and hi2050 that big of a deal but I can hear why some did.

The negative: First thing that comes to mind is soundstage. I saw the Z-review video and guy kept saying "I can't believe I'm listening to headphones". Well, I can. The soundstage on pro82's is very small and even with good imaging listening can get tiresome especially with recordings with lot of stereo panning. Zeppelin, hendrix, beatles and stuff like that. It is not that it is a minor downfall it is a big deal. Soundstage and whole presentation is "closeted". It is a big negative change after pro80's that had a good soundstage especially if one uses thicker aftermarket pads.

Another negative is the bass. It is not bad bass. It's punchy and extends low but the headphones housing does not do justice for the capable driver. Pro80 and hi2050 had excellent damping materials inside the cups that removed the unwanted resonances and reverbs. If I open a bassport on pro82's I can clearly hear resonances within the housing. Bass becomes honky and with bassports closed I get barely enough bass to my liking. Not that it's bass light but it is about 80% that I would prefer. I don't understand what Takstar engineers where thinking when they ditched the idea of proper cup dampening.

Highs... well, this is a thing that will surely divide people. I find pro82's rather dark sounding headphones. I red these were compared to Fostex th-900 soundsignature and I find it hard to believe. I have not heard th900 but from what I get by reading reviews is that th900 is a v-shaped headphone with allmost piercingly bright highs. That is pretty much opposite what I get with pro82's. With most headphones highs can become a bit too much with metal music. I was listening to children of bodom and amorphis and pro82's just sound mellow up top. These don't fix the issue on bright recordings instead they make music sound as exciting as yesterdays cold porridge. I compared pro82's with denon ah-d2000 which is an ancestor of th900 and the lowest in rank of the foster made headphones. There is not a single area where pro82's is superior to d2000.



This overall staleness of sounds underliness my experience with pro82. These headphones had a lot of potential but the monitor like dullness combined with lack of soundstage is a deal breaker. Perhaps I could even live with these if they had a killer detail retrival but congested highs ruin that too.

Pro82 is a decent headphone but not an actual improvement over pro80. It is pretty much what superlux did with hd681 evo. Original hd681 was very bright headphone so they made a dark and bassy mess as a replacement. Takstar did not fail that bad but all in all I'm disappointed. Where did the soundstage go? What happened to premium build materials...where did the musicality go?

You are brave posting this stuff to that thread.
Thank you for posting here as well, I don't visit that one anymore, the vibe is not right there and I've unsubscribed.

What would such polarizing reports could mean? I mean it's not only personal hearing when one is saying too much treble and the other too much restraint in it, then good soundstage versus closeted in, nice details - poor details... Either really bad qc or counterfeiting. Or some other dark powers are being at work...

Anyway good reading, I'm also a metal-head and I remember your previous decent and well thought posts.
Your review and @peter123 's are more compelling to me than that entire thread - the advantage of doing enough reading here and knowing who's who.

I assume you are already taking heavy flak in the other thread now so... good luck. Duck!

 

[Humblepie]

Highs... well, this is a thing that will surely divide people. I find pro82's rather dark sounding headphones. I red these were compared to Fostex th-900 soundsignature and I find it hard to believe. I have not heard th900 but from what I get by reading reviews is that th900 is a v-shaped headphone with allmost piercingly bright highs. That is pretty much opposite what I get with pro82's. With most headphones highs can become a bit too much with metal music. I was listening to children of bodom and amorphis and pro82's just sound mellow up top. These don't fix the issue on bright recordings instead they make music sound as exciting as yesterdays cold porridge. I compared pro82's with denon ah-d2000 which is an ancestor of th900 and the lowest in rank of the foster made headphones. There is not a single area where pro82's is superior to d2000.

The signature that BenF said it was suppose to copy was the TH900Mk2 which do not have the harsh highes unlike the original.

 

[trellus]

The signature that BenF said it was suppose to copy was the TH900Mk2 which do not have the harsh highes unlike the original.

Yeah, but don't the TH900MK2 still have the killer bass? The TH900 is in the top 10 (top 5, if I remember correctly) in the extreme basshead thread rankings, and I can't imagine that the Pro 82 would be in a top 20 (not that one existed) even with bass port fully open. For that reason alone, the comparison to the TH900 really made me scratch me head and go, "hmmm..."

 

[Roderick]

Lastly the drivers are reversed in direction. My first pair the drivers face from back to front in angle. In the newer pair they are from front to back.

I doubt it is a revision change. It is lack of quality control because my B7 had one driver installed front to back and other back to front.

Is it the lighting but those headphones have different drivers? Upper one is transparent and lower one is Grey/metal. If that is the case then one at the bottom is original be driver and top one is fake.

@Adide

Thank you for encouraging words.

 

[Humblepie]

I doubt it is a revision change. It is lack of quality control because my B7 had one driver installed front to back and other back to front.

Is it the lighting but those headphones have different drivers? Upper one is transparent and lower one is Grey/metal. If that is the case then one at the bottom is original be driver and top one is fake.

@Adide

Thank you for encouraging words.

It's the lighting of the flash. The drivers look exactly and sound exactly the same when I put reverse earpads and fixed the driver facing on the old ones. Side note, they are the same drivers found in the B8 as well. The metal "vent" on the back of the newer one is better seated though. The other isn't bad, just when you are looking for fine details of differences, as I have been, that was one thing. It is so minor of a difference that if I wasn't being completely thorough I would have missed it.

Side note, the Lasmex L-85 are basically the exact same thing as the B7. Housing is plastic instead of wood. It LOOKS to have a bigger opening from the outside, but the hold inside the cup is the exact same size. Funny thing is, the Lasmex had the drivers facing from bottom up??? O.o I switched them to be front to back and they sound better doing that. The other thing is that the Lasmex housing hole, while the same size as the B7, has a thin ring plastic film that is offset inside it with a hole in the middle leading to the hole in the housing. I'm pretty sure it is causing some reverberations to the sound. Not sure if it is a good thing or bad thing, but since I like the sound overall, it isn't too bad. But not sure if removing would make the sound better or worse. The B7 basically has a little foam disc covering the hole out where the mesh insert is.

The drivers of the Lasmex are also very different than the B7. While the head band is the same, and the housing very similar, they sound very different.

 

[Slater]

Unfortunately I haven't took the pictures of how to do it step by step because I didnt expect the result would be this dramatic, but if someone requests it I could post it for yall.



Now I cant remove this thing in my head, Ill now keep this for good.

Sure, I'd be interested in seeing more of the mods you did to this.

Probably the best place to post the photos and details would be here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...l-your-full-sized-headphone-mods-here.867426/

 

[peter123]

I posted My impressions about takstar pro82 in the takstar thread but here is a copy because pro82's are a relevant headphones in this thread also.

------------------------------------

So... I've been living with pro82's as my main headphones for allmost a week now. It is time for some impressions. First of all let's keep in mind that everyone hears differently so ymmv. Anyway I've been into headphones for about ten years now. I've owned about 150-200 different pairs. Most of them low end but some quite high end like Beyerdynamic T1,T5p, Sony MDR-CD3000,Sa-5000, Audio Technica ATH-w1000x, J VC DX-1000, Denon ah-d5000 and so on.

I've been into budget chi-fi headphones since forever...to be precise since the release of superlux hd681. I was also one of the first people on head-fi to own Takstar Hi2050 and I've been speaking highly of Takstar products ever since. So Pro82 is quite meaningfull headphone for me as a successor for one of my alltime favorites hi2050 & pro80.

While I've had pro82, I've been mostly using them with my oneplus3, sometimes with oneplus3+topping nx1 and usually with my desktop setup hegel hd10+spl phonitor. Why all this ramble?

Becausese it is very important to know where person is coming from. What headphones he/she likes or is familiar with. What are his/her soundsignature biases. I must say, I have no sounsignature bias. I lived for years with dx1000 and sa5000. Other being bassy and dark other bright and bass light. I loved them both.

First.. A family photo



I'd like to talk about build quality of pro82's. Like people have said these are very comfortable headphones. Definately an improvement over pro80. Pro80 notoriously has quite bad stock pads and me included prefer to use alternative pads such as HM5 pleather pads. Pads are not perfect, I would have preferred memory foam and more luxurious feel but as far as normal stock pads go these are good.

Detachable cable is a big plus. I especially like that it is not some propriatory plug so any 2.5mm plug will do. 3.5mm woud have been better IMO because if is more popular thus offering easier replacement. I'm not a fan of the cable lengt. 1.6m is too long for portable and too short for home use. It is not unknown to offer two cables at $50-100 price range. Also the plug termination makes no sense. If it is supposed to be portable, it should be angled! Many headphone manufacturers don't get this. Neither does taksar obviously.

The housing and the headband... Well.. This is the stuff I don't like. Pro82's look like a cheap copy of sony mdr-1a. Pro80's were well done copy of classic beyerdynamic design, with pro82's all we have is plastic and lots of it. Despite pro82's more modern looks in this regard it is a downgrade from classic pro80/hi2050.



Another thing I don't like is that the headband has no visible adjuster points. Not a biggy, but it annoys me. Pro80 had the dots pro82 has none. I would not care about it much but adjusting system on pro82 feels a bit loose as new. If it becomes looser over time it becomes a problem not being able to adjust both cups evenly.


Finally... the sound quality. Let's go positive first. Pro82's have very nice imaging. With fast attack these have the ability to distinguish instruments, different drum pieces etc. Midrange clarity is good. Thing sound like they are supposed to. Extra credit for being able to portray the breath on singers voice. Singing does not sound synthetical but like an actual person blowing out(singing) air. Sorry for not so technical explanation. I don't know a better way how to put it.

Soundsignature in general is balanced, quite neutral I would say. Bass extends all the way down low and mids and higs don't have any annoying peaks or dips to my ear. As an overall balance these have improved over pro80, which suffered from somewhat harsh highs. I personally did not find highs on pro80 and hi2050 that big of a deal but I can hear why some did.

The negative: First thing that comes to mind is soundstage. I saw the Z-review video and guy kept saying "I can't believe I'm listening to headphones". Well, I can. The soundstage on pro82's is very small and even with good imaging listening can get tiresome especially with recordings with lot of stereo panning. Zeppelin, hendrix, beatles and stuff like that. It is not that it is a minor downfall it is a big deal. Soundstage and whole presentation is "closeted". It is a big negative change after pro80's that had a good soundstage especially if one uses thicker aftermarket pads.

Another negative is the bass. It is not bad bass. It's punchy and extends low but the headphones housing does not do justice for the capable driver. Pro80 and hi2050 had excellent damping materials inside the cups that removed the unwanted resonances and reverbs. If I open a bassport on pro82's I can clearly hear resonances within the housing. Bass becomes honky and with bassports closed I get barely enough bass to my liking. Not that it's bass light but it is about 80% that I would prefer. I don't understand what Takstar engineers where thinking when they ditched the idea of proper cup dampening.

Highs... well, this is a thing that will surely divide people. I find pro82's rather dark sounding headphones. I red these were compared to Fostex th-900 soundsignature and I find it hard to believe. I have not heard th900 but from what I get by reading reviews is that th900 is a v-shaped headphone with allmost piercingly bright highs. That is pretty much opposite what I get with pro82's. With most headphones highs can become a bit too much with metal music. I was listening to children of bodom and amorphis and pro82's just sound mellow up top. These don't fix the issue on bright recordings instead they make music sound as exciting as yesterdays cold porridge. I compared pro82's with denon ah-d2000 which is an ancestor of th900 and the lowest in rank of the foster made headphones. There is not a single area where pro82's is superior to d2000.



This overall staleness of sounds underliness my experience with pro82. These headphones had a lot of potential but the monitor like dullness combined with lack of soundstage is a deal breaker. Perhaps I could even live with these if they had a killer detail retrival but congested highs ruin that too.

Pro82 is a decent headphone but not an actual improvement over pro80. It is pretty much what superlux did with hd681 evo. Original hd681 was very bright headphone so they made a dark and bassy mess as a replacement. Takstar did not fail that bad but all in all I'm disappointed. Where did the soundstage go? What happened to premium build materials...where did the musicality go?

Thanks for sharing!

Your impressions pretty much mirrors mine, maybe it's our Scandinavian ears

Anyway I'm considering doing some modding on my pair (Dynamat, fiber fill and new pads maybe) but the very shallow cups makes me believe it may be difficult to get a good result. I'll probably give it a try anyway.

Right now I'm listening to the B6/N550 and I remember not liking them much when I first got them. Now I actually enjoy them quite a bit after modding them (Dynamat fiber fill, new pads, closing a couple of the vents and adding a balanced cable), especially with electronic music.

 

[Roderick]

maybe it's our Scandinavian ears

Haha! Could be pro82 is bad by no means. It just does nothing good enough to stand out. It's like designers tried to avoid messing up anything and the carefull approach led to an unexiting end result. If it were priced at $30-50 it would deserve more hype but at current $50-80 it is harder to impress me. Heck... Kef m500 was on sale somewhere for $99 while ago and nad viso hp50 was selling new for $120 ebay. Of course those kind of sales don't come up every week and sell out quickly. Nonetheless getting very good major brand headphones for cheap has become easier lately thanks to massdrop.

Chi-fi headphones need to improve or keep focusing on sub $50 price range. There has been no major break through sound quality wise in 10 years since the introduction of superlux hd681/hd668.

N550 is quite an opposite to pro82. It's faults are bigger but also the things it does good it does really good. I also enjoyed my modded n550 very much. Drivers are definately very capable. It is strange how bad stock B7 with same drivers sounds. N550/B6 Even without mods is a lot better.

 

[peter123]

Haha! Could be pro82 is bad by no means. It just does nothing good enough to stand out. It's like designers tried to avoid messing up anything and the carefull approach led to an unexiting end result. If it were priced at $30-50 it would deserve more hype but at current $50-80 it is harder to impress me. Heck... Kef m500 was on sale somewhere for $99 while ago and nad viso hp50 was selling new for $120 ebay. Of course those kind of sales don't come up every week and sell out quickly. Nonetheless getting very good major brand headphones for cheap has become easier lately thanks to massdrop.

Chi-fi headphones need to improve or keep focusing on sub $50 price range. There has been no major break through sound quality wise in 10 years since the introduction of superlux hd681/hd668.

N550 is quite an opposite to pro82. It's faults are bigger but also the things it does good it does really good. I also enjoyed my modded n550 very much. Drivers are definately very capable. It is strange how bad stock B7 with same drivers sounds. N550/B6 Even without mods is a lot better.

Yeah I agree that it's not bad but just like you I wouldn't consider them a upgrade to the Pro80. The lack of dynamics and treble presence makes it very hard for me to enjoy them for more than a couple of minutes though. Not necessarily because they suck but they don't do a single thing better than the other headphones I've got laying around.

Yeah the drivers are capable on the B6/N550 but I haven't found a way to get the mids the way I like them yet and I'm not sure that's even possible (they're recessed but also a bit thin and two dimensional). I really like the way the bass perform when they're modded though.

 

[Roderick]

Mids are indeed tricky to get right on n550. I had some success with partially covering the driver but I'm yet to find a perfect material. I have also not yet tried hybrid earpads. I had that on mind for a long Time. Too many headphones so little time...

While I enjoy the bass on n550 I'm most impressed by the highs. Very present but not overdone with zero splashiness or sibilance. I'n that area they outperform most headphones I've had regardless of price range.

 

[peter123]

Mids are indeed tricky to get right on n550. I had some success with partially covering the driver but I'm yet to find a perfect material. I have also not yet tried hybrid earpads. I had that on mind for a long Time. Too many headphones so little time...

While I enjoy the bass on n550 I'm most impressed by the highs. Very present but not overdone with zero splashiness or sibilance. I'n that area they outperform most headphones I've had regardless of price range.

Could definitely agree on the bold

Yeah, the highs are indeed super smooth and well extended on them. I personally enjoy a touch more bite but I understand what you're saying.

 

[Humblepie]

Yeah I agree that it's not bad but just like you I wouldn't consider them a upgrade to the Pro80. The lack of dynamics and treble presence makes it very hard for me to enjoy them for more than a couple of minutes though. Not necessarily because they suck but they don't do a single thing better than the other headphones I've got laying around.

Yeah the drivers are capable on the B6/N550 but I haven't found a way to get the mids the way I like them yet and I'm not sure that's even possible (they're recessed but also a bit thin and two dimensional). I really like the way the bass perform when they're modded though.

The drivers on the MSUR N550, and BossHifi B6, B7, B78, and B7S are all the same driver. I have two B8's now though. One I bought from Aliexpress many months back, and the other I recently picked up from another head-fier here for a good price. His he modded a bit. He stuck some pull apart cotton ball behind the driver and taped some rubber sorbothane stuff around the driver. MAN that made a huge sound difference!!! It is ridiculous mid and somewhat treble forward. The bass is all still there, but it no longer a slightly U shaped can with slightly recessed mids. It is the opposite. Mids are crazy forward. to the point they almost hurt. It's not sibilance, just high tenor come across too sharp. Need to figure out how to back that off just a tad. It seriously sounds like a completely different headphone. I think just a tad less on that mid to mid treble hotness and these would be crazy good.

Side note, the new earpads on the new B7 are making it sound really good to my ears after listening to them for several hours last night. The old earpads just suck so badly in comparison in both sonic and comfort departments.

 

[Humblepie]

I have updated my personal info page found here https://www.head-fi.org/members/humblepie.478484/

It has all my reviews on all my gear.

 

[peter123]

The drivers on the MSUR N550, and BossHifi B6, B7, B78, and B7S are all the same driver. I have two B8's now though. One I bought from Aliexpress many months back, and the other I recently picked up from another head-fier here for a good price. His he modded a bit. He stuck some pull apart cotton ball behind the driver and taped some rubber sorbothane stuff around the driver. MAN that made a huge sound difference!!! It is ridiculous mid and somewhat treble forward. The bass is all still there, but it no longer a slightly U shaped can with slightly recessed mids. It is the opposite. Mids are crazy forward. to the point they almost hurt. It's not sibilance, just high tenor come across too sharp. Need to figure out how to back that off just a tad. It seriously sounds like a completely different headphone. I think just a tad less on that mid to mid treble hotness and these would be crazy good.

Side note, the new earpads on the new B7 are making it sound really good to my ears after listening to them for several hours last night. The old earpads just suck so badly in comparison in both sonic and comfort departments.

Thanks for sharing! This is really great news as it means that it should be possible to bring the mids more forward (and in your case the opposite). I'm going to try some more mods on my pair when I get the time. Tbh it was so long ago I modded mine that I'm no longer 100% sure what I've really done in the cups