[gazzington]

How do these compare to fostex th900?

 

[phthora]

How do these compare to fostex th900?

Unsurprisingly, the TH900 has better bass than the Teak. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the TH900 has the best bass for a dynamic driver that I've ever heard. It is rich, detailed, insanely hard-hitting, and well controlled. It's not quite got the texture or micro-detail as a good planar, but no planar has anything near the bass impact of the TH900. Truly, the TH900 lives up to the hype in this regard. In comparison, the Teak has bass that is softer, less textured, and rounder, though still excellent in its impact compared to nearly anything else. Fostex simply excels at dynamic driver bass, and the Teak is no exception. In both cases, bass is clearly quite elevated, but it does not intrude upon the clarity of the mids. If you are after some real thump, the Teak holds up pretty well to the TH900. However, with a pad switch and some attenuation rings, the TR-X00 Purplehearts get closer still.

Where the Teak excels over both is in the tuning of the rest of the frequency range. Where the TH900 is a hard V with treble as aggressive as its mighty bass and the Purplehearts are more of a standard V tuning with some increased treble presence and a dip in the mids, the Teak sounds to me like an L-shape. That is, while it has huge, hard-hitting bass, the mids and treble are still nicely balanced with each other and sound fairly neutral. The TH900 has treble that is very pronounced, often sizzling and overbearing, and both it and the Purplehearts have somewhat withdrawn mids. This is not the case with the Teak. Vocals still have presence and life, the high-end never sounds harsh, but there is still enough liveliness to everything so that music doesn't sound dull or woolly. In my opinion, the tuning on the Teak is absolutely masterful and well worth losing a bit of bass prowess. For this reason, the Teak is a much better all-rounder, as the TH900 tends to make all music sound like EDM. Lastly, the Teak responds well to moderate bass boosting (in my case, the iFi Black Label bass boost) without sounding noticeably more flabby or distorted.

In short, if you are looking for a cheaper version of the TH900, the Purplehearts with a pad swap is the way to go. If you are looking for great bass, without losing the mids or gaining increased treble, the Teak is the way to go.

 

[Mhog55]

Will the balance cable I use for my NightOwl work with these cans? My cable also works with the HD 700. I was watching Z's review on these (as painful as it was), and he said because of the way they are wired internally, you have to use a stereo plug or something...mono plugs don't work. I don't own the Teaks yet, just wanting to know if my cable will work before pulling the trigger. All of these balanced cables tend to get expensive.

 

[themusiccat]

Just a heads up for anyone still looking at pad swapping - after trying a lot of pads I wound up finding these Yaxi TH900 pads that not only increase the comfort more than any I've tried but have a really nice and balanced sound.

I'm using the Alcantara version so I can't comment on the leather ones. Also using full-size Dekoni attenuators with @junki 's felt mod. After fooling around with many different pads from stock to Dekoni sheepskin, this is the best sound I've been able to get out of these.

Worth a look into if you're still searching for better pads.

 

[autoteleology]

I bought an E-MU Teak and I'm really disappointed. They don't sound anything like I would have expected - to my ears they are extremely harsh, and after testing frequency response on a frequency sweeper, they have a massive response starting at around 1.75KHz, and peaking much louder than any other frequency at 2.5KHz (immediately dropping down to below average by around 2.75KHz), with a smaller but still substantial resonance from 4KHz to 4.75KHz. I do not see anything to explain this in any of the measurement plots that I've seen.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Are these defective? Is there some sort of messed-up interaction between my head or ears and these headphones? What's going on?

 

[borrego]

I bought an E-MU Teak and I'm really disappointed. They don't sound anything like I would have expected - to my ears they are extremely harsh, and after testing frequency response on a frequency sweeper, they have a massive response starting at around 1.75KHz, and peaking much louder than any other frequency at 2.5KHz (immediately dropping down to below average by around 2.75KHz), with a smaller but still substantial resonance from 4KHz to 4.75KHz. I do not see anything to explain this in any of the measurement plots that I've seen.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Are these defective? Is there some sort of messed-up interaction between my head or ears and these headphones? What's going on?

Did you buy the Teak used? You may want to check the position of the foam discs under the pads per this thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/th-...re-bass-mid-soundstage-smooth-trebles.802704/

 

[autoteleology]

Did you buy the Teak used? You may want to check the position of the foam discs under the pads per this thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/th-...re-bass-mid-soundstage-smooth-trebles.802704/

They're in the stock position.

 

[borrego]

@Tus-Chan , I don't know what you meant by "massive response". I don't recall I have ever done any more than +/- 3dB to my Teak EQ at any frequency.

 

[autoteleology]

@Tus-Chan , I don't know what you meant by "massive response". I don't recall I have ever done any more than +/- 3dB to my Teak EQ at any frequency.

I'm saying that, when I do a frequency response sweep, without any EQ, there is a peak at 2.5KHz that is at around 7-9dB louder than the response at 1KHz. There is nothing in any measurement I've seen that would suggest this should be the case - quite the opposite, actually.

See this dip that's supposed to be in the upper midrange? Picture that inverted, right up until about 2.75KHz, and you're hearing what I'm hearing. It's terrible.

 

[dsrk]

Just a heads up for anyone still looking at pad swapping - after trying a lot of pads I wound up finding these Yaxi TH900 pads that not only increase the comfort more than any I've tried but have a really nice and balanced sound.

I'm using the Alcantara version so I can't comment on the leather ones. Also using full-size Dekoni attenuators with @junki 's felt mod. After fooling around with many different pads from stock to Dekoni sheepskin, this is the best sound I've been able to get out of these.

Worth a look into if you're still searching for better pads.

Are the cables detachable on your headphones? The latest one from Drop doesn't come with detachable cables.

 

[Mhog55]

Are the cables detachable on your headphones? The latest one from Drop doesn't come with detachable cables.

Latest one? Which are you referring to? I thought these were the only set there was.

 

[dsrk]

Latest one? Which are you referring to? I thought these were the only set there was.

Oh thanks, I was looking at E-MU wood series headphones. My bad..https://drop.com/buy/emu-wood-series-headphones the drop was recently ended.
I am buying them as soon as they are available again.

 

[autoteleology]

So, I finally figured out what was causing the obnoxious resonance peak. Has anyone else noticed that if you tap certain parts of the headband, especially the plastic part between the slide and the headband, you can hear resonance in the cups that sounds like a ringing? Or, am I the only one who hears this, and I have a defective unit? It's not a subtle thing, it's very obvious, if you can hear it.

 

[phthora]

So, I finally figured out what was causing the obnoxious resonance peak. Has anyone else noticed that if you tap certain parts of the headband, especially the plastic part between the slide and the headband, you can hear resonance in the cups that sounds like a ringing? Or, am I the only one who hears this, and I have a defective unit? It's not a subtle thing, it's very obvious, if you can hear it.

Just tested this out by tapping various parts of the headband. I can definitely hear a short ringing after the thud of the tap, but it only lasts a fraction of a second and I can't hear it over music.

Given your previous observations about the frequency response, I would guess that you have a defective unit. Perhaps something loose inside the cup that is aggravating the very slight ringing that I hear (which is probably the baseline level).

 

[autoteleology]

Just tested this out by tapping various parts of the headband. I can definitely hear a short ringing after the thud of the tap, but it only lasts a fraction of a second and I can't hear it over music.

Given your previous observations about the frequency response, I would guess that you have a defective unit. Perhaps something loose inside the cup that is aggravating the very slight ringing that I hear (which is probably the baseline level).

The reason why this tipped me off is that I hear the ringing happening sometimes when I pause the music. It's also significantly louder on the left cup than the right cup.

So... what exactly do I do if I want to have these looked at?