At the moment I am the most active in this thread but I think this has to be said. I feel the difference between my Teak and the X00 PH is too big and doesn't match other anecdotal reports. I suspect that it might just be that I got a real strong magnet in my Teak and a much weaker one in the PH. The spread of the X00 was believed to be 0.8-1.0 Tesla and 1.0-1.2 Tesla for the Teaks if I am not mistaken. But I digress, if that is not the cause then here are my current conclusion between the two.
I clocked in over 10 hours of listening on my new Teaks and while they have burned in a bit more I have also compared them more to my X00 PH. I owned and have extensively used the Purpleheart for around 4 years now. I try to be as objective as possible and not fall into the new toy syndrome, but the Teak so far is clearly in another league to my ears. Now I can imagine the Ebony wood is probably a lot closer to the Teaks so this comparison might be more extreme than as compared to other X00 variants
The Purpleheart has a much more congested soundstage and imaging compared to the much more open sounding and precise Teak. The PH also has a substiantally more loose bass and is less detailed in the upper mids and upper highs. This masks all the details the Teaks does have. It's difficult to channel all the layers of the PH as its so upfront. It's like sitting in the front row of a concert, while fun, doesn't make much sense for tracking or analyzing detail. I did praise the fun factor of the PH in my review, I still think this holds true. However, this upfront sound might make the PH more intimate, especially for vocals, but it also loses out on basically everything else, which is a big surprise to me.
Next to the massive imaging and soundstage differences another big surprise was that the PH's were crowned as bass monsters with massive sub bass but in comparison to the Teak I think that no longer holds true. The teak slams harder, goes deeper and in a more controlled and speedier way. In fact the whole headphone sounds faster and more controlled. It's remarkable how much difference the wood makes, if the drivers are the same that is (which is assumed by many). Knowing the E-MU teak also can be swapped to Ebony and other wood types, I believe the X00 are rightfully discontinued.
The timbre on the Teak I expected to be better but also here the details the PH masks are much greater than I expected. The PH is good and fun, but the Teaks are fantastic and pricelessly tuned.
For entertainment purposes the E-MU Teak are nearing end game for me. They are a big surprise to me and they are a truely special headphone. I can only recommend this headphone so far, get it if you got the money and appreciate headphones.
I drew a lot of comparisons with the Fostex X00-PH.
