Hello Again,
It's me Dave..... C'mon let me in its me Dave.... the password is Bassboat, LOL.
I hope to answer some posted questions about Equation Audio EarTools headphones stemming from Dandi’ original EarTools Review at the top of page 1 of this forum. I will to my best to keep up with your responses as they are posted.
We thank everyone for their support from product purchases and the subsequent personal reviews reflecting your purchase satisfaction. Please continue to Support Your Local Equation Audio Dealer as they are the ones that will benefit most from your purchases.
Equation Audio EarTools have been available on the Pro Audio market since 2003. Our backgrounds and product views stem from within the entertainment and music industry, working as Tour Sound/Recording Engineers, Tour/Studio Musicians, Music Director/Producer/Recording Artist and so on. (Equation is just our day job, LOL)
We are also consumers of many differing audio products and brands over the years just like you, which help to spawn our unique proprietary designs. Our goal and commonality involves the continuous pursuit of audio quality and the advancement of mediums in which they are transferred, from the very start of the audio chain (microphones), to a system of final delivery via transducer technology (headphones).
As many of you are vying for comparisons please consider this, as a live performance sound/recording engineer the RP-21 is a closed back headphone that is as good, or better than real time monitoring with Studio quality 4 ohm, near field monitors. Notice I compared to larger transducers, not another brand of headphones.
In the real world no matter what profession or use a set of headphones is intended to appease, the remaining facts towards final purchase are the same as you have been discussing in this forum.
1) Application Specific Performance, quality audio reproduction for choice genre(s) of music.
2) Value compared to another product a buyer is familiar with.
3) Affordability, compared to another product a buyer has purchased.
Product Example: Lexus Cars became to US consumers an alternative choice to owning a Expensive High Quality Luxurious Appearing Automobile at a shockingly affordable price, that is when compared to a Mercedes of equal quality but higher price that comes with the Mercedes name. Both are still basic automobiles.
As with any brand of pro audio equipment, if products become highly recommended by professional peers of notoriety this of course adds credibility to the product. Most touring acts/recording artists/musicians can afford most any tool they want. Many are choosing Equation products because of their inherent performance and sound quality alone. When paying for the product, the price is an eye brow raising surprise that leaves more $$ in the budget for the bands road masseuse. Hence, Bands love Equation!
I add the following about EarTools in general, There is No-masking involved with our headphones. Ear pads are user replaceable if and when they wear out. The paint used on the RP-21,22X and 15MC is Lexus auto paint, Lexus Bronze and Lexus Silver. A Simple Unique Touch of Class in the form of chip resistant paint, ala Lexus.
The only cables we offer at this time are packaged with each headphone. Replacement and interchangeable cables can be ordered at your local dealer. The RP-21 comes with a 3 meter/9.8 ft. straight cable, The RP-22X a 3 meter Coiled cable. The coiled being the physically shorter of the two out of the box.
I have heard the requests for shorter cables and DIY parts, at this time it is not in our agenda. There have been no requests since 2003 of this sort from the pro audio market. As developing marketing trends change and new products are developed you may be surprised.
A lot of basic facts were noted in the original review. All EarTools product specification sheets are downloadable at
www.equationaudio.com. For immediate MSRP & product descriptions- follow this link
http://sybrsound.bravepages.com/EQAsales/EQAsales.htm. A link to download Equation Audio’ Retail Catalog is posted in my earlier response. Someone recently pasted complete RP-21 specs into this forum.
The RP-21 is our “Reference” model or Flagship if you prefer. I liken RP-21s to duct taping a pair of Tannoy near field monitor speakers to your head. As an engineer I can attest to mix-down sessions of 6 ½ hours with Zero Ear Fatigue. I use RP-21s to rapidly dial in ‘Live’ high profile shows from concerts to theatrical performances.
Our RP-21 headphones operate within our printed 10Hz – 22KHz frequency response. The RP-22x is hyped from 200Hz to 5Hz, +/- 5 – 10 dB. Some would describe this as added warmth, DJs like the power it adds to low frequencies without loosing the crisp highs. The RP-22X features an inner ear pad that works just like the stuffing you would find inside an 18” subwoofer box, it too is user replaceable. The RP-15MC is hyped at the high end much like Sony 7506s. The major difference is the RP-15 is not so hyped at 8K to include the Ear Burn that comes with the 7506s after a short period of listening or higher level monitoring.
Other food for thought;
When it comes to purity of music and building excellence one of Europe’ Best Organ Manufacturers from the Netherlands, has made and distributed Organs of Re-known quality since the 1960’s and even used to provide re-tagged Content Organs for Hammond Organs here in the US often heard in many music recordings.
Koos Heimstra, of Content Digital Organs had this to say about our RP-21 Stereo Reference Headphones, “The RP-21 is the very first pair of stereo headphones we find that can accurately reproduce 10 cycles (10Hz) without abnormal levels of volume and no distortion, even when using reverb. Isolation is very good, making them ideal for organ practitioners. We will highly recommend the Equation Audio RP-21 Headphones to our customers”.
Malcolm Toft, Recording engineer with a background that includes; the Beatles – “Hey Jude”, David Bowie’ – “A Space Oddity” and James Taylor’ first album had this to say about the RP-21. “I finally found a pair of cans I feel I can trust during critical real time monitoring applications.”
Sometimes the best of what’s on the pro market just takes a little longer to trickle down to the mainstream consumer echelon. Just remember, we do listen. We are just as easy to contact before you buy our products as we are after the sale. Equation EarTools products have a 2 year warranty, printed on the box.
Oh speaking of the box, the intended professional audio humor “Fantasy Response” on our packaging is funny, even to a highly paid lighting guy. I will see that some typos are corrected as some of our humor was lost due to a missing + - sign. Our references to Giga –hurts and the intended “+ - A Good Caning”, is our way of reminding people that a majority of humans can hear sound frequencies from 20Hz to 20KHz. Some along with Sally the wonder pup can hear slightly higher frequencies. Mocking transducer type headphone products capable of reproducing a frequency range from as low as 1Hz to 2.4 GHz or somewhere in between can be fun, until now. Wow, I suddenly feel like the Bush’ Baked Beans Irish Setter dog Bud. Excepting that I sold out our punch lines. My humblest of apologies to ‘Stu’ the Studio cat who wrote our comedic passages.
I hope I added to this forum information that has not already been stated by your peers. Who just happen to be part of Equation Nation by choice of purchase! C’mon, if you have ever shucked out more than $169 for a decidedly ‘decent’ pair of headphones, you can afford to join others from “Planet Audio” reveling in their music and Like the Cheez-It Crackers commercial on TV, “Get Your Own Box”! LOL. Uh Oh, bad sound guy humor
you had to be here. (They come in a Box, get it, LOL.)
Our claim as posted on our website:
Equation Audio is currently producing products that absolutely amaze many of our buyers simply because they live up to our most significant claim . . .
"At or near any price point product made by Equation Audio, you can't find another product with equivalent performance and quality . . . we refer to this achievement as "Beyond Equal".
Thanks for your purchases and your responses,
Dave Sears – Equation Audio
