[jamor]

  Hi everyone,
 
I updated my review and the first page review of this thread, with my impressions of the TH-X00 Ebony and comparisons with the Mahogany and E-MU Ebony earcups as well.
 
Have a great weekend! 

 
Was the Ebony X00 bassier than the E-MU?   

 

[jamor]

  The ebony cups I ordered look more textured, I think.
 
 
I'll be curious to see how much the Massdrop ebony cups vary.

 
Gorgeous.  Where'd you get those EMU cups and how much did they cost?   Is it difficult to install or change between cups?

 

[thefitz]

There are lots of woods called "ebony", but as far as "regular ebony" goes, less figuring is more expensive. Jet-black ebony is extremely expensive and very scarce these days.
 
Now, my idiotic ass is in two TH-X00 drops, the PH and the Ebony. They're spread out enough so that I can enjoy the PH a bit before the Ebony arrives... but if someone finds a way out of the PH drop, let me know! I'm too sheepish to ask, haha.
 
Those Ebony measurements look ideal.

 

[SleepingLesson]

Gorgeous.  Where'd you get those EMU cups and how much did they cost?   Is it difficult to install or change between cups?

$120, you have to email someone at Emu directly. They probably have the email on their site. My THX00s haven't gotten back yet (sent them to Peterek for modification), but as I understand it I may have to dremel the cups juuust a bit for them to fit. Otherwise it's just a few screws. They torx screws though, so a standard screwdriver won't work.

 

[inertianinja]

I joined
Love my mahogany, PH on the way...

Poképhones, Gotta Catch Em All!

 

[Zbell]

I get what you're saying. I did get the chance to try out a few different pairs of the emu cups with chan. The swirl ones were definitely warmer and wetter sounding while the striped ones were more tight, detailed and dry sounding. Small sample size and all, but it was a subtle, yet noticeable difference. It was a bigger difference to me than the difference between the rosewood and striped Ebony (all the rosewoods were cut across the grain, i.e. Striped). Rosewood and Ebony are fairly similar woods though in density, hardness and resonance.

This is also a fairly well known concept in acoustic instrument design. Though it makes a MUCH bigger difference with instruments than in headphones, which obviously resonate less than a violin.

I think my bigger point is simply that I worry that based on your review (through no fault of your own, but you know how head-fi is) it will become Head-Fi dogma that the Fostex Ebony is tighter and dryer while the emu Ebony is warmer and looser. The EMU Ebony cups can vary a noticeable amount in sound, some sounding fairly close to Mahoganny and some sounding tighter and less resonant. My experience was it came down to if it was along, cross or quarter cut with the grain. (Along gives the swirls, cross gives the stripes, quarter gives a wave like appearance). Wood is always stronger perpendicular to the grain and thus you get less "flex" which leads to resonances, which can be euphonic, but can also obscure detail.

Ebony seems to be significantly more dense than Rosewood according to a few density charts online.  It's also significantly harder on the Janka hardness scale.  Rosewood does seem to be very similar to Purpleheart on both scales, however.  

 

[fjrabon]

Ebony seems to be significantly more dense than Rosewood according to a few density charts online.  It's also significantly harder on the Janka hardness scale.  Rosewood does seem to be very similar to Purpleheart on both scales, however.  

Depends on the frame of reference. Purpleheart, Ebony and rosewood are all considered extremely dense and hard woods. Mahoganny is in the middle. If we are just looking at rosewood, Ebony and purpleheart then yeah Ebony is definitely at the end, but if we include all the woods companies use for headphones, rosewood, Ebony and purpleheart are considered very similar.

Also there's as much variation within different examples of the woods as there is across types of similar species of woods. Purpleheart in particular is extremely varied. In fact purpleheart is really just a name for several different species of wood and a lot of people argue over exactly which species can be called purpleheart properly.

 

[RPB65]

Will my ZX2 make these sing nicely? I hope so. Lol

 

[EinZweiDrei]

can we cancel our purchase of the mahogany and purple heart versions and jump on the ebony instead?

 

[betula]

All these different woods. I have the impression the difference they make in sound is maybe 10% at most. 90% is the look. @SleepingLesson's ebony cups do look beautiful though.

 

[fjrabon]

All these different woods. I have the impression the difference they make in sound is maybe 10% at most. 90% is the look. @SleepingLesson
's ebony cups do look beautiful though.

Sure, but in top end headphones the last 10% is what you pay for. If all you cared about was "90%" there's never be a need to go above Koss KSC75s or the original Creative Aurvana Live!

 

[Vigrith]

  can we cancel our purchase of the mahogany and purple heart versions and jump on the ebony instead?

 
No. They made that quite clear in the information they provided when the Ebony released.

 

[marts30]

  All these different woods. I have the impression the difference they make in sound is maybe 10% at most. 90% is the look. @SleepingLesson's ebony cups do look beautiful though.

Yeah, me too. I still think the differences will be minimal.
 

Sure, but in top end headphones the last 10% is what you pay for. If all you cared about was "90%" there's never be a need to go above Koss KSC75s or the original Creative Aurvana Live!

Yeah, but it's the same headphone/driver. Not like we're putting new cups on a $50 headphone here and expecting it to sound like $400.

 

[betula]

Sure, but in top end headphones the last 10% is what you pay for. If all you cared about was "90%" there's never be a need to go above Koss KSC75s or the original Creative Aurvana Live!

Come on. You usually have more mature comments than this @fjrabon. Talking about percentages is actually very misleading (sorry I have brought it up), as the same numbers mean different things to everyone.
Maybe upgrading from a £1000 heapdhone to a £2000 one is paying that 10%, but you obviously can not be serious when you are saying there is 10% difference between Koss KSC75 and the TH-X00.
All I wanted to say is the difference between different woods on the X00s (and EMU) are much more subtle than many people think.

 

[Zbell]

Depends on the frame of reference. Purpleheart, Ebony and rosewood are all considered extremely dense and hard woods. Mahoganny is in the middle. If we are just looking at rosewood, Ebony and purpleheart then yeah Ebony is definitely at the end, but if we include all the woods companies use for headphones, rosewood, Ebony and purpleheart are considered very similar.

Also there's as much variation within different examples of the woods as there is across types of similar species of woods. Purpleheart in particular is extremely varied. In fact purpleheart is really just a name for several different species of wood and a lot of people argue over exactly which species can be called purpleheart properly.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying.  Purpleheart proper are different species of Peltogyne.  I believe I read the Purpleheart in the TH-X00 is of the Peltogyne family.  There's a lot of variation (in hardness, density, and appearance) in most of the wood families, including Ebony and Rosewood.  I find the fr graphs that Jude posted fascinating honestly, because I'm amazed at how different the Purpleheart is from the Ebony and Mahogany (and I'd love to see a graph of Rosewood superimposed on that chart as well).  I'm sure it's fairly subtle in actual listening and I'm no expert in tonewoods, but the graphs don't match up to how I'd imagine the density differences playing out.  Does anyone know why the PH seems to have much higher bass levels (although peaking at the lower mid-bass level compared to the Ebony peaking in the sub-base) than the other woods.  The magnitude of the difference surprised me a bit.  Now I want to set up a wood workshop in the garage 

.