Necrolic
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Sep 10, 2007
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Just received my damped Australian Sheoak D5000 cups from Lawton Audio tonight, thought I'd post some first impressions for you guys.
When I first opened the box, I was actually taken aback at just how beautiful these things are, the stock cups are nice but there is no other way to describe the Lawton cups than to call them works of art, the wood grain and obvious time and effort put into these makes them just plain fun to look at. They are slightly heavier than stock cups, but not enough to be noticeable on your head.
Installation was a breeze, I just had to be careful not to lose the tiny screws.
As for the sound, this is where it gets interesting. I was told by Mark that the damped Sheoak cups would tighten bass up a little, bring the mids forward and make the highs crisper and cleaner. When I first put them on my head, everything seemed just plain muddy, the actual volume of the headphones seemed to have gone down without me touching any volume controls at all. I was horrified thinking something must be wrong.
I decided to give them a change, and listened to them for awhile. After roughly 3-5 minutes, in the middle of a song I heard something that almost sounded like a quiet popping noise, then out of nowhere the volume increased to roughly what it was before putting the cups on, but everything had changed for the better, and in exactly the way Mark had described it. Soundstage was larger, bass was a little tighter with better impact, mids were clearer and highs somewhat crisper. All I can say is boy am I glad I gave them those 5 minutes.
Not sure exactly what happened, but whatever it was the change was unbelievable, and these cups were definitely worth their cost.
Pictures (more can be posted if requested, for now just one of each cup):
Unfortunately I couldn't get the flash to catch the darker stripes as well in the first picture (rest assured, they're there), but I was EXTREMELY surprised at how closely the cups resemble each other, they were matched very well.
When I first opened the box, I was actually taken aback at just how beautiful these things are, the stock cups are nice but there is no other way to describe the Lawton cups than to call them works of art, the wood grain and obvious time and effort put into these makes them just plain fun to look at. They are slightly heavier than stock cups, but not enough to be noticeable on your head.
Installation was a breeze, I just had to be careful not to lose the tiny screws.
As for the sound, this is where it gets interesting. I was told by Mark that the damped Sheoak cups would tighten bass up a little, bring the mids forward and make the highs crisper and cleaner. When I first put them on my head, everything seemed just plain muddy, the actual volume of the headphones seemed to have gone down without me touching any volume controls at all. I was horrified thinking something must be wrong.
I decided to give them a change, and listened to them for awhile. After roughly 3-5 minutes, in the middle of a song I heard something that almost sounded like a quiet popping noise, then out of nowhere the volume increased to roughly what it was before putting the cups on, but everything had changed for the better, and in exactly the way Mark had described it. Soundstage was larger, bass was a little tighter with better impact, mids were clearer and highs somewhat crisper. All I can say is boy am I glad I gave them those 5 minutes.
Not sure exactly what happened, but whatever it was the change was unbelievable, and these cups were definitely worth their cost.
Pictures (more can be posted if requested, for now just one of each cup):
Unfortunately I couldn't get the flash to catch the darker stripes as well in the first picture (rest assured, they're there), but I was EXTREMELY surprised at how closely the cups resemble each other, they were matched very well.
