Blackmore
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2006
- Posts
- 5,720
- Likes
- 99
Dear all,
This is very exiting for me, because I am very proud to be first who represent to all HEAD-FI members the possible NEWCOMER in the HIGH-END headphone community. May I introduce an PROTOTYPE MBQUART GP435S to all of you. This is German, hand made prototype of HIGH END phones that been tested by Dark Audio Labs first and by me for a last week. The manufacture, MB QUART / MAXXSONICS INC, is located in Germany. The engineers from Poland ( Dark Audio Labs.), who made LIBERATORS, have ask me for this introduction and I was very proud to accept it of course. They made some adjustments, audio and electronic tests with those phones. This prototype been build based on this model, see link please http://www.mbquart.com/en/produkte/p....php?nr=qp_400 Also is more to find at www.headphonesguru.com/qp435
This phones been especially provide to HEAD FI members for an critical tests so in the future, hopefully, you will see more posts about it, because they been already shipped to Romanee for an professional tests. Also they will be at THE NATIONAL MEET as well, so take you chance on that one and give them a try please.
Before I put my thoughts up here I would like to mention that I am not an professional to do the tests an write reviews after. So I hope you will not be to critical of my impressions, cos they are just impressions, nothing more, THANKS.
These phones been claimed as NEUTRAL sounding one. For me that means, NO COLORATION in the sound and that's what they do not have at all, COLORATION. Another thing, they been downgrade from 300Ohm to 35Ohm, so portable use is an very good option as well.
First thing that coming to my simple mind, when you hear NEUTRAL, is BORING. But wait a minute, not with this one, no… And to make sure of that fact, the first thing I did is putting MARCUS MILLER CD on and what a surprise that was. Never expected such great BASS, from neutral sounding one I mean, TIGHT & DEEP, but never bloated what so ever. So after some short listening they have got my attention pretty serious and I have starting with my sessions.
Equipment:
Pioneer DVD player
Aspen OTL Tube amp Model #823 ( tubes 2X RCA 6BQ5 and 1X Mullard CV491 12AU7 )
Monster M1000i IC cable
iAudio5 MP3 player + PA2V2
Grado GS1000 for some comparison
Music:
Marcus Miller Power "Essential"
Diana Krall "Live in Paris"
Diana Krall "The look of love"
Steve Kuhn Trio "Live at Birdland"
Brad Mehldau "House on Hill"
George Benson & Jarreau "Givin'it Up"
Buddha Bar "10 years"
Mezzoforte "Forward Motion"
Robert Plant "Fate of Nations"
Deep Purple "Bananas"
Sting "The Best of"
VIVALDI "FOUR SEASONS"
And now the sound. The first thing I do not hear is the punch, not at all of such kind. However they do have an upfront sound, but very polite and kind of damping/muting sounding. I guess that's what man call NEUTRAL sound. But the same time they do make you face smiling and with some records even moving, and that was the biggest surprise for me. From one side they are pretty equal and relax sounding and from other side they do adapting in such strange way to some records that you can not understand what is the catch. And after some hours I realized that this phones are very depending on record, yeah. Some of my, that I thought were good, sounded pretty lifeless and empty. But other made them totally different phones. For example Marcus Miller, the first I have tried, was very good. The whole sound spectrum was very controlled and detailed, from HIGHS through MIDS up to LOW/BASS, especially BASS. They do have amazingly good BASS. Second I have put Diana's Live in Paris on and here they were less exiting than GS1, but still impressed me with nice structure in the sound. Voice was strong but very gentle, almost velvety. Same thing with piano, smooth and fluently sounding.
Also I believe that they will shine better with better rig as well, cos my isn't ideal at all.
The excitement that I am missing is simple the fact that they are not bright, or would I say cristal&crisp enough, for my taste, to give you the right kick. Actually it was the same issue with almost all JAZZ records I have tried, until I put Diana's "The look of love". This CD is absolutely amazing orchestral peace of work and this phones were very, very good with it. So directly after that, VIVALDI was playing, and here we go again, SUPER. You feel the power when its need it and you get astonishing feeling from viol solo. But the most kicks I have got was with Buddha Bar "10 years" CD. Oh man, they were simple right for it. This CD is very rich and full, with amazingly good quality recording. I use my AKG K1000 with this music and still not found better combo yet, period. So when I tried MBQUART GP435S with it I couldn't believe how good they were, not as good as K1, but much better than GS1. The SOUNDSTAGE opens directly and excitement was just their. They suck you in and take you to the journey of joy through the best world music you can get, while GS1 was to powerful with BASS and didn't give the rest of the sound the space. So that was my best experience, definitely… The ROCK music I have tried didn't get me anywhere. I was done pretty quickly. They do miss Grado punch, crispy highs and bit of coloration to do the trick.
Another thing to mention is that you right there, on stage I mean, where everything happens. And with all JAZZ records I had the feeling that you stay right next to the piano or contra bass, when its leads I mean. Not sure of it is good or bad, didn't bother me anyway.. And of course the balance, which is one of the strongest things of them, nothing kicks you more than need it, everything in the right quantity. And sometimes that was just to much for me, kind of equal on one line sound I mean. Also not to forget the comfort, cos they are VERY COMFY and VERY LIGHT. My head and my ears aren't that small but they fit with no problem what so ever. So they are already good for a long hours sessions. The longest I did, was like 2-3 hours.
Well that's it, I guess. Here some up summering of my thoughts:
Positive
1. SOUNDSTAGE
2. OVERALL BALANCE AND CONTROL
3. GREAT BASS
4. POSSIBILITY OF ADAPTING TO THE RECORD ( NOT SURE WHAT IT IS, MAYBE IT IS JUST ME )
5. POLITE SOUNDING
6. VERY COMFY
Negative points
1. VERY DEPENDING ON RECORD
2. NOT BRIGHT, CLEAR OR CRISPY ENOUGH
3. HIGHS ARE TO ROLLED OF, I SIMPLY MISS TSS ON THE TOP END ( WELL ONCE AGAIN DEPENDS ON RECORD )
4. NOT PUNCHY ENOUGH, HOWEVER THEY DO HAVE UPFRONT SOUND, BUT KIND OF SHADE
5. EQUABILITY OF THE SOUND CAN BECOME BORING.
After all I have the feeling that I would be glad to own one, no BS. They are very interesting and worth to try. Hopefully the final product will be tweaked in the best possible way, because this one still only a PROTOTYPE and luckily can be changed, I guess.
I would like to thank DARK AUDIO LABS, MB QUART / MAXXSONICS INC for providing their great prototype for HEAD-FI community and maybe we will see / HEAR not only an prototype, but also the final product as well someday.
Also would like to thank everyone up here who were taking the time to read this and maybe to share their thoughts as well.
Here some pics
This is very exiting for me, because I am very proud to be first who represent to all HEAD-FI members the possible NEWCOMER in the HIGH-END headphone community. May I introduce an PROTOTYPE MBQUART GP435S to all of you. This is German, hand made prototype of HIGH END phones that been tested by Dark Audio Labs first and by me for a last week. The manufacture, MB QUART / MAXXSONICS INC, is located in Germany. The engineers from Poland ( Dark Audio Labs.), who made LIBERATORS, have ask me for this introduction and I was very proud to accept it of course. They made some adjustments, audio and electronic tests with those phones. This prototype been build based on this model, see link please http://www.mbquart.com/en/produkte/p....php?nr=qp_400 Also is more to find at www.headphonesguru.com/qp435
This phones been especially provide to HEAD FI members for an critical tests so in the future, hopefully, you will see more posts about it, because they been already shipped to Romanee for an professional tests. Also they will be at THE NATIONAL MEET as well, so take you chance on that one and give them a try please.
Before I put my thoughts up here I would like to mention that I am not an professional to do the tests an write reviews after. So I hope you will not be to critical of my impressions, cos they are just impressions, nothing more, THANKS.
These phones been claimed as NEUTRAL sounding one. For me that means, NO COLORATION in the sound and that's what they do not have at all, COLORATION. Another thing, they been downgrade from 300Ohm to 35Ohm, so portable use is an very good option as well.
First thing that coming to my simple mind, when you hear NEUTRAL, is BORING. But wait a minute, not with this one, no… And to make sure of that fact, the first thing I did is putting MARCUS MILLER CD on and what a surprise that was. Never expected such great BASS, from neutral sounding one I mean, TIGHT & DEEP, but never bloated what so ever. So after some short listening they have got my attention pretty serious and I have starting with my sessions.
Equipment:
Pioneer DVD player
Aspen OTL Tube amp Model #823 ( tubes 2X RCA 6BQ5 and 1X Mullard CV491 12AU7 )
Monster M1000i IC cable
iAudio5 MP3 player + PA2V2
Grado GS1000 for some comparison
Music:
Marcus Miller Power "Essential"
Diana Krall "Live in Paris"
Diana Krall "The look of love"
Steve Kuhn Trio "Live at Birdland"
Brad Mehldau "House on Hill"
George Benson & Jarreau "Givin'it Up"
Buddha Bar "10 years"
Mezzoforte "Forward Motion"
Robert Plant "Fate of Nations"
Deep Purple "Bananas"
Sting "The Best of"
VIVALDI "FOUR SEASONS"
And now the sound. The first thing I do not hear is the punch, not at all of such kind. However they do have an upfront sound, but very polite and kind of damping/muting sounding. I guess that's what man call NEUTRAL sound. But the same time they do make you face smiling and with some records even moving, and that was the biggest surprise for me. From one side they are pretty equal and relax sounding and from other side they do adapting in such strange way to some records that you can not understand what is the catch. And after some hours I realized that this phones are very depending on record, yeah. Some of my, that I thought were good, sounded pretty lifeless and empty. But other made them totally different phones. For example Marcus Miller, the first I have tried, was very good. The whole sound spectrum was very controlled and detailed, from HIGHS through MIDS up to LOW/BASS, especially BASS. They do have amazingly good BASS. Second I have put Diana's Live in Paris on and here they were less exiting than GS1, but still impressed me with nice structure in the sound. Voice was strong but very gentle, almost velvety. Same thing with piano, smooth and fluently sounding.
Also I believe that they will shine better with better rig as well, cos my isn't ideal at all.
The excitement that I am missing is simple the fact that they are not bright, or would I say cristal&crisp enough, for my taste, to give you the right kick. Actually it was the same issue with almost all JAZZ records I have tried, until I put Diana's "The look of love". This CD is absolutely amazing orchestral peace of work and this phones were very, very good with it. So directly after that, VIVALDI was playing, and here we go again, SUPER. You feel the power when its need it and you get astonishing feeling from viol solo. But the most kicks I have got was with Buddha Bar "10 years" CD. Oh man, they were simple right for it. This CD is very rich and full, with amazingly good quality recording. I use my AKG K1000 with this music and still not found better combo yet, period. So when I tried MBQUART GP435S with it I couldn't believe how good they were, not as good as K1, but much better than GS1. The SOUNDSTAGE opens directly and excitement was just their. They suck you in and take you to the journey of joy through the best world music you can get, while GS1 was to powerful with BASS and didn't give the rest of the sound the space. So that was my best experience, definitely… The ROCK music I have tried didn't get me anywhere. I was done pretty quickly. They do miss Grado punch, crispy highs and bit of coloration to do the trick.
Another thing to mention is that you right there, on stage I mean, where everything happens. And with all JAZZ records I had the feeling that you stay right next to the piano or contra bass, when its leads I mean. Not sure of it is good or bad, didn't bother me anyway.. And of course the balance, which is one of the strongest things of them, nothing kicks you more than need it, everything in the right quantity. And sometimes that was just to much for me, kind of equal on one line sound I mean. Also not to forget the comfort, cos they are VERY COMFY and VERY LIGHT. My head and my ears aren't that small but they fit with no problem what so ever. So they are already good for a long hours sessions. The longest I did, was like 2-3 hours.
Well that's it, I guess. Here some up summering of my thoughts:
Positive
1. SOUNDSTAGE
2. OVERALL BALANCE AND CONTROL
3. GREAT BASS
4. POSSIBILITY OF ADAPTING TO THE RECORD ( NOT SURE WHAT IT IS, MAYBE IT IS JUST ME )
5. POLITE SOUNDING
6. VERY COMFY
Negative points
1. VERY DEPENDING ON RECORD
2. NOT BRIGHT, CLEAR OR CRISPY ENOUGH
3. HIGHS ARE TO ROLLED OF, I SIMPLY MISS TSS ON THE TOP END ( WELL ONCE AGAIN DEPENDS ON RECORD )
4. NOT PUNCHY ENOUGH, HOWEVER THEY DO HAVE UPFRONT SOUND, BUT KIND OF SHADE
5. EQUABILITY OF THE SOUND CAN BECOME BORING.
After all I have the feeling that I would be glad to own one, no BS. They are very interesting and worth to try. Hopefully the final product will be tweaked in the best possible way, because this one still only a PROTOTYPE and luckily can be changed, I guess.
I would like to thank DARK AUDIO LABS, MB QUART / MAXXSONICS INC for providing their great prototype for HEAD-FI community and maybe we will see / HEAR not only an prototype, but also the final product as well someday.
Also would like to thank everyone up here who were taking the time to read this and maybe to share their thoughts as well.
Here some pics
