MrSpeakers Alpha PRIME: Impressions and Discussion Thread
Jul 31, 2016 at 1:46 PM Post #2,326 of 2,891
  very cool, I had a little trouble using their website yesterday to figure out how much that would cost. I am doing the same thing with Alpha Dogs soon but my cost will be less naturally.

 
If you haven't been able to check already its $199 for the Alpha Dog to Alpha Prime
 
Cool..how much the price for upgrading?

 
Ended up being $499 for the upgrade
 
Jul 31, 2016 at 1:51 PM Post #2,327 of 2,891
   
If you haven't been able to check already its $199 for the Alpha Dog to Alpha Prime
 
 
Ended up being $499 for the upgrade

The upgrade from the alpha dog to the alpha prime showed fine, just not the other upgrades. Thanks for listing the other upgrade though.
 
Aug 1, 2016 at 6:40 AM Post #2,328 of 2,891
Has anyone compared the Primes to the Beyerdynamic T5p2?

Also: My black upgraded Primes should be shipping out today, as long as their stock of Alpha Pads arrives. I also picked up a decent portable amp to make sure I have enough juice for my Primes.

I'm pretty pumped.
 
Aug 1, 2016 at 7:42 PM Post #2,329 of 2,891
I will be shipping Alpha Dogs out tomorrow for an upgrade. I checked out the Dogs today and they have more low end than my T50RP MK3's but lack a little clarity compared to those Fostex. I will be happy when the change is made.
 
Aug 1, 2016 at 7:43 PM Post #2,330 of 2,891
Played with an EQ for most of the day on equalizer APO trying to make the primes sound like my TH-X00s for electronic music. I think I got it roughly close, I'm getting a similar vibe from the two cans now but there is still some weirdness to tune out. I can get specific values if asked, but this is what the eq settings look like. I'm surprised how high some of the values came out to be. Most of the tuning was done by direct comparisons with a blindfold on to focus on the sound, pressing the arrow keys to increase or decrease a selected frequency range I was listening for. Interestingly, the 2kHz - 4kHz range really affected the sound stage depth/intimacy but also heavily affected the visceral quality of the drums. Both of these qualities are some of the most notable differences between the stock sound of both headphones too. I looked into why, and it turns out that's the frequency range that is commonly attributed to the "attack" of instruments. I guess by increasing that aspect it also makes the affected instruments sound more intimate, thus pulling them and the overall perceived sound stage closer. Fascinating stuff.
 
Edit: Tried smoothing out the response more, got rid of some of the weirdness.
 
Aug 1, 2016 at 8:56 PM Post #2,331 of 2,891
Played with an EQ for most of the day on equalizer APO trying to make the primes sound like my TH-X00s for electronic music. I think I got it roughly close, I'm getting a similar vibe from the two cans now but there is still some weirdness to tune out. I can get specific values if asked, but this is what the eq settings look like. I'm surprised how high some of the values came out to be. Most of the tuning was done by direct comparisons with a blindfold on to focus on the sound, pressing the arrow keys to increase or decrease a selected frequency range I was listening for. Interestingly, the 2kHz - 4kHz range really affected the sound stage depth/intimacy but also heavily affected the visceral quality of the drums. Both of these qualities are some of the most notable differences between the stock sound of both headphones too. I looked into why, and it turns out that's the frequency range that is commonly attributed to the "attack" of instruments. I guess by increasing that aspect it also makes the affected instruments sound more intimate, thus pulling them and the overall perceived sound stage closer. Fascinating stuff.

Edit: Tried smoothing out the response more, got rid of some of the weirdness.


Very cool. Have you used the tuning pegs, or is this all digital EQ?

I'm thinking of tweaking the EQ a bit when I get mine later this week.
 
Aug 1, 2016 at 9:01 PM Post #2,332 of 2,891
Very cool. Have you used the tuning pegs, or is this all digital EQ?

I'm thinking of tweaking the EQ a bit when I get mine later this week.

Er, I assume by tuning pegs you mean the tuning dots. I tried messing with them when I originally got the headphone but the differences were too subtle and took so long to implement that effective A- B testing was pretty impossible for me. Now that I have an ideal modified response, I might try it again to boost the 2-4kHz region so the digital EQ doesn't need to boost so high.
 
Also, if you plan on playing with EQ yourself, this proved to be very helpful in giving ideas for what to tune.
 
Aug 1, 2016 at 9:26 PM Post #2,333 of 2,891
Er, I assume by tuning pegs you mean the tuning dots. I tried messing with them when I originally got the headphone but the differences were too subtle and took so long to implement that effective A- B testing was pretty impossible for me. Now that I have an ideal modified response, I might try it again to boost the 2-4kHz region so the digital EQ doesn't need to boost so high.

Also, if you plan on playing with EQ yourself, this proved to be very helpful in giving ideas for what to tune.


Very cool - thanks. What sort of equalizer are you using? That thing is no joke!
 
Aug 1, 2016 at 9:46 PM Post #2,334 of 2,891
Very cool - thanks. What sort of equalizer are you using? That thing is no joke!

Oh, equalizer APO. I just started trying to use equalizers and found this one recommended in quite a few places. Its open source and automatically applies the sound changes you make to your entire system in the background (as long as no other audio driver is running in exclusive mode like WASAPI or ASIO). I haven't even touched a fraction of it's features, so far just the preamp and 31 band equalizer.
 
Aug 4, 2016 at 2:39 PM Post #2,335 of 2,891
I should get my upgraded Alpha Primes back in a week or so. In the meantime I am experimenting with different cable builds that will attach to the 4 pin mini xlr connector that came with their present cable. The connectors used on the Primes will accept a lot of different styles of cable and I love the lock system they use.
 
Aug 4, 2016 at 6:32 PM Post #2,336 of 2,891
What sort of turn around time for the upgrades should we be expecting? I haven't heard anything, and my tracking number says it arrived at MrSpeakers 2 weeks ago.... o.O
 
Aug 4, 2016 at 7:03 PM Post #2,340 of 2,891
  1-2 weeks is average. We have had a delay with an Alpha Pad shipment due to a typhoon in Southeast Asia. Most of the upgraders are going out today.

 
Awesome, thanks :)
 

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