NEW! Aiaiai TMA-1 Studio

[ekolite]

Ok. I have only 5 hours of listening with these, but I could not help myself to keep from posting a quick follow up.  First I ran some low frequency sweeps and long full spectrum frequency burn in tracks from the XLO Reference Tone Cd.  This is what I usually do when I ever get a new pair of cans.  I then played a high frequency tone sweep and then let them sit for about 5 minutes then started jamming.  For my curiosity on how these would perform on acoustics, against the original Tma-1, I put on a 24-bit 192khz recording of The Eagles, "Hotel California" with eq flat from my Asus Xonar Essence St sound card, and using J River Media Center in Wasapi - Event Style Mode.. and no doubt.  I could already tell these were more neutral and more "acoustic friendly" headphones than that of the original Tma-1's.  But ever since then I have been listening to electronica and ambient music.  Listened to Boards of Canada's, "Music Has the Rights To Children."  Never had such a fun time listening to this album.  And I have heard it a lot.
Based on value alone, I love both earpads this time around.  I am using the pleather ones for their wonderful comfort, but i think the Foam ones isolate a bit better, but a touch less comfortable IMHO. I still prefer the pleather so far.  I think the extra 50 bux is justified.  The new pads I would have dropped $25.00 on alone.  And the more neutral sound makes all the difference with more varieties of music.  I have not stumbled upon one genre I did not like, or love, so far.  Great job, AIAIAI!!!!

 

[manveru]

Did anybody see these?
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AiaiaiTMA1Studio.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AiaiaiTMA1.pdf
 
The TMA-1 graph corresponds to what I heard when listening to them. No bass! 

 Very different looking down in that area than the graph provided by Aiaiai. I know you can't compare graphs made by different people, but the discrepancy appears to be pretty large. I guess Tyll's dummy head couldn't get a good seal either...

 

[ekolite]

I'm getting plenty of nice bass off my studios
 

 

[Ultrainferno]

Quote:

I'm getting plenty of nice bass off my studios
 

 
I did expect to get more

 

[ekolite]

What are you using to drive them, and which earpads do you primarily use?  I find them plentiful in bass with the protein foam earpads, even though it took me a bit to get used to them.  I find the pleather pads drown out a bit of sound IMHO, but feel nice to wear.  I get great bass from a Asus Xonar Essence ST Sound card with eq flat in (Hi-Fi Mode) and also get awesome results using an older Panasonic cd player with MASH.  I would personally avoid very cheap amps with these cans.

 

[SONIC BOOM]

Quote:

I find the pleather pads drown out a bit of sound IMHO, but feel nice to wear.

+1

 

[Ultrainferno]

Quote:

What are you using to drive them, and which earpads do you primarily use?  I find them plentiful in bass with the protein foam earpads, even though it took me a bit to get used to them.  I find the pleather pads drown out a bit of sound IMHO, but feel nice to wear.  I get great bass from a Asus Xonar Essence ST Sound card with eq flat in (Hi-Fi Mode) and also get awesome results using an older Panasonic cd player with MASH.  I would personally avoid very cheap amps with these cans.

 
I have to admit having only used the CLAS + C421 setup (BB on), but still, I just expected more bass after having read all those crazy AIAIAI comments

 

[manveru]

These are extremely easy to drive. An amp is not really a big concern.

 

[SONIC BOOM]

Quote:

 
I have to admit having only used the CLAS + C421 setup (BB on), but still, I just expected more bass after having read all those crazy AIAIAI comments

I think it was because that's a really bright sounding amp

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

I'm getting plenty of nice bass off my studios
 

 
This is likely because you're hearing mid-bass at around the 100 Hz mark. 

 

[Ultrainferno]

Quote:

I think it was because that's a really bright sounding amp

C421 - 2227 bright? Waw

 

[ekolite]

Edit: "I would personally avoid very cheap amps with these cans." - I am just saying to try to use a decent source that's all.  As all headphones will benefit from, but these I don't know they can be a little moody with different sources.  I personally wouldn't use it straight from iPod, but that's me.

 

[ekolite]

I am really surprised there are not that many positive comments posted on here.  My expectations may have been different, I wasn't expecting more bass, I was expecting a more flat listening curve when it came right down to the music.  There is something in the Studio's sound I love that feels very honest to whatever you throw at them.

 

[manveru]

To clarify, my comment about no bass earlier was referring to bass extension, not overall quantity. 

 

[ekolite]

I am use to studio monitor sound as all of my loudspeakers have been 2-way designs. So that may be a welcome insight on why I like the studios so much?  I think what they do they do very well.  I hear bass extension.. not as much as some others in the range, but I like listening to these better.  Nice tight bass with good balanced mids and highs.