dosley01
1000+ Head-Fier
Monster Cable Turbine Pro Copper Review
Intro:
I want to start this review of by saying Thank You to Monster Cable for providing me with these earphones to review. A quick background, almost a decade ago, I purchased my first pair of upgraded “ear buds”, the Sony MDR-EX70. I was actually working at Tweeter while I was looking for a job in IT after the Dot.com bust. I needed a pair of buds for my Mini-Disc player. I commute into Boston every day on the T (Subway) and my old freebie earphones where not cutting it. A co-worker turned me on to the EX70s and almost a decade later, a couple thousand dollars poorer, here I am. I have always been a Hi-Fi hobbyist since I was a pre-teen and have also sold and installed Mid-Fi gear back in the mid-90s. I worked for United Audio Centers back then outside of Chicago, before they were bought by Tweeter. The highlight of my brief Hi-Fi career was going to Lawrence, Kansas and getting to tour the Martin Logan factory and have dinner with Gayle Sanders at his home. Of all the speakers I was able to audition on that trip, I was blown away by their CLS full range panels. Never had I heard anything like that and still have not to this day. Shortly after that, thanks to a promotion for sales people, I was a proud owner of a pair of Aerius I speakers (Along with the 50 or so other people I had to sell ML speakers to so that I could get a free pair). To this day, that sound signature is what I hope to come closest to. That is probably why the IE8 is my day to day IEM. Enough about my background, on to the MTPC.Packaging:
I had previously owned the original Monster Turbine so I was very happy to see Monster Cable had continued the excellent packaging for the Turbine Pro Copper. Of all the brands of IEMS that I have personally owned, Monster Cable has really gone all out on packaging their earphones in an elegant manner. The presentation and quality of the packaging materials is first rate and really sets the tone for hopefully what is to come. Inside the box we find a carrying case for both the headphones and a separate one to store the dizzying array of tips provided along with a shirt clip.Accessories:
My first upgrade from the EX70 was a pair of Etymotic ER6i and I learned very quickly that getting the proper fit and seal was imperative to maximizing the sounds quality. I currently own some of the most difficult IEMS to get a proper fit (IE8, TF10). The MTPC comes with such a huge assortment of tips that I can’t imagine anyone not finding a pair to properly fit them. At first I noticed the usual suspects, the good old silicone tips along with some triple flanges in multiple sizes. I had heard about the “Pro Sound” isolating tips which are essential the regular silicone tips filled with what appears to be more silicone to help them seal in your ear canal. What I was really looking forward to were the new “Super Tips” which seem to be a hybrid of a silicone tip and a foam tip. I use foam tips on my TF10 but they have to be replaced almost monthly due to wax and grime . I started my fitting with the regular silicone tips then the Pro tips and ended up selecting the white foam Super Tips for my evaluation.Build Quality:
As I pulled the MTPC out of the packaging, one of the first things I noticed was how thick the main cord was and what an improvement compared to the regular Turbine. I felt the cord on the regular Turbine was not that much different than my old pair of EX70s. The left and right earphones both have strain relief along with a beefy Y separator. The earphone plug is of the right angle variety and is also very well constructed. With Monster Cable having its roots in audio cables, I expect nothing but the best in cables for their earphones and this time around it seems they have a winner. Even if the cable fails, you have the Lifetime warranty to fall back on even if you break them. If you manage to break them at your own fault, Monster will replace them once at no cost.Comfort and Use:
The MTPC is all metal and seems heavy in your hand but in everyday use they do not seem heavy at all. I have been wearing them both with the cord down and also over the ear. I find with the cord over the ear, they are very comfortable and I don’t even notice that they are there. The cord does suffer from microphonics more than my other earphones but it might be caused by the thickness of the cable. The shirt clip did help a little but I chose not to use it. With the Super Tips, I find the sound isolation to be excellent. Even on the subway, there is almost no noise coming through. It’s nice to just hear the music and nothing else.Sound Quality and Review Material:
I will save comparisons to other earphones for another review and just be subjective about the MTPC. As I previously mentioned, I had owned the original Monster Turbine. When I first purchased them, I found that right out of the box that they were very boomy and really improved with some use or “burn-in”. Even still, the kid in me had me listening to the MTPC right away. Well imagine that, pretty much the same result. The MTPC out of the box sounded very similar to what I remember the original Turbine sounding like. I plugged them into my Sony X , put it on repeat and let them play for approximately 12 hours at a normal listening level. My next experience was completely different, the boominess was gone and they were sounding much more natural.The source material I chose for my review mostly consists of what I was listening to at the time I owned the original Turbine along with what I have been listening to lately on my regular earphones. Below is a partial list of what I listened to.
Original Turbine Comparison:
| Current Listening :
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One of the qualities I missed about the original Turbines was they were considered to be “Fun” earphones, while they might have not been the most accurate sounding, the bass more than made up for it and really matched up well with certain music. What I did not miss was a very narrow soundstage and somewhat of an in-your-head experience. My experience with the MTPC has been a nice improvement. The bass is still very much a signature of these earphones and it is as close to having a subwoofer in your ear as you can get while not being overwhelming. Monster's term of In Ear Speakers is really not much of an exaggeration. I would say the original Turbine was like having an equalizer with a V curve and the MTPC are much more of a flatter curve. Compared to my other earphones, they excel at the lower octave but have somehow managed to not lose ground to the midrange and high frequencies. I find their mids to be a little recessed and the top end to be just a touch harsh compared to my current favorite but not necessarily in a negative way, just a different flavor. The soundstage is a nice improvement and is getting closer to some of the wider sounding IEMs out there. While not the biggest, certainly better than the regular Turbine. There are definitely Artists and Albums that these have become my favorite IEM to listen to, pretty much everything I listed above. The first track on The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely just does not sound as good on any other IEM I own and the same goes for The Prodigy and TV on the Radio. The amount of deep, stomach rumbling bass that the MTPC is capable of constantly put a smile on my face.
Conclusion:
Has Monster created a product to compete with the other top tier universal IEMS? Personally I think they have. The only way to find out is try them for yourself. These are just as much “fun” as the original just in a more mature fashion. Let’s say the original Turbine is the rocking car stereo you had when you were younger and the MTPC is the high end system in your luxury automobile. One final tidbit for the Dead Heads out there, I have not found any other IEM that conveys the impact of the bass at a live Dead show as these can. At the current street price, I find these to be an excellent value and would definitely consider purchasing them had I not be given a pair for review.Want to know more? Please check back soon for a follow up review/comparison of the Monster Turbine Pro Copper, Sennheiser IE8 and Logitech/Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 along with updates of living with the MTPC as my primary earphone.
