Ok, first impressions about Martin Custom Audio MS1.
No pics. There's a catchy start
However, I'll just state that Marty did excepcional craftsmanship work. Flawless (almost).
So you get your wood box. From the pic my wife sent yesterday it looked like pine. It's not pine, and I cannot really tell you what it is in English since the word is missing on my vocabulary at the moment. We have here some prawn boxes sold with that kind of material. It's nothing fancy, but it's well built, with some nice details on the interior to accomodate de cans and really stands out among this mod business with attention to detail. Pics to come later.
The headband is perfect. I've read a few coments about how unconfortable the lower end Grados/Alessandros feel on the head. I know what they are talking about as my previous experiences proved it beyond about an hour of use. They hurt. Not Martin's. The leather is really soft and has a lined padding on the underside that not only looks the biz but works on a top level. Great marriage between form and function.
The cups and gimbals are amazing. Very well crafted, sanded and laquered. Padauk on the gimbals and Cebil wood on the cups. On their own both woods look exquisite. As a matched combo it's like a piece of art. My crappy camera will never capture that beauty accordingly. I'm also a poor photographer, so just believe what I'm saying. Pads are bowls. I need to work out a leather pair later on.
Remember the almost flawless remark?
The almost comes out because of the rods. The actual rods are made of brass and they attach to Cebil blocks. Great idea to slide the brass through the wood to adjust hight. Looks wonderful. Works wrong. The wood quickly erodes with the friction and the cups come off if you lay the cans on the table top. I need to fix this.
These cans have been recabled with 4 strand silver cable. A 5 footish piece and another 5 footish extension cable. Works out just great if I take these on a trip as I don't need a long wire to connect an iPod or iPad.
As for the sound, I had a couple of hours listen. They did a few great things and a few really bad things. I need to adjust my brain and tune in. I was also anxsious to come home and grab them after this looooooong wait to finally resolve all the pending issues with my initial order. I'll post about the sound later on as I feel the need to relax with them e let myself go. No love at first listen though.
R the MSPROS are better. A bit more aggressive and detailed. The woodied sr80s still look better imo and give them a real run for their money. Sound a tad less aggressive and more smooth, bit less detailed. The over all sound sig is still real similar though. I find myself preferring the sr80's at night, because of their less aggressive nature. 
