[trellus]

I don't know exactly what is the nature of relationship between the TakstarAudio store and Taskstar, and I don't care.

As for http://www.takstar.com/en/service/support-8 , they can't be there, because they are neither "international" nor a "distributor".

The explicit statement on that page, however, does unambiguously declare that they do not sell to anyone outside of China, ergo, that’s why they have this list of international distributors.

I would expect if they had an official store on Ali Express, which does happen to sell to consumers outside of China, it would be mentioned somewhere on the official Takstar web site, if not explicitly linked in like Grado does for 4OurEars.net.

 

[heavyharmonies]

I don't know exactly what is the nature of relationship between the TakstarAudio store and Taskstar, and I don't care.

I agree. Whether they are actually an arm of Takstar, the brand, is moot to me.

5) They listen to their customers
6) They communicate in proper English, and not through Google Translate

Exactly. Case in point: When I bought my second set of two Pro 82, they shipped separately but at the same time. One arrived within 2 weeks, whereas the other parcel's tracking still showed it as not haveing left China yet. I sent a message through AliExpress asking for them to check into it at their end. I got a response within 2 hours saying they confirmed the same progress I was seeing. They had been seeing some intermittent delays with China post. They asked that I please wait another week or so and not to worry, that I would be taken care of.

3 days later, they sent me a follow-up message that according to what they could see, it now showed as being in the U.S. and on its way to me. Sure enough, that was the case and I had the headphones a few days later.

The fact that they initiated follow-up communication without my having to ask again was a major positive. You don't frequently see proactive followup communication from wholesalers, let alone in another country.

I've placed a total of 3 Pro 82 orders from them. I've had cause to have multiple communications regarding discounts, shipping options, etc. Without exception:

1. The responses have been very timely.
2. The responses have been very courteous and comparatively verbose; you normally get terse little replies from customer service.
3. The responses have always been from the same person... although I suppose it's possible that it's multiple people using the same AliExpress username, but I highly doubt it given the consistency of language usage and style.
4. The responses have been in clear, easily understandable English.

Is this a ringing endorsement/commercial as implied above? If you want to treat it as that, fine, but in my experience, if you find an Asian selling entity that communicates clearly and responsively, that is a rare and unusual thing, and should be lauded.

 

[BenF]

Hello everyone, ordered mine from ebay because of this thread and the review for them. I also bought FiiO E06 from ebay. The only thing I am wondering is the difference between ELE EL-D02 and ELE EL-D01? Why is ELE EL-D01 considered to be a better pairing with FiiO E06 then ELE EL-D02?...

Main reason - I don't have ELE-D02

 

[Silthrax]

Main reason - I don''t have ELE-D02

The thing is I would order ELE-D02, but I dont have the ear to notice if its good or not since this my first real setup. Guess I should go for ELE-D01 then.

 

[BenF]

...I've placed a total of 3 Pro 82 orders from them. I've had cause to have multiple communications regarding discounts, shipping options, etc. Without exception:
1. The responses have been very timely.
2. The responses have been very courteous and comparatively verbose; you normally get terse little replies from customer service.
3. The responses have always been from the same person... although I suppose it's possible that it's multiple people using the same AliExpress username, but I highly doubt it given the consistency of language usage and style.
4. The responses have been in clear, easily understandable English.
Is this a ringing endorsement/commercial as implied above? If you want to treat it as that, fine, but in my experience, if you find an Asian selling entity that communicates clearly and responsively, that is a rare and unusual thing, and should be lauded.

Exactly my experience with them - the way they follow up is very uncharacteristic for other Chinese sellers (on any platform).
Even when other sellers have acceptable English skills, they often fail in customer communications because they don't understand mentality of western buyers.

BTW, I forgot to mention another nice thing they do:
7) They test the headphones prior to sending them out.
Of course, they don't test them as rigorously as we do, but they can catch the most obvious flaws.

Reminder to all: Keep in mind, that due to Chinese New Year, you only have a few days left to place an order (in any store), if you want it to be sent out before February 20-25th.

 

[VonBoedfeld]

Hi,

anyone knows, if there is a balanced replacement cable with 2.5mm TRRS jack available?

 

[BenF]

...But with there being potentially more than one driver revision (my newest pair sounds a lot like the way BenF describes his oldest pair) and/or some production variance it could distort things a little (hopefully not much though).
Happy to offer up my pairs up for review too if there is a reviewer in the EU (ideally UK to keep shipping costs down) who is up for it. May even speak to Solderdude to see if he fancies measuring both and doing an objective comparison between them or teardown (suspect he may have more than enough on his plate already though).

I'd like to remind everyone that no two headphones sound the same, even if you paid 4000$ for them: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-78#post-14005821
Because of the variations in production, measuring "old" and "new" pairs would produce inconclusive results, unless there would be a statistically significant amount of headphones - let's say 5 or 10 of each kind.

And judging by your "new" pair sounding more like my "old" one (far more than your "old" one), whatever the changes in the "new" driver may be, the difference in sound they make must be smaller than the variations in production of the "old" one.
It's possible that these changes are made to reduce the variations in the first place - manufacturing process is constantly being improved.

The first batch is usually the most problematic, so the "new" ones sound very promising - that's why I bought 2 "new" ones recently, joining the prestigious "Quad-Pro 82" club
Even if they sound the same as "old" ones, I won't be disappointed - I love my "old" ones (both of them) to death, they are superb!
Basically, I can't lose.

I am excited about the new 1.6m cable, which was result of customers' input - there were multiple complaints about the old cable developing channel issues.
It's great that Takstar listened, despite this being a relatively cheap headphone.

 

[BenF]

The thing is I would order ELE-D02, but I dont have the ear to notice if its good or not since this my first real setup. Guess I should go for ELE-D01 then.

Smart decision - it's a safer and cheaper choice.

 

[BenF]

I driving the headphones directly from my LG V20. I don't listen to music with too much heavy bass but for bass-orientated music I surely feel the Pro 82 to be on a higher level. In actual fact I do think the Pro 82 is superior to the S680 in all areas. The bass of the S680 is full and fat while the bass on he Pro 82 is leaner and goes deeper. There is better definition and texture in the bass with the Pro 82. With the S680 it's like a "one-note" bass, a fat-sounding bass. The Pro 82's bass is layered and textured. Basically a better bass definition with the Pro 82 whereby you can hear the deep-bass and sub-bass layering.

There is better clarity across the frequency spectrum with the Pro 82. In short, the Pro 82 made the S680 sounds fuzzy as if a heavy Dolby NR was applied but not in a good way. After listening to the Pro 82 for just about an hour, I now find the S680 to be severely lacking in clarity and detail. It's just a smooth sound from the S680 but there is a lot of detail missing in the background.

The comfort on the Pro 82 is also worth mentioning as it feels very comfortable on the head. Finally I have found a pair of headphones that can stay on my head for 1 hour without taking them off. However, they still need to be taken off due to the heat build-up around th ears. After a rather long listening session yesterday (almost an hour), the pads have a little sweat around it.

Excellent impressions, added the link in posts #2 and #3.

 

[VonBoedfeld]

Working with custom 2.5 trrs to 2.5 trrs balanced cable.

Connected to 30r balanced out.

So how does this improve the sound?
Where can I get such a cable?

 

[BenF]

Some welcome changes to the Chinese New Year lottery for (mostly) Pro 82 buyers - instead of 1 prize for a single winner, all 3 possible prizes (Pro 82 with case, SMSL Idea and Ostry KC09) will be drawn among the participants, for a total of 3 winners!
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-80#post-14011105
Your chances to win just tripled!

 

[Tysun]

So how does this improve the sound?
Where can I get such a cable?

Yes please share impression of balanced cable vs SE!!!

 

[BenF]

Important info about Chinese New Year - this time not about the lottery.

China Post is on holiday starting February 8, so all orders made after February 7 (in any store) will have to wait until February 21st.
So if you want your Pro 82 to be shipped out before CNY you have to order on February 7. For buyers from Europe/Americas, due to the time difference, the deadline is probably February 6th - tomorrow!
And if you want the Head-Fi discount (see first post for details), better place an order today or early tomorrow, as the discount requires an extra step for the price to be adjusted before you pay.

 

[Lazermatt]

A friend of mine bought a pair of these at the same time I did and we compared them. His sound perfect and don't get the crackling sound that I get in mine which leads me to believe I've got a faulty pair but I can't be bothered going through the hassle of sending them back and they seem to be mostly fine under 70 windows volume (which is too loud for me to listen to normally anyway) so I'm just going to keep hold of them. A bit disappointed but what can you do.

 

[BenF]

A friend of mine bought a pair of these at the same time I did and we compared them. His sound perfect and don't get the crackling sound that I get in mine which leads me to believe I've got a faulty pair but I can't be bothered going through the hassle of sending them back and they seem to be mostly fine under 70 windows volume (which is too loud for me to listen to normally anyway) so I'm just going to keep hold of them. A bit disappointed but what can you do.

My Fostex TH900MK2 produces rattling noise on the left side below 50Hz at any volume.
Oh, what I would give to trade problems with you...