[trellus]

Trellus, Solderdude has no axe to grind with any headphone. He's worked in the business and knows his onions. He merely took measurements in the way that he does with all of his headphones and reported what he saw.

Actually, he's a genius at modifying headphones, based on real measurements. I use an amp designed by him that has an EQ filter built into it, that flattens the headphone frequency response out. He also designed the Garage Amps. I have a few of his amps for different headphones with built in EQ and I can assure you that headphones really don't sound the same by just flattening their frequency responses.

Some are more easily EQ'd than others, but he certainly doesn't have an affinity with any headphone.

I edited my response to clarify that it’s others, not me, that seem to be making that case (that he has an axe to grind), as I take the opposite view, that the review seems free to me of any emotional attachment to or animosity against the Pro 82.

 

[meetoo1]

I've had these headphones for a couple of days now and have come to the following conclusions:

1) For the price, these headphones are very comfortable and the build quality is very good
2) The sound of these headphones can be cleaned up by using an amp to drive them properly. I was just plugging them directly into my computer for the first day of use and not happy with the sound quality at all. Once I plugged them into my Oppo HA-2 amp, the sound tended to even out and the bass sounded a bit more pronounced.
3). These are meant to be used as a "monitor" headphones... and not as a casual everyday consumer headphone. If I use them as such, I find I'm very happy with them. If I use them just as a casual headphone plugged directly into my computer or phone, I tend to find the sound to clinical and taxing on my poor little ears. I find that if I'm editing video with these plugged into my amp, I'm very happy with the honest sound they deliver. "How" and for "what purpose" these cams are used can be very important to the results and satisfaction you derive from them.

 

[BenF]

I've had these headphones for a couple of days now and have come to the following conclusions:
...
2) The sound of these headphones can be cleaned up by using an amp to drive them properly. I was just plugging them directly into my computer for the first day of use and not happy with the sound quality at all. Once I plugged them into my Oppo HA-2 amp, the sound tended to even out and the bass sounded a bit more pronounced.

Makes perfect sense, Pro 82 needs a good DAC/Amp combo, preferably one of the synergy combos.
The "Porta Pro guy" made the same mistake as you.

3). These are meant to be used as a "monitor" headphones... and not as a casual everyday consumer headphone. If I use them as such, I find I'm very happy with them. If I use them just as a casual headphone plugged directly into my computer or phone, I tend to find the sound to clinical and taxing on my poor little ears. I find that if I'm editing video with these plugged into my amp, I'm very happy with the honest sound they deliver. "How" and for "what purpose" these cams are used can be very important to the results and satisfaction you derive from them.

I do use them for everyday music enjoyment - as most people on this thread ."Casual" doesn't have to mean plugging the headphone right into a headphone jack of a laptop/phone, most people buy DACs/Amps not because they are editing audio, but because they want to listen to music. Pro 82s absolutely need to have a great sound chain to sound great.

 

[Myrra]

Some might find this interesting with regards to fakes as well as the real thing ....

diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/takstar-pro-82/

At least some hard info than impressions, nice effort for 80$ headphones
I regards his reviews pretty consistent with my experience(s) and it seems to be the case this time also. I might take a look at my two pairs -- silver and black -- if there are mentioned differences. Someday.

Pro 82 just sounds great to me and that's all, I feel like a winner in this lottery for a cheap ticket. I wrote several time Pro 82 might not be anybody's taste -- but it's the sound I was looking for.

The whole and bigger story however is about mentality differences -- the point is credibility of manufacturer/seller. Be honest is more important than pretend/omit important info, even for a good of a customer. It spoils the business at a substantial level.

 

[Miguelbazil]

Indeed, and I think that Takstar actually might give a damn about the customer experience, since they kinda depend on word of mouth.

As for the rest, I still am rather pleased with my 82 Pro, but I understand that some people don't like them. I personally do, especially with the chain suggested by BenF. But I still connect them to my Redmi Note 3 Pro, and with their software, I do enjoy them internally boosted. Not as good as a proper chain, but it gets it done as I need.

 

[teremok]

how they compared to hd 668b ?

 

[Blinxat]

pretty favorably because you don't have to bleed from the treble edgyness.

 

[BenF]

Last week I warned about the silver Pro 82 disappearing, and look what happened now:

That's how most stores look now...
That's a pretty clear proof that these stores never held any stock, and relied on sourcing Pro 82 on demand from the factory.
Now that the factory ran out of stock on the silvers, these stores can no longer ship. I guess in a few weeks we'll see if someone has entered a fake shipping hell because of this.

There are still couple of stores (other than TakstarAudio), thatl still display stock of silvers. Ironically, it's "MH Recording Music Store" and "Original Brands Market" - two stores known to fake ship Pro 82s when they can't source them:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-30#post-13871997

Black ones are supposed to run out soon as well - Takstar factory had some stock going into CNY, but likely not a large quantity.

So if you are buying from stores other than TakstarAudio, here are couple of ways you can do it safely:
1) Ask the seller to provide a picture of the amount of boxes they claim to have in stock - if they fail to do so, don't buy from them!
2) Use expedited shipping. It's impossible to fake-ship using Fedex/DHL, since they provide updates on every stop along the way, and take 5-10 days max to get anywhere. This is a costly option, but at least you'll get your Pro 82 safely and quickly.

It's a shame about silvers, I much prefer the silver over the black. They look as premium as they sound.
I even took my new silver pair with me on a long trip instead the black pair I used for 9 months (the other "old" silver pair is kept unburned for measurements):

I considered taking baby Stax or Fostex-TH900MK2, but Pro 82 (with both synergy combos + Sabaj DA3) won.
Not a huge surprise, I guess...

 

[iancraig10]

I edited my response to clarify that it’s others, not me, that seem to be making that case (that he has an axe to grind), as I take the opposite view, that the review seems free to me of any emotional attachment to or animosity against the Pro 82.

Sorry. Maybe it's just the way I read it.

 

[trellus]

Sorry. Maybe it's just the way I read it.

Nope, prior to my edit, it was worded weirdly to make it confusing.

 

[SHAMuuu]

Some cans I'm curious how the Takstar battle with are dt770, m40x, 900st, and pro dj100. Since they range from $50U.S to$150 US.
DJ Pro when it was from 30-50 bones + 20 bones for aftermarket pads (hm5/m50x) punched like $200+ sound. Also Koss Pro4s (aluminum construction) have high praise. Lots of options out there.

 

[Racer256]

Hi, I have a question regarding a replacement cable for the pro82. Does it have to be a 4 pole at the 2,5mm end? Will this cable with mic work/fit fine? : https://www.ebay.com/itm/Boom-mic-V...var=610581914088&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 Thanks in advance.

 

[BenF]

Some cans I'm curious how the Takstar battle with are dt770, m40x, 900st, and pro dj100. Since they range from $50U.S to$150 US.
DJ Pro when it was from 30-50 bones + 20 bones for aftermarket pads (hm5/m50x) punched like $200+ sound. Also Koss Pro4s (aluminum construction) have high praise. Lots of options out there.

Depends on your sound chain.
If you don't have a great Amp/DAC combo, better look elsewhere
Comparison of DACs/Amps

 

[Humblepie]

Some cans I'm curious how the Takstar battle with are dt770, m40x, 900st, and pro dj100. Since they range from $50U.S to$150 US.
DJ Pro when it was from 30-50 bones + 20 bones for aftermarket pads (hm5/m50x) punched like $200+ sound. Also Koss Pro4s (aluminum construction) have high praise. Lots of options out there.

I have the dj pro 200 and the dt880. The dt880s are brighter and different sound signature all together. Hard to compare them as they both sound good in their own way, but I feel the DT880 are even more analytical and detailed in comparison, but also a bit harsher if you don't like that. DT880s are also much more expensive and I hate having cables attached. That's why mine has a detachable cable mod done to it. Also dT800s are known to be strange about their earpads. The stock velour ones are nice, comfortable, and flatten to uncomfortableness over time. When they flatten the make the sound worse as well as the comfort. The flatten faster than most earpads wear out. This also applies to the DT770, which are the fully closed and cheaper version of the DT880. Again I can't comment about the sound personally, only to say that they are close to the DT880 but less soundstage from what I know.

DJ pro200 are very nice and in a way sound better than the takstar pro 82. Takstar pro 82 is better at mids, but I like the sound of the bass and treble from the dj pro 200s. Still, I wouldn't call it a win for the pro 200s over the pro 82s. There is a huge problem with the pro 200s and that is they aren't nearly as comfortable as the pro 82s. They require small pads to sound good with much higher clamping force. Otherwise the bass goes away almost completely. There are a couple of pads that make them more tolerable, but just barely so. The headband and the way the koss clamp though can't be changed. Those aspects aren't that comfortable. The takestar pro 82 wins there overall, but the pro 82s are quite the ear warmers as I mentioned before. If you have the koss dj pros, this is the earpads I picked up that sound good and make them as comfortable as I am able to get them. For $8 its not bad at all either.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074YGKR8N/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the current price of the pro 200s on amazon at nearly $90, I wouldn't even think about buying them + pads over the takstar pro 82. I bought mine when they were last on sale for $40 and that makes them a deal to pick up.

Takstars are good, but not perfect. For some reason the mids are nice and clear, but not full as they dip out a bit before ramping yo to the treble and dipping out again at the top part of the treble. Low or sub bass to me is lacking in comparison to others and isn't something I would use for bass centric music.

There really is no perfect headphones and they all have something that is overemphasized or lacking. The funny part is what I think may be overemphasized or lacking, someone else might think the exact opposite. I tend to "hear" the same things that response charts show when done right though. I will say my biggest problem with analyzing headphones is judging soundstage. To me, when people say a headphone has the "widest" soundstage ever it just sounds barely outside my head. So I judge soundstage by trying to discern if it is outside at all or not. If it is, they have good soundstage, if not, then they probably don't.

There are MANY great headphones though in the $20 to $150 range, and I don't think any one of them is "king" over any other one. Heck, I have now some pretty expensive headphones and I wouldn't say they are the hundreds of dollars worth more based on sound alone. They make up the price in other ways

 

[BenF]

At least some hard info than impressions, nice effort for 80$ headphones
I regards his reviews pretty consistent with my experience(s) and it seems to be the case this time also. I might take a look at my two pairs -- silver and black -- if there are mentioned differences. Someday.

Pro 82 just sounds great to me and that's all, I feel like a winner in this lottery for a cheap ticket. I wrote several time Pro 82 might not be anybody's taste -- but it's the sound I was looking for.

The whole and bigger story however is about mentality differences -- the point is credibility of manufacturer/seller. Be honest is more important than pretend/omit important info, even for a good of a customer. It spoils the business at a substantial level.

Let me address some of his "hard info".

First, he says that "Pro 82 has a warm/full sound signature".
This is a great place to stop reading his article, because Pro 82 is not a warm, nor a cold headphone.
It doesn't have a sound signature - its most defining characteristics are transparency and imaging.
If you'll plug it into a warm chain, it will sound warm. If you'll plug it into a cold one, you'll get a typical Beyerdynamic headphone, with treble as cold as ice.
He should have done some research on the headphone he is reviewing, instead he just plugged it into whatever amp and called it a day.

Then he writes "mids thus are a bit distant sounding and have a very slight ‘hollow’ character"...
How can a headphone have "warm/full" sound signature, yet have distant sounding and hollow mids?
Since when recessed and hollow mids lead to a full sounding headphone?

Now to the measurements.
First he claims that "channel matching is not that great". Then it turns out that the channel matching is pretty perfect once he reassembled the headphone.
So could the problem with the first measurement be that the pads were previously removed, and the right one wasn't reassembled correctly at first?
Why make such a negative statement, if you see perfectly well that it's not headphone's innate feature?

Now onto "current version, early version or fake?" part.
Take a look of his measurements of both "old:" and "new" versions - they match pretty well up to 3.5kHz, with some differences appearing later:

Now let's compare with the L/R measurements of the "new" one - eerily similar, isn't it?

Most differences are present here as well (even though we are comparing drivers that were made months apart vs drivers made probably on the same day), except for the 5-5.5kHz spike.
I don't know if Takstar has intentionally removed this peak (like Sennheiser did with HD800S), or if it's a variation in production, but most of this difference would disappear anyway if he would smooth his graphs, like most reviewers do.
There are far worse variations even among 4000$ TOTL headphones: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-78#post-14005821
And Tyll's/Bob's graphs are smoothed!
If it was Takstar's intention - well done! They managed to do it without affecting the rest of FR, which is extremely difficult.

Let's talk about his conclusions.
First he says that Pro 82 "can be used as a Hi-Fi headphone and will certainly sound better than some other headphones in the same price range" - but fails to mention any better options in that price range.
Then he claims that "professionals" often use headphones as near-field speakers
What professionals exactly don't use proper monitors like Yamaha NS10/HS8 or Adam A7X? Criticizing a headphone for not being a speaker is beyond my understanding.

Then he concludes that Pro 82s are "not really recommended for studio usage and not really recommended for audiophiles either", but are "quite suited for portable usage".
I can't imagine a worse fate for Pro 82, than being driven by a smartphone, even one with "audiophile" audio. Trust me, it's nowhere near achieving it's full potential without a proper Amp/DAC, preferably one of the synergy combos.

I don't know if this guy does have an axe to grind with Pro82/Takstar, if he trying to attract attention by making bold unsubstantiated statements, or if he is just being unprofessional, but I do feel a bit clairvoyant: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-57#post-13955677
As an owner of 4 Pro 82s (2 "new" and 2 "old"), I can tell you that they all sound EXTREMELY similar, except for one of the new pairs missing couple of DBs in the low bass - which must be a production variance (since the other one doesn't have it), and should easily be remedied by using an amplifier with impedance mismatch (Sabaj DA3/SMSL IQ) or an impedance adapter. Stuffing cotton balls into the pads is another way to boost bass, as some suggested in this thread.