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Changstar Cheap Headphone Comparo Extravaganza!

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Marvey:
Going to post the measurements for the cheap headphone comparo here. As of December 22, 2014, we have these headphones in our possession. A big thanks to Greed, Ultrabike, and wnmnkh for sourcing these headphones. As time rolls by, we'll try to snag a few more in the comparison.


* Monoprice (will get model # later)
* Audio Technica ATH-M50X
* NVX XPT100
* Sennheiser HD558
* Sennheiser HD439
* Takstar Pro80Subjective measurements and comments below here in binaural glory:
   

Give me a few days to post all measurements.

Marvey:
Monoprice


First up are the Monoprice heapdhones. I believe it was pretty much agreed among everyone that these headphones were the most craptastic of the bunch so far. They just kind of sounded crappy and low-fi despite distortion numbers being pretty darn good.

OJ: feel free to provide additional written comments.


--- Quote from: OJneg ---These were quite poor. I'd rather live with the earbuds that came with my smart phone and eat sand for a week to save up for something better. Enclosure issues were of major concern, possible mod candidate. But other than that, the Tascam TH02 is just as cheap and sounds better stock than this thing. And probably has more modding potential.
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Marvey:
Audio Technica ATH-M50X


Reactions to this headphone were ho-hum. It's good - OK. Better than old M50. Note that we've dropped this headphone on the new leaderboard. At least I would hope we did. They are on the pricey end of the spectrum for this comparo: $169 at Amazon.

That's it for Dec 22, 2014. Going back to my temple of GAIN A-D recordings.


--- Quote from: OJneg ---My biggest issue with these sonically is that they tend to have a compressed bass sound. They don't render low notes naturally and with gusto; poor bass decay characteristics? Some others noted a bit of shoutiness in the vocal range. Other than that these are pretty well balanced all-arounders. They have pretty good punch and snap which a lot of people who are new to hi-fi might like. If I only got to use cheap headphones these would be my go-to for electronic music. Value is poor though; I remember seeing the original M50 go on Amazon for $100 all the time. That'd be a more appropriate price.

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Marvey:
Sennheiser HD439

I know the others didn't care for it. I kind of liked this one because I thought it sounded cleaner than the HD558, but with the downside of a cupped hands coloration. It's a closed-back headphone, but with some semi-permeable vents on the baffle. Might be a good mod candidate since eliminating this coloration is easy with acoustic fiber in the cavity. But mods are not the point of this comparo.

I've seen this from $40 to $80.


--- Quote from: OJneg ---I thought these were quite poor, 2nd to last in front of the shit Monoprice ones. Lo-fi sounding. Readily apparent grain. Decent tonal balance; no matter how bad it is technically speaking, it's still a Sennheiser.

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Marvey:
Sennheiser HD 558

I believe this headphone was received quite favorably by the panel.


--- Quote from: OJneg ---My favorite of this comparison. Most natural and most detailed. Without fake detail. Seemed to have the smoothest, most correct treble quality. Bass distortion did rear it's head in my listening though. Think scaled-down, lower-fi HD600. For the price it's a champ. But before you buy this, check to see how much more the HD598 is.
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