Audio Top Tier IEM WAR , Do Participate
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Brendon
Skilled
^^ Will ask Faheem to get both his udacs. 
However I can tell you that the TPs are about as hard to drive as the HD650s which is not as difficult as my other orthos - Yamaha HP-2s and YH-100 which need a 11 o clock volume position compared to the 9 o clock position with the HD650 and TPs. (Faheem will require a 11 o clock position for the TPs in any case but thats a different story ! )
Now the Compass has adequate power to drive any damm headphone out there properly (except possibly the AKG K1000 and Stax headphones) but it lacks finesse. Bass is rolled off and lacks definition. The treble similarly is also rolled off and it has a few spikes in the 8k and 10k region which can cause a bit of sibilance in some tracks. (Not apresent in the MS 2).
However I can tell you that the TPs are about as hard to drive as the HD650s which is not as difficult as my other orthos - Yamaha HP-2s and YH-100 which need a 11 o clock volume position compared to the 9 o clock position with the HD650 and TPs. (Faheem will require a 11 o clock position for the TPs in any case but thats a different story !
)Now the Compass has adequate power to drive any damm headphone out there properly (except possibly the AKG K1000 and Stax headphones) but it lacks finesse. Bass is rolled off and lacks definition. The treble similarly is also rolled off and it has a few spikes in the 8k and 10k region which can cause a bit of sibilance in some tracks. (Not apresent in the MS 2).
I am jealous of your NEW amp!!
YOu are all set for toptier HPs now !
buy yourself a LCD2 now ! , i can vouch for its Ultimate Sonic performance !
LCD 2 are the most real sounding HPs i have heard , only snares did not sound live like, every Other instrument really, i could not believe it ! the
then there is the Superb imaging of LCD 2. Benchmark Imaging , i would say.
HE6, is also sibilance free , they are available locally also. ( but they are great at treble , as per reviews
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YOu are all set for toptier HPs now !
buy yourself a LCD2 now ! , i can vouch for its Ultimate Sonic performance !
LCD 2 are the most real sounding HPs i have heard , only snares did not sound live like, every Other instrument really, i could not believe it ! the
then there is the Superb imaging of LCD 2. Benchmark Imaging , i would say.
HE6, is also sibilance free , they are available locally also. ( but they are great at treble , as per reviews
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Brendon
Skilled
Sorry about that !
TP is short for Thunderpants !
TPs are basically a modded Fostex T50 headphone with the driver housings thrown out and replaced with a wooden housing. The drivers are then damped and tweaked till they sound as neutral as possible.
The donor headphone is a $74 Fostex T50RP headphone. Once properly modded they can take on the best closed headphones ! Pretty impressive feat and judging from what I am hearing right now I have no doubt these are top tier headphones.
As to why they are called Thunderpants, well I can't answer that one !
TP is short for Thunderpants !
TPs are basically a modded Fostex T50 headphone with the driver housings thrown out and replaced with a wooden housing. The drivers are then damped and tweaked till they sound as neutral as possible.
The donor headphone is a $74 Fostex T50RP headphone. Once properly modded they can take on the best closed headphones ! Pretty impressive feat and judging from what I am hearing right now I have no doubt these are top tier headphones.
As to why they are called Thunderpants, well I can't answer that one !
Brendon
Skilled
Mids are a bit upfront for me but they are very detailed. I have tried different genres with the TPs and none of them sound bad. That I suppose is a testament of a neutral headphone.
My HD650 while still a good headphone sounds a little off with Trance music or fast rock as the energy required is missing. Not so with the TPs, trance, rock, pop, alternative, classical all sound great !
@Titana - I have to agree with you on that one. After a long listening session with the TPs I just tried the YH-100s and frankly I dont feel like a step down at all. Its just a slightly different presentation compared to the TPs.
The TPs have a big and full sound while still maintain very good transient response and the bass never loses control. The YH-100s in comparison sound thinner (compared to the TPs), more airy and offer faster transients and even quicker bass (though not as impactful) and attack/decay compared to the TPs. Detail retrevial is more of less the same but the TPs maybe have a slight edge. Midrange the TPs have a slightly more forward midrange that adds a bit more focus to the vocals. Treble performance goes to the YH-100s on my system.
Soundstage performance is again similar but the YH-100s have the best height and depth in any headphone I have heard so far and the TPs matchs the depth but misses out on the height. The TPs and the Denon D5000 have a very similar soundstage performance but somehow I can make out they are closed cans. The YH-100s in comparison while have perceptibly less width sound more like open cans even though they are technically closed cans with small vents. Imaging is excellent on both cans.
I need much more listening time with both cans to come to any sort of conclusion but I like both cans right now with a slight preference for the TPs due to the slightly forward vocal performance which gels well with my kind of music. Having the TPs on hand for a side by side comparison is only making me appreciate my YH-100s even more. A big thank you to both you and Sachu for this rare opportunity.
My HD650 while still a good headphone sounds a little off with Trance music or fast rock as the energy required is missing. Not so with the TPs, trance, rock, pop, alternative, classical all sound great !
@Titana - I have to agree with you on that one. After a long listening session with the TPs I just tried the YH-100s and frankly I dont feel like a step down at all. Its just a slightly different presentation compared to the TPs.
The TPs have a big and full sound while still maintain very good transient response and the bass never loses control. The YH-100s in comparison sound thinner (compared to the TPs), more airy and offer faster transients and even quicker bass (though not as impactful) and attack/decay compared to the TPs. Detail retrevial is more of less the same but the TPs maybe have a slight edge. Midrange the TPs have a slightly more forward midrange that adds a bit more focus to the vocals. Treble performance goes to the YH-100s on my system.
Soundstage performance is again similar but the YH-100s have the best height and depth in any headphone I have heard so far and the TPs matchs the depth but misses out on the height. The TPs and the Denon D5000 have a very similar soundstage performance but somehow I can make out they are closed cans. The YH-100s in comparison while have perceptibly less width sound more like open cans even though they are technically closed cans with small vents. Imaging is excellent on both cans.
I need much more listening time with both cans to come to any sort of conclusion but I like both cans right now with a slight preference for the TPs due to the slightly forward vocal performance which gels well with my kind of music. Having the TPs on hand for a side by side comparison is only making me appreciate my YH-100s even more. A big thank you to both you and Sachu for this rare opportunity.
Brendon
Skilled
^^ Ah I forgot to say that the donor cans are rare and the TPs are even rarer ! I think there are only 5 -6 cans in existence (maybe less). They also command a top tier price due to the effort and material cost to mod these headphones. It can sometimes take a few months before you can tune them properly to your liking.
The two cans that I saw for sale sold between $600 - $700 which is a reasonable figure considering they were significantly better than contemporary closed cans like the D5000 and D2000.
The two cans that I saw for sale sold between $600 - $700 which is a reasonable figure considering they were significantly better than contemporary closed cans like the D5000 and D2000.
titana
Adept
BF1983 said:^^ Ah I forgot to say that the donor cans are rare and the TPs are even rarer ! I think there are only 5 -6 cans in existence (maybe less). They also command a top tier price due to the effort and material cost to mod these headphones. It can sometimes take a few months before you can tune them properly to your liking.
The two cans that I saw for sale sold between $600 - $700 which is a reasonable figure considering they were significantly better than contemporary closed cans like the D5000 and D2000.
The T50RP has only recently become rare. It seems that fostex hasn't shipped any supplies for some time & the demand has gone up since LCD-2/Hifiman brought the orthos to limelight.So, what was once easily available for $70 is now being sold for $150 & even then the supply is scarce.
'Thunderpants' was created by Head-fier smeggy & his various experiments are chronicaled in the mammoth "orthodynamic roundup" thread at head-fi.
Several months back he started to sell TPs on request. The initial price was $500(with the stock ear pads) + $130(cost of O2 earpads).With the increase in price of T50RP, he might have bumped the price a bit though.
The version we have for tour is one of the initial Thunderpants made a couple of years back. smeggy has since then refined his design considerably & according to many who have heard them that they are the best closed headphones sans probably the legendary Sony R10.
Sorry about being OT.
^ amarbir has them !
SOny R10 , sony qualia , AKG K1000, Senn HD800, Ultrasone Edition 10/9/8, Grado PS1000 and many More .. Disagree!
there is no ladder, its just preference.
( well Electrostatics are better than both , the HE90/60 and Stax sr007 are still rulers.)
Its just like Xbox 360 v/s PS3.
mukulymn said:
SOny R10 , sony qualia , AKG K1000, Senn HD800, Ultrasone Edition 10/9/8, Grado PS1000 and many More .. Disagree!
there is no ladder, its just preference.
( well Electrostatics are better than both , the HE90/60 and Stax sr007 are still rulers.)
Its just like Xbox 360 v/s PS3.
esanthosh
Skilled
HE90 is very 'cheap', achal! May be you should gun for it sometime - HE-90 just sold for $11,300 on Ebay - Head-Fi.org Community