I love my Mahagony too,but i find he have a little busy Bass.
And i am not sure to buy a Lawton Cups.Is a little bit expensiv.
The periaptcables i have give a Order begin October and i don‘t have it yet.
I can understand her shippment.Is so long to ship to Germany?
I have buy the Schiit Magni,Valli 2 and Loki in 2-3 days it was here,but i have pay more in shippment.
I habe buy the Fostex connectors on Aliexpress two Week later it was here,so i do my own Cable with the Furutech 704 and Viablue cable.
I received my Purplehearts last night and I’m driving them with a Multibit Jotunheim through the stock cable (I have a balanced cable on order from Periapt). First impressions:
The bass is very nice. They don’t thump and drone like the Dekoni Blue. People talk about the X00 being bass cannons but I don’t think they are nearly as cannon like as the Dekoni which can be pretty overhwhelming at times. While the bass isn’t overwhelming they do reach deep. Very deep. That’s really cool. The bass is clean, tight and present. I can definitely live with that.
What strikes me more than the bass is the clarity. The separation between instruments, voices and detail is shocking. I can change my focus and clearly differentiate each instrument and hear the acoustic space around each note. I guess that’s what your dollars get you when you jump from the $200 range of headphones to the $500 range.
The only negative so far is that they seam quite microphonic. It’s a little annoying with the stock cable but livable. I hope it’s not worse with the Periapt cable.
Yea the stock cable is like a crappy vacuum wire. Also the bass gets better once they are used for like a week when the driver gets looser. And regarding the bass, I think true bassheads want that actual quality bass that the purplehearts deliver.
Pariapt cables (at least the one I got) do not improve microphonics. I’m considering getting some thin soft heat shrink to cover the Y-split cables. Otherwise very nice cable.
Edit: turns out most heat shrink gets stiff after shrinking. Anyone else have an idea as to how to reduce microphonics?
I currently have three of these. I HATE the X00 stock pads, so I’m using the same pads that come stock on the ZMF VÉRITÉ Closed. I have done a lot of pad swapping including the Lawton Angle Pads and prefer the ZMF pads.
The problem for me with the stock pads is the pads actually sit on the front portion of my ear and do not enclose around my ear, so they are essentially partially on-ear. In addition, the stock pads push your ears forward, away from the drivers, which reduce dynamic slam and overall intensity. The X00 actually sound amazing stock, so when you pad swap to something different, you’re getting a different ear position to the driver and the driver will be a different distance away from your ear. In this case with the ZMF pads, your ear is further away from the driver but it’s more directly placed near the center of your ear which increases everything the drivers are doing. Which can be good and bad at the same time.
Mark has a driver mod that I use that applies an acoustic foam on the back of the driver to reduce resonances and helps to quell the higher frequencies. Along with the larger Lawton cups, (approximately twice the size of the stock cups) and custom woods, you can finely tune your headphone to your needs.
The Lawton modifications might be expensive and require proper know-how to install them, but these headphones have become my end-game. I LOVE them.
I think I made the mistake chasing headphones thinking detail was my aim. I’ve since realized that what I’ve been lacking is not detail, it’s tonal frequency response and dynamic slam. Fortunately for me, I have finally found what I’m looking for. Unfortunately, I have a lot of expensive headphones that don’t get much play anymore. Before I bought my first X00, I was about to purchase the Focal Stellia or Utopia.
These headphones aren’t “neutral” or a baseline standard for mixing or mastering. They do on the other hand make the music I enjoy larger than life and incredibly enjoyable to listen to.
I also wanted to mention that I LOVE the sound of the stock TR-X00 Ebony with stock pads. My only issue with them was they way they fit. My aim in modding them wasn’t to change the sound, it was to get them to be more comfortable (completely over-ear) for me personally. To get there and to keep the sound as good as the stock TR-X00 meant modding more than just the pads. What I ended up with is a headphone that I’m very happy with it’s final comfort and more than happy with its sound.
Now, going back and forth between a stock TR-X00 and the Lawton modded with ZMF pads headphones, I prefer the Lawtons both for their improved comfort and sound.
Probably a dumb question but did you try attenution rings with other pads (like ZMF)? I use Ori lambskin with home made attention rings on my purple hearts and it sounds like stock as far as I can tell.
Good question. Trust me, I’ve tried a lot. I have a big box full of nothing but headphone pads. I also have three pair of the Lawton angled pads and ended up not preferring them over these…
I personally do not feel the attenuation rings have any bearing on sound.
Because of the strange design of the stock X00 pad, I’ve found nothing different sounds the same because the pad slightly covers the front of the ear. Anything else that is completely over ear is going to alter the ears position in the cup altering the sound.
On another note, I really do hate the pad mounting design on the Fostex headphones with the plastic insert with feet that rotate into the cups. The pad mounting design of the Focal headphones and Meze Emperian are fantastic designs.
Ok I think I get what your saying now. The stock pads sit rather far back on your ear so any fully over-ear pad moves the driver forward, therefore causing a sound change?
I guess I have slightly large ears so when I used stock pads I would place the back of the pad on the top/rear of my ear, positioning the driver more similarly to an over-ear pad.
Also what I found the rings to do is they cover the foam ring around the driver some, which I guess affects the pressure from behind the driver. This add a bit of mid-bass and possibly smooths the highs ever so slightly.
Interesting! I think I did the opposite with the stock pads. They felt the most comfortable with the back of my ear completely inside the cup and the front of the pad slightly covering the front of my ear which ends up positioning the driver and entire cup slightly behind my ear.
I’ll also mention that the deeper-more comfortable alternative pads can increase the sound stage and make the sound less intimate/close.
Personally, I love the sound of the stock pads, but comfort wasn’t ideal. The Lawton Angle pad is a huge step forward but the ear hole was actually a bit large for my comfort and the leather wasn’t as soft. The ZMF pad hits all my issues perfectly. It’s a perfect fit for my ears and the leather is comfortable and super soft.
This pic shows where I used to position my ears inside the stock X00 pad. As you can see, the ear is pushed considerably forward and because of the stock pad opening being so small, the front portion (in red) covered a portion of my ear.
