Blackbeard Ben

Well, after making almost as much of an ass of myself as dalethorn did, I actually have something useful to post. I gave the T50p a listening a couple of months ago - gotta say I was quite unimpressed. I didn't like them at all. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd prefer a buffalo fart over them, but... let's just say that I'd put them at under $50 worth in the sound quality department. In terms of portable 'phones I was comparing to my Alessandro MS-1i - obviously a very different headphone, but portable nonetheless. I also had my HD 600 and the dealer's K701, DT 770 (much better as closed 'phones), DT 880, and a few others on hand to compare with. I tried various source/amps, from my Clip+ and uDAC up to the dealer's Beyerdynamic A1. The bass and mid-bass seemed overbearing and uneven in response - and not well controlled, either. I'm not sure if I'd call it boomy; but it was unlike anything I've heard before and it didn't sound that good. The highs were pretty nice - smooth and detailed without being overbearing. The mids though - in particularly, the upper mids... Well, lets just say that it sounded like there was a gaping hole in the frequency response to me - and there is, of course, if you go check the measurement at HeadRoom. There's almost a 20 dB increase from 4k Hz to 8.5k Hz. with the T50p. Also, in retrospect after looking at the frequency response graph, the "boomy-ish" bass and uneven response is probably the 300 Hz mid-bass peak and the dip just below the peak. I was a bit disappointed in the soundstage of the T50p as well. Perhaps that's just down to expectations - the "air" I was hoping for that the Alessandros still provide (even if they don't do have much depth) wasn't even there. I guess I'm really an open headphones kind of guy. The build quality is, however, fantastic. The headband is amazing, although i don't really like the looks of the pivot or the cans. Regardless of the looks, they're still built better than any other portable headphone I've seen. The cable is super-thin as you all know, which of course doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. At the very least though, the right angle plug is tiny and rather annoying. Anyway, that's my quick impressions from a dozen minutes or so listening. I'm sure with more time I might have gotten at least a little more used to the sound signature - but I can already say it's definitely not for me.

Did you leave your sense of humor at the coat check? And no, but I certainly act like it more than I probably should... Although I do attempt to refrain from posting when it's obvious I don't know what I'm talking about. Actually, other than trolls, who doesn't? I'm probably just making a fool of myself. But seriously, I try not to take things on the internet too seriously. It almost invariably leads to bad things.

Oops, somehow ended up making a new post instead of editing the first one...

I don't know and don't care if you care. I'm just telling it like it is. There's no place for discussing anything related to the moderation at Head-Fi there, so I posted my thoughts here for better or worse. Apparently you don't like that... Probably because you think I'm whining. If that's what it sounds like, well I didn't intend it, but tough, I said it. Actually, I read the thread in its entirety before even registering here. It alone wasn't the reason - beyond having another place to get my audio fix, the kicker for me was this statement "We are sometimes quite rude, often irreverant, and regularly abusive." - I figured that this was the sort of place I'd like. Based on the response here so far, I'd say my presumption was correct. Perhaps I have, but I rather like abuse. As long as it's warranted, which here it certainly is. I was told this in what you might call my "home forum" - which appropriately goes by the name "NO RESTRICTIONS - climaxing through lentil ingestion?": NOTE: The above diagram is not to scale. The shit Ben is expert in is much, much larger than our universe or that other shit part two universe but there's just not enough pixels in any of these universes to represent the fact correctly.

Yeah, I already read that like three times... Look, I don't necessarily have a problem with the individual moderating staff. It's the way Head-Fi is run overall. Things like no mentioning of competing headphone forums (here, of course), no mentioning ad blocking software (or anything else that hurts the bottom line), removal of posts without an explanation (I got one this last time, but before I've had posts just disappear without a word of actual explanation and without reply when I inquire about it - and I don't think that's excusable under any circumstances), relegating anything related to actual unbiased testing to a side forum where few visit in an attempt to quell discussion, and - above all - the ban on even talking about the moderation. And really it's that last one that gets on my goat. That's why I called it totalitarian. I don't have an agenda, I just don't want to be in that sort of place.

I guess this is as good a place as anywhere to make my first post/introduce myself.... Jude's totalitarian moderating has driven me here; the straw that broke the camel's back this time was the uDAC 2 testing thing.