Friday, January 23, 2009

Full Size Cans: The Headphile Darth Beyer V3, Leopardwood With Blackmax 2.0m Cable.

The Darth Beyer V3, Leopardwood with Blackmax 2.0m cable, fitted with1/4" cable termination, genuine leather ear pads are customized wood cans based on the Beyer Dynamic 770/780 headphones, these are custom made by Headphile and the purchaser selects the type of wood that he/she wishes to customize the end caps with. The end result are a pair of cans that are truly unique. no two sets of cans will ever be the same since each set of wood end caps are individual.

The ones I have are customized using Lepoardwood. A Little information about Lepoardwood:

LEOPARD WOOD: Genus/Species: Piratinera guianensis Common Names: Snake wood Source: Central and South America Color: Heartwood reddish brown Pattern: Interlocked grain, moderately fine texured Characteristics: Heavy, hard Uses: Turnings, carving,inlays, decorative veneer.
  • COMMON NAMES: Snakewood, letterwood, leopard wood, speckled wood, amourette
  • SPECIFIC GRAVITY: .82 to 1.3
  • DENSITY: 81 lbs./cu.ft.
  • TANGENTIAL MOVEMENT: 9.00%
  • RADIAL MOVEMENT: 6.00
  • DURABILITY: Excellent
  • SOURCE: Central and tropical South America
DESCRIPTION: Extremely heavy, hard and strong wood. Heartwood is reddish brown with speckles of black appearing as hieroglyphics or snakeskin markings. Straight grain. Texture fine and even. Snakewood is brittle and splits easily. Very smooth when finished; has natural polish. This is quite a rare type wood.

The Darth Beyer V3's can be ordered from Larry at headphile.com (http://www.headphile.com/page8.html). The cans have been fitted with the Beyer Dynamic Genuine Leather ear pads at the same time. You must bear in mind that there is no current stock and the craftsmen will make each pair of heaphones individually upon receipt of order and payment, so you must be patient as there will be a waiting time before you get your cans.


Wood: Leopardwood
Cable: Blackmax (This is a US$75.oo upgrade from the stock cable)
Cable length= 2.0m
Cable Termination = 1/4" plug
Earpads: Beyerdynamic Genuine Leather ear pads, include the original grey velour ear pads.

The cost:

a. Lepoardwood version V3 US$425.oo (inclusive of a pair of 770 cans)
b. Cable length 2m option US$ 20.oo
c. Blackmax cable upgrade US$ 75.oo
d. Beyerdynamic leather ear pads US$ 45.oo
e. International shipping EMS US$ 39.oo

Total = US$604.oo

If you were to buy these from Headphile, it would cost over $600, the ear pads alone cost $45 before shipping. The isolation is much better also with the newer leather ear pads as they do not have small ventilation holes like the velour types and think this is a factor that does not help the isolation, durability is also a plus, the leather is really supple and comfortable as well.

Headphile: http://www.headphile.com/page8.html

Larry will generally finish wood in a three step old school process, the final being Carnauba based wax. You can buff the wood with a cotton or micro-fiber cloth. Larry also will use only finishes that don't mess with natural resonate quality of the wood, unlike Poly finishes that most everyone else uses.

Darth Beyer V3 are closed dynamic type vis-a-vis originals un-modified: Bass extends in the mids a bit, the V3 isolate very well with leather pads. More bassy then the original un-modified 770, now extra deep. The original 770's sound thin, lacking clarity and definition when compared to the Darth Beyer's. The bass on the umodified 770's seem now to lack control and recessed, mids are also laid back compared to the modified version.

The Stock Unmodified Beyerdynamic 770 Specifications:

Features:

  • Closed, diffuse-field systems
  • "Bass reflex" technology for improved bass response
  • Clinically high and mid-range reproduction
  • Rugged headband construction
  • Single-sided cable




Transducer type Dynamic
Operating principle Closed
Weight without cable 270 g
Frequency response 5 - 35,000 Hz
Nominal impedance acc. to IEC 60268-7 250 Ω
Nominal SPL acc. to IEC 60268-7 96 dB
Nominal THD acc. to IEC 60268-7 <>
Power handling capacity acc. to IEC 60268-7 100 mW
Sound coupling to the ear Circumaural
Ambient noise isolation approx. 18 dB (A)
Connection Gold plated stereo jack plug (3.5 mm) and 1/4" adapter (6.35 mm)
Length and type of cable 3 m / straight cable
Nominal headband pressure approx. 3.5 N


Reviewing gears:

Source: 4GB MP3/4 Player; 8GB 2.8"LCD TOUCH SCREEN MP3/4 VIDEO PLAYER; EPC-303 MP5 8GB 3.0 Inch TFT LCD Screen Player - Red / Black; Oregon Scientific Music Orbit & Station; Denon CDR-W1500 HDCD Recorder/Player; Samsung HD-950 (SACD).

Head Amps. & DAC: Little Dot MKI Portable Headphone Amp Amplifier; Cmoy headphone amplifier with Bass Boost Setting in a custom made exotic padauk and zebra wood case (opa2227 opamp); Xiang Sheng 708B Tube Headphone Pre Amplifier; Go Vibe mini USB Audio DAC (Burr-Brown PCM2702); Qinpu Q1 Headphone Amplifier; Lite DAC60 24Bit DAC; Ditton DCA & DCP.


Reviewing CD and Tracks: Custom made by ripping songs to FLAC than normalized/burnt via Nero9.

CD Tracks: Esteban - Norwegian Wood; Everything But The Girl - I didn't know I was looking for love; The Corrs - Runaway; Acoustic Alchemy - Mr. Chow; The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony; Willie & Lobo - Amsterdam; Tim Weisberg - Party of One; Sleep Station - There She goes; Seattle Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (Scherzo); Sim Riney - What was I to you; Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem; Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon; Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells.

Additional CD's for auditioning:
1. "The Sound of Analog is Back" From Mark Levinson (Red Rose Music);
2. "CD Master- Direct Master Cut Vinyl CD" Mastering by Mark Levinson;
3. "The Purest Sound-City Folk Songs-Vili" TIS Hong Kong;
4. "Dido" SRS + WIZOR Mastering CD;
5. "The Police" SRS + WIZOR Mastering CD;
6. "Avril Lavigne" SRS + WIZOR Mastering CD.

Rating: From one star (★, lowest rating) to five stars (★★★★★, highest rating), including half a star (☆). Criteria include [Packaging / Build Quality / Accessories / Isolation / Microphonics / Comfort / Sound stage / Sound Quality / Value]

★★★★★-The best
★★★★---Really good
★★★-----Average
★★-------Just OK
★---------Not worth it


Earphones: Darth Beyer V3 Lepoardwood with 2M Blackmax Cable & Beyer Leather Pads.
Transducer: Dynamic Closed
Spec: 250 Ω | 5 - 35,000 Hz | 96 dB dB/mW
Cord Style:
2m, length of Blackmax Cable, 6.35 mm jack.
Mini Jack Style: Gold plated, solid build.
Case: Headphile custom made Lepoardwood.
Packaging: ★★★★★
Build Quality: ★★★★ (good heavy build)
Accessories: ★★ (No accessories)
Isolation: ★★★★★ (approx. 18 dBA for stock)
Microphonics: ★★★★★ (Very good, not noticeable)
Comfort: ★★★★★ (Really excellent thick comfortable Beyer Leather ear pads)
Sound Stage: ★★★★★ (extremely impressed with sound stage presentation, large/deep)
Sound Quality: ★★★★★ (Very impressed extremely musical, good extended extension and impact of bass, mids - treble is extremely good and detailed and very high resolution.)
Value: ★★★★★
Remarks: A pleasing and well balanced sound, bass is clean and tight deep extension and impact is surely impressive. I was extremely impressed by the sound stage and aire produced ing a very large and wide sound stage with depth. The timbre was extremely good and dynamics were fast paced. There has been allot of comments that the Darth Beyer V3 have a bloated and exagerated bass, I found this not to be so, the bass extension is not bloated but deep rendering down to 5Hz, most headphones are unable to resolve this bag end bass and such comments are a bit unfounded. These headphones also respond to the quality of reproduction equipment and cables in the audio reproduction chain and respond quite easily when feed with good equipment and cables of high resolution. In my chain I have used silver cable from source to end. Because of the high resolution of the headphone, it will provide garbage if you feed it with garbage i.e. garbage in = garbage out. If properly feed these headphones are amazing.

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