Massdrop x E-MU Purpleheart Headphone Review and Measurements

I got mine in today and immediately plugged them in to my Google Pixel phone and listened to some Tidal lossless tracks. I proceeded to roam around the house doing some light chores and thoroughly enjoying myself with these little Purplehearts. These things look really classy. They are light, comfortable (more comfortable to me than the Logitech UE6000 which are a similar size and shape) and definitely warm and bassy sounding. I actually dig the little bit of brightness to the treble as it helps to balance out the boomy low end somewhat. There's definitely a family resemblance to the TH-X00 in terms of how the overall sound is fairly smooth and liquid. One last point in the PH's favor; I wear glasses and they still seal nicely on my ears and don't interfere with my glasses. I appreciate that.

 

Same with the PortaPros -- works just fine with glasses. Something that cannot be said of the Grado SR225i, which were an absolute horror to wear with glasses... My ears hurt just at the memory of them!

 

Ordered these for a colleague and finally got them in. Had a quick listen and they sound pretty balanced overall. I get a slight mid-bass bump (or maybe a general boominess) but extension is pretty good. Upper mids and highs sound a bit gritty/grainy to me. Also getting pretty bad channel imbalance, about 1.5-2dB to the left. A tone sweep does a few L/R wiggles up high, but not the worst I've heard (my DT 1350s were way worse).

Oh yeah, and isolation is pretty much non-existent. High frequencies are reduced, but you can pretty much hear everything going on around you.

Oh yeah #2, there are 1-1/2 twists in the cable between the cups and the Y-join. The imbalance and this twist would have me all twisted up about this, but my colleague doesn't seem to mind.

 

Since a friend of mine asked, here are the ear pads that I chose to replace the pads of the stock EMU Purple Heart:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261654314959

They have a bigger opening than the small-ish opening of the stock pads. And I think they're closer to the original CAL! pads than the ones on the Purple Heart.

The net effect of those pads for me is taking care of the small mid bass bump, and balancing the sound overall as the drivers are much closer to my ears and more midrange + treble come out.

 

I just got these pads. Thanks for the recommendation, they really are a step above in both comfort and sound. For the price, these are really good cans. Sure there's some bloom, but extensions are more than decent, very enjoyable warm tilt, and the soundstage is great for a closed can. For just a little bit more [used] than a portapro, you get a lot more sound for the buck.

Easily my recommendation for the <$100 category. Wish there were more of these to go around, so people can take my nomination for a Golden Schlong more seriously.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Sweet! Always wanted one of these for a portable option.

 

They're back. 24 hour drop and ready to ship.

Any thoughts from owners, after a year of ownership, whether they think these are still a good value?

 

I just sold mine recently, but I still think they were a good value.

From a functional perspective I wish they isolated better and had a mic cable for smartphone use, but I don't think there's any other closed back over-ears for under $100 that I would choose over the purplehearts.

I think the biggest debate is if the purplehearts are worth the slight premium over the creative aurivana live from a pure price/performance perspective.

 

At under $100?

Nothing touches these:

DXB-04

 

I'm glad @Outerspace Wasabi has solved our dilemma with reasoned discourse.

Do you have some impressions you could link to? Or was this a joke?

 

I'm glad that you're glad that I solved your dilemma.

But if you want something akin to the Meze Classics 99, DXB-05 is it, without the out of control bass.

 

Never heard of it. Can you compare it with your E-Mu Purpleheart listening experience?

 

I'm responding to this comment "but I don't think there's any other closed back over-ears for under $100" by my fellow Jersey Citian Mr. Higgs because I don't think he's heard the DXB-04.

 

You conveniently left out the "that I would choose over the purplehearts" part of that quote...

I don't think the purplehearts punch far above their weight by any means, but I would take them over the usual suspects of entry level closed back recommendations like the M50X, MDR-7506, and 280 Pro. The clarity and bass control on the PH isn't great but the tonality was a nice warm tilt that's pretty inoffensive IMO. I feel like they would be a great gift headphone for people used to Apple earbuds and smartphone speakers.

If closed back isn't a concern and I only had $100 I would get a pair of portapros, pocket the $60-70 left over, and save up for a Fulla 2 and HD6XX.

I haven't heard the DXB-04, but considering that I can't even find much info about them I don't think many people have.

 

Sorry, I meant: "but I don't think there's any other closed back over-ears for under $100 that I would choose over the purplehearts." I'm just tired.

And yes, I agree with your assessment of the Purplehearts. Although, I've never heard the m40x, which is under $100 and thus directly competes with the Purplehearts.

And this is a review of the DXB-04 http://theheadphonelist.com/elegant-simplicity-a-review-of-the-dd-audio-dxb-04/

 

Yes.
After currency conversion these only cost about $6 more than the CAL! including P&H.
For the price I can't find anything locally that I would rather have.

I think the wood is sexy enough to justify the difference. This ain't no cheap veneer.

 

Just got mine. I wanted lightweight wired headphones for ios gaming and some causal listening via phones!

Some thoughts:

• Nice and lovely tonality. From my memory, I prefer this to CAL.
• Poor isolation, but for bedroom/office/library use no problem (at least with smaller volume)
• Hard to find an optimal fit with my ears. To me it's somewhere between on-ear and over-ear. P5 or Solo2 did this much better as typical on-ear cans
• Cable feels cheap (no problem), and doesn't have mic and remote (bothering for my purpose)

 

Got these about a week ago, found them really fun to listen to but they did sound a bit bass overwhelming/bloated/fuzzy at normal/higher volumes. I always found myself dropping the volume about 2 notches and that's where I enjoyed them with no real complaints. Not going to say more about them stock, the first posts have you covered and I agree with the impressions there.

I tried the mod yesterday - Dynamat donut on the magnet, Dynamat horseshoe on the driver perimeter and some cotton (I used two cotton gauze pads in each cup), and hoooo boy, they just went up a few steps in enjoyment, detail and musical involvement! I think just dropping that bass a bit revealed a lot more underneath. I might look for some open-cell foam for the front of the driver or remove one cotton pad from the cup because I've got two songs (out of 15-20 that I played last night) where they end up making my ears a tiny bit too sensitive to a narrow treble region but I'd say this is really minor and is part of tuning it.

One thing to note is that when switching between my JVC FDX1 and these, I wouldnt really say I preferred one over the other. It really felt like I'd pick the one I needed based on the situation I was in.. When plugged them into an LH GOV2a, the purples get a bit better, clearer and defined but the JVCs jump up a lot more with the overall presentation and headstage/space. (Note that this is all relative, so we're talking about going from good to better)
Maybe there's something to do with impedance here but I'd say in terms of scaling, these purples don't do too much. This is maybe a good thing since you are going to get enjoyment out of pretty much any source

All in all, definitely worth the price, I'm happy that @Sqveak recommended them to me!