TMA-1 headphone – Review
16/08/2010
First of all, I have been a super fan and a heavy user of the Sony MDR7506 headphones for more than 10 years. I am on my 2nd pair. This might not sound like a lot to you, but I take good care of my headphones and rarely let others use them. The MDR7506 have been my absolute favorite in headphones, but since my friends from Tartelet got involved in doing a new DJ headphone, I of course wanted to try them out, especially after I saw the first 3d animations of the design.
So last week I finally got my hands on a pair of TMA-1 headphones from the Danish company AIAIAI. Together with the Danish techno label Tartelet, they have developed a pair of headphones that focusses on a super lowkey design and fantastic sound.
Right from the beginning it is easy to see that this is a quality product, coming in a great package.
After getting all the contents out of the cool designed box, I now have the following on my table:
a booklet
a carrying pouch
2 sets of earpads (1 leather, 1 extra soft)
a 6.3 mm stereo plug converter
a 1.7 meter cable
and of course the headphone it self
The booklet tells a bit about the headphones, the design ideas, the people behind, the testers, the technical specs and how to change the earpads. All in all, short and to the point.
Especially the earpads are a great move on the TMA-1, because they are so easy to change. You have 2 choices, 1 leather (seems to be perfect for the club because it’s keeping other sounds out and giving you great bass, and 1 extra soft which for some people might be nice to use a home).
Check here how smart they made it:
You simply click them on!
The carrying pouch is nothing special, but it does it’s job and keeps in line with the design of the product, even though it reminds me a little bit of something from the gym bag (because of the inside color. Why not keep it 100% grey?).
The stereo plug converter is the typical gold plated converter, good quality again.
But then we come to the cable, and here I have some critics. The way that you connect it in the headphone cup is quite smart, no problems, but the cable itself feels of low quality. It’s very stiff and doesn’t feel right when wearing the headphones. I felt this right away when I put the headphones on the first time, and also thought about it several times during my gig at Tresor the other night. On my Sony headphones, the cable is longer and way softer and feels much more comfortable to ‘use/wear’. The one on the TMA-1 just feels like a low-budget cable compared to the Sony’s, sadly. Anyway, maybe it will change with time as I use them more and more, if not, I might go out buy a softer cable myself.
Finally we come to the complete product. It IS a fantastic headphone.
I love the design which is so lowkey (read interviews on the internet to learn more about the design process) and the sound is really great too. It seems to color the sound quite a bit, but I like it, it’s very bassy and bold and super loud, but still also very clear. I don’t have to turn up my volume control more than half of what I usually have to, when playing in a club.
They are very comfortable to wear and even though I’ve been using the MDR7506′s for 10 years, I quite fast found the right angles to put the TMA-1′s on my head when playing in the club. Exactly this thing takes some time to get used to, but I’m almost there already after only 1 gig.
The great thing about this pair of headphones is, that the guys have been focussing on the important things and not tons of extra features and this is probably what I like the most. It’s a pair of super great build headphones, great lowkey design and fantastic sound quality. I think if the cable had been softer/of better quality, I would have rated the TMA-1 -> 9/10, but now we keep it on a 8/10 which is still very good.
