Modular headphones are (probably) the future! | AIAIAI TMA-2 review
[Music]
hey guys i’m back
you’re most probably wondering why have
i been gone for so long and also how
have i gotten from 200 to 700 and
something subscribers without uploading
since august and to answer the second
question
i i don’t know um but thank you for
subscribing i’m guessing that people
must enjoy my content um and for the
first question of where i’ve been
mainly at work um so thank you for being
patient with me and sticking around on
the channel um so i thought that i would
do as my return a review of
this you’re most probably wondering what
is this um it says tma2 modular
headphone system it’s by
someone’s friend at iii which i hope is
how you pronounce it or else i just
sound like someone who’s just
consistently saying yes
um this is an empty box isn’t it look
there’s nothing in here i’ve tricked you
there is no review
okay look i’m kidding there is a review
i just need to go and get them there
they’re over there somewhere i’ll be
back in a bit so these are the tma2s but
in a configuration
i think the s05 speakers and also some
alcantara earpads
now the reason that i have to mention
all of that is because these are modular
and when you go onto their website you
can choose which headphones you want to
get you can choose between a few preset
versions but you can also do a level of
customization and now this is actually
the setup that you get with the wireless
plus if you just decide to get those
they come around 300 pound and the
reason i still got these semi-custom and
direct from iii who i hope is their name
is because i wanted to have a green
audio cable
it’s literally it let me show it to you
it’s really cool hold on a minute look
see it’s this look at how cool it looks
really cool um i really enjoyed it the
standard one i think is like a black or
a gray i thought i need this one it
costed the same i wanted these so here
we go
so the thing about these is that they’re
modular
but also that they are user built so
they come as all of the separate bits
the headband the ear cups the ear pads
the audio cable all of that stuff comes
in the box but in its own little bits of
packaging made out of recycled plastic
and you basically build your headphone
from the parts that you’ve ordered which
gets you into the first thing that i
really like about these headphones
well the fact that they’re modular but
also the fact that they’re upgradable
and really easy to repair those are the
ath m50xs in case you can’t see them
here they are ath m50xs um and yeah
these are pretty much your expected
cabled headphone for if you’re doing
music production and i have to say these
are really my favorite headphones for
this sort of job at least so far the
biggest thing with the m50s that makes
them good as general headphones is that
they have a removable cable and
replaceable ear pads however
the tma2s take this a step further by
having a replaceable speaker a
repairable speaker because you can just
open these up and have a look inside
alongside the replaceable cables and the
replaceable ear pads and also the cable
can go into either ear cup so either
your left or your right depending on
either if one of them decides to
misbehave or if you just prefer having
your cable on a certain side of your
headphone so what made me buy these um
well i originally owned tma ones way
back in the day i’m talking at least a
good
like five maybe even ten years ago i own
tma ones um and i quite liked the tma
ones they had quite a good sound a
little bit on the dark side but not
something i didn’t like um and then i
accidentally blew him up um with a
headphone amplifier that i was building
i’m sorry guys um but i’ve always really
liked the idea of headphones that you
can just swap bits out of you can just
take bits off and put new bits on and
then you have new headphones you don’t
have to buy a whole new set of headphone
and it ends up being at least a bit more
friendly in the long run right like i
could keep these for ages and just keep
upgrading bits as they get better um but
then they made updates to the tma1 to
kind of make them have a rounded ear cup
so you could use them all for studio
work kind of worked with the tuning a
bit and then they made the tma2s um and
i just never decided to get them because
i thought
well i’ve got my hd6x
i’ve got these
do i really need them
um
the answer now is yes and i’m going to
explain why now of course every review
has to have a level of organization so
i’m going to start with
so the things i like is that you can
choose how much you want to pay and
you’re not necessarily having to skimp
on sound like you can get exactly the
same sound i have here and spend a whole
lot less by not getting the wireless
plus functionality or any bluetooth
functionality or anything at all you can
just get these as cabled headphones and
you’re spending about the same amount as
you would with ath m50xs except that at
least in my mind you have something
that’s going to last a bit longer
because you can just take bits off and
replace them and of course once it gets
down to it if you want to get new
speaker units you’re spending a lot less
than new headphones in general because
you can just still use your headband and
stuff that’s pretty cool now these ones
in particular have a wireless plus
feature um which i’ve been talking about
a few times but i haven’t really
explained well so i’m going to explain
it a bit better using the magic of the
internet and also some things that come
in the back so wait here while i get
some more stuff out of the bag this
thing this is the x01 and it is a
transmitter that you plug in using
a jack cable
it has like the big jack on it but it
just screws off and you have a small one
on there but the reason that that’s cool
is that it’s not bluetooth it is
from what i understand basically wi-fi
slash radio frequency you pair those two
up you plug this into whatever it is and
you get latency of about 15 milliseconds
according to their website um i did some
quick sort of like mixing on these this
morning just to give them a try on
wireless only
and i noticed absolutely nothing um i
even plugged this into the switch no
real latency so outside of
real playing like playing back live i
doubt you’d really notice the latency
with these if you are using them
wirelessly for mixing or mastering
nothing stops you just using a cable
with these it still has cabled inputs
but sometimes you just want to you know
sit back and relax maybe you have your
computer really far away or the
headphone jack isn’t really easy to get
to you can just use that as a way to go
straight into it i think that’s a pretty
cool feature this wireless plus headband
the h10 does also have bluetooth as well
as that wireless plus feature so if
you’re looking to use them with a mobile
device you can still connect them up
this doesn’t have a microphone so you
can’t use them for phone calls but you
can use them for listening to your music
maybe for some you know mixed
translation or something like that
i wouldn’t really use this that much
with my phone unless i was just sitting
down listening to music but they do
sound good over bluetooth and over their
wireless plus functionality i don’t know
is any real difference when i’m using a
cable if anything i know is that if you
have these turned up quite high while
they’re using the wireless plus you get
a bit of a hiss from them if you turn
them down that’s absolutely fine these
are generally sensitive enough like when
i plugged this in it was sensitive
enough that i was able to still hear
everything perfectly fine with my
computer set to like maximum and these
sets were about halfway ish so when the
his kind of went away it was it didn’t
really get in the way so the m50xs i
kind of say are something that you can
use for mixing but you have to know
where it’s like dips and peaks are and
the biggest thing i notice with these is
that they have a bit of a bloat
somewhere around like what feels like
200 150 that makes your kick and all of
your bass sound a little bit more
forward and they end up being a bit
sibilant with the high end um but the
mids are pretty flat and that helps out
quite a bit with most of your
instruments so if you’re able to filter
those out then you’re absolutely fine um
sona works really helps with these i
find these around the same level of
neutral
as the m50xs which isn’t bad but it’s
not flat if you’re looking for perfectly
flat these cost me 300 pound because i
chose the wireless plus option but for
300 pound you could get yourself a used
set of hd 600s if you didn’t care about
the wireless plus functionality and
you’d have a flatter experience albeit
with openback on saying that though the
detail that you get on these especially
when you go up from the mids into your
treble region definitely doesn’t feel as
sibilant and as harsh as the m50x which
i think is a much better representation
of my music i found that going back to
some of my previous mixes with these
i’ve noticed issues instantly and been
able to just mess with them and go okay
sweet well this is a problem i need to
fix them here that’s a problem i need to
fix that there and this is the same
sound quality that you get when you’re
using them wirelessly if you get the
wireless headband as you do cabled will
be it with a bit of a change in volume
level because when you’re using them
cabled you have to drive them through a
pretty decent amp now of course the
sound can change depending on your setup
so i’m using the so5 mark ii speakers
with the alcantara over ear ear pads
which are meant to be more transparent
but don’t really offer a lot of
isolation and you can get leather ear
pads you can also get on-air ear pads
and all of those will slightly change
the sound even just with these speaker
units before you then look at different
speakers so if you’re looking at
something that’s a lot more on the
punchy side you can choose to get that
instead but the s05 mark ii’s which they
say as their neutral sounding drivers
definitely sound about as neutral as any
of my other headphones do i think
overall the tma2s in terms of their
sound are really quite pleasant to
listen to but still give you something
that is detailed enough that you can
work with it when it comes to your
mixing and your mastering and i don’t
mean detail as in just the high end of
your sound i mean detail overall you can
hear how different your bass’s texture
is and really work with it quite well on
something like the tma2’s in my opinion
of course the m50xs aren’t bad just
because these exist i still i’m gonna
keep these and i can still see a reason
why i would have these um but i do
definitely enjoy the tma2s especially
because with the wireless plus feature
you can use them wirelessly with that
dongle which as much as it’s you know
kind of big it’s about the size of like
a smartphone a relatively small to
medium sized phone like you’re still
gonna be able to use this and it still
gives you really great ways to make a
lot of stuff use wireless audio without
having to worry about the latency of
bluetooth i could use this with my
dining table sessions to monitor my
mixes so i have one less cable going
around somewhere i can plug this into my
synthesizer and leave my synthesizer
somewhere while i’m controlling it using
bluetooth midi with that little witty
jack if i wanted to
i could really start to use this as a
way to move into a much more wireless or
less wired approach to producing music
with a lot of the hardware that i now
have so you know it works pretty well
also i have an op1 so you know what that
means i can use this with my op1 to be
able to listen to my opinion wirelessly
so i don’t need to have a cable with it
works out a little bit better this will
sit behind an op1 i have rubber bands in
my bag somewhere so i can use those and
that’s an overview of my tma2s i’m going
to put down what spec i have so if you
wanted to get this type you can do and
the most important bit for the sound
that i’m experiencing are the speaker
units and the ear pads um everything
else is just to do with qol stuff so
just making sure that i have that
wireless plus with also the ability to
use bluetooth whenever i want to
um but yeah i think overall they’re
pretty good headphones i like the idea
of them being modular and therefore
being something that you can keep for a
lot longer and just keep upgrading when
you want to rather than needing to worry
about having to get a whole new set of
headphones and then sell your old ones
and even just simple things like
switching out a headband or switching
out speakers so if you want to have a
different sound you don’t need to have
two headphones you just have one
headphone and you just switch the bits
out it’s pretty cool definitely also the
packaging incredible it comes like all
flat pack and you build it yourself it
was it was a very fun
morning for me definitely when that came
through ups i was very excited but
thanks for watching i hope you’re
enjoying the rest of your day stay safe
and all of that i have a feeling that my
tea is cooled down now so now i can have
it
yeah
cool
[Music]
[Music]
bye
