I used to love Takstar Pro 80. In fact, I bought two of them (still have both).
I have even recommended them to some of my friends (who ended up being very happy with them).
However, Pro 80s were too U/V-shaped for me, and it took forever to burn them in to get rid of the extra hot treble.
I've moved on to better cans, but kept my eye on the inevitable replacement.
The replacement was teased for months, and as soon I saw one for sale, I jumped on it immediately.
This may be the first one to get out of China, but it's definitely not the last one...
Meet the Pro 82:
It comes in the famous Takstar case.
I chose the black ones over the silver ones - no regrets here!
Gorgeous headphones, plain and simple.
It comes with a soft case, 3.5mm/6.5mm adapter and a 2.2m cable (2.5mm inside the cup, 3.5mm on the other end).
Takstar continues the tradition of providing cables that are too long.
Edit 28 Dec 2017: in the new revision that is being currently sold,the cable has the perfect length - 1.6m.
Now let's get to it!
Comfort:
Comfort is greatly improved compared to Pro 80.
The pads are larger, thicker and made of better materials. They are fully "over ear" for me, when Pro 80 was a definite "on-ear". If the NVX XPT100 with the ComfortMax pads is 10 out of 10 comfort-wise, and Pro 80 is 6.5 at best - Pro 82 is an 8 at least.
Pressure on the head is acceptably delicate, yet the headphone sits securely.
Above you can see a ComfortMax pad sandwiched inside Pro 82.
As you can see, it is slightly larger, and quite a lot thicker.
Judging from my experience with Pro 80 (and others), putting much thicker pads instead of originals will
likely have a negative effect on the sound, but I may experiment later with other pads of similar thickness.
Isolation/Leakage:
There is very little leakage outside, if AC is on in the room - no one can hear what I'm listening to from 2 feet away.
Isolation from outside noise - these are perfect for a noisy office, but not for bus/train/plain.
Another reason not to replace pads - I'm quite sure other pads will result in worse leakage/isolation.
Bass
It's fantastic! Great impact with a full body, followed by a perfect decay.
Such bass is hard to find in headphones at any price, impossible at this price point.
However, to attract "bassheads", Pro 82 has a new feature - bass boost.
You can boost the bass 3dB or 6dB, and (according to Takstar) it shouldn't affect FR over 300Hz:
Well, this graph is absolutely incorrect. Using 6dB boost totally ruins the sound, and while 3dB
doesn't have as much of a negative effect, it's still unpleasant. Not only does the bass becomes flubby,
but the tonality of everything changes too, Pro 82 sounds hollow and honky. Strongly advise to stay away from this feature.
So is this not the headphone for bassheads? Not necessarily. Take a look at the graph above -
the bass is already boosted 5dB over the mids. So this is definitely a bass-heavy headphone.
It will still attract audiophiles, because it doesn't bleed into mids, and the quality of bass is up to the highest standards.
Going back to the graph above, don't expect the bass to be linear down to 20Hz - there is a drop-off below 80Hz.
The headphone is specced down to 10Hz - I could still hear quite a lot at 15Hz - so a healthy subbass is present.
Here you can see the bass ports closed (no bass boost)
Here can see the bass ports fully open - a 6dB boost.
Mids:
The mids are somewhat recessed - this is a U-shaped headphone, but not as much as Pro 80.
The timbre of voices is nearly perfect. If only they would step forward a bit!
I think it's because of the recessed mids that I find myself listening at slightly higher than usual volume - at lower
volume Pro 82 doesn't sound as impressive.
Treble:
This is the most surprising part.
Pro 80 had a very hot treble, which took several months of heavy usage to tame.
Still, it could be too hot sometimes, and sibilance would raise its ugly head occasionally too.
Pro 82's treble is as detailed and brilliant as Pro 80s, but it doesn't get too hot, and it avoids sibilance like a ninja.
Here is a great track to test sibilance:
Even before Taylor Swift starts singing, Brad Paisley (the host) sounds like a love child of Duffy Duck and Silvester on most headphones.
Not on Pro 82! All the detail is still there (this is not a dark headphone), but sibilance is totally gone!
Gaming:
I am not a gamer, but I can promise you this:
a) With Pro 82's bass quantity and quality, explosions will be EPIC!
b) With Pro 82's clarity, you will have no problem hearing your teammates/enemies
c) Pro 82 has a larger soundstage than Pro 80, but keep in mind - this is a music-oriented headphone, so it may not be the best in directional cues
d) You can use a BoomPro cable (if you have one already) with a 3.5/2.5mm TRS adapter,
or you can buy this 2.5mm/3.5mm cable with a microphone:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Upg...ack-Cable-Mic-For-Bose-Quiet/32810246600.html
Also, you can just buy a proper USB microphone.
You'll get better audio too.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MK-...ting-Singing-Skype-Recording/32735518891.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/201...unt-Holder-Clip-with-Locking/32773172782.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/USB...dio-Braodcasting-KTV-Karaoke/32767347400.html
Driveability:
It's 32Ohm and 96dB - fairly easy to drive.
DACs/Amps:
Comparison of DACs/Amps
Comparison of Pro 80 and Pro 82 frequency responses:
Pro 80 FR
Pro 82 FR
It is crucial to understand that the red and blue lines in the Pro 82's FR must be ignored - they represent the "bass boost" feature.
The green line is the only one we care about.
Pro 80 - The mids are about 7dB (from 300Hz to 3.5kHz) recessed compared to the bass
Pro 82 - The mids are about 3dB (at 1KHz) to 5dB (at 300Hz) recessed compared to the bass
Conclusion - Pro 82's mids are less recessed than Pro 80's
Pro 80 - The treble has a sharp dropoff of 8dB from 3.5kHz till 4kHz, followed by a sharp rise of 15dB till 5.5kHz
Pro 82 - The treble has a much slower decline of 10dB from 1.2kHz till 3.5kHz, followed by a slow rise of 15dB till 8kHz.
Conclusion - Much slower changes in frequency response are the reason why Pro 82's treble doesn't get as hot as Pro 80,
and clarity is improved. Moving the peak from 5.5kHz to 8kHz must have contributed to removing sibilance.
Conclusion:
This is a huge improvement over Pro 80 - all over the frequency range.
Comfort and isolation are improved as well.
All of the impressions are OOTB through Oppo-HA2 .
I'll put it to burn-in, but I honestly can't see it improving much over what I'm hearing.
Once it's burned in, I'll compare it to some of the other closed/semi-open headphones I have - you can vote (up to 3 votes per user) which headphones you want to compare with Pro 82.
I will do at least 5 comparisons - so every vote counts!
You can vote in the poll on top of the review/impressions thread:
https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/takstar-pro-82-review-impressions-and-discussion-thread.849965/
Where to buy:
EDIT of November 16th 2020:
New coupon codes (valid until April 30th 2021):
4$ discount for purchase of Pro 82, GM200 or FIIO BTR3K (as long as their pre-coupon price is not lower than 59$) - OEYU4DN9ST62
8$ discount for purchase of Pro 82 + FIIO BTR3K, or GM200 + FIIO BTR3K (as long as their pre-coupon combined price is not lower than 119$) - XXWDVYDNM42V
20$ discount for purchase of HF580 (as long as the pre-coupon price is not lower than 189$) - 3V6A1HOA8WIQ
These are exclusive codes, please don't share them outside Head-Fi!
Pro 82 v2 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32808454492.html
GM200 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33012705103.html
HF580 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32997885429.html
FIIO BTR3K - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000849710696.html
Important: It's best to use Aliexpress Standard Shipping, because the store have experienced a few situations where Pro 82/GM200 was returned by the customs when using China Post, but never Aliexpress Standard Shipping. Also, it's A LOT faster now during the pandemic, as Aliexpress has direct deals with the local post offices in many countries.
Don't forget, the 99$ O2 is here: https://www.jdslabs.com/products/167/objective2-headphone-amplifier-b-stock/
Warning about some other stores:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-30#post-13871997
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-62#post-13966787
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ori...or-Computer-recording-K-song/32811235476.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gen...or-Computer-recording-K-song/32811589590.html
EU residents can buy from Headphoniaks (79 euro with a case): https://headphoniaks.com/en/shop/takstar-pro82-2/
Couple hints for purchasing at Aliexpress:
1) Purchase from a seller that offers ePacket. Usually the free shipping options (China Post, Singapore Post and Aliexpress Standard Shipping) take 3-6 weeks to deliver worldwide.
ePacket usually takes 2-4 weeks.
2) Purchasing using Aliexpress mobile app gives an extra 1% discount.
Sometimes, there are additional mobile-only discounts.
I have even recommended them to some of my friends (who ended up being very happy with them).
However, Pro 80s were too U/V-shaped for me, and it took forever to burn them in to get rid of the extra hot treble.
I've moved on to better cans, but kept my eye on the inevitable replacement.
The replacement was teased for months, and as soon I saw one for sale, I jumped on it immediately.
This may be the first one to get out of China, but it's definitely not the last one...
Meet the Pro 82:
It comes in the famous Takstar case.
I chose the black ones over the silver ones - no regrets here!
Gorgeous headphones, plain and simple.
It comes with a soft case, 3.5mm/6.5mm adapter and a 2.2m cable (2.5mm inside the cup, 3.5mm on the other end).
Takstar continues the tradition of providing cables that are too long.
Edit 28 Dec 2017: in the new revision that is being currently sold,the cable has the perfect length - 1.6m.
Now let's get to it!
Comfort:
Comfort is greatly improved compared to Pro 80.
The pads are larger, thicker and made of better materials. They are fully "over ear" for me, when Pro 80 was a definite "on-ear". If the NVX XPT100 with the ComfortMax pads is 10 out of 10 comfort-wise, and Pro 80 is 6.5 at best - Pro 82 is an 8 at least.
Pressure on the head is acceptably delicate, yet the headphone sits securely.
Above you can see a ComfortMax pad sandwiched inside Pro 82.
As you can see, it is slightly larger, and quite a lot thicker.
Judging from my experience with Pro 80 (and others), putting much thicker pads instead of originals will
likely have a negative effect on the sound, but I may experiment later with other pads of similar thickness.
Isolation/Leakage:
There is very little leakage outside, if AC is on in the room - no one can hear what I'm listening to from 2 feet away.
Isolation from outside noise - these are perfect for a noisy office, but not for bus/train/plain.
Another reason not to replace pads - I'm quite sure other pads will result in worse leakage/isolation.
Bass
It's fantastic! Great impact with a full body, followed by a perfect decay.
Such bass is hard to find in headphones at any price, impossible at this price point.
However, to attract "bassheads", Pro 82 has a new feature - bass boost.
You can boost the bass 3dB or 6dB, and (according to Takstar) it shouldn't affect FR over 300Hz:
Well, this graph is absolutely incorrect. Using 6dB boost totally ruins the sound, and while 3dB
doesn't have as much of a negative effect, it's still unpleasant. Not only does the bass becomes flubby,
but the tonality of everything changes too, Pro 82 sounds hollow and honky. Strongly advise to stay away from this feature.
So is this not the headphone for bassheads? Not necessarily. Take a look at the graph above -
the bass is already boosted 5dB over the mids. So this is definitely a bass-heavy headphone.
It will still attract audiophiles, because it doesn't bleed into mids, and the quality of bass is up to the highest standards.
Going back to the graph above, don't expect the bass to be linear down to 20Hz - there is a drop-off below 80Hz.
The headphone is specced down to 10Hz - I could still hear quite a lot at 15Hz - so a healthy subbass is present.
Here you can see the bass ports closed (no bass boost)
Here can see the bass ports fully open - a 6dB boost.
Mids:
The mids are somewhat recessed - this is a U-shaped headphone, but not as much as Pro 80.
The timbre of voices is nearly perfect. If only they would step forward a bit!
I think it's because of the recessed mids that I find myself listening at slightly higher than usual volume - at lower
volume Pro 82 doesn't sound as impressive.
Treble:
This is the most surprising part.
Pro 80 had a very hot treble, which took several months of heavy usage to tame.
Still, it could be too hot sometimes, and sibilance would raise its ugly head occasionally too.
Pro 82's treble is as detailed and brilliant as Pro 80s, but it doesn't get too hot, and it avoids sibilance like a ninja.
Here is a great track to test sibilance:
Even before Taylor Swift starts singing, Brad Paisley (the host) sounds like a love child of Duffy Duck and Silvester on most headphones.
Not on Pro 82! All the detail is still there (this is not a dark headphone), but sibilance is totally gone!
Gaming:
I am not a gamer, but I can promise you this:
a) With Pro 82's bass quantity and quality, explosions will be EPIC!
b) With Pro 82's clarity, you will have no problem hearing your teammates/enemies
c) Pro 82 has a larger soundstage than Pro 80, but keep in mind - this is a music-oriented headphone, so it may not be the best in directional cues
d) You can use a BoomPro cable (if you have one already) with a 3.5/2.5mm TRS adapter,
or you can buy this 2.5mm/3.5mm cable with a microphone:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Upg...ack-Cable-Mic-For-Bose-Quiet/32810246600.html
Also, you can just buy a proper USB microphone.
You'll get better audio too.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MK-...ting-Singing-Skype-Recording/32735518891.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/201...unt-Holder-Clip-with-Locking/32773172782.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/USB...dio-Braodcasting-KTV-Karaoke/32767347400.html
Driveability:
It's 32Ohm and 96dB - fairly easy to drive.
DACs/Amps:
Comparison of DACs/Amps
Comparison of Pro 80 and Pro 82 frequency responses:
Pro 80 FR
Pro 82 FR
It is crucial to understand that the red and blue lines in the Pro 82's FR must be ignored - they represent the "bass boost" feature.
The green line is the only one we care about.
Pro 80 - The mids are about 7dB (from 300Hz to 3.5kHz) recessed compared to the bass
Pro 82 - The mids are about 3dB (at 1KHz) to 5dB (at 300Hz) recessed compared to the bass
Conclusion - Pro 82's mids are less recessed than Pro 80's
Pro 80 - The treble has a sharp dropoff of 8dB from 3.5kHz till 4kHz, followed by a sharp rise of 15dB till 5.5kHz
Pro 82 - The treble has a much slower decline of 10dB from 1.2kHz till 3.5kHz, followed by a slow rise of 15dB till 8kHz.
Conclusion - Much slower changes in frequency response are the reason why Pro 82's treble doesn't get as hot as Pro 80,
and clarity is improved. Moving the peak from 5.5kHz to 8kHz must have contributed to removing sibilance.
Conclusion:
This is a huge improvement over Pro 80 - all over the frequency range.
Comfort and isolation are improved as well.
All of the impressions are OOTB through Oppo-HA2 .
I'll put it to burn-in, but I honestly can't see it improving much over what I'm hearing.
Once it's burned in, I'll compare it to some of the other closed/semi-open headphones I have - you can vote (up to 3 votes per user) which headphones you want to compare with Pro 82.
I will do at least 5 comparisons - so every vote counts!
You can vote in the poll on top of the review/impressions thread:
https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/takstar-pro-82-review-impressions-and-discussion-thread.849965/
Where to buy:
EDIT of November 16th 2020:
New coupon codes (valid until April 30th 2021):
4$ discount for purchase of Pro 82, GM200 or FIIO BTR3K (as long as their pre-coupon price is not lower than 59$) - OEYU4DN9ST62
8$ discount for purchase of Pro 82 + FIIO BTR3K, or GM200 + FIIO BTR3K (as long as their pre-coupon combined price is not lower than 119$) - XXWDVYDNM42V
20$ discount for purchase of HF580 (as long as the pre-coupon price is not lower than 189$) - 3V6A1HOA8WIQ
These are exclusive codes, please don't share them outside Head-Fi!
Pro 82 v2 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32808454492.html
GM200 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33012705103.html
HF580 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32997885429.html
FIIO BTR3K - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000849710696.html
Important: It's best to use Aliexpress Standard Shipping, because the store have experienced a few situations where Pro 82/GM200 was returned by the customs when using China Post, but never Aliexpress Standard Shipping. Also, it's A LOT faster now during the pandemic, as Aliexpress has direct deals with the local post offices in many countries.
Don't forget, the 99$ O2 is here: https://www.jdslabs.com/products/167/objective2-headphone-amplifier-b-stock/
Warning about some other stores:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-30#post-13871997
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...iscussion-thread.849965/page-62#post-13966787
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ori...or-Computer-recording-K-song/32811235476.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gen...or-Computer-recording-K-song/32811589590.html
EU residents can buy from Headphoniaks (79 euro with a case): https://headphoniaks.com/en/shop/takstar-pro82-2/
Couple hints for purchasing at Aliexpress:
1) Purchase from a seller that offers ePacket. Usually the free shipping options (China Post, Singapore Post and Aliexpress Standard Shipping) take 3-6 weeks to deliver worldwide.
ePacket usually takes 2-4 weeks.
2) Purchasing using Aliexpress mobile app gives an extra 1% discount.
Sometimes, there are additional mobile-only discounts.