When in Manila, most of us teens and youngsters love to party. So many new DJs and new mixes coming out that a lot of our friends are inspired into mixing their own DJ tracks and building their own DJ rigs. I have a handful of friends who have turned into DJ-ing and building their own DJ set-up for gigs and house parties. To be honest, I see so many new enthusiasts trying to pry into the DJ scene using cheap headphones, or headphones that don’t perform any good at all for them to be able to monitor their own mixes and justify it. They easily get attracted to headphones that boasts bass. To be honest with you, bass is not everything when it comes to earphones and headphones. I notice so many people rating headphones just from the bass it reproduces. DJ mixing also has so much problems when bass goes too muddy or too pounding. You’d get ear fatigue and lose out on detail. One special thing I noticed with the Aiaiai TMA-1 with it being endorsed as a DJ headphone, is the fact that the mids our done well and are pretty addictive. For a DJ headphone, someone finally addressed the problem of needing to push the volume higher due to the pulled back vocals.
The Aiaia TMA-1 is a DJ headphone tuned and developed by DJs themselves. I think that was fantastic since they addressed the common conception of V-shaped sound being in-tune with what DJs would often be playing. Well, it’s supposed to be a DJ’s monitor and it is also a headphone usable for personal listening, and I honestly think that the V-shaped sound signature would go much downhill than positive when used as DJ monitors. Having the need to push the volume higher and higher due to the vocals being swamped by the highs and lows, would just downright give fatigue and ear problems for some. I’ll talk about the Aiaiai TMA-1‘s sound signature later on.
Build/Packaging: One word, SEXYYYYY! I love matte black finishes and the Aiaiai TMA-1 pulled it off pretty darn well! Aside from that sexy look of the TMA-1, the packaging also compliments how nice the headphones really look. I can’t say “shine” because it is matte black, they don’t shine hehe. Anyways, the box emanates the same “cool” feel of the Aiaiai TMA-1. I really think that the foam style where the Aiaiai TMA-1 sits on the box, really does give it a more wow look upon opening of the face of the box. Really feels like the full design of the packaging were really thought of well apart from the main build and design of the Aiaiai TMA-1. The plugs and even the twisted cable design on the cups of the Aiaiai TMA-1 itself, does give a really cool minimalistic look. I can’t think of any other headphone in the same range with that kind of aura surrounding its design.
Sound Quality: I dub thee, the dark prince! Why? Well they sound dark. And very dark for my own taste. It’s not negative though since these are DJ headphones with much emphasis on bass. They represent mid bass far more than sub-bass, giving a much powerful effect to music through the slams. Yes, they are dark and bassy. Common things right? Well yes, but there’s just something about the Aiaiai TMA-1 that is addicting. Well to point out first, the mids on the TMA-1 isn’t recessed at all. I could say that they are slightly up-front and are bodied and thick. The mids give a feel of lushness to the vocals which are just so addicting! The Aiaiai TMA-1 is very musical and with the matching lush mids, they become so addicting when you go out of the technicalities of sound and balance. They are just well off musical and beats of the bright and rolled-off Sennheiser HD25-1 II. You wanna party? If yes, you know what to do. They are too dark for my usual technical taste, but when the lights go out, oh boy, let’s dance!
And I’m raffling off one Aiaiai TMA-1!!! Here’s how to join:
1. Like Aiaiai’s page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aiaiaibook
2. Follow @VinceGolangco and @WhenInManila on Twitter
3. ReTweet this statement:
“Win an Aiaiai TMA-1 headphone! Check the mechanics at our review: https://bit.ly/YofzTh #WhenInManila”
4. Post a comment here on our review with your Twitter name
There you go! Goodluck! Missing a single step will disqualify you, so make sure you follow everything! Winner will be contacted via Twitter DM Sunday lunch time.
Aiaiai TMA-1 DJ headphones: The dark prince!
