Mod House Tungsten REVIEW! Double- & Single-sided

Mod House graduated from a literal headphone modding house to designing and building their own headphone from the ground up, and it's got a lot of hype behind it. I got a chance to spend extensive time at home with both the double- and single-sided versions of the Mod House Tungsten. And while I've developed a better appreciation for what's going on here... I'm not quite on board with the hype. Let's talk about it.

00:00 Intro
02:15 What's in the box
03:05 Build quality
08:10 Fit & comfort
13:00 Sound quality
23:30 vs. HEDDphone 2
25:30 vs. Audeze MM-500
27:40 Conclusion & Rating

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#ModHouse #Tungsten #planar #headphones #audio #audiophile #SuperReview

[your_average_cultured_dude]

so many people in the comments who say "yOu NeEd A bEtTeR aMp", all of them are completely clueless about electronics and how dacs and amps work. those are the same people who would believe that gold cables sound better than copper cables. quite literally "audiofools"

[jesusgonzales]

Always appreciate your honesty. It's why I keep coming back.

[grantdillon]

To add a counterpoint, I had never heard of Modhouse, the Tungsten, or Ryan when I heard these last year - never heard any of the "hype" etc. These are one of the only headphone experiences I've ever had where my immediate reaction was "WHOA!" These were making everything else I heard at the same meet-up sound like mid-fi in comparison, with the exception of Utopia and HD650 (of course.) I hear you that you weren't totally sold on these, just trying to put my own perspective out there. Love your channel and reviews!

EDIT: Also, Ryan told me at the meet-up that he was using the Crinacle IEF Over-Ear target as a design goal for these.

[syanhc]

The MM500 is one of my favourite headphones. Its just amazing.

[oblio]

I think Mark missed on this review! I acknowledge that after listening to Mark's reviews for years, my listening taste are different from his. That being said:
After six months, (I placed an order on December 23, 2023), I received my SS Tungsten on June 18th, 2024.
My chain:
Gustard A26 DAC (5 volts output) - Burson Soloists 3XP with Supercharger 3A and the new V7 opamps (24 volts & 8 watts balanced output) - Balanced inputs and balanced outputs.
Other headphones I use on this setup:
Meze Empyrean, Hifiman HE1000 v2, DCA Aeon Closed X, AKG k702 (modified) (Austria edition).
I have over 8, 000 songs in FLAC format.
jazz, soundtracks, classical, house, hip-hop, reggae, beatless, lounge, rock, world, R&B, et, et, pretty much everything except K-pop & country.
Impressions:
Driving the Tungsten is not an issue with my setup. Of all the headphones I’ve tried, the Tungsten is the only pair I have had to use high-gain. I’ve been comfortably listening at levels between 40 and 70 out of a max level of 99 on the Burson - plenty of headroom. Yes, this is a lot of power/voltage.
The sound is balanced and musical. Extremely enjoyable. They sound more realistic than any headphone I’ve heard -> timber is fantastic causing me to think/feel, "am I listening to live music"? Details stand out. Bass is strong, clean, and impactful. Male and female voices come thru clean and are placed where they should be. Separation is great. Details shine.
Every genre sounds great. These are extremely enjoyable and comfortable to listen to.
I could not be more happy considering the value-to-performance and FUN the Tungsten (combined with the Burson and Gustard) offers.

[JTB--]

Nice Review. I think this a great first attempt by Ryan and his next Revision or model HP will fix the Tungsten shortcomings

[lukekay]

great review!! almost pulled a trigger to buy this but i purchased hifiman arya organic instead and am very happy with it!

[whocares]

Look my Violectric V222 runs my DS Tungstens perfectly and it's +/- $1k (I got it under $1k on DROP). There are amps like the Topping L70pro too. Your review sounds nothing like my Tungstens do. To each their own. But I have heard a ton of cans in my time, and better costs you $3k PLUS or more for marginal, to me, performance gains. Just my 2 cents.

[flourishingfog]

Looking forward to your Heddphone 2 review!

[syanhc]

Im not a big fan of this headphone and I'm much happier with the HD600. Its a classic of its kind and relatively cheap. It can't be surpassed. The HEDD 2 is a phenomenal headphone and I'm dying to buy one....but i listen to classical music which is its strength.

[thelastrhino]

Thanks for the great, detailed, honest review. Much appreciate your ability to look beyond the hype.

[Neonmirrorblack]

That unnecessary case also probably adds an additional $300 at least to the total cost.

I'm going to be ordering these in February when they become available again, and I just recently picked up Flux M-Field, which produces more than sufficient power for these (the company actually advertises the amp with the Tungstens as well, so they designed that amp with these headphones in mind), and for the cost it's very hard to beat. It also has the side effect of actually making the OG HD800 sound actually good. It's a solid state amp that has a tube sound.

Also, I think you were having a problem with the seal on the single-sided if you think they sound "brighter". Pretty much the majority of the other reviews for them claim them to be the warmer of the two and that the double is actually more clinical, but that it's also more honest and has a slightly wider sound stage.

[dudexyt]

The ifi Diablo is nice but it’s not enough for the Tungsten. Tungsten has more dynamics than my Susvara (when I measure it on my gear).
Also the harsh treble is because the ear pad is unclothed. Otherwise it’s a bit dark for me.

You should re-review it when you test different ear pads and an amplifier with enough juice.

Otherwise your review is pretty fair when it comes to build quality. Sound quality is not accurate when underpowered.

[thepedanticcreature]

Edit: Addressed by SuperReview in response. Left the original comment below for context. But I was wrong.

While it is weird for you to have decided to review a headphone known for being uniquely hard to drive with equipment where it is at least fair to ask whether you should have also tested sources with more power, that would be easy to address. Heck, maybe it would turn out that the differences and demands have been greatly exaggerated.

Doubling down and indirectly calling people who criticize this 'audiofools' by pinning a comment that does so is enough for me to hide you from my YT recs going forward. It really should not be that hard to at least clear the bar of not doing shit like that regardless of how attacked you feel right now.

[hirohito]

Thanks for the honest review. There's quite a lot of hype about these.

[calvinyip]

If you are sensitive to treble you need to listen to the aune ar5000. The treble is buttery smooth. And soundstage can be intimate or grand base on how you wear front or back. This headphone made me wow. It has the wow factor.

[NoeticHooligan]

Even though you're getting enough volume, you're still starving this beast with the sources you used. If you want to get the best out of it, you need to feed it a lot more power than you did.

[Kamakurajoe]

As always, love your review. What are your opinion about DCA E3 compared to these hypedhouse modhouse headphones? They both are $2, 000. Thank you 😊😊.

[lalicdalibor]

That s shows that everyone love different sound signature ! at 1500 euros range price i don t think you can find better tuned headphones out of the box ! 90% of people will agree i think ! i like more engaged and dynamic signature so the single sided will be the pick for me

[blejzerosamigos]

Thanks for the video but You need a serious amp for these headphones man I think you are set up for iems that's the reason for the sound outcome.
Cheers