Aiaiai TMA-2 HD Studio Headphone Review

That’s uncommon for pro-grade headphones to have such a low impedance of 32Ω. This means that no mobile device should have any issues driving TMA-2 HD’s to more than sufficient volume, even with calibration and safe headroom engaged.

Both headband and ear cups are made from lightweight plastic with a rubber-like coating that feels great to touch and enables the headphones to weigh less than 200 grams. The headband has microfiber padding and ear pads are covered in gentle Alcantara, both materials feel very similar and are pleasant to touch. On a less positive note, when handling the headphones, you’ll get all kinds of squeaking and cracking noises from the ear cup – headband interface. That offsets the relatively luxurious impression provided by nice-feeling materials and makes the build feel a bit cheap.

The easily available spare parts aid longevity and drive the build quality score up.

According to Aiaiai, the TMA-2 HD preset is equipped with the most neutral-sounding drivers they have on offer. It’s a massive improvement over TMA-1 Studio but still has issues to solve. It helps that there are no high amplitude resonant peaks in the range up to 10kHz, so the sound isn’t harsh or boomy, but the huge high frequency boost above 10k makes it overly bright. All these shortcomings can be easily erased by calibration.

For most pairs channels were evenly matched, but for a few, there were inconsistencies in the low end of about 2.5dB which is a noticeable difference for a trained listener. However, this flaw can be addressed with individual calibration service, and since on other fronts TMA-2 HDs perform great, that is a worthwhile investment.

The clamping force is on the light side – that helps comfort but also lets outside noise in and makes the noise isolation very weak for a closed-back set. The contact points feel very comfy at first and the low weight surely helps, but the ear pads, at least for large pinnas, get slightly annoying sooner than expected. This is due to the volume inside the ear pads not being large enough to fully accommodate a large outer ear, and the pressure, even if it’s a gentle one, gets tiring for the ears. Nevertheless, testers with average size and smaller pinnas found them to be comfortable for extended sessions.

At €300 they’re not cheap headphones, but once calibrated, there’s very little left to complain about. Add the benefits of the modular design and the price seems fairly adequate. The biggest factor that hurts the value score is the suboptimal left-to-right channel consistency.