V-Moda M-100 - Full Review

quadpatch

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Finally here is my full review of the review of the V-Moda M-100. I have struggled to write this one for a little while now, but the wait is finally over...

http://noblehifi.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/v-moda-m-100-review.html

I will also be writing a joint review with another reviewer, who won the M-100 in a competition, on Headfonia soon. I will post a link to that here as soon as it's done.

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dalethorn

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This is one of those rare reviews that tells me the thing I need to know the most - exactly how it sounds. Which is not an easy thing to do even when you know how it sounds, because terms like "bassy" or "bright" etc. don't mean much without a solid set of sound quality references that readers can relate to. This one gets it done - good job.

BTW, the main photo reminds me of something that would go well with a B52 or SR71, and how appropriate that the design uses those mil-spec standards. If nothing else, I'll buy it just to impress the heck out of the locals here in the Southern U.S.
 

quadpatch

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Thanks very much Dale!! that's really kind of you... unlike me with this review :p

I absolutely love the look of these things! I'm not sure reading my own review would quite put me off them for portable use. Not only do they look like a tank (a sexy one at that) but they really are built like one! At least they do respond to EQ fairly well, Actually very well on the M-DAC, the M-100's truly love the M-DAC through JRiver's 64bit EQ, but it's £600! That's about twice the cost of the headphone! Actually I never did work out how much the M-100 ended up costing me, let me check... £270-280.

OK I just returned to the SoundMAGIC HP100... Wow, even EQ'ing the M-100's bass down it's so much more in your face than the HP100, it's ridiculous and I know the SoundMAGIC is not exactly weak. It actually takes a while to get back into the SoundMAGIC after the M-100 but OMG do I love this headphone - so smooth and well balanced!

Speaking of the SoundMAGIC I was scanning the Amazon site today and another reviewer has given it 1 star due to signal loss *sigh* :(

PS. I appreciate the aircraft style references! Maybe because I know exactly what they are without looking them up this style suits me well. How about a SPAS 12 or FN Herstal F2000 for small-arms?
 

dalethorn

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quadpatch said:
OK I just returned to the SoundMAGIC HP100... Wow, even EQ'ing the M-100's bass down it's so much more in your face than the HP100, it's ridiculous and I know the SoundMAGIC is not exactly weak.

So basically they took the M80 and turned it into the AmperiorM80, or something like that. Perfect for head-fi.

quadpatch said:
Speaking of the SoundMAGIC I was scanning the Amazon site today and another reviewer has given it 1 star due to signal loss *sigh* :(

But he "would have" given it 4 stars except for a product defect. Another user had a defect too. I wonder if they have QC problems like Logitech?

quadpatch said:
How about a SPAS 12 or FN Herstal F2000 for small-arms?

Those are very nice for routing varmints out of the brush, but I usually avoid the brush. I like the old bolt-action pistols like the Remington XP100. There may be better quality versions of those.
 

quadpatch

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I was mostly going for design there but an interesting weapon of choice there! Hey if we're going for pistols mine's a Kimber (I prefer bolt action on my rifles). OK back to headphones :p. I notice that the Amazon US site review for the HP100 is written only by you :). I must drop a 5 star review on the UK site!!
 

dalethorn

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quadpatch said:
I notice that the Amazon US site review for the HP100 is written only by you :). I must drop a 5 star review on the UK site!!

Good idea, since the low-ball reviews were written about items that were known to be defective. If the item sounded bad but weren't known to be defective, the negative review would make sense. When there were so many defective Logitechs up front I was really curious how it would end up, and now I don't hear much (very quiet), yet the Apple stores are maintaining them prominently as 2 of the 12 headphones on display, so they should be selling lots of them. My contact with Logitech said to me that they are totally out of touch with customers - just a mass merchandiser who don't really care about the product quality as long as the retailer just swaps them. I mention all that because there were 2 or 3 defective HP100's in those few reviews I found, and I do know that Soundmagic does a lot of OEM, so I wonder if they are more or less customer-centric than Logitech.
 

quadpatch

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Yeah I'm curious about this. Logitech are very good in this country for customer service dealt with directly. I've had problems with keyboards before (nto cheap ones) and they just send me another one no questions asked. As for them actually caring about the product issues I'm not so sure. I wonder what SoundMAGIC are actually like to deal with on defects also, I did notice that they include a 2 year waranty with the HP100, but it seems like the Amazon buyers were content with getting a refund from Amazon and giving up on the headphone entirely :(.

I have posted my review and given 5 stars but with 2 bad reviews alreay this won't help make them stand out much.
 

Zubkabera

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Hi Quadpatch,

I was waiting for HP100 to appear in stock but then like you saw another reviewer gave it 1 star because of defects which has put me off and now I am not sure to take a gamble of my hard earned money, so now back to square one on my hunt for best OTH under 200, I am now again more leaning towards AKG550 specially the price has dropped by another 20 quid to 157 which is very attractive.

Any other advice!!
 

quadpatch

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Hey Zubkabera, I guess you didn't read my review of the K550, otherwise you wouldnt be asking about it. I certainly wouldn't recommend the K550 over the HP100! Is there any way that I can convince you that the HP100 is worth the risk? It comes with a 2 year warranty :).

I have heard great things about the new Beyerdynamic DT770 Limited Edition and should be able to report back about that very soon but some of the prices I've seen for that are crazy! I saw £290 yesterday!!

UPDATE: Actually everywhere else seems to be selling the DT770 LE for £300!! It seems to be the standard price, which is a little odd considering the standard version is about £130. Although there doesn't seem to be many changes, no extras to speak of and a very basic box. On face value it seems like even more of a rip-off than the Sennheiser Amperior (vs the HD25-1 II). Although reading the Headfonia review they found that it sounds quite improved! But Beyer don't say anything about them changing anything other than the pads - weird! Oh well I will report back as soon as I've heard it.
 

dalethorn

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I read the Innfidelity review, and my eyes have it as more critical even than yours. Tyll used the "fun" clause as best he could but those euphemisms didn't save the M100 from the cold hard facts of his measurements and analysis. Still, if I ever go to work for Her Majesty or Junior here across the pond, I'll borrow some of that shuck'n'jive from IF's M100 review.
 

Zubkabera

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Thanks Quadpatch for reassuring your judgement on HP100 I will keep an eye on availability and hope that may be new stock will not have same issues as others.

In the mean time I have question for Dale, out of your own stock of headphones "Shure 1840, Sennheiser Momentum, ATH ESW9a, Phiaton MS300/400, VModa M80, B&W P5, "which is your preferred headphone to use with DF
smiley-smile.gif
 

dalethorn

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Zubkabera said:
In the mean time I have question for Dale, out of your own stock of headphones "Shure 1840, Sennheiser Momentum, ATH ESW9a, Phiaton MS300/400, VModa M80, B&W P5, "which is your preferred headphone to use with DF

I've been scratching my head for awhile over 'DF', but other than Donald Fagen I'm coming up blank.
 

quadpatch

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dalethorn said:
Zubkabera said:
In the mean time I have question for Dale, out of your own stock of headphones "Shure 1840, Sennheiser Momentum, ATH ESW9a, Phiaton MS300/400, VModa M80, B&W P5, "which is your preferred headphone to use with DF

I've been scratching my head for awhile over 'DF', but other than Donald Fagen I'm coming up blank.
Yeah I tried to think what that could be for a while. You'll have to tell us Zubkabera, what does 'DF' stand for, was it a typo or did the smiley mess it up?
 

quadpatch

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dalethorn said:
I read the Innfidelity review, and my eyes have it as more critical even than yours. Tyll used the "fun" clause as best he could but those euphemisms didn't save the M100 from the cold hard facts of his measurements and analysis. Still, if I ever go to work for Her Majesty or Junior here across the pond, I'll borrow some of that shuck'n'jive from IF's M100 review.
You know what I only skim read it before and now I have finally read it properly and I see what you mean. Hmm, oh well. Does that puts you off buying them for good then?
 

Zubkabera

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Hi Quadpatch I mean Audioquest Dragonfly, I have got one and currently using it with my Grado SR80 and wondering if new pair of OTH headphone will take the best out of DF.
 

quadpatch

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I used to have the SR80's. They are a good airy and agressive headphone but not exactly the most refined. Are you only looking at closed back over-ears now?
 

dalethorn

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quadpatch said:
You know what I only skim read it before and now I have finally read it properly and I see what you mean. Hmm, oh well. Does that puts you off buying them for good then?

I'm not in a hurry to buy the M100, so maybe if I don't get lucky and get a sample then I'll consider it later. I suppose I shouldn't expect miracles here, but since Val quit his Facebook Centurions (closed group) page completely to throw in with the head-fi people, and he basically (in my opinion) got stiffed by those people via their crowd-sourced sound, I would like to see him say it was a mistake, or at least say "Next time I'm going to do things differently" - something, anything that suggests he's going to get back on the righteous path and avoid those "fun" headphone signatures.
 

dalethorn

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Zubkabera said:
I have question for Dale, out of your own stock of headphones "Shure 1840, Sennheiser Momentum, ATH ESW9a, Phiaton MS300/400, VModa M80, B&W P5, "which is your preferred headphone to use with DF

I would say the Momentum, because the Dragonfly is a lean sound and the Momentum would provide the best complement to that sound. The other headphones, especially the 1840, sound a little too lean with that DAC. The Phiaton MS400 would probably also be a good match, but I haven't had a chance to test that yet. Quadpatch has experience with amps that work better with the leaner headphones, solid state amps even, but those probably cost a lot more.
 

Zubkabera

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Hi Quadpatch,

I am definitely looking for closed back OTH for private listening and not to bother my better half when she is busy watching soaps :).

My key requirements are treble should be sweet but not bright or harsh and bass should be tight and punchy but not boomy and should not overwhelm the treble and midrange, it should produce vocals specially female's with authority and not veiled behind music.

In past I have tried several Sennheiser not the 6 series but 5 series and always found them bit bassy and mid-range bloated and not detailed enough to recognize individual instruments, hence never went back to Senns. I also have Shure SE535 and like how vocals are produced and love the sweet treble bit miss a bit bass extension. I wish it was possible to have the sweet treble of Shure and bass of Senns. May be too much to ask :oops:
 

dalethorn

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Looking over my long list of headphones, mostly closed, and considering a really nice sweet treble and good bass extension and impact, without any veiling of the mids, only two come to mind immediately. One is the ATH ESW9a, and the other the Apple Earpods with the Dirac DSP and music player.

The ESW9a should have about the same midrange and bass, but would need a slight treble boost to equal the DSP'd Earpods. The free Earpods do not qualify. Leakage is about the same I think, but isolation would favor the ESW9a. Soundstage I can't guess. With a good amp the ESW9a would scale up. And I'm not stretching it on the Earpods with that player.

I spent the last few hours with another 50 tracks trying to find important differences in these headphones, and all (including my open-back Shure 1840) played things with enough clarity and balance to effect a good musical experience. Until I got to my ultimate test track for those finely-detailed upper harmonics. The Who - Bargain, a track my wife found for me in testing electrostatics -vs- dynamics. At approx. 55 seconds in, where the voice trails off with "...best I ever had", the word 'had' reproduces those details very well on the 1840, even better on the Senn HD800, and not too well on the Senn Momentum or ATH ESW9a. But the Earpods get very close to the 1840, and are much better than the Momentum or ESW9a.
 

dalethorn

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I wrote the following on another forum, but this is a good place to repeat that analysis, since this is the M100 review and questions were asked about a good closed headphone for general listening. The last sentence, saying the M100 can be a good listen with EQ, but not a relaxed listen, is best explained in Edd's review.

I have the M100, Momentum, and P5 now. Not much of a really good comparison possible, since the basic signatures are so different that speaking about clarity or other fine qualities, those qualities are dwarfed by the much bigger differences. My personal quick summary is P5: Pretty neutral, very slightly tilted to the right (warmer, softer highs) from flat or neutral. Momentum: Bassier than P5, richer sound overall (makes P5 sound bland by comparison), but very slightly more HF rolloff. M100: Very bassy, makes mids seem recessed. Slightly uneven highs can make some material sound brittle or glassy. I think the P5 and Momentum are good all-arounders, the P5 more for the conservative purist and the Momentum for the person who doesn't care about purism or whatever and wants to enjoy its richer sound. I can't advise on using the M100 played flat, since that's basshead territory where I have no expertise. But with some bass reduction the M100 can be a pretty good listen, but it won't be a relaxed listen, if that makes sense.
 

quadpatch

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Hey Dale, It's nice to see that you have the M-100's now too, but any disappointment that you may feel with this sound I take no happiness in. I'm still annoyed at how much I don't want to keep using the M-100's, if only they were like the M-80 more! :(.

I have since got the Momentum and I absolutely adore it! This is the kind of sound that I was roughly hoping for from the M-100, if only I could have had this in the M-100 chassis, but then again I also really like the looks of the Momentum and it seems to grow on me all the time. I like how it's slightly understated too.

After writing an avergae score (3 stars) on Amazon UK for the M-100 I nnoticed that AnakChan (of Head-fi) has come in there with a 5 star one. I'm not sure it's quite right that someone who lives in Japan, get's the M-100 for free and is personal friends with the CO of V-Moda is writing reviews for the UK Amazon, but there you go.
 

dalethorn

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quadpatch said:
Hey Dale, It's nice to see that you have the M-100's now too, but any disappointment that you may feel with this sound I take no happiness in. I'm still annoyed at how much I don't want to keep using the M-100's, if only they were like the M-80 more!

I would never confuse the sound of the M80 with the M100, not even after a long night with some good Scotch.

quadpatch said:
I have since got the Momentum and I absolutely adore it! This is the kind of sound that I was roughly hoping for from the M-100, if only I could have had this in the M-100 chassis, but then again I also really like the looks of the Momentum and it seems to grow on me all the time. I like how it's slightly understated too.

Comparing the Momentum to the M100, hmmm.... -- that would be like comparing Field Of Dreams to The Untouchables. A very different mood.

quadpatch said:
After writing an avergae score (3 stars) on Amazon UK for the M-100 I nnoticed that AnakChan (of Head-fi) has come in there with a 5 star one. I'm not sure it's quite right that someone who lives in Japan, get's the M-100 for free and is personal friends with the CO of V-Moda is writing reviews for the UK Amazon, but there you go.

I did give the M100 5 stars on Amazon U.S. since they're going to be my main at-home and portable for the time being. I will NOT, under any circumstances let go of my Momentum, since I'm quite convinced the Momentum sound is probably as close to heavenly as this mortal is likely to get. So the interesting thing will be my longer-term experience with this M100. In another few days or a week, I'll have a go at the Momentum, to see how that goes. I've done like this before, gotten a headphone with less than ideal sound and EQ'd it, then used it more or less exclusively for a period of time, then switched back to a favorite and been shocked at how far I've gone over the Sonic Cliff** with that new headphone, upon which I quickly dispose of that new discovery. I'm crossing my fingers and knocking on wood and caressing my rabbit's foot and shaking my mojo, hoping the M100 survives the cut when I switch back to the Momentum.

**I just made that up - cool, huh?
 

quadpatch

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Hey well at least the M-100's sound is consistant between units :).

Yeah I don't want to compare the M-100 and the Momentum, it will annoy me too much! Although I'm curious how you get on with that :p

I really love the Momentum! Great style inside and out! It's very pleasant and enjoyable. I have been wearing the Momentum as a portable for a couple of days but I'm a little worried about them. They're not as bullet proof as the M-100. The M-100 do make a decent headphone for outise use if you EQ them to hell but I still hate doing EQ adjustments. If I only owned one pair of headphones it wouldn't be too bad, as it is it would annoy me too much.

Haha @ Sonic Cliff, nice one! Is that the cliff of colouration? :)
 

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