V-MODA M-100 headphone - my review and pictures

dalethorn

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Another look at this interesting new headphone... http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/forum/headphone-reviews/2804-v-moda-m-100-stereo-headphone-review-dale.html
 

quadpatch

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Cool review and pics Dale!

You're too used to hifiheadphones Dale, you can post pics here you know :p

Headphone_Vmoda_M100_01.jpg


Headphone_Vmoda_M100_02.jpg
 

dalethorn

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Ah - my very primitive M100 images. I just walked outside the flat and put the headphone on the wood railing, with a black binder underneath, then fired off a few bursts with my Panasonic LX7. I didn't even check the settings, so the images were rather blue and I had to do a fast shuffle with the color layers. Still, the white parts are pretty well burnt out, either in the "photography", or my post processing in Paint Shop Pro v6.

BTW, someone added a new review on U.S. Amazon with a "Night before xmas" story embedded in it. Worth checking out. His impressions are well in line with what we found.
 

dalethorn

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I thought I should update this topic with the last couple weeks of accumulated experience. My original impression of the M100 out of the box, and comparing that with Edd's review hasn't changed. Played without EQ, it sounds like listening to music at the end of a tunnel (albeit a short tunnel), with dollops of bass added to that. With bass reducer, the bass compares very well to the Senn Momentum, the treble is slightly better than the Momentum, and the mids are darker, warmer, and less dry. I went back to the Momentum for a few hours and enjoyed the sound, but it felt like something was missing, like gently withdrawing from an addictive drug. So I can't say that the M100 represents better fidelity, but the effect is still working, which is amazing enough. Absolute fidelity aside, I think I'm as close to my ideal sound as I've ever been, and the things I would most like to improve are: A slight change in the mids to reduce the 'tunnel sound' effect (which isn't bad after reducing the bass), and a very small change in the upper presence area to mitigate a slight hardness or sibilance, which is just audible on a few music tracks.
 
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Anonymous

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If you get a chance, listen to your playlist on some ' burned in ' DT 770 Pro AE's. I own both the DT's and the V-Moda's, and I would be very interested in any observations you may have if you get a chance to listen to the DT's 8)
 

dalethorn

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Finguz said:
If you get a chance, listen to your playlist on some ' burned in ' DT 770 Pro AE's. I own both the DT's and the V-Moda's, and I would be very interested in any observations you may have if you get a chance to listen to the DT's 8)

I was very interested in that anniversary edition, but didn't buy because of the published response curves for the regular edition. The bass being up 6 to 8 db I can handle with bass reduction on ipods etc., like I do with the M100. But I can't also correct the big treble peak around 9 khz, which is way above the M100 result. And the M100 is my limit for treble after bass reduction. So if anyone knows what the sound is like for the 88th anniversary edition, that would be good to know.

Edit: I didn't realize you already had the AE, so maybe you can tell me if the AE has the peak I see in the FR graphs, or if any treble peaks are audible with the AE that exceed treble in the M100.
 
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Anonymous

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To be brutally honest, you need to listen to them yourself. My ears may be nothing like yours, and my opinion might put you off. Suffice to say that the AE's are very worthy of an audition. If there's one thing my years of hi-fi listening have taught me, it's to ignore reviews/individual opinions and go have a listen.

They're bangin', crystal clear and fatigue free....so to speak.

Everything from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8eNXv97YFY&list=FLA8qURgNEpssbfT4OGiN97Q <--this to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhU1JFVhMQE&list=FLA8qURgNEpssbfT4OGiN97Q sounds wonderful to these ears!

John Mayer would love these cans, possibly, depending on his ears of course ;)
 

dalethorn

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Finguz said:
To be brutally honest, you need to listen to them yourself. My ears may be nothing like yours, and my opinion might put you off. Suffice to say that the AE's are very worthy of an audition. If there's one thing my years of hi-fi listening have taught me, it's to ignore reviews/individual opinions and go have a listen.

I'm not able to have a listen. If I order them and don't like them it will cost me a lot to return them (more than most people). But I didn't need an opinion anyway, and levels of hearing won't matter. I just need to know, comparing the 770 and M100, if the HF output you hear around 8.5 khz with the 770 is much stronger than the 8.5 khz output you hear with the M100, using test tones, when both headphones volume sound about the same for average music playback. If there's a difference but the difference doesn't seem like a lot, then it's a better risk for me.

When I do such tests and set comparable volume levels for 2 different headphones, I usually use music that has a broad spectrum of frequencies active at the same time, with fairly steady volume. David Bowie's Suffragette City, DC5's Any Way You Want It, Elastica's Annie, etc.

Thank you!!
 

dalethorn

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I wasted several more hours reading reviews of the 770 LE, and apparently the highs are just shy of scorching hot, i.e. nothing whatever like the M100. Is this what everyone is afraid to talk about?
 

quadpatch

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I have both the M100 and DT770 LE. To me and everyone I have leant them to the VModa sounds pretty awful for the price and the DT770 LE sounds pretty amazing. I had to look up the graph for DT770 and it does look a bit scary so I guess this is another example of how you just can't rely on technical data to tell you how somethings sounds. I've seen the DT770 for almost half the cost of the M100, but even if it was the other way around I wouldn't recommend the M100.

I see the original DT770 Pro being used a lot for studio recording and if it was that bad in the treble or bass as it looks on the graph people wouldn't touch it with a barge poll.
 
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Anonymous

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Afraid to talk about? The DT 770 AE's sound fantastic, and I returned the V-moda's this morning, sorry I can't help with the comparison. I can tell you that the V-modas are quite simply not anywhere near the same league as the Beyers.

I can't force you to try the DT's, but you really should :?
 

dalethorn

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Finguz said:
Afraid to talk about? The DT 770 AE's sound fantastic, and I returned the V-moda's this morning, sorry I can't help with the comparison. I can tell you that the V-modas are quite simply not anywhere near the same league as the Beyers. I can't force you to try the DT's, but you really should :?

The M100 sounds wonderful with bass reduction. Did you try bass reduction (per my review) for a good length of time? I'm guessing no.

The 770 (I suspect) sounds very hot around 8.5 khz compared to the M100, but everyone is afraid to talk about it, and compare it directly to the M100.

Why should I pay $250 USD to make that comparison when everyone I talk to on a forum (like here) is unwilling to do it for free? You set the volumes the same and then play 8 to 9 khz tones on each and listen. How hard would that be? I do those things a hundred times over for people.
 

quadpatch

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dalethorn said:
The M100 sounds wonderful with bass reduction. Did you try bass reduction (per my review) for a good length of time? I'm guessing no.

The 770 (I suspect) sounds very hot around 8.5 khz compared to the M100, but everyone is afraid to talk about it, and compare it directly to the M100.

Why should I pay $250 USD to make that comparison when everyone I talk to on a forum (like here) is unwilling to do it for free? You set the volumes the same and then play 8 to 9 khz tones on each and listen. How hard would that be? I do those things a hundred times over for people.

I tried the M100 with bass reduction and don't think it made it sound great. It helps, but I don't think you should have to do it for any headphone to make it sound right. I haven't tried test tones on the DT770 LE because I'm away at the moment but even if it sounds bad who cares, with music it sounds great and what puzzles me more is that apparently the DT770 bass can't even be compensated for, but yet doesn't even need eq to sound fantastic and pretty flat compared to the M100, which sounds dull and lifelly by comparison (without eq).
 

dalethorn

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I hear flat from around 30 hz to about 11 khz, with a gentle rolloff below and above, so that 16 khz becomes my limit, and then it's faint. But still, that range is good for hi-fi listening, and with 30 years experience on everything from Stax and Koss electrostatics to my latest 3 years with a Senn HD800 and some small but decent amps, I find that the M100 with bass reduction (and without EQ distortion) is a great sound, though having a distinct "dark" coloration. There's a world of "flat" or "neutral" headphones out there, some of which I've had (Senn 580/600/650/800, Soundmagic HP100, v-moda M80, Grado PS500 etc. etc.), and while all of those provide a classic "hi-fi" experience, they don't provide a satisfactory emotional experience with most of my low quality recordings.

I would go further with this and say that, while I would love to have high quality recordings only, that appears to be available mainly as an intellectual pursuit (classical, some jazz perhaps) rather than an emotional pursuit, where I have luxuriated mostly for those aforementioned decades. Going further, I'd suggest that the M100 with an excellent bass reduction does a far better job with high quality recordings than the previously noted "flat" headphones do with low quality recordings, hence the M100 is more suitable (and enjoyable) with such a mixed collection.
 

dalethorn

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And with the DT770 AE, my request wasn't for a vague opinion for long-term consideration. It was for a precise answer for purchasing the item quickly before supplies of it disappeared forever. With all of the resources I have on all the forums I post on, nobody who had the 770 on hand would so much as make an attempt to answer the question.
 

dalethorn

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At the risk of creating boredom, but still on topic for this headphone review, I feel badly about recommending anything less than high fidelity since I've advocated for high fidelity my entire adult life. The changes in perspective that I've been involved in with my headphone projects of the past year or so finally coalesced in my experience with the Dirac DSP and two earphones - the Apple Earpods and t-Jays Four IEM. The quality that the Dirac DSP brought to those earphones wasn't just an improvement in sound - it gave the Earpods enough quality of tone that after a very long comparison, much of the Shure 1840's tonal reproduction sounded slightly artificial by comparison. I've read headfonia's comments about grainy 1840 sound in several places, so perhaps there's an explanation there.

The interesting thing about the Dirac sound is, to me it seems closer to the "darker" headphones than to the "hi-fi" headphones I listed previously. The several headphone forums I participate on are deathly quiet on the subject of Dirac DSP, as though a few have tried it and don't understand what they're hearing. Since the DSP is specific to both the hardware in the music player and the specific headphone plugged into it, the chances of getting such DSP's for large headphones are unknown. I have yet another IEM (XTZ) on the way with yet another Dirac player for Apple devices, and still no word on real headphones.

What all of this has to do with the M100 is, I hear something closer to the M100 in those Dirac DSP's, and I really like the smoothness and detail in the sound, but with the utter lack of relevant comment relating to Dirac DSP's on these headphone forums, I can't suggest to anyone which is the "right" sound. It may be somewhere in between the Sennheiser HD800 or Stax SR009 and what Dirac does, or maybe not.
 
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Anonymous

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Why would I want to spend nearly £300 on a pair of headphones and then start using EQ to make them sound like I think they should with my music? I listen to headphones and then return the ones I don't like the sound of. I would never purchase a pair and then keep them because I could EQ the sound to make it bearable, what would be the point?

As I said, if you don't want to listen to the DT's you are going to miss out, and that's fine with me :)
 

dalethorn

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Finguz said:
Why would I want to spend nearly £300 on a pair of headphones and then start using EQ to make them sound like I think they should with my music? I listen to headphones and then return the ones I don't like the sound of. I would never purchase a pair and then keep them because I could EQ the sound to make it bearable, what would be the point?

The point is extremely simple. If they sound better with EQ than your other options, then that's the justification. If they don't sound better, then there isn't a justification. It's really not arguable - you and only you decide what sounds best to you. Since this is my review, I'm reporting my very pleasant experiences to anyone who would consider the M100, but is skeptical because of a lot of confusion in the forums. Users can consider your claims, then consider mine, and decide for themselves.

As to your suggestion with the 770, unlike me where I perform the tests that users request, to help them decide on a purchase, you offer no help at all, just "they sound good", which doesn't equate to anything. When people ask me "How will the M100 sound with my music?", I sometimes ask them to suggest a couple of music tracks, and then I download those and see how the headphone performs with those tracks. As a plus, I get to expand my music collection that way, but even better, I expand my communication with other people, because now I'm listening to more and more current music that other people who read my reviews are listening to.
 

dalethorn

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The music tracks listed in my original V-MODA M100 review were carried over from my oldest reviews, to provide a comparison between different headphones playing the same music. Starting with this review, I'm switching to a more modern selection that I think will fit better with modern headphones like the M100. Note that the following comments are based on using the M100 with bass reduction EQ, as noted in the original review.

Animotion - Obsession (1980's New Wave/Techno): The upper bass synth should have good detail and tone, and both male and female vocals should sound natural, without favoring either. The M100 plays this perfectly.

Ben Heit Quartet - Suite-Magnet and Iron (Jazz with a Bebop flavor): The piano that leads off should sound realistic, and the sax should sound soft. The M100 plays this music very well.

Cath Carroll - Moves Like You (1980's New Wave/Techno): This track's percussion and voice should be crisp and well-balanced, and there should be a good sense of space or soundstage around the voices and instruments. The M100 reproduces the space and detail convincingly, although if this is played too loudly, the sharpness of the percussive sounds could verge on irritating.

Chromatics - I'm On Fire (Synth-Pop, female lead): Another track with plenty of space around the voice and instruments. The voice and high-frequency percussion (tambourine?) should sound natural with no harshness. The M100 plays this music perfectly.

Crystal Castles - Wrath of God (Electro-Pop): The moderate level of bass in this track should reproduce with good detail, and the ambient electronic effects should maintain their separation and never congeal into a glassy, hard, or "ringy" sound as some headphones might produce if they have uncorrected resonances. The M100 does this one just right.

DJ Shadow - Building Steam With a Grain of Salt (Electronic/DJ): This track opens with what sounds like very high and very low piano notes, and those high notes particularly might ring a few resonances in lesser headphones. The M100 handles those notes well, and reproduces the ambient voices with good tone and balance.

Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses (Pop-Rock): The moderate level of bass in this track should reproduce with good detail, and the percussion and voice should be crisp and well-balanced. The M100 makes this sound like what I imagine the original producers heard when they mixed it.

Halie Loren - Sway (Jazz vocal): Bass instrument(s) here may sound boomy with some headphones, but the M100 handles this perfectly. The trumpet should sound natural but soft, and the voice should have the right presence without sounding recessed or too forward. The M100 does a great job in both respects.

Hans Zimmer - Dark Knight-Aggressive Expansion (Soundtrack): The percussion hits hard here, and the M100 handles it well. The bass tones beginning around 0:45 into the track are the ultra-deep "shuddery" kind that require good deep bass response from a headphone, and the M100 delivers on those.

Kaskade - 4am (Electro-House): The bass that kicks in around 1:01 into the track is subtle, but the M100 gets it right. The percussion and female voice should balance well with neither overwriting the other, and the M100 aces this.

Katy B - Perfect Stranger (R&B-House-Garage): The heavy bass that begins at 0:27 into this track is played very well by the M100. The voice is slightly forward, but it doesn't overpower the instruments or get lost in the mix. The M100 balances the different elements in this music extremely well.

Machine Gun Kelly - All We Have (Rap/Hip-Hop): The heavy bass beats that begin at 0:23 into the track should sound like drum impacts, although they're not sharp impacts. The male and female voices should have a good balance and not overpower the music or sound recessed. The M100 plays this as good as can be expected given the limited quality of the recording.

Massive Attack - Angel (Trip-Hop): This track begins with a steady low-frequency sound and some solid deep-bass impacts. The voices should blend well with the music and have just the right presence, although the recorded quality of the instruments isn't great. The M100 plays this as good as can be expected given the limited quality of the recording.

Morcheeba - Bullet Proof (Trip-Hop): Bright percussion and medium-strength bass impacts make up most of this, with some dance-club spoken intonations thrown in. The M100 renders the percussion treble correctly (not too bright, not harsh), and the voices sound just right.

Peter Tosh - Get Up Stand Up (Reggae): The bass here has a decent but moderate impact, and the lead and backup voices have good separation that's not too narrow or wide. The M100 renders the bass with good detail and the voices sound very natural.

Porcupine Tree - Trains (Pop-Rock): This track opens with some detailed string sounds and a forward-sounding male voice with a higher-than-average register. There are also some "clip-clop" effects starting at 3:19 that should sound like they were made with wooden blocks of some kind. The M100 reproduces all of these sounds faithfully.

Rachmaninoff - Prelude in C-Sharp Minor Op3 No2 (Classical, Piano): Grand piano played mechanically from an original recording by the master himself. The bass is light here, but the piano tone is good quality, and the M100 plays these notes very well.

Scarlatti-Kipnis - Sonata in E Major K381 (Classical, Harpsichord): The harpsichord here is fairly bright and highly detailed, and the M100 renders the tones and transients superbly.

Trombone Shorty - Backatown (Jazz-Funk): The deep bass impacts here are unusually strong, and work very well with the horns and other instruments. The M100 delivers the impacts with proper weight, and makes the horns sound real.

William Orbit - Optical Illusion (Billy Buttons Mix) (Electronic): This is about as close as I want to get to easy-listening music. The string(?) tones beginning at 0:18 are subtle, but clearly reproduced by the M100. The bass isn't very strong, but still adds a good underpinning to the music. The short poetic rap at 4:14, preceded by an etherial female voice, sounds so perfect that this track could easily have been mixed using the M100 headphone.
 
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Anonymous

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Judging by your recent posts on 'Headfonia' it seems safe to assume you have the DT 770 Pro AE's and consider their sound to be close to the best you have heard!

You said.. on The Beyerdynamic We Love: DT770 Anniversary Edition 5 hours ago

" Once I figured out this treble-trim, I settled in for a long listen. I can't be sure this is the best sound I've ever heard in my house, but it has to be close. It's marvelous. "

Nice to see someone else enjoying such a great set of cans, I hope you get many years worth of enjoyment out of them :cheers:
 
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Anonymous

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Judging by your comments on Headfonia you already have the AE's and are really enjoying them, I quote...

dalethorn posted a comment in The Beyerdynamic We Love: DT770 Anniversary Edition · a day ago

Once I figured out this treble-trim, I settled in for a long listen. I can't be sure this is the best sound I've ever heard in my house, but it has to be close. It's marvelous.

Good to see someone else enjoying these awesome cans!! :clap: ;)
 

dalethorn

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Finguz said:
Judging by your comments on Headfonia you already have the AE's and are really enjoying them, I quote...

dalethorn posted a comment in The Beyerdynamic We Love: DT770 Anniversary Edition · a day ago

Once I figured out this treble-trim, I settled in for a long listen. I can't be sure this is the best sound I've ever heard in my house, but it has to be close. It's marvelous.

Good to see someone else enjoying these awesome cans!! :clap: ;)

Yes, I noted already that I settled on a smaller treble adjustment. And, I found this marvelous music track: "Xilent - Choose Me II" - have you heard that one?;) - the AE's detail really makes that come alive.
 
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Anonymous

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That's in one of my playlists, I particularly like this shortened version with some awesome timelapse which goes so well with the audio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8eNXv97YFY&list=FLA8qURgNEpssbfT4OGiN97Q&index=98

Of course the fact that the AE's love it too helps immensely!

Bizarrely I was listening to that very track as I typed my first post in this thread :bounce:

Edit: Ooops, if you check back on page one of this thread you will see I already shared the same song + timelapse 8)
 

dalethorn

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I was just feigning ignorance - I saw your post on headfi and watched it, then bought a couple versions at iTunes. I'm always on the lookout for more music.
 

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