M-Audio Studiophile Q40 - Vented or fully closed?

I'm just wondering if it's vented on the cups or not, I see that "grille" on the backside looks suspicious. I'm just wondering how the soundstage and isolation are on these, I do tend to prefer semi-closed designs as pretty much all headphones whit this design have brought improvement to soundstage and bass response in my ears over a fully closed design so if it's semi-closed it's probably a bigger chance that I will like them than if it would be fully closed.

There's this high res picture on M-Audio's site but it's kind of hard to tell if it's fabric behind the grill or not (click to zoom in) http://www.m-audio.com/images/global/media_hqpics/SP_Q_40-side.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by zazex 

I recently brought home a pair for listening (since returned), and recall them being fully closed.

 

 

Edit: BTW, they have a ton of bass - too much for me.  

It's the main reason I didn't keep them.

OK but are you certain there's not just a very dense fabric undearneath the grill. You see some fabrics can dampen the sound by such a large degree especially if the vents are just very small (it doesn't have to be the case that the whole area under the grill would be open, could be just some small holes somewhere which was the case with JVC HA-M5X which has a similar design) you'd think it would be fully closed. Happened for me with these Panasonic HTF600 which I didn't realize until I opened them up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zazex 

No, I'm not certain.  

 

I'm going to do some looking around and post again in this thread if I locate any definitive info.

It might be hard to see if there is any fabric there but if poking very gently with a nail through a hole there should tell if it's plastic or not underneath (ofc should be done carefully at the edge rather than in the middle to avoid damaging something)...

But still that being the case the holes if there's any might be just somewhere in the middle too underneath the middle "stripe" in case this part isn't totally lying against the grill and there's some space in-between. This is where the vents are on JVC HA-M5X, underneath the rubber band stripe that stretches over the grill in the middle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zazex 

But M-Audio themselves say that they are closed - "sealed", in fact.  :)

 

Closed-back, Circum-aural Design

With sealed backings and comfortable ear cups that completely surround the ears, the Studiophile Q40 headphones deliver excellent sonic isolation for accurate monitoring. You’ll hear more detail at lower volumes, so you can protect your hearing while tracking, mixing or listening in any noisy environment. In addition, the Q40 headphones afford privacy when working in a shared space.

Yea but manufacturers aren't often that accurate with such kind of info, neither were they with Sony XB series nor JVC HA-M5X which are "closed-back" headphones but still got significant of venting in the cup... My guess it's lying underneath the "M-Audio" label. Are you able to check if this label at least got some small space underneath so it's not touching the grill and there's some kind of space between the grill and the plastic part. If there's some space in-between I'm very much guessing some vents are lying there. From the pic I think I even can see that as the shadows suggest this plastic part with the M-Audio label isn't quite touching the grill in the middle.

As seen here (click on pic to zoom):

Ah well screw this, I'm just gonna buy them and see if I like them or not. It's just I'm getting stacked with bunch of lowcost headphones I don't need and I'm too lazy to put up for sale as the price is too low for me to care about it. ^^

Thanks for you help. :)