[menuki]

Here is the list of all three headphones mentioned in the title:

 

http://goo.gl/JBA5Ab - MSUR N650 

http://goo.gl/Q8pBhW - MSUR N550 

http://goo.gl/rsdDFJ - MSUR N350

 

They all have pretty good ratings on Alliexpress but you can't find ANY reviews whatsoever literally nowhere.

I ordered the N650 for 140$ and i am pretty exited to try them. The frequency response looks promising and they look really nice with the wood and aluminium construction.

 

The MSUR N550 is also listed on the website 52ve.cn the official website of venture electronics (maker of VE Monk, VE Zen, VE Duke). I have no idea why the headphone is listed there but from what i can tell is that they are getting praised by venture electronics or something?

 

Maybe someone has any more infos about them?

 

[Roderick]

I have N550. I was planning on writing a a full review on those but I've been too busy lately. Long story short: amazing headphones considering I got those for $80. Bassy/ V-shape soundsignature.  Eq is recommended. Very nice detailed highs. Cymbals, bells and such sound realistic. Despite all the bass N550 are very detailed.
 
Build quality is the best I've seen in headphones of this price. It is pretty great for headphones at any price.  Cups are real wood, finish on the cups is great and metal hinges and headband look great. Pads are about the same thickness or maybe a bit thicker than HM5 pads. Unfortunately they don't appear to be memory foam. Very comfortable though. Detachable cables. Short and long version. To my ears the longer cable smears the detail a bit so I prefer the shorter one. It is kind of weird that they have the shorter cable included. These are very large headphones...I doubt anyone would want to use these as portable option.
 
Drivers are beryllium. Supposedly very thin...2 microns. Something usually seen on electrostatic headphones or some high end planar models.
 
I've been planning on several mods. Whole structure of the headphones is so loud that it has to affect the sound on some level. When you tap the ear cup you can hear the metal headband ringing. Some damping inside the cups and maybe a piece of tape...or strap of leather around the headband should do the trick.  Cables could propably use upgrade too. The shorter cable is the better one imo, but it is very thin. It is like a cable for iems. There could be room for improvement I guess.
 
Most important thing would be a pad upgrade. So far I have tried only HM5 velour pads. Those pads tame the bass and enhance detail. Unfortunately sound became clinical and sterile. There is no body in the mids anymore. It helps to push the cups towards my ears for optimal sound. When I do that the sound is very clean and balanced...it even made my T5p sound grainy in comparison. I'm thinking that HM5 or hifiman hybrid pads might be a good match.
 
These headphones have so much potential that I don't mind if I have to spend as much on mods as I did on the headphones. Even without mods I highly recommend these for people who know how to use eq or are looking for bassy headphones.
 
I also noticed that these are listed on VE's site. I don't know who made these... There is a company called Shenzhen JIANLONG WSUR Trade Co., Ltd. which claims to be the manufacturer. There are so many different rebrands of these headphones available that it is allmost impossible to tell who is the oem... There are also headphones that have the same cups and headband assembly but don't have the beryllium drivers.
 
EDIT: It is true that it is hard to find credible reviews off these headphones. But I've seen some opinions and talked with few people who are familiar with Msur and know more about headphones than some average amazon reviewer. One user preferred these over Beyerdynamic DT880, other one liked these better than Yamaha MT220 and one person who owns a lot of high end flagship headphones considers N650 to be a good value headphone.

 

[menuki]

Really didn't expected that i would get a impression this detailed and this late. Thanks a lot. I am in love with the MT220's and now i am even more exited to try the N650. What EQ settings do you use or in general, what do you (want to) achieve by equalizing them? 
 
It is strange. There is only one version of the N650 as of yet, at least on Alliexpress. I've also seen some N550 models with additional amateur drivers. Don't know what that is all about.
 
When i visit the site of "Shenzhen JIANLONG WSUR Trade Co." under the headphone section they list the N350, N550 and N650 all with the MSUR logo. So my guess is that MSUR is the original brand. The site: http://zcon.en.alibaba.com/
 
Thanks again for taking your time and giving me your impressions. Looking forward to a full review of yours. Once i get the N650 in my hands i plan to do a full review as well and maybe they will gain some more attention. 

 

 

[Roderick]

Sorry for the late reply! With N550 I lower the midbass a bit and also the highs... Highs are not that troublesome though so it is more about fine tuning. Often when I eq bass heavy headphones I like to make a quite a dip in the midbass section.. I like prominent subbass but excessive midbass is a turnoff for me. When possible I prefer mods over eq.
 
There is a company called winintone that sells headphones that look like n550. They have other headphones that have similar hinge design. My guess is that winintone is the source for the cups and hinges. Wsur just adds the beryllium driver. It seems that all (all I've seen anyway) of those models have the same baffle. New baffle might be a worthy experiment also. It is unlikely that baffle designed to house some $0.20 driver is optimal for the beryllium drivers used in Msur's.

 

[menuki]

No problem and thanks for your answer!
 
I recieved the MSUR 350 a week ago and i was very satisfied with them. Loved the sound and wood finish. But after an hour or so they hurt my ears because of their on-ear design. I recieved the MSUR 650 a day ago and this was the big "fail". The earcups don't swivel so it is impossible to get a fit arround the ears. I see that the MSUR 550 have the swivel earcups but the metal hinges on top look so fragile. It's pretty sad because i had such high hopes for the MSUR 650 but they are not the right headphones for me.

 

[Roderick]

Sorry to hear about your problems with n650! Any change you could try some other pads with larger ear pad opening? I suppose both n550 and n650 have the same earpads. It is indeed on the small side...weird design. Hm5 pads fit, beyerdynamic dt770/dt880/dt990/cop/t1/t5p pads should fit too but are slightly too big so some modding is needed to hold the pads in proper position. I tried n550's with t5p pads.  Maybe some akg pads could fit also and hifiman... By the pictures n650 is about the same size as n550.
 

MSUR 550 have the swivel earcups but the metal hinges on top look so fragile.

 
Do you mean the joint that allows the cups to swivel or the top part of the headphone assembly that goes over your head? Even though those parts look thin, it is steel. No way those could be broken even if you tried. The swiveling joint is another thing. These are still new headphones for me  so I can't say anything about the longevity of the product but if the screw in the joint part becomes loose I guess that could cause problems. It looks like the screw is easy to tighten if that ever happened so I feel quite confident about durability of these headphones
 
Any more impressions on the sound? How does it compare to your yamahas or other headphones you have experience with?

 

[menuki]

I toally forgot that my N350 were amzing all along and i didnt need the N650. They are more compact and comfortable and have the better sound imo. And they do sound phenomenal. Compared to the HD700, Fidelio X2, Mt220 and Panasonic RP-Hd10 i love them the most. I have never heard such a clear sounding headphone, to my ears rhey sound pretty neutral too

The soundstage is also way bigger than on my other closed back headphones. Bass sounds wonderfull with the wood cups! It seems like the whole music is afftected by this wood in a positive way.

Thanks for the reply and checking yours.

 

[Roderick]

Wow, a high praise for n350 I might buy a pair. My martin logan mikros90 are pretty beat up and I could use good portable headphones.. It seems that the drivers are indeed someting extraordinary...atleast for the price anyway. I actually put my T5p on sale. T5p's still have better mids but n550's have more refined highs, better bass, equal soundstage and detail retrival... Add matching build quality..  for 10% of the price it is a no brainer really
 
Jvc Dx1000 will still remain as my #1 headphone but n550's are a great complimentary headphones with a different sound signature.

 

[menuki]

I've now tried the MSUR N650 again. It is so wired. You can bend the top headband as you like. This is very very neccesary because you HAVE to bend them to fit them to your head. But once bent, they stay like that and you just have to put them on without adjusting them. So the N350 and N650 are in the game now. The N650 has a larger soundstage and less bass than the N350. It is really hard to tell which i like more. The N350 are really direct with in your face music and the N650 are more away sounding. Both sound really really detailed. It is incredibly how detailes these sound. Magic. 

 

[Roderick]

I think the amount of detail is directly related on how clean the drivers sound. Even higher end headphones tend to add some "fuzz" when cymbals and such are played... My experiences with  electrostatic headphones are limited to auditions but I feel that there are alot similarities with these beryllium drivers and estat sound. Quite a winning concept, estat clarity and effortlesness combined with dynamic bass. With none of the congested sound I've heard with planars

 

[menuki]

Wow. I am amazed how much you like them! They are indeed a far away hidden gem waiting to be discoverd. I have never heard the HD800 before but i cant't imagine how they could sound better. Is this crazy? I have no idea. :'D

 

[Roderick]

I have not heard hd800 either. Best headphone I have owned is Beyerdynamic T1. From my memory it sounds more transparent and spacious than n550 without being worse in any other area either. A lot of it comes from the open back design though. Comparing open and closed headphones is quite pointless. But when talking about closed headphones Msur's are way better than one might expect. Atleast with eq/mods.
 
I've owned quite a few closed back headphones that cost about twice as much as n550. Dt770, hm5, m50, cop... None as impressive as n550. Imo n550's don't just punch above their price bracket... They are more reminiscent of something like $400 ath w1000x in terms of sound quality than $200 dt770.

 

[menuki]

There is nothing better than enyoing a really good headphone. These are just out of this world.

 

[Roderick]

I agree...though some things can be quite good too Anyway... Your wallet is not safe. On average T5p is an upgrade over n550's. Mainly because midrange on T5p is really, really good. It is all about how much are you willing to pay for the upgrade. T5p is not a lot bettter headphone. It is however a lot more expensive.  I allready have Dx1000 as my main headphone...it makes a difference if my secondary closed  headphone costs $100 or $1000.

 

[menuki]

You are right. There are just a few other things. :') I think my wallet is safe... for now atleast. The T5p is too expansive for me and doesn't justify the 800€ more imo. Is the T5p's midrange more forward or more warm or just more detailed? Could you define better?
 
After slapping on the HM5 Hybrid pads they became very very vomfortable. But i'll try the HM5 pleather angled pads because the T5p, T1, HD800 and almost every flagship has angled drivers so i am very exited to try them. Maybe bass will become too much.. but as of now i would like a tad more bass than i get with the hybrid pads.