[gelocks]

Hello everyone.
 
I was searching the boards to see if anyone had tried these headphones and commented on them but didn't see anything. Seems no one has noticed about this new entry from Monster. Well, I was randomly browsing on Amazon and somehow ended on their page for these headphones. I actually liked their looks and found them cheap enough to guarantee a purchase from me.
 
I have to say, I'm GLAD I DID!!
 
Since I was at amazon.com, I saw a bunch of positive reviews:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Monster-NCredible-NPulse-Over-Ear-Headphones/dp/B009IKCKMY
 
But then I noticed that most (if not all) of them were done through their "Vine" program so... I wasn't sure if I should trust them. Either way, I plunged.
 
Features:
 

1. DJ style ear cups swivel up and out of the way
2. Tangle-free cable (removable)
3. ControlTalk Universal
4. Over-ear design with DJ style swiveling ear cups

 
Specifications:
 
Yeah... couldn't find nothing on their site (the headphone PDF manual is a dead link... great... LOL) But I'll check the manual at home.
 
Packaging:
 
Excellent job by Monster on packaging these guys (pictures to come). It really doesn't come with a whole lot. A removable 3.5mm/3.5mm cable with their ControlTalk thingie which I haven't (and probably will never) used, a small gray good looking bag and manuals, stickers, cleaning cloth, etc.
 
Short Sound Impressions:
 
I'll start by saying that my current favorite headphones at this moment are MrSpeakers Mad Dogs and Ultrasone Signature DJ. One neutral-ish with a warm signature, and the other with a more fun approach, lots of bass, good mids/highs (non-fatiguing) and a good deal of detail and clarity. I really like this combination a lot and usually run it (mostly) at work using my Cowon C2 going to the Schiit Magni.
 
Now that you have a bit of background I can start saying that I'm loving these a lot!
Who would have thought that I'd like headphones endorsed by frikin NICK CANNON! LOL
 
Headphones arrived on Friday, took them to my 'pops' house (to celebrate Father's day weekend) and just ran them straight through my Cowon. Really powerful bass! Then I started noticing and saying to myself: "Hey! These don't sound like a muddy mess!... Hmmmm, they are not lacking in detailing specific effects and instruments either! Interesting..." Played a bit of different tracks (genres) through them:
 
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
Kaskade - Fire in your New Shoes
Filter - Surprise
Deftones - Graphic Nature
Amber Rubarth - Tundra
Siloé - Novela Del Ayer
Calvin Harris - Sweet Nothing
Logo Beat - No puedes parar de bailar
Incubus - Friends and Lovers
Bring Me The Horizon - Sleepwalking
 
Notes: Very good bass slam, note decay seems good. Mids are not as recessed as I would expect (given the big bass being produced!), they are indeed a bit warm, expected I guess, but pretty good with plenty of details. I noticed a bit of "distortion" on the lower-mids, not sure if it's just specific tracks (or my MP3s), or if it's even resonance similar to the stock Fostex T50RPs but at least these don't get in the way of enjoyment. Brightness levels don't reach M-Audio Q40, probably a bit more than the V-moda M80s, so to me at least they are NOT fatiguing at all (and I'm a Shure fan... just in case )
 
Audio cons: Metal, punk, hardcore, meeeh! The warmish mids seem to be culprit here. Definitely get more out of them from pop, Dub, Funk, etc.
 
Overall, I have to say that I really enjoy them.
Not sure if it's New Toy Syndrome, but I doubt it since, first of all I have what I consider "better" headphones (better sound separation and soundstage, better at microdetails, etc.), and the JVCs are also new and quite frankly THOSE I don't like as much!
 
Comfort and Looks:
 
Even though these are supposed to be Over-Ears, they feel a bit On-Ears to me (i.e. small earcups/earpads). The cushioning/pads are extremely comfortable though. I've been at work most of the day listening to these and they don't bug me like the M100s used to or like the Yamaha Pro 500s used to (nor like the current JVCs do...). They do clamp a bit, but it isn't that bad, I've adjusted them as best as I could to prevent pressure on top of my head... they feel similarly to the Pro 500s but not as bad!
 
Style seems to be a bit "urban"/"juvenile" but I don't care about this a whole lot. I got the White Frost version, it's alright. (I will probably get black ones just for the heck of it and to have a second pair...)
 
 
More musings:
 
As mentioned I also started testing JVC HA-SZ2000 headphones and let me say that for less than half the price of those JVCs, I'm loving these Monsters even more! Maybe I'm being biased or unfair taking the price issue into consideration, but to me, good enjoyable sound is good enjoyable sound and if found cheaper, well, better!
 
Note, these are being sold full price from most outlets (Amazon, BandH, JR, etc. etc.), if anyone is willing to try them, just go over to eBay and get them cheap... WAY cheap!
 
IMO, I would definitely grab these over A LOT of headphones I've tried. I'm just having way too much fun with these "cheapos". Over which ones you might ask?
 

• Panasonic RP-HTF600-S (leak a lot, warm-ish signature, lacks a bit on the top end)
• Spider Moonlight Studio Headphones (yuck... Bright as hell, avoid! )
• Spider PowerForce (good little all-rounders. Warm too, not to big a sound)
• M-Audio Q40 (excellent bassy headphones, need velour cause original earpads suck and can get a bit sibillant on some tracks)
• House of Marley Rise Up (ugh... warm, no definition, bass doesn't hit hard at all).
• Audio-Technica AD700 (meh!)
• Shure 440 (one of my favorites, used them with the 840 pads for added comfort, great with most genres but bass was NEVER in the league of others)
• Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro80 (a lof of bass, mids too recessed)
• House of Marley Exodus (Ok headphones, on-ears, weren't too comfortable for me, sound was Ok but again NO bass impact such as these N-Pulse)
• Philips Citiscape Downtown (similar to the Exodus actually but much more comfortable)
• Fostex T50RP (Stock)
   

(this is just taking into consideration sound quality and enjoyment... not the whole package, comfort, portability, etc.)
 
Conclusion:
 
If looking for a bassy/fun sounding headphone at a good price, I would definitely guess that these should get a chance even though they are by Monster... Maybe the owner is right, maybe they are indeed focusing a bit more on sound after the "Beats" divorce. I can truly say that I'm surprised and I'm willing to give Monster a couple other chances in the future
 
If anyone already tried these and want to comment, feel free!
I didn't want to make this an "appreciation" thread because I actually would like further discussion positive or negative!
 
 
Thanks for reading.
 
 
 
P.S. I'll add some photos later.

 

[viralcow]

I think Monster redeemed themselves earlier on with the Diamond Tears. Good to know these aren't half bad, either.
Now, can they please make a proper over-ear design? I don't know why they stick to the god-awful circular earpads.

 

[ourfpshero]

You beat me Gelocks! I have had these a few days and was thinking about starting a thread. However, I always wait now so the newness wears off (for good perspective). I got mine off ebay for a very nice price. out of the box I said 'wow' great sound for the price. Now that its been a few days I can be more realistic. 
 
My impressions:
-looks nice, the metal caps are really cool!
-construction-all plastic headband-I wouldnt bet on longevity here, these glossy plastic headbands on the 'stylish headphones' seem to have a very high breakage rate
-earpads: comfy at 1st, hurt my ears after an hour or so
-can be had for $100-ish on Ebay, actually a decent value for this amount IF you want a 'fun' portable headphone
 
Sound- slightly V shaped sound curve, can be driven by portable source. Decent range to lows and highs, slightly small soundstage. Mids and mid-highs get congested badly, probably this headphones worst fault. This is obviously a beats pro competitor so I brought mine out. Sound is close, the beats pro has better stage and clarity, the npulse more forward mids. But again, the midrange congestion.
I brought out my current fave. Audio Technica a900x, for comparison, and it was absolutely no contest, the npulse sounds like absolute crap in comparison. EDIT: breakin has made these sound better. the a900x is still the clearer headphone, but it's mucg closer now. Amping makes the npulse sound worse, it's best with a portable source.
 

 

 

 

 

[thatBeatsguy]

Monster's back with another good pair, so it seems.
 
So it's priced in the $200-300 range, which pits it up against:

1. V-Moda M-100
2. Senn HD 598
3. Monster Diamond Tears
4. Ety ER-4
5. Senn HD25-II
6. Sony XB1000
7. Beyer DT770
8. Beyer DT880
9. Grado SR325is

...Just to name a few. Most of them are super popular, and sound that good. Does it sound that good though?

 

[gelocks]

Quote:

You beat me Gelocks! I have had these a few days and was thinking about starting a thread. However, I always wait now so the newness wears off (for good perspective). I got mine off ebay for a very nice price. out of the box I said 'wow' great sound for the price. Now that its been a few days I can be more realistic. 
 
My impressions:
-looks nice, the metal caps are really cool!
-construction-all plastic headband-I wouldnt bet on longevity here, these glossy plastic headbands on the 'stylish headphones' seem to have a very high breakage rate
-earpads: comfy at 1st, hurt my ears after an hour or so
-can be had for $100-ish on Ebay, actually a decent value for this amount IF you want a 'fun' portable headphone
 
Sound- slightly V shaped sound curve, can be driven by portable source. Decent range to lows and highs, slightly small soundstage. Mids and mid-highs get congested badly, probably this headphones worst fault. This is obviously a beats pro competitor so I brought mine out. Sound is close, the beats pro has better stage and clarity, the npulse more forward mids. But again, the midrange congestion.
I brought out my current fave. Audio Technica a900x, for comparison, and it was absolutely no contest, the npulse sounds like absolute crap in comparison. Amping makes the npulse sound worse, it's best with a portable source.

 
Hey thanks ourfpshero!
I was going to wait, but I was curious to know if more people had already gotten it but just were not posting about them.
 
Yeah, durability might be an issue (hence why I wouldn't put it as a good option for portability either).
Agree on the earpads, but I don't have large ears either so, not that bad.
 
Agree on your points too. Definitely V-shaped but mids are not as bad as most V-shaped cans I've heard. Mids are definitely an issue for me. I listen to a lot of Rock, Punk, Hardcore and Metal and well, it's definitely NOT the best for that. But for the $100 and change that I paid for them, I think they are at an excellent place. Still, at $200 they are not THAT bad but if I had to pay full price, I would probably pick up something like the M-Audio Q40s.
 
Still, their BASS quantity and decent quality is surprising to me.
 
Quote:

Monster's back with another good pair, so it seems.
 
So it's priced in the $200-300 range, which pits it up against:

1. V-Moda M-100
2. Senn HD 598
3. Monster Diamond Tears
4. Ety ER-4
5. Senn HD25-II
6. Sony XB1000
7. Beyer DT770
8. Beyer DT880
9. Grado SR325is

...Just to name a few. Most of them are super popular, and sound that good. Does it sound that good though?

 
I bought it for $110 I believe. There are a few "Open Box" ones on eBay at LESS than $100. At this price, I definitely think they are excellent! Now, compared to the M100s? No... not close. HD598s? Nop. HDs doesn't have the visceral bass but their mids and clarity are in another level. On the Beyer DT770 Pro 80 compare, I would actually choose the Monsters based on sound quality, looks and removable cable option. BUT the Beyers are just so comfy...
 
But again, Look for them cheap and you'll be surprised at their sound (IF you crave bass of course ).

 

[gelocks]

A few other pics:
 
** Contents **
 

 
 

 
** Included Cable **

 
** Twisting thingies **

 
** Crappy plastic headband ... durability might be an issue **

 
** Close up **

 
** Right beside the JVC HA-SZ2000s **

 
** I actually feel that the N-Pulse are MORE comfortable than the bigger JVCs due to the shallow pads on the latter ...

 

[GREQ]

Quote:

I think Monster redeemed themselves earlier on with the Diamond Tears. Good to know these aren't half bad, either.
Now, can they please make a proper over-ear design? I don't know why they stick to the god-awful circular earpads.

Really? I thought they sounded absolutely terrible. 
Less bass than their previous creations, but still poor resolution for the price.

 

[gelocks]

Quote:

Really? I thought they sounded absolutely terrible. 
Less bass than their previous creations, but still poor resolution for the price.

 
Well... it's Monster... you can expect price inflation on all their products!
Still, not the most resolving cans, but fun as heck and I'm enjoying music at the moment with these N-Pulse's!
(haven't fully used my Signature DJs in two weeks so I can't wait to go back to them and compare a bit, even if the DJs cost like 10 times what I paid for these! lol)

 

[GREQ]

Well I can't comment on these new headphones - I hope they're a lot better than their previous efforts.
To put my previous comment in context, the other headphones they released along side the diamond tears did sound better than the tears, so I had hope for further improvements.

 

[thatBeatsguy]

Quoting Gelocks:
Oh. My. God! A hundred bucks?! For a Monster headphone a price like that is insane!
Well, I did get a pair of Beats Pros (they turned out to be awesome fakes) for about $125, so yeah. So the sig has forward mids, huh? Okay.
Since you bought it for about $100, the competitors would probably be one of those cheaper offerings from Audio-technica (ATH-M50, maybe).
Still not sure whether I would buy one of these though. They may be light and all, but they seem flimsy like what you said. They're over-ears right?

 

[gelocks]

Hello.

It's a "V-shaped" signature as well but the mids are not as recessed as I thought they would be with all this bass.

Even though I found the M50s to also have recessed mids, they still offer better detail, clarity and soundstage over these N-Pulse BUT, they are not as fun!!! (at least to me...)

They are supposed to be over-ears if you are like 8 years young

 

[thatBeatsguy]

Quote:

Hello.

It's a "V-shaped" signature as well but the mids are not as recessed as I thought they would be with all this bass.

Even though I found the M50s to also have recessed mids, they still offer better detail, clarity and soundstage over these N-Pulse BUT, they are not as fun!!! (at least to me...)

They are supposed to be over-ears if you are like 8 years young

   Ah, so they're on-ears for those with bigger ears. I'm still 13, and I have a slightly larger-than-average head (I got it from my dad). I guess with that info I could say that they're on-ears, so yeah. The M-50s are one fo teh many great headphones that I have yet to try, so I can't really say that they're better than the N-Pulse. I only got to compare it to the N-Pulse bcos of the price. SO the N-Pulse has a 'fun' sound sig, which obviously means 'colored.' Of course, colored headphones have a lot of personality unlike flat monitor-types. To my recollection colored ones are fun, and most are quite forgiving, too. Do you plan to write a review of it here on Head-Fi, though? I'd really like to see how good it is with EDM, Dubstep, and the like. However, I listen to genres from across the spectrum, so if it's focused on Electronic music only, I wouldn't want to buy it.
  Since it's got a V-curve sig, I could say it'd be similar to my Beats Pros. 
 
  Oh yeah, I took a gander at your profile and saw that you had the Pro 500s, and the Senn HD598. How would you compare the 500s to the 598s?

 

[gelocks]

Quote:

SO the N-Pulse has a 'fun' sound sig, which obviously means 'colored.' Of course, colored headphones have a lot of personality unlike flat monitor-types. To my recollection colored ones are fun, and most are quite forgiving, too. Do you plan to write a review of it here on Head-Fi, though? I'd really like to see how good it is with EDM, Dubstep, and the like. However, I listen to genres from across the spectrum, so if it's focused on Electronic music only, I wouldn't want to buy it. Since it's got a V-curve sig, I could say it'd be similar to my Beats Pros. 
 
  Oh yeah, I took a gander at your profile and saw that you had the Pro 500s, and the Senn HD598. How would you compare the 500s to the 598s?

 
Yeah, it should be similar to the Beats Pro (at a cheaper price ). Usually my impressions don't change with time, so my initial musings on the first post still stand. They do excellent on EDM and dubstep. Was listening to some Netsky and no complaints. Also, it does well with electro-pop music (in Spanish, bands like Belanova, Logo Beat, etc.), pop and even some Merengue, Salsa and Reggaeton. Where it really doesn't sound all that good is with Rock, be it Metal, Hardcore, Punk, etc. So if you listen to a lot of Rock, or something that's fast and relies on mids a whole lot, well, it's definitely not the best.
 
Yamaha Pro 500s... well, you can check my review on the Signature.
The HD598s are COMPLETELY different from the Pro 500s. It doesn't have the visceral, slamming bass but pretty much trounces it on everything else from comfort to looks to sound (this is of course if you crave for a neutral-ish signature!!). Being open-back has it's benefits too. Sound is airy and soundstage is a bit expanded. Still, I believe the Pro's do pretty good overall in the sound department but they are different headphones...

 

[Lorspeaker]

has anyone tried replacing the earpads?
 
when i had the ntunes, a change of pads with a bigger diameter opened up that can,
and made me tot monster has a good driver in that frame.
Now this bigger can is getting my interest indeed.

 

[gelocks]

Quote:

has anyone tried replacing the earpads?
 
when i had the ntunes, a change of pads with a bigger diameter opened up that can,
and made me tot monster has a good driver in that frame.
Now this bigger can is getting my interest indeed.

 
I'm not sure if they are even removable!!! (have to check)
But no. Have definitely not tried it.