Audeze MM-100

Introduction​

The MM-100 is a planar magnetic headphone which is the 2nd collaboration between Audeze and renowned mixing engineer Manny Marroquin after the initial MM-500. What they have down with the MM-100 is something I really appreciate, they have provided the “Audeze house sound” but at 1/4 of the cost but with very limited compromises.



So what is the Audeze House sound? I will get into the details later, but in summary, I would call it a neutral reference but with slightly more midrange forward nature and relaxed treble which really help bring out the precise imaging and clarity you should expect in a headphone designed by a studio mixing engineer.

A third way to listen to your collection​

Let me start this review by saying that a headphone collection should enable you to enjoy your music in different ways depending on your mood or what you are doing. It should definitely not be about only listening to one target. The hobby would be boring if every headphone sounded the same and while I have become more of a ‘measurements guy’ in recent years, that has only made me appreciate that there is no one ‘correct’ target especially if you appreciate the finer aspects of audio like soundstage and imaging.

So while I personally do appreciate a neutral / balanced sound signature, there should be variations of a balanced sound and that is what we get with the MM-100, in fact, what you get is what I am calling a third way to appreciate your music ( especially if it was recorded in the past 20 years ), experience it the way an audio professional would.

If the Sennheiser HD600 is providing a tonally accurate sound, but that would be just one great way to listen to your collection ( though obviously the HD600/HD6xx headphones lack bass without EQ ) and it can also suffer from the 3-blob soundstage. Another great way to enjoy you music is to get a super wide sound stage with any of the Hifiman “Egg” shaped headphone being a great example of this sound. I find this the opposite of that 3-blob problem providing a much better way of replicating the experience of good speakers in a large room. But there is a third way that I think is a little underappreciated when people look for new headphones and that is listen to your music they way the studio mixer intended. So the past few weeks I have been re-listening to my collection with the MM-100 and loving every bit of this rediscovery experience.

But to deliver the MM-100 for $399, Audeze had to make some compromises - can you live either these compromises- read on to find out.


So first what do you get in the box.

Unboxing and Accessories​

The MM-100 comes in a nice box:


Opening it up you get:



The MM-100 are very securely stored in foam:



Taking them out you start to appreciate the build quality, especially compared to similar Hifiman like the Sundara. This headphone is build to last:

And there is a lot of attention to detail with these headphones:

Accessories​

But the rest of the unboxing experience is a little of a let-down. This is the first compromise that Audeze have made with the MM-100. There is a basic cable and a travel bag:


Both the bag and the cable are ok at best:



Note: given the MM-100 folds flat (on both sides) it can actually be easily transported, especially as it has very rugged construction without needing a hard case.


I did find it odd that the cable itself terminates in a 6.5mm instead of a 3.5mm and then Audeze provided an inverse adapter to bring it back to 3.5mm for more portable use.

Thankfully, you can use any standard 3.5mm TRS ‘aux’ cable, so it can be easy to find cables you can use with the MM-100 and your smartphone.

One very interesting feature of the MM-100 you can plug that cable into either ear cup and still get stereo sound.


Note: Do not use split Left and Right 3.5mm cables (like the Hifiman), you need to provide a stereo 3.5mm into either ear cup.

Features and Build Quality​

Thankfully Audeze did not compromise on the build quality of the ear cups themselves. These are headphones you can admire at every level of detail:


You do get a bit of branding including Manny Marroquin’s name:


The Audeze MM-100 is built with the same core technology as Audeze’s renowned flagship models featuring the ultra-thin Uniforce™ diaphragms and Fluxor™ magnet arrays but is priced to be more accessible for both professionals and enthusiasts.

The earpads are plush and provide excellent comfort and are relatively deep. So suitable for long hours of use:



Though I did find they can get a little hot on my ears after a few hours during a very warm day.

The build quality is robust, with a lightweight chassis that ensures comfort during extended listening sessions.


Though the second compromise I think Audeze made was with the suspension mechanism:


It doesn’t have the feeling of quality that the earcups themselves provide and may not be the flexible enough for your head.


You basically have 3 adjustment positions, and it is a very basic adjustment mechanism popping out the holes in the leather to try and different position:


While the first day or 2 with the MM-100 I felt I needed an adjustment about halfway between 2 of these positions, I picked the tighter fit (the middle position) and I think the leather actually stretched so after 2 days of use it actually felt very comfortable and i mostly forgot about it until typing this paragraph. Maybe this is called “head position” burn-in.

Sound Quality​

As I mentioned earlier the MM-100 offers a mixer perspective on sound, and subjectively I really enjoyed this listening experience. In summary, it really lets the midrange shine with clarity that really helps place objects in 3D space within the slightly limited soundstage.

As well as my usually audiophile track list, I got a recommendation from a friend who had the more expensive MM-500 to listen to various albums mixed by Manny over the years and was a very interesting exercise with these headphones. So, for example Kanye West’s early classics sounded fantastic with playful details throughout their mixes and for example “The Diary of Alica Keys” brought back many found memories while also making me go off on a multi day excursion of listening to 100’s of different tracks from across my collection. This is when I formed that opinion I shared earlier, this headphone is a great way to revisit your collection.

Anyway, here are some sample impressions:

Bass​

The bass response is tight and controlled, with excellent extension down to the sub-bass frequencies. This is great Planar bass, those coming from a Hifiman will recognise and be impressed with the smooth bass response. If you are a bass head or more used to listening to that ‘Harman Bass’ boost you could add a bass shelf. I personally would not as that might distract you from real purpose of these headphones which is to clearly hear the subtle details in the music. I was really impressed with bass on “Beyonces” “Cowboy Carter” album with this headphone, I thought it might be lacking given the frequency response, but instead it was crisp and clear “16 Carraiges” especially was very impressive.

Midrange​

But the midrange is where the MM-100 truly excels. Vocals and instruments are presented with clarity and natural timbre, offering a lifelike quality that is rare in this price range. The Vocals are present slightly forward in the mix, and Paino led tracks sound great. For example, on “Diary of Alicia Keys” “If I Ain’t got you” was a joy with her voice and piano sitting nicely in front of the bass and the rest of the backing musicians clearly separated but in no way restrained. This track then got me revisiting classics from the 1970’s like “Roberta Flack” “Killing me softly” and then some Male vocal forward albums like “Billy Joels” “The Stranger” and “Elton John” “Madman on the Water”.

Treble​

The treble is probably the weak point of the tuning. While I could describe it as “safe” that might be unfair as I believe it is a deliberate treble tuning that helps provide that accurate imaging at the expense of some tonality. As I mentioned earlier the MM-100 does share the Audeze house sound but the treble is the area where their more expensive studio headphones (like Audeze LCD-X and the MM-100 bigger brother the MM-500) will give you that little bit more detail without sacrificing the studio reference ‘imaging’ capabilities.

The good thing with this treble is if you are in any way affected by sibilance or listen to lots of 1980’s music this treble presentation will be perfect. In my opinion, lots of 1980’s music has too much treble, so tracks like “Michael Jackson” “Billie Jean” sounded great without EQ.

Soundstage and Imaging​

The soundstage is average in this price range and behind some of the similar priced Hifiman headphones like the Edition XS. But the interesting thing I thought was that imaging is so precise within this limited soundstage. So rather than a wide ‘concert hall soundstage’ the MM-100 presents like being in a small club right in front of the musicians, where you can pick out those individuals with very accurate musical cues in the music.

This spatial accuracy is obviously beneficial for both professional mixing but is something that is rare at this price range and something I don’t think can be fully ‘recreated’ using EQ. EQ is very bad at tweaking treble, so it’s best to get a headphone designed for this precise imaging that trying to create something with EQ.

Specifications and Measurements​

• Style: Over-ear, open-back
• Transducer type: Planar Magnetic
• Magnet type: Fluxor™ Magnets
• Diaphragm: Ultra-thin Uniforce™
• Frequency Response: 5Hz – 50kHz
• Impedance: 18 ohms
• Sensitivity: 100 dB/1mW
• Max SPL: >120dB
• Weight: 392g

The key specifications are that we get 100db out of 18 Ohms making this headphone super easy to drive even with, for example, the Apple usb-c Dongle. I happily used the Apple Dongle and my Macbook Pro at roughly 60% volume though out my listening sessions.

The MM-100 also looks heavier than the 392g though there are much lighter headphones, it has a good balance of using high quality materials with weight.

Measurement Analysis​

All these measurements (unless otherwise stated) where taken with my KB501X soft ear pinna with a 711 coupler and are available on my measurements DB [here]https://www.pragmaticaudio.com/headphones/?share=Harman_OE_2018_Target,Audeze_MM100)

So first lets look at the frequency response:



So I highlighted in the graph, 3 aspects of the tuning:

1. The bass rolls off a little and is obviously less than the ‘Harman OE’ Target.
2. There is a little midrange hump which helps with the vocal forwardness of the tuning.
3. The treble is recessed, therefore a little ‘dark’ tuning which might not suit everyone

Measurement Comparisons​

Since I mentioned the Audeze house sound a few times I thought it would be useful to show the MM-100 its bigger brother (these measurements are from Listeners Squig):



You can see that the MM-100 graph shares a lot of similarities with the MM-500 so Audeze really have done a great job providing a pragmatic priced version of their house sound with the MM-100.

But I thought it might also be useful to show the MM-100 with some other headphones I have measured .

So here is it compared to some other ‘studio reference’ headphones, the HD600, DT770 Pro and the AKG K702:


I highlighted 2 areas on this graph, one where the DT770 Pro has some uneven mid-bass response which will cause some tracks to sound boomy and the other area where the K702 has way too much treble for my liking.

So removing them and adding the Edition XS:



This time I highlighted a few areas here also firstly the bass on all these headphones could do with some EQ and then the Edition XS (and most other Hifiman share these features) have gone for a soundstage “psycho acoustic” effect with a recessed 1K-2K region followed by an elevated treble region. That might be said to be the “Hifiman House sound” as against the slight midrange bump and the recessed 3K-5K region of the “Audeze House sound”.

Distortion​

The MM-100 shows very little distortion which is typical of a Planar, so great for listening loud and for EQ purposes should you want to EQ:


And as a percentage:

EQ​

So normally I would recommend some EQ and I do think with the MM-100 just a sub-bass boost would not be a bad idea, but this is one headphone where I would not like to ‘destroy’ the subtle imagining presented with the out of box tuning, so I would not necessarily recommend EQ especially if you already have a HD6XX ’tonally’ accurate headphone and a ‘Soundstage’ tuned headphone. Just enjoy the MM-100 as an Audio Engineer would.

Given the MM-100 is very easy to drive and has very low distortion you could do a lot of experimentation with EQ. If the MM-100 is to be your only headphone, you probably want to at least experiment with Oratory EQ to give it a ‘Harman OE 2018" tuning.

Here is that EQ loaded into eqMac, so you can visually see the areas where Oratory recommended changes:

Rating​

I have given the MM-100 a 5-star pragmatic rating. Given what I believe Audeze wanted to achieve with the MM-100, to give people a taste of their higher end headphones at a fraction of the price.

I think they have succeeded extremely well in that goal, my only complaints are really things that don’t matter (like the bag and cable) and the suspension mechanism is less premium that other headphones, though it ended up being comfortable after a few days.

Conclusion​

The Audeze MM-100 is a remarkable headphone at its price, one that bridges the gap between professional studio reference headphones and cheaper ‘audiophile’ headphones. Its combination of detailed, dynamic midrange and excellent imaging makes it a great choice for both critical listening. The fact is comfortable and easy to drive also help with its use in casual music enjoyment.

Whether you’re a professional looking for a reliable comfortable studio reference or an audiophile seeking an engaging but one with an audio engineering twist of a listening experience, the Audeze MM-100 is a headphone that should be on your radar.