Its been around a year since i reviewed the MF100 (http://www.head-fi.org/products/musical-fidelity-mf-100-high-quality-on-ear-headphones) and whilst i do enjoy them i have been hoping that Musical Fidelity (MF from now on) would release a new set of cans that would address some issues i had, an around-ear pair perhaps?
 
A month or two ago i was contacted and asked to review a new set of  MF cans, i was very busy at the time but it has calmed a bit now so i received them a couple of weeks ago*.
 

 

So what’s changed in a year?
Are these the update i was hoping for?
 
Let’s see!
 
The packaging is almost exactly the same as with the MF100.
 
They come in a white box with a white furry plastic insert that holds the headphones, carry case, spare pads and 6.3mm adapter.

 

The price of the MF200 has gone up £100 over the MF100, so I would have liked the packaging to be a little more 'high class' but I am nitpicking as it’s still very smart.
The build quality of the MF200 is great, everyone who has seen them has commented on the good looks and they feel solid.
I still don’t like having the wire that connects the two cups hanging out but I have never actually damaged one on my Beyerdyamic cans so it’s probably not worth worrying about.
The pads come in two flavours, leather and Alcantara.
The leather is my preference as i feel the Alcantara ones can smear the mids and bass a little.
Comfort is ok, my wife found them super comfy but my larger head was less happy with the strong clamping force, however it did ease over time.
 

 

Isolation is a step down from the MF100; I think the new vents may be responsible, however I feel the reduction in isolation is a fair trade-off for the improved soundstage these offer.
 
The MF200 are marketed as a portable headphone but I feel they actually do a better job at home, if MF gave us a detachable cable with a choice of a remote free cable I would be much happier.
The MF200 is pretty easy to drive from a portable, no amp is required and they didn’t improve much when paired with my Dragonfly or Aune.
Onto the most important aspect, the sound quality.
In a word it’s excellent.
They are definitely an improvement over the already impressive MF100 adding a larger soundstage and a touch of warmth to the mids and bass, it also doesn’t seem to come at the expense of the treble performance.
They perform very well with most genres, even bass heavy Hip Hop and R&B, Bobby Womack sounded amazing on these.
They were a little bright to begin with, Suede was hard going at first but after a few weeks burn in it had reduced significantly enough to allow me to enjoy ‘Lazy’ and ‘Trash’ without wanting to grit my teeth.
 

 

If i had one complaint it would be that the treble and mids/bass are not integrated as smoothly as is possible, it’s not noticeable on all tracks but did make itself known on rock tracks.
There are a lot of great headphones around the £230 point, the Momentum is probably the biggest rival for your cash but the MF200 sounds better to me, the bass is much more controlled and the treble hasn’t been clipped the way it can sound on the Sennheiser.
 

 
 

So overall another great headphone from Musical Fidelity, it’s not the around-ear I was hoping for but you never know, that may be here sooner than you think! 
 
*The MF200 will be returned after this review.
 
Some Specs :
 

General

1. Impedance: 64ohm +/-10%
2. Sensitivity: 99dB +/-3dB
3. Max. Input Power: 30mW
4. Rated Power: 10mW
5. Frequency Range: 20Hz ~ 20KHz
6. Cable Length: 1.3m +/-5%
7. Driver Dimension: 41mm Dynamic Type
8. Plug Type: 3.5mm 4Pole Jack

Microphone Details

1. Mic. Size: 4mm Dynamic Type
2. Impedance: 2.2k ohm
3. Sensitivity: -40+/-3dB
4. Frequency Range: 50Hz ~ 2KHz

 
I was asked to listen to the Musical Fidelity MF100 and received them about 4 weeks ago.
I get quite a lot of headphones through my door, I only review the ones I like and I like these a lot.
I had been considering buying these but have seen very little coverage of them on Head-fi and have very mixed comments.
 
I am no Musical Fidelity fan-boy; the only product I have used is the VDac and whilst it is a good product there are certainly better alternatives.
Here are some specs :
 
Headphone
 

1. Impedance: 64ohm +/-15%
2. Sensitivity: 98dB +/-3dB
3. Max. Input Power: 25mW
4. Rated Power: 10mW
5. Frequency Range: 20Hz ~ 20KHz
6. Cable Length: 1.3m +/-5%
7. Driver Dimension: 41mm Dynamic Type
8. Plug Type: 3.5mm 4P

Microphone

1. Mic.Size: 4mm Dynamic Type
2. Impedance: 2.2k ohm
3. Sensitivity: -40+/-3dB
4. Frequency Range: 50Hz ~ 2KHz

The box they come in is white, which gives the headphones an almost angelic appearance.
 

 
 

Inside you find a jack adapter, a rather swish looking velvet bag and two extra Alcantara earpads.
The earpads that come fitted to the MF100 are aerated soft pleather. The pads are comfortable; they have what feels like memory foam inside. Initially they are a bit stiff but have softened slightly over time.
The pads do affect the sound; not a night and day difference but the alcantara seems to soften and smear leading edges. The pleather pads also increase the volume a few decibels.

The rest of the build is very nice, plastic is the order of the day but it's a high quality 'soft touch ' type. There is metal here too, the connecting arms are chrome and there is an aluminium disc on each cup bearing the maker's name.
 

 
 
It's here on the cups that the build's two faults live. The first is not really a fault, but I prefer detachable cables and this one is firmly attached. It is a nice cable though, genuinely non tangle with a good quality jack and a nice aluminium one button remote.

 
The second fault is harder to ignore. The wire that runs from left cup to right comes out the top of the cup and enters the headband above. It's not hard to imagine getting it snagged, but I have had a similar set-up on Sony’s CD900st and Beyers and have never damaged them.
Overall a good looking set of cans, more Cate Blanchett than Megan Fox, more Olufsen than Ikea. They are classy, they talk nice, they wouldn't stalk you if you dumped them and certainly wouldn't wear the French Maids outfit you picked up in Soho...
I wasn't the first to listen to these when they arrived. My friend Jason has been a Bose fan for ages; when I bring in new cans he usually dismisses them and goes on about the amazing comfort and easy going nature of his AE2s.
This time I left him with the MF100 and came back a couple of hours later.
He looked seriously pissed off when I returned, he had been listening to some jazz from Gary Grant. He loves listening to Gary through his Bose but had just discovered that there was a whole high hat missing on his favourite track. He quietly asked me where to get the MF100 and how much they would cost.

I topped his day off later that day by scoring 55 on flappy birds.

I settled down and queued some tracks and two things struck me straight away. The first was the incredible amount of detail they offered up, not the fake boosted treble type but sharp, fast and deep detail surrounded by inky blackness. The second arrived with the La's 'Timeless Melody' from the BBC sessions album. The MF100 were very bright, bright like Nile Rodger's favourite gold lamé pants....
At this point I took them off and plugged them into my amp at home, hit play and left them for a couple of weeks.
 

 
When I put them back on I queued the offending La's track and thought ...
"Ahhhhh that's better". The sibilance was gone. I listened to the whole album and I honestly have not heard it rendered better than with the MF100.
The La’s were at their best playing live. The studio robbed their album of the raw, visceral attack they had when I saw them in '91, but it is present on the BBC sessions, and the MF100 nailed it.
I think these are the best on-ear design I have ever heard. They present amazing detail, fast transients, deep accurate bass, great imaging and they make me smile.
I have told my wife countless times over the last week how much I love ..... the MF100, I have been subconsciously grooving on the bus, air conducting and smiling more than usual.
My current travel can is the excellent Sony MDR-1R. I thought it would be a good comparison, I am afraid there is no comparison.
The MF100 makes the Sony sound slow, dark, muddy and dull.
The Sony does offer slightly better isolation when out and about, the MF100 is still good enough for me on the morning commute.
 

 
Some ramblings:

Beck - Turn Away from Morning Phase
There is a very Simon Garfunkel feel to this track but it provides a good demonstration of the MF100's tone and separation.
The guitar at the beginning sounds so warm and woody, the finger picks are easily identifiable. The song builds slowly and introduces new instruments at each new verse, the violins that start at verse 3 sound very authentic, the whole song is enveloping.
I noticed that there is more than one vocal track on this, not just the obvious harmonies but during Beck's vocal, it's decay is slightly longer than Beck's.
On the MDR-1r the instruments melt into each other more, losing some definition in the process.
Overall a wonderful song that really makes the MF100 sing.
Morning Phase is a cracking album. I really hope it appears in Hi-Res.

Daft Punk - Doing It Right
Love this track, Panda Bear is a favourite of mine and this is a great example of Daft Punk's
genius when choosing artists for RAM.
There is a bass-line that hits at around 25 secs and this really reverberates on the MF100, its deep and the decay lasts much longer than the Sony.
This track shows the imaging and layering perfectly, the vocal is up front and centre, the robot voice expands out left and right a bit more and the bass seems to come from below the singer.
If you ever have a doubt about the bass on these, try this track.
 
Fiona Apple – Every Single Night from The Idler Wheel
Black inky background , bass drum from the left , strange tape hiss sound is here as expected.
Her voice is full of emotion, imaging is excellent , there is height as well as width to it.
I can hear the saliva on her lips as she opens her mouth, how awesome is that!
These cans are so detailed , it's jaw dropping.
 
David Bowie - Valentines Day from The Next Day
What an album.
This song sounds like Suede to me, well Suede do sound like Bowie so no surprise really.
At 1:29 it has some guitar layered on violin, still a little sibilant here.
That’s the only fault I can find, the guitar underpins this track and the MF100 follows it perfectly , never losing its place.
The backing vocals come in from far left and right, again the sound stage on these is good and not just for closed cans, they rival some open ones as well.
 
Beck – Tropicalia from Mutations
I love this track. Its thick with instruments and good headphones present each one in its own space. The MF100 allows you to pinpoint each guitar, bell , triangle and strange window wiping sound with NASA- like accuracy.
These cans work with the music; some headphones I have heard seem to have difficulty following a bass line, or in extreme cases you can even lose the tune of a song. I think smeared leading edges or over-long decay can cause this, sometimes (as was the case with Jason's Bose) an instrument is lost and without it the song's flow is lost.
These have no such problem.
 
The only graph i can find for these is on Musical Fidelity's web page, make of it what you will :
 

 
 
I really love these headphones.
I would never use the MDR-1R at home, it's a portable, and at home it doesn’t stand up against my other 'home' headphones.
The MF100 is perhaps the first headphone I have found that I am happy using at home as well as on the move.
I am also struggling to think of a headphone I have heard under £300 that betters it.
 
If you like your cans to sound romantic with a tube-like warmth and richness; the Sonys would be your better choice.
 
If however you want razor-sharp transient response , microscopic detail, accurate imaging, all underpinned with tight deep bass then the Musical Fidelity may just be your cup of tea.

Had these for a couple of months, i have several sets of cans ,ES7, srh440, HD600, XB500 (sold) , 570lp , M50 and a few more.
I wanted a decent portable pair, i had been using ES7 and while i liked them everytime i listened to my Shures it made me sad that my portable set were no match.
Got the D1100 for £70 and initially i found the bass a little heavy, i burnt them in for 20 hrs and it was much better, they are still bassy cans but the bass no longer overpowers the other freq. bands.
Soundstage on these is amazing for a closed can, the driver is quite far away from your ear and angled , i guess that does it.
Detail is also above average, i really enjoy Wilco , Gomez and acoustic tracks on the D1100, they give guitar a lovely tone.
Hip hop etc are well served by the D1100 as well with the bass being the star of the show.
Mids are good, tuneful but  not in your face.
Overall even at full RRP i would buy these again in a minute.