Monoprice Modern Retro Over Ear Headphones (#16150)

Build​

These are closed back cans with a design reminiscent of AKG's K200 series. They come with a fairly long non-removable cable. In terms of comfort, they envelop the ears completely, but the pads are fairly shallow. Because of this, I've found my ears pressing against the rough, plastic grating thinly veiled behind the fabric inside the pads.

Sound​

Driving​

The Retros are very easy headphones to drive.

Soundstage​

The soundstage of the Retros doesn't go outside of the cups, but this isn't a significant issue since the cups are already fairly large.

Tuning / Detail​

These headphones have some serious bass, and while not necessarily muddy, the bass will take the lead in music played out of the Retros. The Retros have exceptional detail for the price, and are a great option for anyone willing to put up with the comfort issues.

At first glance one first thinks of AKG or Samson clones but these have their own character and performance is anything but similar to the above.

The Monoprice Retro is probably the best sub $30 headphone on the market today as of the time of this review I got them for $24 US.

The M retro offers cool style with a great V signature that has surprising soundstage for a closed-back headphone.
The mids are not the most impressive and highs are over emphasized but not to a ear drilling point for me
The Bass is punchy with some depth and at this price point it's just me nitpicking. The pads are actually better than my AKG M220 stock pads and new upgrade ones aren't necessary but improve isolation greatly.

Overall it's hard to find any one thing that's really wrong with these especially at this price point.

As im waiting for my Klipsch Heritage HP-3 to arrive in a day or 2, i had the Monoprice "M" Retro C's arrive today.
Ive been listening to them and thought i'd give you a quick idea of how i hear them, so that perhaps you would be helped to make a purchase decision if you are thinking about them......or have been.. (or should be).

So, lets jump in....

Box is generic B/W, and houses the gear. Nothing special, nothing sacred, just a supportive package entitled "Box"..

Headphone Comfort .... 7.9.. better then average... Headphones are light, pads are pleather and soften as you wear them.

The look of the headphones do not qualify as elegant but does qualify as functional as expected @this price.

Build quality is : 7.9

You get one gold adapter and the cable will remind you of basic Sennheiser HD600 wire. The connection is gold plated.

Sound Quality Overall Value rating : $199 USD

Who will like them? Everyone, as they are actually better sounding then i expected, and how so???

First all, the bass quality, is real quality, it extends, its warm, and its quite detailed.

Overall, the design of the freq response, is a (Consumer Profile) mild "V" shape, and i suspect with 10hr of burn + .... this is going to change as these dynamic drivers's overall sound will bloom a bit toward more MIDS.

Soundstage: Its quite impressive. There is no "claustrophobia" inside these headphone's sound, as the soundstage is much wider then you would estimate could be possible, regarding the cost of these headphones.

Midrange is pleasant & functional, but not overabundant, and i suspect that with a little break in, the MIDS will pop and what is already a nice sound will become a very nice sound....@this price.

Treble : Right out of the box its slightly etched but not sibilant. A bit of burn in is going to finesse the treble's upper edges.

I feel that its safe to say that for $25 USD, these are not going to disappoint the majority, and in fact will probably have you call into question why it cost so little to make good sound when everything else costs so much and you are lucky if it sounds good to YOU.

Also, if you are not thinking correctly and decide to have these compete with your collection of very expensive headphones, then you are making a mistake.
Dont do that.
Just let what they do quite well impress you, and be happy.

Final Tally......You want to know......."what do these sound like"..........And here is the answer.
They sound .... sorta.......like if you took the HD600 and mixed in a bit of Sony MDR-7506, then added the HD650's entire bass response, and finally adjusted all this into a mild "V" shape, and THEN you put all this (like magic) inside a closed set of $25 USD headphones.
Sounds kinda like that.
Buy them, enjoy them, and be glad Audio-Technica didn't make them and charge you $199 USD.
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Reviewing these because I took a chance on $17 headphones, won big and want to share the experience.

Bearing a very close resemblance to some popular AKG models and being similar to several Audio-Technica models, these closed circumaural headphones are priced to deter anyone interested in quality. This is a shame, as they are surprisingly comfortable and sound far better than I expected for my $16.99 from Monoprice - $19.99 "sale" price and 15% discount from Monoprice.

For your reference my daily headphones are two Sennheiser HD 439s with a one hole bass mod, which replaced my broken HD 555 with foam mod. They are usually driven through a FiiO E6. My PC speakers include dual SVS SB-1000 subs and home theater includes a SVS PC12-NSD.

The glossy cardboard product box contains just the headphones in a plastic bag with cardboard supports. The delivered product looks exactly like the pictures, even down to the crease in the pleather pads. The headband supports are plastic coated metal, the headband is a soft plastic, the cups and other parts are plastic but all have a nice finish and feel smooth and solid. On my kitchen scale they weigh in at a comfortable 240 g (8.4 oz.).

After being burned in by two days playing a selection of live King Crimson from their current tour loudly from an old Sony STR-DB840 receiver in the basement (yet audible on the second floor), my first demo track was Kenji Kawai's "Ghost in the Shell" soundtrack played from my Nexus 5 through the FiiO E6. The opening track, "Uta 1 Making of a Cyborg" alone is excellent demo material, having acoustic instruments including big drums with fairly deep bass, high bells and female vocals. The live performance is also a good listen. For some deep bassy but melodic electronic music, I played SiebZehN "Starship Signals". Going back to the basement, the selection so far has included Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, IQ, King Crimson, How to destroy angels (another great melodic bassy choice), Philip Glass and lots of Steven Wilson.

After over ten hours of listening to familiar music with several multi-hour sessions, these headphones have failed to play a note wrong or cause any discomfort. That's extraordinary in my experience. My head is fairly large and my ears aren't small, but the pads are easily large enough to fit around my ear and the cups press with just the right clamping force to give a good seal without any uncomfortable pressure and are deep enough that my lobes barely touch the surface.

A few frequency sweeps show the useful low end dropping off around the usual human limit of 20 - 25 Hz and the high end goes up past 20 kHz without noticeably fading. While I'm hesitant to use the typical poorly defined and highly subjective terms to describe the performance of the headphones, it would be true to say that the soundstage is pleasingly large for closed headphones, the bass is not at all boomy and even a plucked upright bass sounds good. I've yet to hear any harshness. I've not tested to see how loud they can go before audibly distorting because they can get very loud without a lot of amplification.

Looking forward to your reviews and comparison with other headphones.