Well, it happened. My headband broke at the plastic bend after about 10 on-head hours. Ironically, this is a good thing for these headphones as it might luring me back into fixing and modding them.
Fixing the pads is weird. The velour is fine, but as others have noted, the Velcro is bad for bass leak.
There are a lot of potential fixes, too many. . .
- Headband
- Replace the bell-like microphonic metal band
- Route the cable along the replacement headband
- Redesign the suspension strap attachment points with a more Meze Empyrean style "hammock" strap or ZMF's Crescent strap.
- Reuse the suspension strap and add ZMF Copilot-style padding to fix the center hotspost.
- Driver Cell
- Tighten down the screws on the cell
- Print/CNC replacement baffle plates (this doesn't make sense at the price point, but I could see stacked laser cut aluminum plates if the internal geometry allows)
- Cups
- Experiment with different density backing foam (like Headulus)
- print some side walls that aren't as chonky.
I'd love to work on these, but right now they're not worth the time. They're alright and I can appreciate the value for the sound, but for even $100 more they could have been great. This is kind of the case with a lol of Avantone products, and they're really a hit or really a miss.
It's not really a review, but I feel more like these are the next M1060C's rather than an LCD-X killer. The sound doesn't keep up with any LCD I've heard from a technicality or sound reproduction stance (even older LDC-X's with . . . tuning quirks). They work decently as monitors for desk usage (can't live monitor or record in them due to leak and noise from the headband). They don't disappoint, but they also don't amaze. If you only had $500 to spend on planars for music production and appreciation, I'd almost suggest the DCA Aeon Closed for neutral to neutral-V shaped. They're better than M1060s for accuracy/detail but not macrodynamics. I'd love to see an Avantone Planar Pro for $100 more that solves the issues, lightens the headphones, replaces the pads, and ditches the packaging (why the reusable canvas bag???).