[Elecroestatico]

I have not said anything from me
Besides, of course the manufacturer does not say "I can do it"

But in fact it's very easy.
In Japan, L, R 3.5 mm to 2.5 mm balanced cables are on sale!
Then just change the wiring with the speaker drive so that it matches its polarity.

can you confirm this headphone has a 4 pole 3.5mm jack that can run in balanced mode with each earcup having its own positive and ground (not sharing ground connector) Thanks

 

[Elecroestatico]

No. You can plug into either cup to listen or daisy chain and have another person plug into the free cup to hear the same music you are hearing but it cannot be used to have a balanced setup.

arrr... thanks for the answer, I hate when manufacturers are unable to describe complete specs for their headphones, they are always missing tons of info, its sad. oh well at least i got mine used for 150 bucks.

Has anybody pair this headphone with a shanling m0 and how sounds?

 

[Marco Angel]

This seems more of an advanced question as only one person asked about this serveal pages ago and looks like nobody answer, but does anybody know if the headphone has two separate 3.5mm female inputs for each cup? (meaning each cup has its own ground and positive connector). I want to run these in balanced mode with a DAP and I can't find much more info than the specs on their website saying "dual 3.5mm input" but doesnt state what topology of polarity they use or if each channel has its own ground.

Take a look in this page, just make shure google translator is on
http://xperiarx.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-108.html
doesent seems to risky but i havent done anything like that
if you do, please take some pics and share your experience =D

 

[jksoon]

I recently picked up a pair of M&D MH40 second hand and been listening to them for the last couple weeks, and comparing to other cans in my collection.

One of the reasons I purchased these is the style and curiosity, they simply look good in a retro sort of way. Something different than the norm.

At first I was not overly impressed, but they have grown on me a bit. I felt like they were more like $250 headphones rather than $399.

The bass is decent, but the magic on these is in the Mids, which are smooth and forward. They have very good dynamics in the mids (they actually excel at this). Highs are rolled off as most have mentioned, which you can listen for hours with low fatigue. Not recommended for rock. Electric guitar and cymbals lack energy. These are rather polite sounding. The rolled off highs don't bother me that much (excluding listening to classic rock), though there is more mid bass than I prefer and some music can sound like it's a bit resonant in that area.

The one design flaw that I came across that I don't hear much mention is that when you lean forward and tilt your head down (say if you look down or are picking up something), the cups will flip forward and the headphones will fall to the ground, luckily the couple times this happened, they landed on my lap or I catch them on time. I believe it's because the pads are narrow on the sides and the cups are heavy, plus the pivot location and gravity... I can actually reproduce this every time by leaning forward for a couple seconds. Just be aware of this. Several days went by before I ran into this issue and figured it was an oversight. Then again, my Audeze LCD2s also start sliding off if leaning forward due to their heavy weight (but the cups do not flip on their sides like the MH40 do).

As per value, you can get a pair of Audioquest Nightowls for $399 on Amazon as of the time of this post, which will outperform the MH40 by a good margin, but then again the AQ was a $700 headphone initially in 2016.

I own both the AQ Nightowl Carbons and the M&D MH40 headphones.

 

[trellus]

I picked these up when they were on a deal at Best Buy for $219.99 about a month ago, and for that price, I think they are superb.

I'll admit I got them mostly because they looked beautiful and thought they would wear well as a fashion can and because I knew at a minimum they had "good" sound since Tyll @ Inner Fidelity had given them a mostly favorable review. I do find that I quite enjoy the sound signature, but ironically, I only use them at my desk because while I haven't had them fall off yet like @jksoon I am certain they would if I leaned over for long enough, just judging by how they feel on my head as I wear them.

So I haven't used them portably even though I sort of wanted them for that use case since they are so fly looking (I got the tan leather and silver colorway), and I am not likely to do that or if I do, to do it often because of that.

They are great for desktop listening at work, which is where I use them.

I definitely have the NightOwl on my "to buy" list, as many fellow Head-Fi'ers whose opinion I trust have vouched for them positively.

 

[jksoon]

The NightOwls are one of my best purchases in the last couple years. At $399 new these days, they are a pretty good deal. I've even seen them around $275 give or take on eBay 2nd hand. I highly recommend them.

I also got the MH40 due to their looks and they do look good from every angle. I got a thing for the retro look, which I guess explains all the Grado headphones I've owned in the past. Even got the Massdrop HifiMan HE4xx because of a somewhat Grado-ish look (if you squint your eyes) even though I already have the standard HE400i.

 

[Elecroestatico]

I have also picked a used pair on amazon for 150 bucks in like new condition, the pads still smell like new and all accessories in the box. I have burn the headphone for only 30 hours, but I have to say that I'm not impressed at all with the performance. I watch the Tyll's youtube video about this headphone and I have to say that while sometimes his reviews are accurate enough, this time I can't understand why he gave a good review to these, also some reviews online talk about it as if the best choice for closed back portable headphones and the looks and my curiosity is why I bought them.

I have listened to them with their original cables and also I got rid of all the internal dirty cable structure and the mute button and have used a silver cable directly soldered to each driver with separate grounds. I have ran them with many sources from a cell phone to couple fiio's and even used emotiva headphone amp and better gear like the chord mojo and cayin n5ii.

Sound from mid to lows is very bloated and lacks articulation specially in the mid lows where you can hear
Master & Dynamic MH40 Over Ear Headphone

how they leak to the mids and the lows. The lows don't go super deep either and they distort even with moderate high levels of volume, they sound like whats called a one note bass where its hard to hear different notes of bass and its presented more as a one boomy bass. Not to mention from mids to lows is where the overall sound signature of the phone is at, making them very dull sounding if you consider that they have also rolled off the highs. The mids are non fatiguing but average, more on the dark side than the bright side. Dynamics are average but since the overall sound signature is not articulate in its clarity, it feels like most of the dynamics come from the mid low muddy frequencies mostly. Soundstage to me is boring, is neither intimate and concentric, nor expansive and euphoric, and instruments have no order of placement.

I found that they pair better with a dynamic clinical signature and that helps with the muddy sound. Also the modded silver cable welded directly to the drivers helped a bit with the muddiness (the original internal wiring is a big mess with switches and circuit boards in the signal path).

Maybe im too spoiled, but I've heard much better for way less than $400 dollars, heck even for ther 150 price i paid for a like new condition pair is not a good buy except for the looks, but who cares about that? Dam now what im thinking about it even for around 200 dollars you can get a brand new pair of german hand made even more portable and better build closed back (over the ear) headphones, yes im talking about the beyerdynamic dt1350, those will totally destroy these in every aspect. oh and btw the external sound leakeage is a bit higher than what i consider normal, something that also is much better in the beyers. Just too much confusion out there and lack of knowledge from casual reviews made me fall in the trap we all know in this hobby. I even feel more dynamics clarity and ariticulation in my 100 dollar ibasso it01. I guess you will be more or less satisfied with the sony mdr7406 or the audio technica m40x for almost 4 times less the price of these.

 

[trellus]

@Elecroestatico I had the DT1350 (and have the MH40), and I do think the DT1350 are certainly more accurate, but they were also murder on my ears as they are not over-ears but on-ears -- which is why I gave them to a good friend who wanted some audiophile-grade portable headphones even though I warned him they might destroy his ears, lol. Comfortable, they were not. The MH40 are far more comfortable.

I definitely don't hear muddy sound out of my MH40. They are not accurate as the DT1350, but I don't hear one note bass or boomy bass. However, maybe because it's because I have a small head and they are not tight against my head so I may not hear the same thing as you do if they are tighter on your head, as I can tell the bass is more prominent if I press them tighter against my ears with my hands.

In fact, given how I've seen other people complain about bad, boomy bass with these -- which I get none of on my head -- I'm beginning to think it has to do with how tightly they are on a head.

Have you tried stretching them so they are looser on your head?

 

[Elecroestatico]

@Elecroestatico I had the DT1350 (and have the MH40), and I do think the DT1350 are certainly more accurate, but they were also murder on my ears as they are not over-ears but on-ears -- which is why I gave them to a good friend who wanted some audiophile-grade portable headphones even though I warned him they might destroy his ears, lol. Comfortable, they were not. The MH40 are far more comfortable.

I definitely don't hear muddy sound out of my MH40. They are not accurate as the DT1350, but I don't hear one note bass or boomy bass. However, maybe because it's because I have a small head and they are not tight against my head so I may not hear the same thing as you do if they are tighter on your head, as I can tell the bass is more prominent if I press them tighter against my ears with my hands.

In fact, given how I've seen other people complain about bad, boomy bass with these -- which I get none of on my head -- I'm beginning to think it has to do with how tightly they are on a head.

Have you tried stretching them so they are looser on your head?

They have little articulation from the mid lows to the lows, the base barely can represent the textures and vari tones of different instruments being played at the same time, they are muddy sounding in this regard and the mids get affected by this a bit too, yes you are right, is not much of a boomy base, its more of a dull presentation in these frequencies because the lack of faster and clearer transients, and not too mention that they cant reach as low and controlled as the dt1350 keeping even more clarity and dynamics. You my friend made a mistake giving away those beyers marvel piece of engineering. I also mention they are over the ear in my first post. The highs destroying your ears, (believe me i,know what you are talking about) are a matter of pairing it with the right sound signature, and the pressure on your head can be fixed easily as these also have a bendeable headband.

Edit: oh I see I said over the ear instead of "on ear" for the 1350 on my first post. My bad, i meant to on ear.

 

[Elecroestatico]

.

 

[trellus]

They have little articulation from the mid lows to the lows, the base barely can represent the textures and vari tones of different instruments being played at the same time, they are muddy sounding in this regard and the mids get affected by this a bit too, yes you are right, is not much of a boomy base, its more of a dull presentation in these frequencies because the lack of faster and clearer transients, and not too mention that they cant reach as low and controlled as the dt1350 keeping even more clarity and dynamics. You my friend made a mistake giving away those beyers marvel piece of engineering. I also mention they are over the ear in my first post. The highs destroying your ears, (believe me i,know what you are talking about) are a matter of pairing it with the right sound signature, and the pressure on your head can be fixed easily as these also have a bendeable headband.

Edit: oh I see I said over the ear instead of "on ear" for the 1350 on my first post. My bad, i meant to on ear.

Ah yes, to be clear, by “over ear” I mean circumaural (around ear) as opposed to supraural (“on-ear”) which rest on instead of around the ears.

I didn’t mean they destroyed my ears sonically - they were damn near perfect sonically to my ears and I loved their sound - I meant they destroyed my ears comfortwise.

Basically, I’ll have to spend a lot more than I paid for the DT 1350 to get that sweet Beyerdynamic Tesla technology in a proper circumaural - maybe T1 or the DT 1990 Pro.

I don’t regret giving them away, I wanted to keep them for the sound but I used them so infrequently due to the lack of comfort for me. I’m not a fan of bending them a lot as that would have risked ruining the portability since enough slack to make that design comfortable would have also meant they would fall off too easily.

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

I believe that some of the MH40’s unwanted qualities can be fixed with better, more breathable pads. Velour perhaps.

Anyway I’d have to unsubscribe from this sub otherwise it’d be too depressing for me. To buy this MH40 from my friend (after it died on me) I had to sell my beloved Alessandro MS2E. And judging from the sound I should have had the MH40 repaired with Chinese drivers.

 

[cardeli22]

I believe that some of the MH40’s unwanted qualities can be fixed with better, more breathable pads. Velour perhaps.

Anyway I’d have to unsubscribe from this sub otherwise it’d be too depressing for me. To buy this MH40 from my friend (after it died on me) I had to sell my beloved Alessandro MS2E. And judging from the sound I should have had the MH40 repaired with Chinese drivers.

They have Alcantara Pads, which is like a micro suede material. I have been meaning to buy them to compare to the leather pads.

 

[jksoon]

They have Alcantara Pads, which is like a micro suede material. I have been meaning to buy them to compare to the leather pads.

I just looked for them, and they mention them on a page published Dec 1, 2015 and there is a picture under accessories > ear pads, but no way to select or add to cart.

I would be curious if the Alcantara pads might fix some of the congested bass and maybe widen the soundstage or add more presence to the highs. At least they are somewhat reasonably priced at $49.

 

[Blinxat]

still selling mine if anyone is interested:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/master-dynamic-mh40.887150/