fishtwig
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2016
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There are plenty of reviews of the (still newish) M2's on Head-Fi and other websites - most are good, a few neutral and a few lower than neutral. The more people who submit reviews and the wider the sample, the more towards a normal distribution this will become and I would expect them to peak out at between good and very good.
For this reason, I am coming at this from a different angle, being that of a user who's reviewing headphones for use in the real world, with no jargon and purely in the sense of a "normal person" (my wife may disagree)
I'm not posting pictures as you all know what these look like - mine are ivory with the gold and brown trim and I offer sincerest thanks to Sennheiser for letting me play with them for a while. I have been using them for a little over three months, for a few hours every two to three days, so if there is any burn-in, it's probably happened by now. All that follows is my opinion alone and YMMV.
I've used these walking from the car to work (five to ten minutes pre-rush hour depending whether I stopped for coffee on route) and then in the office, which is open plan and between quiet and medium noise levels. Walking back to the car is right in the middle of people walking around me in busyville, and then I've used them in the evening at home. I have also tested them walking from my house to my mother-in-law (a combination of a busy road and young persons on street corners evaluating my street cred) and once a week in a silent house when working from home.
They are easily the best headphones I have ever used, although I have three other pairs of Sennheisers of different types which are also great. The only other headphones which come close for quality are my Soundmagic e50s IEM's, although of course this isn't comparing apples with apples.
I listen to loads; great quality stuff on hi-fi, Bohm's Ring Cycle and a ton of other stuff on Spotify, iPod and Android connections straight through to the phones and anything I can find on YouTube.
So - my usage review:
Comfort - these are gorgeous to wear and there is plenty of room inside the over-ear shells. The combination of leather and memory foam make for an easy comfortable fit with a suitable but not tight clamp. I have a shaved head and the headband feels great - also the whole unit fits close to my head so I don't look ridiculous when walking and wearing them. After several hours of wear my ears do get slightly warm but a quick remove, wriggle and replace sorts that out.
Sound - this is where I struggle to find appropriate words. I don't claim to be an audiophile or technically competent regarding headphones so all the jargon won't find a home here.
The M2's sound absolutely flippin' amazing, whatever I am listening to. As I am typing this I am listening to Otis Taylor's Resurrection Blues (worth listening to anyway) and I feel like I am inside the guitar - I can hear the fingernail clicks on the strings as well as the sliding along them!
My favourite music sounds clearer and as others say, I hear new things I had never heard before. Music I don't know opens up and expands before me and even music which I have often had a distaste for sounds great.
I can't find a flaw in the audio quality; everything is balanced and sounds like it should to my ears and my taste. I can listen to anything and everything on these and it sounds great!
Noise blocking - this is not a primary purpose of the M2's and to be honest they don't. I can make music so loud that I can't hear anything else, but I would rather keep my eardrums intact. In a relatively busy office I can hear the music and no external noise at quite low levels and have more than once been surprised by my boss standing behind me intending to talk to me! However I have tried these on a train and an aeroplane and in neither case were they remotely effective at cancelling out any noise.
Accessories - I had to find a flaw somewhere and this is it, which is about the best place to find one! The first Momentum series had three cables supplied with it - one Android, one Apple and one plain cable. Unfortunately this isn't the same with the M2 and only one cable is supplied; suitable for either Android or Apple. As these are a sample set, I received an Apple cable and I have an Android phone. The sound is fine - it's purely that the inline remote does no more than pause music on Spotify and answer calls (the mic works fine). It's a shame, but hardly a show-stopper, that I can't go forward or back through my music - but I think the original three-cable solution would have been far more appropriate at this price point.
Summary
This and a music source would be my luxury item on Desert Island Discs - I could cry happy all the way to the end.
Are they priced right? Probably - having used these for a little over three months, I would look at these as an investment spread out over months of ownership - I can't imagine they wouldn't last forever with some tlc.
I love these - they have taken me closer to music I knew and allowed me to listen to music I never knew from a place of real experience.
For this reason, I am coming at this from a different angle, being that of a user who's reviewing headphones for use in the real world, with no jargon and purely in the sense of a "normal person" (my wife may disagree)
I'm not posting pictures as you all know what these look like - mine are ivory with the gold and brown trim and I offer sincerest thanks to Sennheiser for letting me play with them for a while. I have been using them for a little over three months, for a few hours every two to three days, so if there is any burn-in, it's probably happened by now. All that follows is my opinion alone and YMMV.
I've used these walking from the car to work (five to ten minutes pre-rush hour depending whether I stopped for coffee on route) and then in the office, which is open plan and between quiet and medium noise levels. Walking back to the car is right in the middle of people walking around me in busyville, and then I've used them in the evening at home. I have also tested them walking from my house to my mother-in-law (a combination of a busy road and young persons on street corners evaluating my street cred) and once a week in a silent house when working from home.
They are easily the best headphones I have ever used, although I have three other pairs of Sennheisers of different types which are also great. The only other headphones which come close for quality are my Soundmagic e50s IEM's, although of course this isn't comparing apples with apples.
I listen to loads; great quality stuff on hi-fi, Bohm's Ring Cycle and a ton of other stuff on Spotify, iPod and Android connections straight through to the phones and anything I can find on YouTube.
So - my usage review:
Comfort - these are gorgeous to wear and there is plenty of room inside the over-ear shells. The combination of leather and memory foam make for an easy comfortable fit with a suitable but not tight clamp. I have a shaved head and the headband feels great - also the whole unit fits close to my head so I don't look ridiculous when walking and wearing them. After several hours of wear my ears do get slightly warm but a quick remove, wriggle and replace sorts that out.
Sound - this is where I struggle to find appropriate words. I don't claim to be an audiophile or technically competent regarding headphones so all the jargon won't find a home here.
The M2's sound absolutely flippin' amazing, whatever I am listening to. As I am typing this I am listening to Otis Taylor's Resurrection Blues (worth listening to anyway) and I feel like I am inside the guitar - I can hear the fingernail clicks on the strings as well as the sliding along them!
My favourite music sounds clearer and as others say, I hear new things I had never heard before. Music I don't know opens up and expands before me and even music which I have often had a distaste for sounds great.
I can't find a flaw in the audio quality; everything is balanced and sounds like it should to my ears and my taste. I can listen to anything and everything on these and it sounds great!
Noise blocking - this is not a primary purpose of the M2's and to be honest they don't. I can make music so loud that I can't hear anything else, but I would rather keep my eardrums intact. In a relatively busy office I can hear the music and no external noise at quite low levels and have more than once been surprised by my boss standing behind me intending to talk to me! However I have tried these on a train and an aeroplane and in neither case were they remotely effective at cancelling out any noise.
Accessories - I had to find a flaw somewhere and this is it, which is about the best place to find one! The first Momentum series had three cables supplied with it - one Android, one Apple and one plain cable. Unfortunately this isn't the same with the M2 and only one cable is supplied; suitable for either Android or Apple. As these are a sample set, I received an Apple cable and I have an Android phone. The sound is fine - it's purely that the inline remote does no more than pause music on Spotify and answer calls (the mic works fine). It's a shame, but hardly a show-stopper, that I can't go forward or back through my music - but I think the original three-cable solution would have been far more appropriate at this price point.
Summary
This and a music source would be my luxury item on Desert Island Discs - I could cry happy all the way to the end.
Are they priced right? Probably - having used these for a little over three months, I would look at these as an investment spread out over months of ownership - I can't imagine they wouldn't last forever with some tlc.
I love these - they have taken me closer to music I knew and allowed me to listen to music I never knew from a place of real experience.
