jj69
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2003
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Really interested to hear what you think of the 1060c closed vs. open since you have owned the 1060 before. Once you get your open grills sorted out of course!
I'm tempted to just say the M1060's are garbage, and leave it at that, but things are never that simple. Out of the box, the stock M1060 had a general sonic profile similar to the Sennheiser HD-650 (which I loathe). Warm - very, very, very warm, bassy, slow, etc. (I'm obviously more an HD-600 guy). I hated them, but I bought them to try out the mods, so I proceeded. First I added the 3D printed hex grills and removed the stock foam. That changed them for the better, getting rid of most of the warmth, but now they were too bright, so much so that they were downright painful. I put the foam back in and the pain went away, but they were still unpleasant. I then added the rear fazors (which didn't do much) and a pair of thinner foams (which made them noticeably better). At that point, I realized that even though the warmth was (mercifully) gone, they still weren't particularly good sounding headphones. There are so many problems, I don't know where to begin. The most glaring issue was the soundstage, which is wide, but with a huge hole in the middle. Very strange. The brightness is still there too. Not as painful as with no foam, but still unpleasant. That's just the tip of the iceberg. They really are a mess. Granted, however, I never tried the fuzzor mod, and I have a set of the 3D printed fazors that I intended to try as well. I held off on those mods because I didn't want to go to the trouble of pulling the pads off, thereby making it harder to return them for a refund. Then I just sort of gave up hope. They're such a mess sonically that I'm not convinced anything could ever make them enjoyable. I'll probably try the fazors at some point, but it seems like an exercise in futility.
The M1060C, in comparison, is like the total opposite of the M1060. The "C's" have none of the excessive warmth or bassyness. They're comparatively neutral. Out of the box, they just sound wonderful. I could be happy with them stock. Which brings me to my point: Why are these two (supposedly) closely related models sound so different? Here's my theory...
My guess is that the consistency and quality control of the planar drivers used in the M1060 is hopelessly erratic. If you read the comments in the M1060 thread, along with other reviews all over the web, it seems like people are describing very different headphones. Some hear ringing at certain frequencies, some don't. Some find them very warm, some don't. Some like them stock, some insist they must be modded. Some reviewers claim they're nearly as good as the LCD2, others find such claims laughable. I really don't think there's any other explanation. I can't remember where I read it, but I believe someone even measured more than one pair of M1060's and confirmed very different results. Also, there has to be a reason Monoprice decided to go with a different planar driver in what was basically intended as nothing more than a closed version of the M1060. They must have known there was a consistency issue with the original drivers and thought it best to switch to another OEM. I wouldln't be surprised if we see an M1060 Mk.II before long, using the same drivers as the C's... once the contract with the M1060 driver OEM expires.