Well I just got my pair yesterday and have spent several hours listening to them so far. I'll probably hold off on starting to mod them for a week or so just to check that everything's OK and I don't have to RMA them.
First impressions: yes, they're heavy, especially compared to the (plastic) Sennheiser HD580 Jubilees I'm used to (these are the
OG 580Js I've had since 1995 and basically the same as the HD600 that followed it). Most of the weight seems to be in the almunium driver mounts as the wooden cups seem pretty light.While I can notice the weight if I move my head back and forth I've had no problem wearing them for a few hours.
They're definitely more comfortable than I was expecting. I've read the reports of people complaining about the headband and getting a hotspot on the tops of their head, but I experienced no problem at all with it. I've order a woolen headband sock to cover it, but frankly don't know if I'll need it.
The pads are fine. Nice and deep so my pinna doesn't touch the insides and they form a perfect seal even though I wear glasses with thick arms. I noticed my ears felt slightly hot when taking them off after a couple of hours, so they might get a little sweaty for those living in warmer climes, but it never gets really hot here in Manchester, so I'm not worried about that.
The lack of end-stops on the swivels does mean the ear cups will flip around unpredictably under the tension of the headband spring, and that's slightly annoying. But it's a very minor deal.
[Edit] I forgot to mention: the stock cable is 2m long, which is probably a decent length for most users, though my setup is best with a 3m cable.
The sound
I have to admit that when I first plugged them into the Schiit Heresy I use with my Sennheisers I thought I'd made a mistake buying them. Part of this was probably my brain struggling to adjust to the different timbre, but it just sounded off. Things got better after an hour or so as I acclimatised. But I then decided to try the old Musical Fidelity Xcans amp that I bought 25 years ago. This is a hybrid tube amp that I've heavily modded over the years (upgraded the caps, swapped out the opamps to 49720s, upgraded the BD139s to a better version from ON Semi, changed tubes to a pair of 1974 Reflektors), but never really gelled with the Sennheisers, which is why I bought the Heresy (which drives them perfectly).
But wow, the 1060Cs came alive when I plugged them into the Xcans. The high-end from 1kHz up lost its harshness and became for more liquid, without losing its incisiveness and the bass retained its authority and slam. I've always been a bit sceptical of those who claim that amps can make a big difference, but there certainly seemed to be something going on here. Maybe it was just because I'd grown accustomed to the different sound at this point, but I felt a clear subjective improvement immediately on swapping over. I'll have to go back at some point once I've worked out how to calibrate the volume so they are both at the same level. The one big disadvantage of the Xcans is that they have a 49ohm output impedance, which isn't a big deal for the 300ohm Sennheisers, but means the 18ohm 1060Cs are suffering a mismatch and some of the power is lost. Therefore even though I tried matching the output voltages from each with a multimeter, the Xcans sounded noticeably quieter into the 1060Cs. The Xcans have plenty of power, though, and can easily supply the current they need even though I had to turn the volume up a bit.
The one thing that quickly became clear was just how much detail these things were presenting. The old story about hearing things you didn't realise were there is a bit of a cliche, but I listened to Daniel Barenboim's
On My New Piano and found I was hearing the sounds of his enthusiastic pedal action, details which had completely escaped me on the Sennheisers. The piano's timbre also sounded far more natural and alive.
Right now, running them completely stock, these are definitely a keeper when mated to the XCans. But I'm certainly looking forward to modding them.
I couldn't resist taking the wooden end cup off to have a look, and noticed that the pair I bought last week had a date code from 2018. (Also, the driver covering is black instead of the white material seen in early samples in this thread.)
Monoprice probably just did a big production run when they were first launched. Given that Monoprice's EU store seldom does much in the way of discounts (and then only for very brief periods) I have to wonder if the recent price drop on these means they're effectively EOL and anyone thinking of trying these should jump now before they go out of stock.
While I still haven't been able to find an EU source for the damping material that
@Dawnrazor mentioned, I thought I'd try some material that's used for damping vibration in cars, and found I could get a sample sheet that should be large enough for both sides for £2.50 (free shipping) from
Silent Coat. It's 2mm thick and seems to be a similar sort of constrained-layer damping material, though it uses a form of quilting. Another option is
Dodomat.
