I thought I would check in and provide my observations about the M1060C I recently owned, and the reasons I did not keep them. Based on the user reviews here, when I saw them for sale at $250, I felt it was a low risk proposition. I was drawn to them because I wanted a pair of closed back to be used at my job/office. Before promoting them to office use, I compared them at home to the LCD2C, DT1990, and Ananda, connected to a Schiit Modi 3 & Lyr 3.
The good: For the first few days I couldn't stop picking up the M1060C. My initial impressions were the bass was AWESOME. The bass slam exceeded the LCD2C, and the DT1990's bass seemed boomy in comparison. To my arguably untrained ears, the sound stage seemed wide and comparable to the other three open back cans. The background however, surprisingly, was much blacker and quiet because of the closed back design eliminating the majority of the ambient noise around me, and that sensation seemed to add to my subjective enjoyment of the sound quality. I could easily see myself keeping these for the office, if I could at least fix the headband (more on that below).
The bad: After a few days, however, I noticed ear fatigue. These are definitely not "flat" headphones. There are some uneven frequency response areas, and my ears found it less enjoyable to listen as the days went on. The yummy bass meant I often turned up the volume, which meant the uneven mids/treble spots wore me down faster. I found myself reaching for the even tempered Ananda a lot more for general music listening, and then reaching for these on anything featuring nice bass, and skipping over the LCD2C entirely since the M1060C delivered better in that area. Secondly, I found these lacked the same level of instrument separation and ability to keep up with complex passages vs the other three. The detail retreival wasn't there either, comparatively. Of course, the other three headphones were more than double the price, so that should be expected.
The ugly: The headband is a topsy-turvy, flip-flopping mess. I was concerned the ear cups would bounce into each other and scratch or dent one another each time I picked the headphones up. I dreaded taking these to the office, where I'd have to exercise the utmost care in picking them up or setting them down. I came really appreciate the simplicity of a headband design in the likes of the Beyerdynamic or Focal.
The microphonics in the cable were non-stop. For office use, I knew this would be a constant distraction as I swivel in my chair and rotate from workstation to workstation. Easy enough to replace, but replacing the headband + cable was rapidly beginning to change the value proposition of the M1060C. I began to appreciate the single-sided, coiled cable that my current/ancient office cans (Sony MDR-V6) used, and which was also present in the DT1990.
Further, my M1060C arrived in a box filled with mold spots and it absolutely STANK. Stank like cat urine. The ear pads or the foam on/around the drivers seemed to be the culprit. In all of my 20+ years of ordering things from internet, I've never smelt anything so foul. They reeked enough to make it unbearable to use the cans for the first few days, despite several rounds of light washing and airing out under fans and sitting outdoors. My eyes watered and my skin slightly burned when wearing them for the first few days. The insidious smell was so foul, I would feel mildly sick when listening. Even after 10 days, their foul odor was still around 25 percent present.
Verdict: After about 2 weeks I returned them. I was seeking a pair of good value closed backs, and I was not interested in turning these into open backs and modding the crap out of them. I couldn't help but feel these are deeply flawed headphones for what they are. So much potential. I thought about keeping them as a sort of reference for the bass I like, but the headband and other flaws made me feel like it wasn't worth the trouble.
