[543933]

I see that there are so many people discussing/recommending iFi amps on many forums. Must be pretty good with the rapid growing popularity of them.

In my opinion old micro and most nano models are not worth interest. I had all of them tested at home. Nothing special except ican nano from early production which I kept as you see. You will not beleve in my story but I had bought second nano from last years of production and it sounded very different and worse vs first one. Sound was recessed, mudded, lack of details and airness, energy. After that I got understood why I liked so much ican nano vs ican micro se. Better ican nano with ES9038Q2M won easily with Chord Mojo, Burson Playmate Everest, RME ADI-2 DAC and some other things. I don't know if I have a select one piece of ican nano or whole early production was so great. I never used 3D option as this was killing channel separation and gave unnatural magnified openess in sound. I didn't hear iCan Pro so I cann't say anything about that high-end model.

Coming back to thread for M1570 I find Monolith 887 + SMSL SU-9 is pureness musicality and my end game for long time (maybe ever ) I like warm tube sound signature like hottyson but without loss of impact, details and clarity and I feel I have it now.

 

[Shane D]

I see that there are so many people discussing/recommending iFi amps on many forums. Must be pretty good with the rapid growing popularity of them.

I first tried iFi a few years ago with the iFi Micro iCAN SE. It was okay. Lots of power that I didn't need, but the X-bass and the 3D options were a lot of fun. Over the last four years I went through about ten other amps looking for that special something. I finally hit paydirt with the Monoprice Liquid Platinum and the Violectric V220. A great 1-2 punch coming at it from two different directions.

I read about the iFi Pro iCAN a year or two ago and was very impressed. Tons of power and lots of different options, but Very expensive.

Then a few months ago, I came across one used online. I thought "What the heck!" and went for it. At first I was not overwhelmed, but MAN, did it grow on me. It is good with all headphones and Amazing with some.

 

[Wolftskyi]

How strong an amp should be for 1570? Impedance is 60 ohm plus planar magnetic, but sensitivity is 130. I have g6, if we believe one review it gives 85mw in High Mode, in theory it can be 425mw with 60ohm in High Mode

 

[Chastity]

How strong an amp should be for 1570? Impedance is 60 ohm plus planar magnetic, but sensitivity is 130. I have g6, if we believe one review it gives 85mw in High Mode, in theory it can be 425mw with 60ohm in High Mode

I don't have my M1570 yet, but I do have the M1070. So I broke out the G6, and tested the headphone amp's output. I does a decent job, but I can still max the G6 on High Gain, and still listen to the output. This tells me that the unit is a tad underpowered. It also suffers a bit of rolloff in the lowest registers, and the presentation is a bit more dynamically compressed vs my regular setup. (Noticed a lack of rumble in my test song, same EQ applied to both) Direct Mode was used for testing.

 

[Shane D]

How strong an amp should be for 1570? Impedance is 60 ohm plus planar magnetic, but sensitivity is 130. I have g6, if we believe one review it gives 85mw in High Mode, in theory it can be 425mw with 60ohm in High Mode

I think they are very easy to drive, but all of my amps are pretty powerful and I am not a loud listener.

I can't go much past 9:00 on any of them in low gain.

 

[Chastity]

Well, the M1570 arrived today, and on a Sunday. When did FedEx start doing Sunday deliveries?!

Unpacking, I note that it uses the same Xbox Hueg headphone case as the M1070, and the stock cable is twice as thick. The mini-XLR connects are marked black (left) and red (right), which is a nice touch. Weight wise, there isn't all that much difference, and I find them comfortable. Maybe my neck got Audeze strong from wearing the M1070 daily. They use the same pads as the M1070, which I find odd, since the drivers of the M1570 are wider. This means if you want to replace the pads, you'll need to get Audeze LCD pads, since Monoprice does not sell replacement pads. (Yes, looking at you Zach at ZMF)

One thing I noted early is that the drivers do suck up more power to drive vs the M1070, and so I need to use more to volume match. (I feel sorry for those G6 users) Makes sense since the drivers are a larger surface area. And damn, I think Monoprice is using the same meme as AMD in regards to the magnets: "ADD MOAR MAGNETS!" But they do sound smexy without any EQ. (The M1070 has this problem with reflections with the lambskins pads, which are addressed nicely with Oratory1990's EQ for the M1570 Lambskins) Trying out Oratory1990's EQ for the M1570 Lambskins, and comparing it to no EQ, I picked up on a tonal quality of the vocals that is very pleasing, and is lost when applying the EQ. So I tweaked his settings to retain this quality, and keep it balanced with the rest of the sound. I also raised the 3050Hz, 5KHz, and 8100 Hz to keep some of the upper mids and treble energy. (I like an energetic can) Still has some of the reflections issue, but nowhere as bad as the M1070. Maybe it's the fazor shield they use on the M1070?

So I'm giving them the tour-de-force of my test playlists, and I do like what I am hearing. Vocals have improved, and have more texture to them compared to the M1070. (I have to try this EQ on the M1070) Soundstage width is similar, tho I believe there's slightly more L/R separation.

For those who don't know my setup:

PC -> SMSL M300 MKII (AK4497) -> FX Audio Tube-01 preamp with Sylvania JAN-CHS 6AK5 tubes -> Schiit Asgard 3 -> M1570

I'll post some more impressions after I spend more time with them, and get some gaming done.

EDITS: I did some A/B with the M1070 vs M1570 using the same EQ settings, and the M1070 sound hollow in comparison. What a very nice upgrade. Now what to do with the M1070. I could sell them, or keep them for the pad replacements. (That would make them $239 pads, which comparing to Focal's pricing, isn't unreasonable)

Just listened to John Williams - The Empire Strikes Back (Special Edition) - The Imperial March (I use this to test clarity, with the more quiet parts that has the triangles playing in the background) The detail with the triangles isn't the best I've heard (the Sony MDR-SA5000 still owns this part) but it's not that bad in comparison. Many headphones lose the triangles' energy here.

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

Well, the M1570 arrived today, and on a Sunday. When did FedEx start doing Sunday deliveries?!

Unpacking, I note that it uses the same Xbox Hueg headphone case as the M1070, and the stock cable is twice as thick. The mini-XLR connects are marked black (left) and red (right), which is a nice touch. Weight wise, there isn't all that much difference, and I find them comfortable. Maybe my neck got Audeze strong from wearing the M1070 daily. They use the same pads as the M1070, which I find odd, since the drivers of the M1570 are wider. This means if you want to replace the pads, you'll need to get Audeze LCD pads, since Monoprice does not sell replacement pads. (Yes, looking at you Zach at ZMF)

One thing I noted early is that the drivers do suck up more power to drive vs the M1070, and so I need to use more to volume match. (I feel sorry for those G6 users) Makes sense since the drivers are a larger surface area. And damn, I think Monoprice is using the same meme as AMD in regards to the magnets: "ADD MOAR MAGNETS!" But they do sound smexy without any EQ. (The M1070 has this problem with reflections with the lambskins pads, which are addressed nicely with Oratory1990's EQ for the M1570 Lambskins) Trying out Oratory1990's EQ for the M1570 Lambskins, and comparing it to no EQ, I picked up on a tonal quality of the vocals that is very pleasing, and is lost when applying the EQ. So I tweaked his settings to retain this quality, and keep it balanced with the rest of the sound. I also raised the 3050Hz, 5KHz, and 8100 Hz to keep some of the upper mids and treble energy. (I like an energetic can) Still has some of the reflections issue, but nowhere as bad as the M1070. Maybe it's the fazor shield they use on the M1070?

So I'm giving them the tour-de-force of my test playlists, and I do like what I am hearing. Vocals have improved, and have more texture to them compared to the M1070. (I have to try this EQ on the M1070) Soundstage width is similar, tho I believe there's slightly more L/R separation.

For those who don't know my setup:

PC -> SMSL M300 MKII (AK4497) -> FX Audio Tube-01 preamp with Sylvania JAN-CHS 6AK5 tubes -> Schiit Asgard 3 -> M1570

I'll post some more impressions after I spend more time with them, and get some gaming done.

EDITS: I did some A/B with the M1070 vs M1570 using the same EQ settings, and the M1070 sound hollow in comparison. What a very nice upgrade. Now what to do with the M1070. I could sell them, or keep them for the pad replacements. (That would make them $239 pads, which comparing to Focal's pricing, isn't unreasonable)

Just listened to John Williams - The Empire Strikes Back (Special Edition) - The Imperial March (I use this to test clarity, with the more quiet parts that has the triangles playing in the background) The detail with the triangles isn't the best I've heard (the Sony MDR-SA5000 still owns this part) but it's not that bad in comparison. Many headphones lose the triangles' energy here.

May you please provide your EQ settings and I'll give them a go once I recieve my M1570

 

[Chastity]

May you please provide your EQ settings and I'll give them a go once I recieve my M1570

Filter: ON LSC Fc 105 Hz Gain 5.5 dB Q 0.71
Filter: ON PK Fc 1100 Hz Gain -2.2 dB Q 2
Filter: ON HSC Fc 1300 Hz Gain 7 dB Q 0.71
Filter: ON PK Fc 3050 Hz Gain -0.8 dB Q 3
Filter: ON PK Fc 5000 Hz Gain -4.1 dB Q 4
Filter: ON PK Fc 8100 Hz Gain -2.6 dB Q 6
Filter: ON HSC Fc 10000 Hz Gain -3 dB Q 0.71
Preamp: -2.1 dB

With this preamp setting, it's close to volume matching when not using EQ.

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

Filter: ON LSC Fc 105 Hz Gain 5.5 dB Q 0.71
Filter: ON PK Fc 1100 Hz Gain -2.2 dB Q 2
Filter: ON HSC Fc 1300 Hz Gain 7 dB Q 0.71
Filter: ON PK Fc 3050 Hz Gain -0.8 dB Q 3
Filter: ON PK Fc 5000 Hz Gain -4.1 dB Q 4
Filter: ON PK Fc 8100 Hz Gain -2.6 dB Q 6
Filter: ON HSC Fc 10000 Hz Gain -3 dB Q 0.71
Preamp: -2.1 dB

With this preamp setting, it's close to volume matching when not using EQ.

Thank you very much, I'll compare yours to my tweaked version of Oratorys eq when I get a chance. I used his eq but the low shelf I set at 70hz with 3db. I feel it gives better seperation between mid and sub bass and I only want the sub bass to be touched.

 

[Chastity]

The thing that grabs me about these is that they sound like a set of speakers. I'm finding it hard to find faults in the sound, except maybe the no-EQ tuning. Did some movie watching, Skyfall with it's DTS-HD audio track, and using DTS Sound Abound application. One thing I noted is that with most headphones, the DTS:X Spatial setting usually sounds forced, and not preferred to Balanced. With the M1570, the Spatial setting is spot on, and works really well. The chap in this thread going on about using 3D Enhanced modes may have something.

The movie came across very full bodied, action scenes were impactful, directionals were very nice, with motorcycles wizzing around my head. The movie's title intro was wonderful to listen to Adele singing "Skyfall". Just a wonderful treat. Overall the way I would describe it was "immersive". (MPC-BE using MPC Audio handler, with WASAPI Exclusive, bit perfect output enabled, output to DAC, DTS:X Windows Spatial app enabled) The Hollywood bass was filled with slam and rumble. Jolly good.

In regards to music, I was listening to a Sony Studio mastering of the "Danse Macabre", and the Strad violin is very distinct sounding. My favorite headphone for this track is the Sony MDR-SA5000, which is tuned for classical music, along with jazz and female vocals. This is the first headset in a very long time than manages to offer a presentation of this track akin to those. You have no idea how happy this makes me. I've been looking for a headphone with such characteristics, but more full frequency spectrum.

So far I am really pleased with this headphone purchase, and can forgice the annoying pinout debacle. I note that some people have opened up the grill, and resoldered the pins to match Audeze standards. It's currently a non-issue as I do not have a balanced amp, tho now I am balanced-curious.

 

[Wolftskyi]

I think they are very easy to drive, but all of my amps are pretty powerful and I am not a loud listener.

I can't go much past 9:00 on any of them in low gain.

Thanks. So, it's better to replace G6 on something more powerful for $500-600?

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

@Chastity gave your eq a go and really am liking what I hear compared to Oratorys eq. But also been listening to the M1570 without and pretty impressed with the tonal balance it has. While on the warmer side, it isn't a muffled sound. The detail presentation is very very similar to the LCD-X. It's not in your face but you hear and feel the layers of detail in the background and once you really focus, details are there, alot of them. With eq, it just brings all that detail to the front and heaps and heaps of layers are unmasked. Truly a remarkable headphone in terms of sound quality. No its technicalities aren't quite LCD-3 and LCD-4 level. But I do feel LCD-2 and LCD-X level. Hell yes. And tonality? Better than most Audeze headphones. A very very very impressive headphone the M1570 is. I can live with the build issues when paying for SQ of that sort of level for this great price. If Monoprice can make a V2 of the M1570 or successor which eventually they will.. But please add what we wish, better build, headband and lighter weight if possible, it could be end game for some. For me, what I hear from the M1570, I classify as possible end game for some. But yes the M1570 has it flaws, not flaws with the sound. But the damn build and weight :/

 

[Wolftskyi]

How it's for gaming ( especially bass, does it do Boom ? ). I can't listen it, there are not in the stores.

 

[543933]

How it's for gaming ( especially bass, does it do Boom ? ). I can't listen it, there are not in the stores.

It is the best bass I ever heard. It is present only where it should. When listening at youtube : 2Cellos - Show must go on I feel so real earth quake and better effect than with my old/big Yamaha subwoofer.

 

[Wolftskyi]

If I play or watch movies approximately 60 minutes for a session ( than a break ), is it ok for comfort?