[dstokes]

A follow up after more time with the m1070c. These are great. They don’t feel as heavy as expected while wearing and are comfortable for me. Although picking up other headphones after is where you notice the weight difference haha. I’ve bounced around between portable and desktop use and something about them makes me want to keep listening to them. I like the vocal presentation better than the 177x and it’s treble is more tamed but still detailed. Soundstage is pretty wide or a closed back and the imaging can be pretty surrounding. I used mostly on my thx 789 but I tried on my ifi zen dac and they responded really well with true bass. Made them a bass monster. I assume anyone who enjoys eq would like to toy with these as the bass is clearly present but not overwhelming. I did find that not every 3.5mm cable worked when trying to try it balanced so I’m not quite sure what the pin out for these are. I honestly love Norah Jones with these. I don’t know how they compare to any full sized closed back planars as the only planar I have or have listened to is my audeze isine 10. But for less then $400 I’m very happy with them.

 

[landaemon]

A follow up after more time with the m1070c. These are great. They don’t feel as heavy as expected while wearing and are comfortable for me. Although picking up other headphones after is where you notice the weight difference haha. I’ve bounced around between portable and desktop use and something about them makes me want to keep listening to them. I like the vocal presentation better than the 177x and it’s treble is more tamed but still detailed. Soundstage is pretty wide or a closed back and the imaging can be pretty surrounding. I used mostly on my thx 789 but I tried on my ifi zen dac and they responded really well with true bass. Made them a bass monster. I assume anyone who enjoys eq would like to toy with these as the bass is clearly present but not overwhelming. I did find that not every 3.5mm cable worked when trying to try it balanced so I’m not quite sure what the pin out for these are. I honestly love Norah Jones with these. I don’t know how they compare to any full sized closed back planars as the only planar I have or have listened to is my audeze isine 10. But for less then $400 I’m very happy with them.

How’s build quality? Do they feel solid?

 

[dstokes]

How’s build quality? Do they feel solid?

They feel more solid then I expected honestly. The only part on them that doesn’t feel very sturdy are the actual pins where the cups are mounted to the yoke. But ear pads, headband, cups and everything are very nice. Better build then my 177x overall.

 

[dstokes]

They feel more solid then I expected honestly. The only part on them that doesn’t feel very sturdy are the actual pins where the cups are mounted to the yoke. But ear pads, headband, cups and everything are very nice. Better build then my 177x overall.

I should clarify I don’t think it will break on the pins but I think it’s the only part of the headphones I think could cause an issue down the road if they get tossed around to much.

 

[227qed]

Here’s my latest review for the 1570c:

SOURCE/GEAR USED: PC/PS5–>Spotify—> modi multibit—> ifi micro ican; iPhone—> Spotify—> ifi hip dac

BUILD/COMFORT: these are definitely heavy but very well built. All metal and nice leather. The weight doesn?t bother me. The comfort is great overall. 4/5

BASS: the bass extends deep and has great quality/texture. The only area where it?s a bit lacking to me personally is impact; however, this is most likely due to the standard nature of planars. I believe you’d have to get into the $1000+ range for better bass. I’m a huge basshead and these absolutely satisfy with a bit of a boost through my ifi xbass and schiit Loki. 4/5

MIDS: These have a great midrange. I would probably describe these headphones as being mid-forward. They have more weight and musicality to this than my hifiman ananda. Those actually seem to sound more recessed/veiled and thin in the mids than these. I think the m1570c is tuned very well. 5/5

TREBLE: I would not describe these as dark at all, but not bright either. The treble is basically perfect to me. There’s great extension and detail here. Very smooth and inoffensive while not lacking in detail or being sibilant. 5/5

SOUNDSTAGE/IMAGING: The soundstage isn’t huge, but it’s not small and intimate either. It’s actually quite excellent for a closed back and has a great amount of range, noticeably bigger than my emu teak. Vocalists and the mids typically come forward while the rest of the mix is placed around as expected. It’s fairly balanced 3D-wise without too much height, width, or forward/rear depth dominating. The sound is nice and holographically balanced. The smaller nature compared to my ananda also makes the sound a bit richer and more musical. These are now my favorite headphones of all time for gaming. 5/5

DETAIL: Detail retrieval is excellent. Separation is not as good as it is on something like my ananda, but it’s not lacking any info compared to that. It’s a bit easier to see the details on the ananda but they are still all there on the m1570c. The imaging/soundstage combined with the detail provide a very enjoyable listening experience. 5/5

TIMBRE: as alluded to earlier, it’s very good. Makes my emu teak sound grainy and the ananda sound thin. Definitely more musical than analytical, music is very lifelike and has an emotional quality to it.

OVERALL: These are excellent headphones. I believe they’re probably competitive in the $1000+ range and you’d have to probably get something like an LCD-XC for marginal improvements (only speculating, I’ve always wanted one of those but this might just be good enough). I was absolutely smitten with my ananda when I got it, but doing A/B comparisons with the m1570c really shows how good it really is. Makes me consider selling the ananda since these are better in many areas and have the benefit of being closed back, which is required for most of my listening. I picked these up on sale for $400 and I don’t think there is anything closed that can compete at all. I’ve used a TH-X00/emu teak for all my past closed-back listening but these are definitely a good step ahead in every area except bass impact. I couldn’t recommend them more if you need a closed back in the ~$500 price range. 5/5

Also note: they definitely improved after 50 hrs. or so. Burn in is real with these.

 

[227qed]

.

 

[dstarr3]

How's the isolation? If it's any good at keeping my music in, I'd love to add this to the short list of office headphones.

 

[the1andonly]

is the connector pinout still the same non-compatible with Audeze/ZMF

If so I will just pass on this, not really in the mood to put up with monoprice to save a few bucks (after waiting for it to go on sale, lol)

EDIT-Yeah it's the same, and it's $80 for a balanced cable... at least they are actually selling it on their website like they promised years ago... still a very anti consumer move, like in all honesty they could sell an adapter for $20 and sell many more, would make up for doing it in the first place.... someone should just make one and sell it lol, $20 high quality adapter and you can use your expensive $100-1000 Audeze cables!

 

[hottyson]

Crickets... for one and a half months. I guess not too much hype on these.
.
I finally got my Monoprice M1570C today. I also have some Audeze LCD-XC on their way tomorrow. I had the urge to hear alternative closed headphones that might outperform my current closed stable consisting mostly of Focal Elegia, Beyerdynamic DT770 and Sennheiser HD280 being my top performing closed headphone selections. Not yet burned in, I will say right off the bat that 227qed pretty much summed up everything that I am hearing right now on my initial, and non-equalized listen.

Here’s my latest review for the 1570c:
...

Also, these are definitely not M1570 in which I have preferred velour pads. The M1570C sounds much more energetic, balanced, and lively with the lambskin although the treble took me a little time to get used to after becoming accustomed to listening to relaxed treble of the ZMF Aeolus for the past month. So far, I think these sound great and I could really see these traveling with me since they can operate without the need for EQ. I am eager to hear these side by side to Audeze LCD-XC. I pretty much expect the LCD-XC to perform much better, but I would like to determine how much better.

 

[227qed]

Crickets... for one and a half months. I guess not too much hype on these.
.
I finally got my Monoprice M1570C today. I also have some Audeze LCD-XC on their way tomorrow. I had the urge to hear alternative closed headphones that might outperform my current closed stable consisting mostly of Focal Elegia, Beyerdynamic DT770 and Sennheiser HD280 being my top performing closed headphone selections. Not yet burned in, I will say right off the bat that 227qed pretty much summed up everything that I am hearing right now on my initial, and non-equalized listen.


Also, these are definitely not M1570 in which I have preferred velour pads. The M1570C sounds much more energetic, balanced, and lively with the lambskin although the treble took me a little time to get used to after becoming accustomed to listening to relaxed treble of the ZMF Aeolus for the past month. So far, I think these sound great and I could really see these traveling with me since they can operate without the need for EQ. I am eager to hear these side by side to Audeze LCD-XC. I pretty much expect the LCD-XC to perform much better, but I would like to determine how much better.

Would love to hear your thoughts on these vs the XC!

 

[hottyson]

Would love to hear your thoughts on these vs the XC!

I have purposely kept all my other headphones out of my listening for this entire past month. I have my Monoprice M1570C plugged into one RebelAmp and I have my LCD-XC plugged into another RebelAmp . Both are being fed the output of a Bifrost 2 connected by USB. I miss my ZMF Aeolus and Hifiman HE6SE V2 dearly!

At the beginning of this trial, I had hoped that I might discover the Monoprice M1570C a giant killer by having it outperform the Audeze LCD-XC. The Monoprice M1570C is a very good headphone that I enjoy a great deal. When I listen to them I am very satisfied with their performance. Although I did want a tiny bit better imaging out of them. However, the main problem I have with them is when I A/B compare side by side with the Audeze LCD-XC. The Audeze LCD-XC should sound better since they are twice the cost, and they absolutely do, including producing superior imaging. The realism suddenly appears when I place the Audeze LCD-XC over my ears. Now that I have become accustomed to each headphones sound, every single time I place the Monoprice M1570C back on my ears I immediately want to go back to the Audeze LCD-XC. Guitars strings ring with sparkle, voices contain more character such as rasp or grit, drums hit energized. This all disappears into a dullness when I return to Monoprice M1570C when I A/B compare. You know when you get lost into the music forgetting that you were supposed to be comparing headphones? Well, this happened to me often with the Audeze LCD-XC and never once with the Monoprice M1570C.

If I had not acquired the Audeze LCD-XC, I would be singing praises of the M1570C right now and probably telling everyone to go out and get one once they go on sale. However, since I do own both, I am instead going to have to give a huge recommend to spend the money to get the Audeze LCD-XC. For me, it has been well worth paying more for it. In fact, once I get around to comparing all of my headphones, the Audeze LCD-XC will likely become my third favorite headphone just behind the first place ZMF Aeolus and second place Hifiman HE6SE V2.

I do hope to get some presets for EQ on HeSuVi one day to revisit these headphones with EQ on both.

P.S. I still have not amp rolled the M1570C to see if I can get more performance out of them with other amps. I plan to do so over the coming months, I just wanted to answer 227qed with an update. My findings are subject to change once I have amp rolled. Of course, I shall update at that time.

 

[dstarr3]

Yeah, that sounds like my experience with the open M1570. It's very technically capable and plenty musical, and yet there was just something about it where, in the moment when it was on my head playing music, well, it was just boring. I don't know if it's the dynamics or transient speeds or what, but, just... it's the only headphone I've heard that made me forget I was listening to music. It was only slightly more stimulating than sitting in silence and thinking about music rather than actually listening to it.

 

[the1andonly]

Yeah, that sounds like my experience with the open M1570. It's very technically capable and plenty musical, and yet there was just something about it where, in the moment when it was on my head playing music, well, it was just boring. I don't know if it's the dynamics or transient speeds or what, but, just... it's the only headphone I've heard that made me forget I was listening to music. It was only slightly more stimulating than sitting in silence and thinking about music instead of listening to it.

for me the M1570 actually could image wider than the DT1990... I once had an LCD-2f with what I call a "cardboard cutout" soundstage, the angular direction of images was somewhat vague, it seemed like they dissipated so your ability to find the angle of an image was cut to about 5-10 degrees of surety.... But the distance-based imagining was insanely pinpoint, and even images close together you could "hear the silence" between them in the distance, it was jarring and uncanny.... So I equated it to images being cardboard cutouts with notable width but no thickness to them as if I was surrounded by cardboard cutouts.

The M1570 IMO has like no separation, everything is blurred together in every which way and envelopes you..... Sound is everywhere and all encompassing, you can't "hear" the silence.... I honestly prefer the M1570 over the DT1990 or anything under $500 too, but there is no playfulness and you lose plenty of titillating details in the mix sadly.... It's great for lots of bass music, electronic, feeling like you are at the club or intense low end heavy songs and male vocals.... but it suffers on the upper range for it, engulfing bass or low male voices are one thing, treble and sharper female voices aren't as pleasant for that nearly across the board...

I also put the M1570 against multiple LCD-2F's, LCD-X, and LCD-3

The M1570 won hands down until I jumped from $500 source (Monoprice THX 788) to $1,000+ (Oppo HA-1)
Here is how it went
Under $500 sources M1570 beat the LCD-2F, was edged by the X and 3
$500 source the X and 3 got a good bit of headroom but already they were maxing source and showing it's weakness, M1570 Edged LCD-2F's
OPPO HA-1 Both M1570 and LCD-2F unbalanced were about even, down to preference
Didn't have balanced for M1570 but Balanced LCD-2F started to edge it, at this point I would take the 2f, the X and 3 left both in the dust
Above this the LCD-2F maxed out with little benefit balanced, but the M1570 unbalanced had already maxed on the HA-1. the X and 3 added more and a noticably more, respectively

The M1570 is a good choice for people under $1000 who don't want to invest in balanced aka budget, and if you have $500 gear no joke it beats the LCD-2F as it's not as source dependent but even at $500-$1000+ I think it's preference, if you highly value separation and "empty"(not bad just open sounding) the LCD-2F just wins, if your idea of a good time is the HD600 soundstage but with actually depth, a tad of separation, and decent angular directional imaging I think there is no reason to pay more for the LCD-2F even if you have $1000+ source gear.

 

[dstarr3]

It's hard, because if you need very specifically a closed-back planar headphone in the $500-ish range, the M1570C is probably the way to go. But it's hard to imagine why a consumer would need very specifically a closed-back planar in the $500-ish range. For the same cost or less, there are many better options in closed dynamics or open/semi-open planars.

 

[InvisibleInk]

It was only slightly more stimulating than sitting in silence and thinking about music rather than actually listening to it.

You might want to upgrade like this guy did