Monoprice m560 headphone owners thread.

[phunkfarm]

Having had it brought to my attention that Monoprice is clearing out the m560's for $119 open box (free shipping, no tax), I decided that for under $200 cans, this is the game changer. Let alone being planar and on the $100 side of the category!

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=120&cp_id=12001&cs_id=1082707&p_id=24560&seq=1&format=2

Having searched here and only finding threads that deal with all Monoprice offerings in totality... I think the m565 and the m1060 are cans that deserve their own topic thread, one because the m560 are the only cans that can be used in both open and closed formats. The other huge plus is the build quality. Metal and wood. Everything is solid and exudes quality. The quest for finding Nirvana in a can always point to the arc of sound but, man I gotta say build quality and aesthetic feel of holding the can in your hands and know you have purchased something engineered with a human in mind is really starting to mean something to me. I also own a 400s as well and although they may sound a tad better, the build quality difference makes up for the sound out of the box, $119 price not withstanding. My goal now is to find an eq curve that takes these m560's to the next level as I have been doing my mind burn-in at 'flat' for the two weeks I've had these in pocket to get a feel for what these truly sound like out of the box.

I am assuming all here with m560's know and use the nickel mod... (taking two nickels and placing them in between the wood plates and the phone magnet. Yes - the magnets are easily strong enough to lock the nickels in place.) Viola, the best of both worlds...open sound staging with the great look of the wood plates affixed!

Now to the actual m560 owners here...Couple of questions...

What eq settings are you using on your cans in open back situations if you are after a neutral, accurate response suitable for studio work?

Does anyone one have a graph for these that can punish and speak on how it compares with the AKG K7xx or HD600 curve that I have been used to up till now to help me with music mixing and mastering reference?

 

[phunkfarm]

This is the eq setting I am very satisfied with



The headphones themselves seem to posses a bit of honk and blare at around 8K that bothers me. Especially on trumpets. Being a jazz listener, one of my go to reference tracks is Idris Muhammad "Piece of Mind". Creed Taylor of CTI records is the master of mixing. Everything in its own space. It would be an awesome creative listening exam for all of us to eq our phones to the same track and see what we would think Creed would have wanted us to hear. The eq above was modified to this track. What do you think?

 

[Samsonatlanta]

So you recommend them for the $120 price point? I just bought them myself

 

[Drty LilBits]

I was just trying to figure out myself if I should grab these or the HE4xx's. I just posted this in a separate thread about HE4XX:
"I am curious to see if anyone here has compared the HE4XX to the M560's? I tried reading through the thread but did not see anything after 5-10 minutes of searching. I Don't have any planars but I wanted to give them a try. I just cannot decide between the two. I mainly listen to edm, hiphop, jazz and rock. And I like bass of course, especially when I listen to Spanish music (Salsa, bachata etc.) but I am not into the ghetto beats sound of bass. Can anyone tell me if either of these would work well for what I am looking for? And I am open to pad changes as well if needed." Both seem to be a good deal.

Edit: I should probably mention that I have a small head. I've seen a few reviews that say the M560's need to be squeezed a bit to strengthen the grip. Would that be a problem for a person with a smaller head?

 

[Samsonatlanta]

I was just trying to figure out myself if I should grab these or the HE4xx's. I just posted this in a separate thread about HE4XX:
"I am curious to see if anyone here has compared the HE4XX to the M560's? I tried reading through the thread but did not see anything after 5-10 minutes of searching. I Don't have any planars but I wanted to give them a try. I just cannot decide between the two. I mainly listen to edm, hiphop, jazz and rock. And I like bass of course, especially when I listen to Spanish music (Salsa, bachata etc.) but I am not into the ghetto beats sound of bass. Can anyone tell me if either of these would work well for what I am looking for? And I am open to pad changes as well if needed." Both seem to be a good deal.

Edit: I should probably mention that I have a small head. I've seen a few reviews that say the M560's need to be squeezed a bit to strengthen the grip. Would that be a problem for a person with a smaller head?

I'd recommend the HE4xx. The Monoprice's have like, zero clamp.

 

[Drty LilBits]

Thank you, after much discussions I decided that I will get the HE4xx. The M560 just seems to have too many little things going on that may be big issues for me. Thanks again to everyone for their insight.