No not really. But I'm also not using USB which can exacerbate the issue. Another thing is to leave Schiit products on 24/7 if they're not tube.
Monoprice Monolith M1060 and M560 Planar Headphones
- Thread starter wordfool
- Start date
just got them in today, post office is a joke and had them since 8th June without giving me any message... First impressions: Great. Bigger than stock pads, and leather has a very different feel to it vs pleather. So comfort is better for sure. Sound I can't really say something about yet, but initally they sound fantastic. Very similar to stock, but with no ringing I can hear at all. I will report back in a few hours!!
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so yeah, update (TL;DR at end, just fyi):
I've experimented a lot with this headphone, going with the stock pads and changing felt material between the driver and the ear (or with no felt at all), using both angled and flat HM5 velour pads, with and without the Cskippy mod (toilet paper mod), and now then the leather Audeze LCD pads. Since the Audeze Vegan pads in black is almost impossible to get now, the Leather Audeze pads might be the best way to go. As I don't have the Vegan pads or heard the m1060's with them on, I can't compare them. But what I can do, is compare what people said about the Vegans vs the stock pads, and try to give a recommendation based on that. Also remember that audio is *VERY* subjective, your impressions may be completely different from mine, and do not spend $80+shipping just because I said you should (but spoiler alert, you should). Changing pads on the m1060's are not something you HAVE to do, but from my point of view and from what I heard after minutes of listening stock, something I personally had to do.
Stock sound great for $299, and bass impact is some of the best you can get. Yet, the audible ringing affect at around 5khz was impossible to move past for me, as it ruined 80% of the songs I typically listen to. As soon as someone was singing or something overly complicated happened, it would all drown into a pond of unhappiness (This is still an "issue", will come back to this). Removing the felt between the driver and the pads seemed to help a bit, but leaving the driver exposed is not something you should do, as dust or hair can get stuck on the driver itself and ruin it. Comfort on the stock pads are also kinda meh (hot spots and sweat!!), so if you have the cash, upgrade to something else:
Flat HM5 Velour pads ($25) sound great. They have less bass slam, but they make up for some of that by making every song with guitar or piano sound excellent (even better than stock). Due to the stock ringing, I felt the music sounded artificial and just plain wrong. Going velour, the m1060's sound more like instruments should sound, dynamic and very true sounding. Try some jazz (my favourite album is Oscar Peterson - We Get Requests) and you will not be disappointed. But because of their lack in bass, the headphones aren't good allrounders anymore. They simply lack something when it comes to songs that really take advantage of that "low end knock" that you get stock or with leather pads. Soundstage is a bit more intimate, but imaging is still excellent. I will keep these pads and swap back to them from time to time, because they just sound so good when paired with the right music. Comfort is good, but the velour pads from Brainwavz pick up soo much dust and hair it's laughable. They also get very hot and sweaty after extended use.
Angled HM5 Velour pads ($30) sound very similar to the flat, but with more bass quantity. Soundstage and imaging is now back to what stock can deliver, but the problem is that these pads are not big enough to be used with this headphone. I used over an hour trying to stretch them to size, and even went so far as to turn them inside out and cut in the pleather on the inside of the pads to make then stretch even further. I'm sure you can work them even more, and with the strongest adhesive you can find, they might stay where you want them to. For me though, this wasn't worth it, as they get even more sweaty than the flat HM5 pads, and sounded similar. Comfort is only OK on these, as they created similar hot spots like the stock pads (just underneath my ears) and wobbled quite a bit when I tried to move my head around.
Audeze LCD Leather pads ($80) is like a mix between stock and velour I feel. Music is less artificial-sounding, and bass impact is still there vs stock. The dreaded 5khz ringing is now pretty much gone, and the "low end knock" these can produce is absolutely insane. Listening to Deadmau5 - Strobe is very enjoyable, and I feel nothing is missing. Overly complicated and loud tracks MIGHT still show some of the flaws that these headphones(!!) have (Show me how to live - Audioslave is one example), by sounding too congested and overly aggressive at higher volume. This is more of a general impression of the headphone rather than these pads. Despite that, these overcome all of the other three options by just being excellent all-rounders. I listen to pretty much everything except rap, and these deliver in every category. Jazz? excellent. Rock? Splendid. Metal? oh yeah. They simply sound very musical, which I didn't feel was the case with the stock pads at all. Having played piano, guitar and drums since I was a little kid, I feel these headphones with the Audeze Leather pads truly can reproduce not just the sound, but also somehow the "textures" of the music (If you even can say that?
) What I mean is: They sound so true to what a guitar or piano sounds like when you play it that you can almost feal the impact when the player hits a string or a key. Just stunning. Comfort on these are also fantastic, everyone says leather pads get sweaty, but coming from the HM5 velour pads, I can't say I agree even slightly. So if you like the feel of leather, don't think of the m1060's as $299 dollar headphones that you might have to spend another $80+ to get to sound good. Think of them as $380 dollar headphones that you can enjoy with any given style of music. Pair them with a good amp (I use the Aune x1s, and they sound great.) and you will be good to go for a long time, if not for ever.
TL;DR: 1. Audeze leather LCD pads, Fantasticly natural sound, BASS!!, better comfort, a lot less ringing, but still can't handle overly complicated songs (Vegan pads may be similar, except less bass is heard) >> 2. flat velour HM5 pads, you lose a lot of bass, but gain a more intimate, warmer sound with still excellent imaging (have to be stretched heavily to fit, the new round velour pads from Brainwavz may be a better option, but might sound and feel different) > 3. Angled velour HM5 pads, similar sound to HM5 flat, but with more bass and soundstage. Comfort is worse than flat, gets very hot for me (these are a pain in the ass to stretch, you might have to cut the inner material to be able to stretch them enough) >>> 4. stock
I've experimented a lot with this headphone, going with the stock pads and changing felt material between the driver and the ear (or with no felt at all), using both angled and flat HM5 velour pads, with and without the Cskippy mod (toilet paper mod), and now then the leather Audeze LCD pads. Since the Audeze Vegan pads in black is almost impossible to get now, the Leather Audeze pads might be the best way to go. As I don't have the Vegan pads or heard the m1060's with them on, I can't compare them. But what I can do, is compare what people said about the Vegans vs the stock pads, and try to give a recommendation based on that. Also remember that audio is *VERY* subjective, your impressions may be completely different from mine, and do not spend $80+shipping just because I said you should (but spoiler alert, you should). Changing pads on the m1060's are not something you HAVE to do, but from my point of view and from what I heard after minutes of listening stock, something I personally had to do.
Stock sound great for $299, and bass impact is some of the best you can get. Yet, the audible ringing affect at around 5khz was impossible to move past for me, as it ruined 80% of the songs I typically listen to. As soon as someone was singing or something overly complicated happened, it would all drown into a pond of unhappiness (This is still an "issue", will come back to this). Removing the felt between the driver and the pads seemed to help a bit, but leaving the driver exposed is not something you should do, as dust or hair can get stuck on the driver itself and ruin it. Comfort on the stock pads are also kinda meh (hot spots and sweat!!), so if you have the cash, upgrade to something else:
Flat HM5 Velour pads ($25) sound great. They have less bass slam, but they make up for some of that by making every song with guitar or piano sound excellent (even better than stock). Due to the stock ringing, I felt the music sounded artificial and just plain wrong. Going velour, the m1060's sound more like instruments should sound, dynamic and very true sounding. Try some jazz (my favourite album is Oscar Peterson - We Get Requests) and you will not be disappointed. But because of their lack in bass, the headphones aren't good allrounders anymore. They simply lack something when it comes to songs that really take advantage of that "low end knock" that you get stock or with leather pads. Soundstage is a bit more intimate, but imaging is still excellent. I will keep these pads and swap back to them from time to time, because they just sound so good when paired with the right music. Comfort is good, but the velour pads from Brainwavz pick up soo much dust and hair it's laughable. They also get very hot and sweaty after extended use.
Angled HM5 Velour pads ($30) sound very similar to the flat, but with more bass quantity. Soundstage and imaging is now back to what stock can deliver, but the problem is that these pads are not big enough to be used with this headphone. I used over an hour trying to stretch them to size, and even went so far as to turn them inside out and cut in the pleather on the inside of the pads to make then stretch even further. I'm sure you can work them even more, and with the strongest adhesive you can find, they might stay where you want them to. For me though, this wasn't worth it, as they get even more sweaty than the flat HM5 pads, and sounded similar. Comfort is only OK on these, as they created similar hot spots like the stock pads (just underneath my ears) and wobbled quite a bit when I tried to move my head around.
Audeze LCD Leather pads ($80) is like a mix between stock and velour I feel. Music is less artificial-sounding, and bass impact is still there vs stock. The dreaded 5khz ringing is now pretty much gone, and the "low end knock" these can produce is absolutely insane. Listening to Deadmau5 - Strobe is very enjoyable, and I feel nothing is missing. Overly complicated and loud tracks MIGHT still show some of the flaws that these headphones(!!) have (Show me how to live - Audioslave is one example), by sounding too congested and overly aggressive at higher volume. This is more of a general impression of the headphone rather than these pads. Despite that, these overcome all of the other three options by just being excellent all-rounders. I listen to pretty much everything except rap, and these deliver in every category. Jazz? excellent. Rock? Splendid. Metal? oh yeah. They simply sound very musical, which I didn't feel was the case with the stock pads at all. Having played piano, guitar and drums since I was a little kid, I feel these headphones with the Audeze Leather pads truly can reproduce not just the sound, but also somehow the "textures" of the music (If you even can say that?
) What I mean is: They sound so true to what a guitar or piano sounds like when you play it that you can almost feal the impact when the player hits a string or a key. Just stunning. Comfort on these are also fantastic, everyone says leather pads get sweaty, but coming from the HM5 velour pads, I can't say I agree even slightly. So if you like the feel of leather, don't think of the m1060's as $299 dollar headphones that you might have to spend another $80+ to get to sound good. Think of them as $380 dollar headphones that you can enjoy with any given style of music. Pair them with a good amp (I use the Aune x1s, and they sound great.) and you will be good to go for a long time, if not for ever.TL;DR: 1. Audeze leather LCD pads, Fantasticly natural sound, BASS!!, better comfort, a lot less ringing, but still can't handle overly complicated songs (Vegan pads may be similar, except less bass is heard) >> 2. flat velour HM5 pads, you lose a lot of bass, but gain a more intimate, warmer sound with still excellent imaging (have to be stretched heavily to fit, the new round velour pads from Brainwavz may be a better option, but might sound and feel different) > 3. Angled velour HM5 pads, similar sound to HM5 flat, but with more bass and soundstage. Comfort is worse than flat, gets very hot for me (these are a pain in the ass to stretch, you might have to cut the inner material to be able to stretch them enough) >>> 4. stock
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NTK1
100+ Head-Fier
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So are the LCD leather pads worth it?
Also, how did you guys mount HM5 pads? They have round pads now too. http://a.co/84vhiax
Also, how did you guys mount HM5 pads? They have round pads now too. http://a.co/84vhiax
only you can decide if it's worth it. For me, hell yeah.
As for mounting, the stock pads are stuck on with adhesive. Just carefully take them on and stick the new pads on. HM5 pads may need to be cut, there is a lip underneath that is meant for mounting on normal headphones, and it might be in the way. I just used a scissor and cut it off.
Great post, Tullebukk. So did you end up removing the felt between the driver and the pads and using only the felt from the Audeze pads?
yeah, I didn't bother with the stock felt, just kept the Audeze pads like they were and stuck them on there
NTK1
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Only lambskin pads I have are Dekoni for DT headphones. I love them expect they dont cost as much as LCD pads. Are the HM5s big enough for the M1060s? I know they also have a round leather pad now.
the new round pads are 100mm in diameter, which is a few mm too small for the diameter of the metal ring on m1060's. Still will fit ok though, will just look a bit weird. If you see the picture I posted here (http://imgur.com/NBiL6Qh) you can see I took the normal flat pads and just cut off the pleather lip underneath and stretched them so they were big enough. That doesn't look weird at all, and it works really well.
mbyrnes
500+ Head-Fier
so yeah, update (TL;DR at end, just fyi):
I've experimented a lot with this headphone, going with the stock pads and changing felt material between the driver and the ear (or with no felt at all), using both angled and flat HM5 velour pads, with and without the Cskippy mod (toilet paper mod), and now then the leather Audeze LCD pads. Since the Audeze Vegan pads in black is almost impossible to get now, the Leather Audeze pads might be the best way to go. As I don't have the Vegan pads or heard the m1060's with them on, I can't compare them. But what I can do, is compare what people said about the Vegans vs the stock pads, and try to give a recommendation based on that. Also remember that audio is *VERY* subjective, your impressions may be completely different from mine, and do not spend $80+shipping just because I said you should (but spoiler alert, you should). Changing pads on the m1060's are not something you HAVE to do, but from my point of view and from what I heard after minutes of listening stock, something I personally had to do.
Stock sound great for $299, and bass impact is some of the best you can get. Yet, the audible ringing affect at around 5khz was impossible to move past for me, as it ruined 80% of the songs I typically listen to. As soon as someone was singing or something overly complicated happened, it would all drown into a pond of unhappiness (This is still an "issue", will come back to this). Removing the felt between the driver and the pads seemed to help a bit, but leaving the driver exposed is not something you should do, as dust or hair can get stuck on the driver itself and ruin it. Comfort on the stock pads are also kinda meh (hot spots and sweat!!), so if you have the cash, upgrade to something else:
Flat HM5 Velour pads ($25) sound great. They have less bass slam, but they make up for some of that by making every song with guitar or piano sound excellent (even better than stock). Due to the stock ringing, I felt the music sounded artificial and just plain wrong. Going velour, the m1060's sound more like instruments should sound, dynamic and very true sounding. Try some jazz (my favourite album is Oscar Peterson - We Get Requests) and you will not be disappointed. But because of their lack in bass, the headphones aren't good allrounders anymore. They simply lack something when it comes to songs that really take advantage of that "low end knock" that you get stock or with leather pads. Soundstage is a bit more intimate, but imaging is still excellent. I will keep these pads and swap back to them from time to time, because they just sound so good when paired with the right music. Comfort is good, but the velour pads from Brainwavz pick up soo much dust and hair it's laughable. They also get very hot and sweaty after extended use.
Angled HM5 Velour pads ($30) sound very similar to the flat, but with more bass quantity. Soundstage and imaging is now back to what stock can deliver, but the problem is that these pads are not big enough to be used with this headphone. I used over an hour trying to stretch them to size, and even went so far as to turn them inside out and cut in the pleather on the inside of the pads to make then stretch even further. I'm sure you can work them even more, and with the strongest adhesive you can find, they might stay where you want them to. For me though, this wasn't worth it, as they get even more sweaty than the flat HM5 pads, and sounded similar. Comfort is only OK on these, as they created similar hot spots like the stock pads (just underneath my ears) and wobbled quite a bit when I tried to move my head around.
Audeze LCD Leather pads ($80) is like a mix between stock and velour I feel. Music is less artificial-sounding, and bass impact is still there vs stock. The dreaded 5khz ringing is now pretty much gone, and the "low end knock" these can produce is absolutely insane. Listening to Deadmau5 - Strobe is very enjoyable, and I feel nothing is missing. Overly complicated and loud tracks MIGHT still show some of the flaws that these headphones(!!) have (Show me how to live - Audioslave is one example), by sounding too congested and overly aggressive at higher volume. This is more of a general impression of the headphone rather than these pads. Despite that, these overcome all of the other three options by just being excellent all-rounders. I listen to pretty much everything except rap, and these deliver in every category. Jazz? excellent. Rock? Splendid. Metal? oh yeah. They simply sound very musical, which I didn't feel was the case with the stock pads at all. Having played piano, guitar and drums since I was a little kid, I feel these headphones with the Audeze Leather pads truly can reproduce not just the sound, but also somehow the "textures" of the music (If you even can say that?
TL;DR: 1. Audeze leather LCD pads, Fantastically natural sound, BASS!!, better comfort, a lot less ringing, but still can't handle overly complicated songs (Vegan pads may be similar, except less bass is heard) >> 2. flat velour HM5 pads, you lose a lot of bass, but gain a more intimate, warmer sound with still excellent imaging (have to be stretched heavily to fit, the new round velour pads from Brainwavz may be a better option, but might sound and feel different) > 3. Angled velour HM5 pads, similar sound to HM5 flat, but with more bass and soundstage. Comfort is worse than flat, gets very hot for me (these are a pain in the ass to stretch, you might have to cut the inner material to be able to stretch them enough) >>> 4. stock
Damn you! Even though I have the Vegans I am now curious about the Audeze Leather pads!
I will be very curious to see what the pad makers like Dekoni and BrainWavz do with a possible future product for the M1060. Audeze may be dropping their Vegan pads because of possible low sales for their own headphones, but an explosion of sales for the M1060, that is truly increasing their performance and could possibly be cutting into their LCD2 sales. Maybe it is just coincidence that they are discontinuing the Vegans, but the timing seems really funny to me.
Are these size pads usable on other planar headphones? Maybe some of the Hifimans like the 560s? Could we use the Hifiman Focus Pads? I can find sizes for the Hifiman pads, nothing at all on the Audeze. I am not hope to measure them so I have so ask this here.
mbyrnes
500+ Head-Fier
On another pad topic, I have recently been thinking of possible adding a perforated leather strip to the inside ring of the Vegans. This would mainly be to gain back some of the sub bass. I also like the chances that it may just improve the overall sound of the M1060 (perforated with the velour behind, may be interesting). It would also be removable if done in a well thought out manner, rather quickly. So you could possible change the sound signature in a matter of seconds, which could come in handy if changing genres etc. Thoughts?
NTK1
100+ Head-Fier
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I had purchased 4in metal rings to keep the velour hm5 pads round for my he350s. My Dt770s broke so i moved the dekoni pads to the 350s. I can just put the dekoni pads on the m1060s as they are 4in pads. I guess if I like that i can invest in the LCD pads.
The Hifiman pads are about 10mm smaller in diameter than the Audeze pads, I believe the Atticus/Eikon pads are the same as the Audeze, 110-115mm
Tysun
100+ Head-Fier
Yes. Hifiman pads are 100mm. M1060 has 105mm diameter. If you place them on they would be a tad smaller than the drivers themselves.
Hamster
Hamster
Tysun
100+ Head-Fier
Anyone here has 3D printer & 3D designing skills?
I'm thinking 3D printed "fazor" elements, ideally printed with magnetic filaments so we can attach onto the front / back of the driver openings and replicate the Audeze Fazors. That would be really interesting!
Hamster
I'm thinking 3D printed "fazor" elements, ideally printed with magnetic filaments so we can attach onto the front / back of the driver openings and replicate the Audeze Fazors. That would be really interesting!
Hamster
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