[jotaku]

Recently got to try the LCD-2s at a local shop and really surprised by how close my modded M1060s (fuzzor + Dekoni Audeze pads) sound to them. Honestly thought I was listening to them for a second. Similarly dark sound with very identical sound signature, the Audeze's sounding a bit more refined. To be honest, after putting the Dekoni pads on the M1060's I wasn't a fan of the change in bass. It felt like it was lighter and had less impact. The bass was much more enveloping on the LCD-2s. Haven't tried actual Audeze vegan pads so I can't say if it's because the Dekoni pads are different.

I also got to try LCD-Xs and HD800s and... . Most likely going to be my next purchase once I've saved up and upgraded my sources.

That's disappointing to hear about the bass impact reduction. My Dekoni Audeze Velour pads are being delivered on Monday, and I was looking forward to seeing how they sound. I currently have a set of Mr Speakers Lamb Leather Alpha Pads on my M1060s, which actually increases the bass, so going from that to even less bass than the OEM pads is going to be an interesting change.

 

[sman789]

So I've been experimenting with several different solutions for an alternative case for the M1060/M1060C. One is a Pistol Gun Case and another is a Craft Project Case.

The Pistol case is a big enough to fit the headphones and my portable DAC/AMP (Oppo HA-2) with room to spar. It's still pretty big, but it is technically smaller than the OEM case. You do have to trim the foam for the earcups to fit in. Otherwise you end up compressing the pads. I did a crappy job when I did it. You can definitely do it and have a better/nicer job than I did. I messed up by trying to glue some of the extra foam I was cutting out to make a wall to separate the cups so they didn't rub against each other, but used the wrong type of glue.

The Craft Project Case is almost perfect for just the headphones/cables. I am currently using some cheap closed cell foam from a camping pad you can get from Walmart for $7-$8 that I am cutting out to pad the headphones inside the case with. I'll post pictures of both when I am done tweaking them.

The reason I went the DIY route is because all the headphone cases for the large headphones seem to orient the headphone in the default headphone position, but many of them (like the M1060 and HiFiMAN) can be made to lay flat. This allows them to be less bulky/more streamlined in a case. Like I said before the Pistol case isn't that much smaller length and width wise, but it lays much flatter. And the Craft Project Case is flat and has smaller dimensions. However, both require you to mess with the inside padding/insert padding.

Anyone else figured out a good solution for an alternative case?

Nice protective case. I'm using a slim case I found on ebay, initially purchased for my T40RP.

 

[cobyatch]

That's disappointing to hear about the bass impact reduction. My Dekoni Audeze Velour pads are being delivered on Monday, and I was looking forward to seeing how they sound. I currently have a set of Mr Speakers Lamb Leather Alpha Pads on my M1060s, which actually increases the bass, so going from that to even less bass than the OEM pads is going to be an interesting change.

Sorry haha, I'm definitely disappointed too. Was hoping they'd be the solution to Audeze discontinuing the pads. If anything, the comfort definitely stepped up. I couldn't wear my M1060s for more than an hour without my ears feeling hot, but that's it IMO. I actually got suede ZMF Eikons (which I've heard are very similar to the vegans) and I like them a lot better with this headphone. Talking more about it below.

To be honest, after putting the Dekoni pads on the M1060's I wasn't a fan of the change in bass. It felt like it was lighter and had less impact.

Adding onto this, I recently swapped the pads to the suede ZMF Eikons and I noticed a huge difference, that being the sound is much more coherent. With the Dekoni's, the highs became bright and didn't match well with the mids. I actually commented on this earlier in the thread with me saying I wasn't a fan of the mids sounding veiled, but actually was just the pads making the highs brighter than they should be. The Eikon's smoothed this out and made the music much more enjoyable. Bass also improved with the ZMF pads. The rumble that I had with the stock pads was back but also increased. I tested this by having a different pad on each side. The ZMFs had more sub-bass than stock, and stock had more than the Dekoni's.

After reading about the improvements that vegan pads made, I feel like the Eikon's definitely give similar improvements and are the better alternative to vegans than the Dekoni's.

Edit (Further development): I just tried the Eikon's with a 3D printed ring to help it stick better to the headphones but the mids sound super recessed. Definitely recommend mounting them without anything. Not sure how this affects the Dekoni's but those came with a ring on the inside that I used.

 

[jerrikko]

I had the he400i and got rid of them because the m560 outshined it. The he400i we're very light and comfortable though. Try the m565, very light and comfortable and sound better than the 400i. And if you replace the pads to the shure1540 they will feel like pillows and the bass will pound like you never heard while maintaining it's full integrity. The 400i lack midbass which is what turned me off. Sub bass was ok. The highs we're very good.
Tony

Did you try the 400i stock or pad rolled?

 

[Tony51]

Did you try the 400i stock or pad rolled?

Completely stock. I have since purchased some other headphones.
The monoMono m565 with the pads swapped out to the Shure 1540 pads... beautiful sounding on steroids.
The Monolith m1060c originally closed back, I modded them to open back....wow!
The 1 more triple driver over ear...incredible sound.

And the Beyerdynamic DT1990...in awwww.

 

[jerrikko]

reviews of the magni 3 which states that "it compresses the sound and has jitter"

Just out of curiosity, which are some of the reviews about the magni 3 that state "it compresses the sound and has jitter"? thx do they have measurements?

 

[jerrikko]

I don't think there is enough interest in the M560 to warrant its own thread. They are talked about here maybe 1 hundredth as often as the M1060.

Is part of that potentially that they need less "work" to get off & running? My understanding for the m560s is:

pad swap, adjust clamp to fit, possibly modded / new strap & periapt cable heh = you're g2g. Also b/c their ceiling is a little lower they are less picky about paired amplification?

 

[jerrikko]

nvm dbl post

 

[PockyG]

Is part of that potentially that they need less "work" to get off & running? My understanding for the m560s is:

pad swap, adjust clamp to fit, possibly modded / new strap & periapt cable heh = you're g2g. Also b/c their ceiling is a little lower they are less picky about paired amplification?

While they were a good value at the time when HE-400i were selling for >$300, they've kind of dropped off since HiFiMan starting dumping their prices.

The M560 were likely aiming to take on the HiFiMan 400i, T50RP, or Oppo PM-3; the M1060 set their eyes on the big boy planars of Audeze and high end HiFiMans for about $100 more when they first released.

M560 while is a fine headphone in it's own right, doesn't have that allure of "giant-killer" like the M1060 has.

M560 while a superbly built headphone are kind of like a T50RP but with less modding potential. I've tried to mod them by damping the cups among other things but there's really not much space to work with in there. The rear vents are also curiously perpendicular to the driver magnets. The design choices from Monoprice really makes me scratch my head at times.

They sound and feel pretty good out of the box vs the T50RP though.

Modding for the M1060 however... well you can look at my signature.

 

[jotaku]

Sorry haha, I'm definitely disappointed too. Was hoping they'd be the solution to Audeze discontinuing the pads. If anything, the comfort definitely stepped up. I couldn't wear my M1060s for more than an hour without my ears feeling hot, but that's it IMO. I actually got suede ZMF Eikons (which I've heard are very similar to the vegans) and I like them a lot better with this headphone. Talking more about it below.



Adding onto this, I recently swapped the pads to the suede ZMF Eikons and I noticed a huge difference, that being the sound is much more coherent. With the Dekoni's, the highs became bright and didn't match well with the mids. I actually commented on this earlier in the thread with me saying I wasn't a fan of the mids sounding veiled, but actually was just the pads making the highs brighter than they should be. The Eikon's smoothed this out and made the music much more enjoyable. Bass also improved with the ZMF pads. The rumble that I had with the stock pads was back but also increased. I tested this by having a different pad on each side. The ZMFs had more sub-bass than stock, and stock had more than the Dekoni's.

After reading about the improvements that vegan pads made, I feel like the Eikon's definitely give similar improvements and are the better alternative to vegans than the Dekoni's.

Edit (Further development): I just tried the Eikon's with a 3D printed ring to help it stick better to the headphones but the mids sound super recessed. Definitely recommend mounting them without anything. Not sure how this affects the Dekoni's but those came with a ring on the inside that I used.

I just tried the dekoni pads, and I agree with you everything you said about them. They made everything sounds washed out or veiled.

I had heard that the eikons where the next best thing to the vegans, but was hoping that the dekoni would also be a good alternative. The whole $40 vs $70 was the initial appeal. Guess there's no avoiding it.

 

[jotaku]

While they were a good value at the time when HE-400i were selling for >$300, they've kind of dropped off since HiFiMan starting dumping their prices.

The M560 were likely aiming to take on the HiFiMan 400i, T50RP, or Oppo PM-3; the M1060 set their eyes on the big boy planars of Audeze and high end HiFiMans for about $100 more when they first released.

M560 while is a fine headphone in it's own right, doesn't have that allure of "giant-killer" like the M1060 has.

M560 while a superbly built headphone are kind of like a T50RP but with less modding potential. I've tried to mod them by damping the cups among other things but there's really not much space to work with in there. The rear vents are also curiously perpendicular to the driver magnets. The design choices from Monoprice really makes me scratch my head at times.

They sound and feel pretty good out of the box vs the T50RP though.

Modding for the M1060 however... well you can look at my signature.

I think you totally nailed the M560s vs the M1060s and what they were meant to compete with. I definitely agree that out of the box the M560 competes with and beats the HE400 series and the T50RPs unmodded. And that the M1060s were meant to compete with the LCD series.

I haven't heard the LCD-2s or the LCD-2Cs, but I had the LCD-Xs for about a month. And while the LCD-Xs were definitely better in just about every way, they didn't destroy the M1060s. They were better, but they were not 3-5 times better despite costing 3-5 times the M1060s. They were only like 15-20% better in my opinion.

As a best bang for your buck kind of guy I'm keeping the M1060s.

 

[cobyatch]

I just tried the dekoni pads, and I agree with you everything you said about them. They made everything sounds washed out or veiled.

I had heard that the eikons where the next best thing to the vegans, but was hoping that the dekoni would also be a good alternative. The whole $40 vs $60 was the initial appeal. Guess there's no avoiding it.

Yup I have the Dekoni TH900 pads on my THX00PH's and they're awesome, was hoping it'd be the same with their Audeze pads.

Out of curiosity, have you tried them without the ring inside? I've already got my ZMF pads on pretty securely so I don't wanna pull them off, but it'd be interesting to see if it helps at all with the sound.

 

[jotaku]

Nice protective case. I'm using a slim case I found on ebay, initially purchased for my T40RP.

Nice! Do you have a link to it? How much does it cost?

 

[jotaku]

Yup I have the Dekoni TH900 pads on my THX00PH's and they're awesome, was hoping it'd be the same with their Audeze pads.

Out of curiosity, have you tried them without the ring inside? I've already got my ZMF pads on pretty securely so I don't wanna pull them off, but it'd be interesting to see if it helps at all with the sound.

I just can't wrap my head around the physics of why a few millimeters of a ring would drastically change the sound? I tried taking the ring out last night without messing up the tape ring, and found it pretty difficult. I'll try again later this week when I have more time. But I don't want to mess up the ring so I can return/sell these off to put towards the Eikon pads.

 

[jotaku]

So I'm thinking of getting a pair ZMF suede pads. Everyone says get the Eikons, but from what I can tell no one has tried any of the other pads. I'm looking specifically at the oval pads because they are a little thicker. Had anyone compared the different ZMF pads?