[kanonathena]

is there a way to remove the volume control on mx980?

 

[nengerlf]

 
Quote:

is there a way to remove the volume control on mx980?

 
 
Unfortunately there is no way to get rid of the volume control on MX 980.
 

 

[nengerlf]

 
Quote:

mx880: i am scared the sound is too bassy (i am not abasshead). For example, mx460 is too bassy for me

Don't worry, MX 880 are not too bassy.
I am not at all a basshead and I like the MX 880 a lot.
At least without the foams I consider the bass as quite neutral and very nice, not at all too bassy but also not too reduced. Just nice and natural
 
But the MX 880 need some time to burn in which for example improves the bass and makes the MX 880 much more sensitive (you will need less power to drive them after burn in).
 

 

[Terdinus Asus]

Just got the MX980's in today.  Straight out of the box they sound fantastic.  They have simply the most beautiful highs I've heard on headphones.
 
I'm also an owner of the Denon AH-D2000, Sennheiser HD280Pro, AKG K81DJ's, Yuin PK3, and Yuin G2A.
 
So as you can see I like my bass.  I've spent a lot of time around real instruments, and to me there is a rumbling sensation in real live music that you just don't get normally.  Sadly in headphones it seems the realistic oomphy rumble and detail are mutually exclusive, maybe one day we'll have technology that can bend the laws of physics.  
 
The MX980, do not have that realistic bass.  You can't expect tiny earbuds to do so.  But in terms of how close you can get to that realistic rumble, all the other headphones do a far better job.  Even the PK3s. (The HD280 Pros have the best accuracy in this regards, when a bass drum in an orchestra plays these shake your head...but the rest of the time they sound WAAAY too anemic to really enjoy).
 
But you know what with the MX980's? I don't care for once! I'm simply floored by how much detail and range these little tiny earbuds have. I tend to listen to a lot of orchestral soundtracks.  So I listened to a bit of  Lost Season 5 by Michael Giacchino, and MY GOD! You can hear soundwaves as they pass through every grain of wood in the strings.   Out of tiny earbuds! 
 
Next up, putting it through some percussive test.  Listening to Jungle Brawl from "Mercenaries 2" by Chris Tilton.   Fast percussion, from huge Taiko drums to snare drums and wood blocks.   
 
And finally to really test the highs, I put it through some John Williams fanfares.    Everything from the Olympic fanfares he's written to "The Flag Parade" from the Phantom Menace.  Have I mentioned these headphones sound superb with highs?  You feel like you are next to the trumpets. 
 
The only downside to these is that there is not enough oomph.  But you know what? You can remedy that by humming along to get those vibrations going through your skull.
 
I really don't care about lacking the low-end oomph with these phones.  Because everything else just sounds so detailed...so breathtaking! 
 
Conclusions Pros

1. The highs...my god the highs!
2. Great detail
3. Scales well from quiet passages to bombastic passages.  Great resolution. 
4. Reproduces a great deal of the higher end of the orchestra beautifully.  Reproduces from cellos and lower pretty damn well.  
5. Vocals sound good on non-orchestral/instrumental works. 
6. Surprisingly comfortable after 4 hours in the ears.
7. Great design by BMW Designworks
8. Great build quality (the volume control slider actually feels weighted, not cheap and plasticy)
9. Decent packaging (solid feeling materials, nice tolerances on the packaging...feels like Apple packaging)
10. Good magnetic pleather carrying case included
11. The soundstage is about medium, not too wide, not cramped.  Just right. 

 
Conclusions - Cons

1. Low end is accurate but not oomphy.  You miss out on the vibrating power of the lower ends of the orchestra/instruments. But you'll be too busy listening to the details in the upper ranges to care.
2. There's that slightly irritating signature that I find a lot of Sennheiser's have.  You know, talk normally and listen to your voice.  Now cup your hands and talk into them.  Listen to your voice.  That sound flavor.  It adds an artificial dimension I'm not fond of.
3. The cheap foams supplied will be ripped up or fall off the buds within a couple of weeks.  I'd love to have seen rubber as well.
4. Not very many accessories for a $200 investment.

 
Great headphones overall though.  Worth $200? Mmmm...I almost want to say yes.  They are superb sounding for earbuds.  And they have amazing build quality.  Oh hell.  They are worth $200.  The OK1's are $229, and they're no where near this quality in sound or build.  I got them a while back and returned them.  The OK1's would be more like $80 headphones.  And the OK1's direly need an amp.  An amp marginally improves the MX980, but without one they sound just as stellar.   
 
So how about an actual value I'd assign these?  If the OK1's are $80 headphones, I'd say these are a steal if you can find them from $140-$160.  

 

[Amperator]

Hi fellow head-fi'ears,
 
lurking arround for some years the mx 980 made me sign up. My usual equip is an Alessandro MS1 that I drive with a LM4562 modded creative xf-i, I'm pretty impressed by this cans. The earbud I used on the go (ipod) for some time now is the MX460. I don't own an amp yet. Recently I impulse buyed the mx 980 as the reviews were somewhat amazing.
 
The music I'm listening the most is all kinds of metal, black metal and sometimes laid back hip-hop like jurassic 5. From time to time some jazz, oldies and house. Usually I don't like pop that much but I enjoy abba a lot.
 
Quality of the files reaches from 192k to flac.
 
So you got my background.
 
After all those good reviews I was somewhat disappointed with the performance of the mx980 when compared to the el-cheapo mx460.
 
In my listening sessions on the ipod I realized that the mx980 is more laid back with a little more resolution, but not that much more than the mx460. Listening to the mx460 is more fatiguing. I didn't noticed this with the mx980.
 
The soundstage on the mx980 is better by a bigger margin. Not really hard as there isn't much of a stage when listening to the mx460.
 
Overall I enjoyed the songs I've heared a bit more with the mx980 but not that much that it justifys a 100euro price difference.
 
Maybe I've bad ears but IMHO it is not worth to spend money on the mx980 when you plan to connect it directly to a "weak" source.
 
So my quest resumes. I don't think I want to keep the mx980 unamped. I consider getting myself a corda 3move.
 
So, can I expect a better sound with an amped mx980 than I get with an unamped ms1?
 
Will the difference between a mx980 amped vs mx980 unamped be as little as the difference between unamped mx460 vs unamped mx980?
 
 
Thanks in advance for any input on that topic.

 

[Vitor Teixeira]

 

[SaigonGrandFunk]

Had MX980 burned in about 40hrs and noticed the Bass has improved little but not quite as impact as PK1, probably this is MX980 signature. Used with Ipod 5.5G unamped the mid and high are fuller and smoother.
 
When amped with T3D, MX980 has more bass impact and mid and high are really sparkle. IMO, depending on the type of music it is as good or may be better than RE0,  for my music it is clearly better than PK1.

 

[Antineutrino]

 
Quote:

Just got the MX980's in today.  Straight out of the box they sound fantastic.  They have simply the most beautiful highs I've heard on headphones.
 
I'm also an owner of the Denon AH-D2000, Sennheiser HD280Pro, AKG K81DJ's, Yuin PK3, and Yuin G2A.
 
So as you can see I like my bass.  I've spent a lot of time around real instruments, and to me there is a rumbling sensation in real live music that you just don't get normally.  Sadly in headphones it seems the realistic oomphy rumble and detail are mutually exclusive, maybe one day we'll have technology that can bend the laws of physics.  
 
The MX980, do not have that realistic bass.  You can't expect tiny earbuds to do so.  But in terms of how close you can get to that realistic rumble, all the other headphones do a far better job.  Even the PK3s. (The HD280 Pros have the best accuracy in this regards, when a bass drum in an orchestra plays these shake your head...but the rest of the time they sound WAAAY too anemic to really enjoy).
 
But you know what with the MX980's? I don't care for once! I'm simply floored by how much detail and range these little tiny earbuds have. I tend to listen to a lot of orchestral soundtracks.  So I listened to a bit of  Lost Season 5 by Michael Giacchino, and MY GOD! You can hear soundwaves as they pass through every grain of wood in the strings.   Out of tiny earbuds! 
 
Next up, putting it through some percussive test.  Listening to Jungle Brawl from "Mercenaries 2" by Chris Tilton.   Fast percussion, from huge Taiko drums to snare drums and wood blocks.   
 
And finally to really test the highs, I put it through some John Williams fanfares.    Everything from the Olympic fanfares he's written to "The Flag Parade" from the Phantom Menace.  Have I mentioned these headphones sound superb with highs?  You feel like you are next to the trumpets. 
 
The only downside to these is that there is not enough oomph.  But you know what? You can remedy that by humming along to get those vibrations going through your skull.
 
I really don't care about lacking the low-end oomph with these phones.  Because everything else just sounds so detailed...so breathtaking! 
 
Conclusions Pros

1. The highs...my god the highs!
2. Great detail
3. Scales well from quiet passages to bombastic passages.  Great resolution. 
4. Reproduces a great deal of the higher end of the orchestra beautifully.  Reproduces from cellos and lower pretty damn well.  
5. Vocals sound good on non-orchestral/instrumental works. 
6. Surprisingly comfortable after 4 hours in the ears.
7. Great design by BMW Designworks
8. Great build quality (the volume control slider actually feels weighted, not cheap and plasticy)
9. Decent packaging (solid feeling materials, nice tolerances on the packaging...feels like Apple packaging)
10. Good magnetic pleather carrying case included
11. The soundstage is about medium, not too wide, not cramped.  Just right. 

 
Conclusions - Cons

1. Low end is accurate but not oomphy.  You miss out on the vibrating power of the lower ends of the orchestra/instruments. But you'll be too busy listening to the details in the upper ranges to care.
2. There's that slightly irritating signature that I find a lot of Sennheiser's have.  You know, talk normally and listen to your voice.  Now cup your hands and talk into them.  Listen to your voice.  That sound flavor.  It adds an artificial dimension I'm not fond of.
3. The cheap foams supplied will be ripped up or fall off the buds within a couple of weeks.  I'd love to have seen rubber as well.
4. Not very many accessories for a $200 investment.

 
Great headphones overall though.  Worth $200? Mmmm...I almost want to say yes.  They are superb sounding for earbuds.  And they have amazing build quality.  Oh hell.  They are worth $200.  The OK1's are $229, and they're no where near this quality in sound or build.  I got them a while back and returned them.  The OK1's would be more like $80 headphones.  And the OK1's direly need an amp.  An amp marginally improves the MX980, but without one they sound just as stellar.   
 
So how about an actual value I'd assign these?  If the OK1's are $80 headphones, I'd say these are a steal if you can find them from $140-$160.  

 
So you're saying  that the OK1 cannot match MX980 sound quality...
The OK1 is considered on 2° place by Kostalex review due to its "accuracy" .
I own them and I can state that when amped and equalized with a warm balance they sound awesome. Even the bass is great! Reading your post you say instead that the MX980 bass is not so realistic... So how those MX980 are far better than OK1? In terms of separation or soundstage? I really want to buy a pair of BLOX TM5 considered the best earbuds on the planet...
 
 


 

 

[Amperator]

Small addition to my former post.
 
Operation still unamped.
 
I'm not impressed by the performance of the mx980. Bass, although everyone claims it to be the best throughout the entire mx series is lacking compared to the el-cheapo mx460. Highs, seperation and soundstage are much better now.
 
When comparing the serial of the earbud to the serial of the packaging I saw that they differ *confused* ???
 
Edit: Someone mentioned that the serial on the bud is in the format S/N Number. On mine there is only A19393. Can someone compare it to his?
 
Right now I'm pretty sure that I've got a very bad pair of lemons.
 
I'm still interested in some information of unamped operation, are they really that bad unamped. Or is my impression that I got lemons more likely.

 

[CEE TEE]

 
Quote:

So, can I expect a better sound with an amped mx980 than I get with an unamped ms1?
 
Will the difference between a mx980 amped vs mx980 unamped be as little as the difference between unamped mx460 vs unamped mx980?
 
 

Hey Amperator,
 
I would personally be very surprised if you found that the mx9880 amped sounded better than the MS-1.
 
I read so many times about the PK1 needing an amp that when I finally got the TTVj Slim I was surprised to find the difference relatively small compared to the comments.
 
I have the MS-1i's and they are so great for the money.  Last night I did a test sample of a kick drum that another PK3 owner was having problems with because of distortion.  The PK2 had some distortion but less than PK1.  The PK1 did have a slight touch of distortion, but the Sennheiser IE8 and MS-1i had no distortion.
 
So, earbuds may have some limitations.  That said, people like the MX-980 over PK1.  The MX-980 may be a great earbud but it is better to have realistic expectations with the amp addition.  It provided some clarity to PK1 but not a big difference.  If you are going to look at an amp and want to adjust bass, look at the Headstage Arrow which will be shipping an improved version in about 5 weeks.  You have bass and crossover adjustments.  Later, if you get iems, you cna adjust impedance too.  That would help you eliminate hiss if your iems are too sensitive and your source has hiss.
 
Good luck!
 

 

[Amperator]

Thanks for your answer Cee Tee,
 
I got myself a pair of mx580 and mx760 now to compare them to my mx980. And I've to say that both earbuds impress me more than my mx980. Both buds together cost less than the half of the mx980.
 
The clarity of the mx580 is on the same level, if not much better than the clarity of my mx980.
 
The soundstage on the mx760 is confusing coming out of earbuds and much better than the soundstage of the mx980. Bass is excellent on this phones. 
 
In the end I think as I've posted already that I got a very bad pair of mx980. The serialnumber on the packaging doesn't even matched the serial number on the earbuds. I returned the mx980 to the seller and will enjoy my mx580 and mx760 depending on the type of music I hear.
 
Maybe I'll give the mx980 another try if one of the others break and hope I'll get a decent pair.
 
 

 

[2rooi123]

could there be 980 fakes out there? anything is possible

 

[Terdinus Asus]

Well guys I ended up returning these on Amazon.  
 
I went to work one day and accidentally blasted music through my iPhone into the headphones  (and my own ears) and the left driver began rattling from then on.  
 
So I gave up on them.  

 

[madddskillz]

Mine is A01447.  I don't have my box to compare..
 
Quote:

Edit: Someone mentioned that the serial on the bud is in the format S/N Number. On mine there is only A19393. Can someone compare it to his?

 

[nengerlf]

It is correct that the S/N on the earbuds are different from the one on the packaging box.
 
I have two MX 980 and it is with both like that.
It may be strange but it is normal for MX 980.
Both different S/N numbers are from different format also, so it is not just two different numbers but two different formats of S/N numbers.