[BucketInABucket]

There is ONE Q40 available on amazon for $99. 

 

[NewWaveAudio]

Are there any stores that carry these?

 

[NewWaveAudio]

Also, how do these compare to the MDR X10

 

[NewWaveAudio]

The Q40s have lower ratings online than the MDR X10

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Also, how do these compare to the MDR X10

The Q40 have a lot better sound quality,X10 stronger bass. My subjective rating of these two headphones (how much I'd pay for them after I've heard them) goes roughly Q40 worth 150~$200 at least and the Sony's I'd only rate 75~$100 only terms of sound quality. The Q40 still packs a very good amount of bass but is a lot more refined, textured and controlled. The mids are more forward and detailed/clear, especially vocals and acoustic instruments sound a lot more realistic, the highs have a slightly softer texture to it but about equal presence. The highs on X10 sound somewhat metallic and there's a bit of an unnatural raspiness to it, the highs just sound more natural on Q40.

Neither do particularly well with soundstaging and positioning of sounds, but I'd give slight edge to positioning to Q40, particularly for the better perception of depth.

The X10 has maybe slightly better isolation from outside noise, fairly comfortable for an on-ear design while Q40 is circumaural/over-ear and clamps quite a bit harder. For some the clamping is too much but it can be stretched if you dislike that. With Q40 you can swap/mod pads and with X10 you're pretty much stuck with the stock ones. Giving very slightly more distance between the driver and the ear on Q40 is a easy boost in sound quality IMO, gaining soundstage and the sound balances to become more clear from being very slightly too smooth unmodded in terms of ideal/realistic tonality (the midrange is very slightly more forward than the highs completely stock)

 

[Oregonian]

What do you guys recommend for about $100?

As quisxx said........Q40.

 

[NewWaveAudio]

There's quite a few reports of these breaking. I need a durable set of cans.The average customer satisfaction with these are lower.

 

[NewWaveAudio]

Ever tried the Sony MDR V5

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

There's quite a few reports of these breaking. I need a durable set of cans.The average customer satisfaction with these are lower.

They are durable as long as you swap the cable, the stock cable will crap out easily and the sound will start to cut out, unfortunately a lot of people isn't aware of this. I'd swap out the stock cable instantly and you're good to go plus it also sounds very slightly better as the impedance is very high for a cable on the stock one. 

Nuforce Transient 1.5 m cable available in black or red would be my recommendation, if you like Kevlar reinforced, V-Moda sells those.

 

[NewWaveAudio]

Are these available at Best Buy or Nebraska Furniture Mart?

 

[NewWaveAudio]

Do these a warm tone, because I do not like high frequency sounds

 

[White Lotus]

The Q40s have lower ratings online than the MDR X10

 
Don't rely on ratings - ask someone who has heard both.
 
Welcome to Head-fi.
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Do these a warm tone, because I do not like high frequency sounds

Then I think the Q40 will do well, with stock pads the Q40 has fairly warm tone, not dramasticly so but the X10 has IMO slightly colder tone to it as the mids are pretty recessed.

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

There's quite a few reports of these breaking. I need a durable set of cans.The average customer satisfaction with these are lower.

 
These lived with me for about 20 minutes last Sunday. Maybe 5 was with sound and 15 was me trying to get it back in the right ear. Driver was toast. Worst experience of my audio life. Somebody just told you to trust your ears. NEVER EVER put anymore trust into what a person on here says than you would a stranger. We are after all strangers. 
 
This epic disaster led me to my newest purchase which is another M-Audio essentially re branded. If everybody had an experience like mine the q40 would be discontinued. They are being upgraded. I'm essentially buying that upgrade. Yes...these do fail. Mine did and it happened 4 days ago. Proceed with caution. I have not received any response from my mails to M-Audio and my calls go to a message machine. I am lucky I bought these through Amazon.
 
Besides that the X10 are on ear no? The Q40 are over ear. That's apples and oranges? Sorry if I'm mixing this up. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

^ TBH, with all electronics, DOA can happen. Sometimes you get to be the unlucky one. I wouldn't let that hinder me from getting a product that sounds very nice when it works.

The new "upgraded" Q40 doesn't necessarily have to sound better, it could even sound worse. The odds that having a new replacement product from the same manufacturer that already managed to have the previous product punching well above its price range is pretty slim from a realistic point of view. I hope it's better but I wouldn't count on it. It's a bit like the new Denon Dxxx lineup that replaced the old Dxxxx series, the new series isn't getting the same kind of loving' as the old one.

I mean sometimes even monkeys like the engineers behind Beats could get a product "right" even without any extensive research or development, just down to pure luck. That is probably the case with Q40, I don't think there's any extensive development put into that product judging from the price, I think it's more like they slapped together some parts and driver and "hey this actually works great!". Hopefully the same applies with HDH50 but I need to hear it first.

I like Q40's sound and I'd want something similar, hopefully HDH50 is similar but it's using 50 mm drivers so it's entirely different drivers to begin with so it most likely will offer slightly different sound. But we will see, I will likely give it a try as Q40 has served me so well for over 2 years now (which is like a decade in this hobby) so M-Audio deserves that chance from me.