[Danpyre]

  We had 1480 pages of love for the M100 and it's digressed to this?  I upgraded my M100s to the Crossfade Wireless and to tell you the truth, I miss the portability more than I enjoy the sound tweaking (slightly clearer and detailed highs) and the wireless functionality.  I run them mostly in wired mode nowadays just because I run a Fiio X1 when I'm out and about so instead of the CFW I end up using the Zn.  Call me a V-MODA fanboy if you must, but they constantly put out great products.  The only headphone that I've found to compete completely w/ the M100 from a portability and sound standpoint is the PM3.  If it wasn't quite as power hungry, I might even prefer it, but alas, I'm on my phone most of the time, or w/ the X1, and the M100/CFW is a better match.

Personally, I don't get headphones being chosen above IEMs for portability, but as I've stated before, the M100 does have it's use.  My posts on the thread are made to say that they're not for everyone, despite some claims that are made by people in this thread.  A headphone for consumers who want some of what makes it stand out.
It has durability, it has a flashy sound signature, a somewhat flashy look, portability, accessories.
It fails at comfort, sound, and bang for buck.
Also, 'constantly put out great products' is a bit of a stretch.  A few of the headphones were just bad.

 

[dbdynsty25]

 
Also, 'constantly put out great products' is a bit of a stretch.  A few of the headphones were just bad.

 
What have they released in the last 3-4 years that was bad once they started going for the higher end?  M80, nope.  M100, nope.  XS, nope.  CFW, nope.  ZN, nope.  Sooo...seems like they are on a hot streak of late.  Even their last standard Crossfade LP, the LP2 was a pretty big improvement over their initial release.  What more can you ask for from a company.  Learn and improve.  They've done that.

 

[waynes world]

It fails at comfort, sound, and bang for buck.

I feel you're wrong. I did the paper towel mod, and the m100's are very comfy for me now. Apparently the XL pads also make them very comfortable. And the sound is awesome. Maybe the signature isn't to your liking, but it is to a majority of others. I like the sound better than the other $200-300 portables that I've heard. In fact, the sound of the m100's is a favorite of mine.. period. So taking that into conseration, and their good isolation and styling, I'd say their bang for buck is also great.

 

[gikigill]

  I wish I got paid for this,  Then I could buy stuff to preoccupy myself with.  Nah, I'm just a kid with too much time and hates overhyped products.  The hype for these is worse than the hype for the M50X.  I just don't want to leave people with the same unsatisfied feeling I got when a $170 headphone blew these out of the water.

The hype for these is more than the M50X? In which universe?
 
Now stop pretending to be some moral warrior saving the rest of us from the unsatisfield feeling V-Moda leaves. Look up the bass threads where they have plenty of fans including me.
 
I dont like the HD800, preferring the HE-6 instead but that doesnt mean it gives me a licence to save those poor Sennheiser owners from that "unsatisfied" feeling

 

[Currawong]

Just a reminder from the Posting Guidelines:
 

 

☞ Remember that differences in opinions about headphones and IEMs and other audio gear are due to people listening to different music at different volumes, both which considerably alter the perceived sound! ☜​

 
Take from Jason Stoddard, who has been at this way before Head-Fi existed:
Quote:

  I think that every review, impression, or de facto "this product sounds better than that" statement would be made immeasurably better if it was required to have these three disclaimers:
 
1. This is only my opinion.
2. I am biased, like everyone else.
3. I have not heard everything in the world.

 
To give my personal example with the V-MODA headphones: The first time I tried the M80s, when Val put them on my head, I didn't like them so much when I was listening with my regular playlist at the time. Later, when he put the LP1s on my head, which are totally not my kind of headphones at all, he put on his club music at an elevated volume. Then I got it. For that, they were great. Having sat down and had him explain his philosophy and ideas to me (disclaimer: He bought me a beer at the time, so I might be biased 

) and having tried his headphones from his perspective, I reckon what he does is great, even if his headphones don't go with a lot of the music I like. I used to take the M80s when I went to cafes, while waiting for people, as I could turn up the music loud enough to drown out the elevator music they played inside some of them. This was before I had IEMs though.
 
IMO discussion about whether headphones are good or bad is pretty useless without discussion of what music and listening volume that experience was derived from. 

 

[blazinblazin]

I agreed to the admin.
 
Different headphones plug into different source gave different results.
Headphone do shines at a certain volume.
 
Like my XS only have most synergy with X5II and shines at Volume 65.
 
You can discuss but not bash headphones, it might be it don't works well with your source.
No one have the same source and equipment.

 

[dweaver]

Completely agree with Currawong. I write reviews and try to establish my bias, musical preferences, types of volume levels I listen at as part of my reviews and then explain why a headphone works for me or not. I rarely state a headphone is bad or good without giving a thorough explanation why I feel that way.

In regards to the M100 using my LG G3/G4 phone I get quite a bit of detail from the midrange and treble even though there is a lot of elevated bass. When I use my iPad Mini 2 I get a warmer signature which I still enjoy due to me enjoyment of that type of signature. My Pono offers a very similar sound to the LG phones. The Moto X Play in the other hand lost the detail in the mods and was more V shaped as well ruining the M100 sound for me.

As for genres I listen to a lot of jazz from singers like Patricia Barber and Diana It all as well as classic rock from the 70's and 80's as well as classical music from composers like Arvo Part, and Celtic music. Most of my listening is done at low to moderate levels. The bass of the M100 works great for most of my music at those levels because I can feel it. Meanwhile because I am not listening at to loud a level the midrange and treble come across nicely as well.

 

[Danpyre]

 
I wish I got paid for this,  Then I could buy stuff to preoccupy myself with.  Nah, I'm just a kid with too much time and hates overhyped products.  The hype for these is worse than the hype for the M50X.  I just don't want to leave people with the same unsatisfied feeling I got when a $170 headphone blew these out of the water.

The hype for these is more than the M50X? In which universe?


 


Now stop pretending to be some moral warrior saving the rest of us from the unsatisfield feeling V-Moda leaves. Look up the bass threads where they have plenty of fans including me.


 


I dont like the HD800, preferring the HE-6 instead but that doesnt mean it gives me a licence to save those poor Sennheiser owners from that "unsatisfied" feeling

 

Not worse, just less justified. I still find these to be better headphones for what they're worth.
Also, can anyone tell me how to prevent Quotes from going to full page editor?

 

[Danpyre]

To the paper towel mod guy, even with the XL pads, I still found them to be mildly uncomfortable on good days. Though, I suppose that is part of the sacrifice for the look.
And in response to Currawong, perhaps I've been listening to them wrong the whole time. Didn't think about that. I listen to a wide variety of stuff, even things like metal and moderate to heavy electronic, which I actually thought the M100 did pretty decently with. Maybe my mistake was not listening to them loud enough, so I didn't really get it, who knows. I'm concerned for my hearing, so I try not to go high enough where it'll damage my hearing after an hour of listening. Comparing it to what I have now with a Q701, I'm obviously not getting the bass volume, isolation, or portability I got before. But everything else is just improved to such an extent that I'd put it on a completely different level. Even tracks that the M100 did best with, headphones $100 cheaper did them better imo. So, I consider the M100 to be a 'select audience' headphone. It has it's quirks, but some key things are far from how I like them to be.
Now, the reason I've been hounding this thread so much is it was such a hug box. I saw "M100 is great". This is the kind of thing that caused me to buy this headphone, and in a community like this where noobs and outsiders can just not realize that headphones have their quirks and qualities that caused them to have their strengths and weaknesses, I think this is a harmful type of environment for there to be. So, here I am to stir you all up, constantly being visible, so people don't get the impression that these headphones are without fault or guaranteed to be great for them. Notice how I've repeated their strengths a few times. This is one of the first option people will end up getting when the dreaded Beats hate gets to them. They want a better Beats that's not a Beats.

I also have a dislike of 70's advertisements of 999+ custom rockbox EQ presets with curves that made with a blindfold.

 

[blazinblazin]

Actually all threads will have people that says the product is great, not only in this thread.
 
Just read and take note and test before you buy.

 

[dweaver]

The M100 is ever so slightly smaller than I would like but I can make them comfortable enough I have fallen asleep and woke up 6 hours later still wearing them and not in discomfort (back sleeper). But I can see anyone with ears larger them mine finding them potentially uncomfortable. But I find them more comfortable than any on ear I have tried or owned.

 

[Danpyre]

The M100 is ever so slightly smaller than I would like but I can make them comfortable enough I have fallen asleep and woke up 6 hours later still wearing them and not in discomfort (back sleeper). But I can see anyone with ears larger them mine finding them potentially uncomfortable. But I find them more comfortable than any on ear I have tried or owned.

On ears...


Have you ever tried a Grado?


Not fun...

 

[DiscoProJoe]

  Just a reminder from the Posting Guidelines:
 
IMO discussion about whether headphones are good or bad is pretty useless without discussion of what music and listening volume that experience was derived from. 

 
Quote:

  I agreed to the admin.
 
Different headphones plug into different source gave different results.
 
You can discuss but not bash headphones, it might be it don't works well with your source.
No one have the same source and equipment.

 
   Quote:

Completely agree with Currawong. I write reviews and try to establish my bias, musical preferences, types of volume levels I listen at as part of my reviews and then explain why a headphone works for me or not. I rarely state a headphone is bad or good without giving a thorough explanation why I feel that way.

 
I can definitely add my kudos to Currawong as well. Very often I add the words, "to me," "in my biased opinion," "I can/can't notice...," etc., to my posts. Headphones are the ultimate personal listening experience, so of course everyone has different preferences.
 
I know sometimes I can get enthusiastic about my equipment, firmware, and custom presets for it. When I say stuff like, "This is so awesome and it blows everything else to smithereens," please note that I'm being subjective in terms of my own tastes, preferences, and uses. I also tried listening to a lot of other headphones at my local Hi-Fi shop, and none seemed to have the kind of high sensitivity and huge response to low-end sub-bass EQ'ing that my M-100s have.
 
Personally, I get the most excited about Rockbox firmware because it is so incredibly customizable, easy to use, has a +12 dB bass boost feature, and in addition to that (separately), has a customizable 10-band EQ with a range of +24 dB to -24 dB along with a volume precut option for it, and Rockbox enables me to create a virtually infinite number of EQ presets using Notepad on my PC and saving them as .cfg files, where I can organize these EQ preset files into their own folders and sub-folders for easy navigation and can quickly and easily change them on the fly while listening to an album on my iPod. Furthermore, I especially get gung-ho about this because I can upload all these presets to the Internet as a .zip file and post a link where all other users of Rockbox firmware can download these and use them on their own players! Being able to share the countless hours of all my hard work spent on these EQ projects and all the joy that comes from it -- with other Rockbox users who appreciate it -- is a great feeling.
 
Anyway, as far as listening goes, I usually crank my portable headphone system up quite a bit with the sub-bass throbbing, and do this with all music genres. I mostly listen to happy, sappy, bubbly dance-pop music, but also hard and soft rock, country-pop, lounge music, and occasionally a bit of classical, jazz-pop, or hip-hop.
 
But sometimes I listen at low volume as well, where I flip the gain switch on my Cayin C5 portable amp to "low," in order to eliminate the small hiss noise from the amp that's otherwise audible when listening at low volume. At low volume, I also use a bigger bass increment and a higher treble sub-category in my EQ presets (for that particular song) than I normally use, and it sounds awesome, too.
 
And yes, the source equipment is absolutely important! For example, earlier this evening I was listening to the country band Lady Antebellum, using the "Lite" and "Ultra Lite" midbass categories in my latest EQ presets. It sounded excellent through the M-100s with a throbbing low-end, nice beat, decent highs, and good soundstage without coloration of the upper midbass / lower midrange.
 
But then, for contrast, I turned off the bass boost feature in Rockbox, switched off the bass boost on the Cayin C5 amp, and turned off the EQ in Rockbox and set everything to flat. The result? Most of those same Lady Antebellum songs -- and especially the ones where "Ultra Lite" had sounded the best -- sounded really colored, seriously lacked depth and soundstage, lacked crisp highs, and almost sounded like it was being played through a wall or a narrow tunnel. To put it simply, Lady Antebellum didn't sound good at all through the M-100 without an EQ and bass-boost features.
 
Of course, there's plenty of other songs by other artists that sound good through the M-100 without any EQ'ing -- it just depends on how it was recorded.
 
That's my take on all this.
 
Anyway, I look forward to posting more pictures of going walking with a friend with both of us wearing M-100s (Matte Black and White Silver) while listening to the same song together -- each with our own separate Cayin C5 amp (and volume control) -- with some awesome city skylines and scenery in the background! 2016 will be a happy, happy year. 

 

 

 

[Maelob]

It is all just a matter of taste- I was an Oppo Pm-3 owner for 3 months- Ive also listened to the new Senn Momentum2 and while they were more "accurate" - i found them to be more clinical and not exciting-the PM-3s lacked the oomph I wanted at lower listening volumes. Thats why i ended up with the Vmodas

 

[waynes world]

It is all just a matter of taste- I was an Oppo Pm-3 owner for 3 months- Ive also listened to the new Senn Momentum2 and while they were more "accurate" - i found them to be more clinical and not exciting-the PM-3s lacked the oomph I wanted at lower listening volumes. Thats why i ended up with the Vmodas

*1. Had the pm3's for a week. They were great, but I'm enjoying the m100's more.