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- Feb 23, 2011
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As an owner of the M50, I can give you the main points of difference quickly.
V-MODA Crossfade M-100
- More engaging/forward mids and treble.
- Much clearer, more detail in all areas. (Bass/Mids/Treble) Especially in Mids & Treble.
- Bass is larger - in both quality and quantity. Bass has a 'purr' on the M-100's, I could never get this on the M50's.
- The M-100 is a more colored headphone. Slightly balanced, but focuses more on musicality than perfect representation of the music.
- Build quality is much much better, but they are non-foldable. However, due to smaller cups, it can still be warn around the neck without much issue.
- Said smaller cups may be less comfortable than the M50's for people with larger ears. Ear pads are softer on the M-100, leading to equal comfort for both headphones, at least with smaller ears.
- Detachable cables, custom parts, replaceable pieces, carrying case, 2 year warranty, etc etc. Better repair/replacement-wise than M50.
Audio Technica ATH-M50
- Detailed treble, but not as much so as on the M-100's.
- Mids are slightly recessed. This usually leads to Vocals being slightly quieter than accompanying instruments.
- Detailed bass, slightly colored, but nowhere near as much so as the M-100. Considered a colored headphone, but still more 'flat' then M-100.
- More 'accurate' sound in comparison to the M-100. Focuses more on representing the original music than making it sound fun with coloration.
- Nice medium sized cups, fit most ears. Depth on cups is also great. Due to the flat padding, pressure isn't applied to any one spot, so they can be comfortable for hours. headband has good padding, feels solid.
- Build quality is above average, but the only metal is used for the ring as decoration and the adjusting bracket. Otherwise, these are all leather and good quality plastic.
- Cable is long and unwieldy for portable use, at 10ft+. Coiled version solves problem, but adds heft. I personally had a re-cabled version, with a shorter cable, done by a friend.
- Cable is not detachable, plastic instead of metal means chips and scratches are more likely to occur. 1 year warranty, no test drive, bad repairability if damage occurs.
.... And those are my thoughts from 3 days of A/B'ing both headphones. I plan on comparing them more, but I am extremely happy with my upgrade from my M50 to my M-100. It's a bigger cost, but worth it - especially for the M-100's. IMO.
I don't recall the mids of the M50 too much, but I definitely agree with the treble (even if I said they were laid back from the mids/lows). The M-100's treble was very detailed from my first listen but the presentation of the treble was kind of a miss for me. My loss is your gain.
1 moar day of burn in! I'm at about 115 hours so far. >: D
Also, I plan on purchasing an Objective 2 amp (or the smaller c421) eventually since I'll be using it to power a K701 in the future, so if I don't post impressions of the M-100 with it, spam me with PM's.
Off topic, but does anyone know where I can read up about what headphone sensitivity means? I just read something about impedance matching for amps (golden rule: the headphone should have > 8 times the impedance of the amp's impedance) and would be interested in the sensitivity values.