[Nirvana1000]

Yello aren't what they once were musically speaking. I think their older stuff like Stella, One Second & Baby are superior. Actually, Baby has been my dynamics test disc since it was released in 1991. Back then I was working for a Scottish hi-fi retailer and we'd have our annual show in a big hotel in Edinburgh (Scotland's Capital). I was working in the Ruark room (classy loudspeakers) and Ruark were debuting their new flagship floor-stander. It was my first show and had been very nervous the previous week. Anyway, Baby had only been out about a month by then. Nobody knew who Yello were back then so I thought I'd take the disc along and see what happened. I have never been approached by quite so many people saying wow in my life. You could see the smiles on their faces as these relatively huge floor standers pushed the air up & down that room. Some people just sat there laughing, like you might do at a fireworks display. I'll never forget that day.

The whole album is a total blast from the opening track, "Homage to the Mountain" to the closer "Sweet Thunder". Tremendous album.

Sorry for going O/T but music is why we're all here after all.



Edit - I've just taken delivery of my new XL pads. Now, can I fit them without throwing anything out the window? Where's that video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgat9VVVLlc

Enjoy.

 

[Gryphus0204]

Can anyone tell me how the M-100 holds up against the AKG Q701? I currently have the Q701, but am looking to get a more portable option.

 

[Solrighal]

Well, thanks to Nirvana's link that went surprisingly well. That's some noise it makes when you wrench off the originals. I closed my eyes.

First impressions...

Here's something that I rarely hear anyone else pointing out. Headphones are the only hi-fi component where I would put sound second in my priorities. Think about that. Anyway, onwards...

Comfort - I must confess I never found the originals to be uncomfortable. They were very snug, perhaps cramped but not uncomfortable. However, the XL pads excel at comfort. I really could wear these all day without any problems. I actually find them a lot more comfortable than my AKG Q701's. I would rate the comfort as very similar to my Shure SRH840's, although the V-Moda's feel far more secure on the head. If I was thirty years younger I might be tempted to headbang with these on. Maybe not

Sound - This is where I need to be careful because I think I know what I expect to happen so this part is subject to change. I've read people commenting that the soundstage is bigger and that's what I would expect. It's not though, not to my mind anyway. I think it's the same size but just a little bit more distant. Not deeper either, just ever so slightly further away. This isn't a bad thing though as it does increase my impression of space within the stage. There's definitely better instrument separation here. It's not in the league of my AKG Q701's but I'm willing to bet there's nowhere near the night & day difference between the two sets of headphones that I've become accustomed to. This is a good thing!

I know that when Val and his team were developing these pads it seemed to take an eternity for those who were desperate for their release. If I remember correctly there was mention from Val that it was not as easy as it would seem to us mere mortals. After all, the original sonic signature was achieved using the stock pads and advertised as such, so to then change one component (especially such a significant one) and still retain the original character was always going to be difficult. I think the problem they might have been running up against was standing waves. The deeper the internal sidewall is the more effect standing waves will have. Too deep and the sound basically comes right back at itself and cancels itself out. We would notice this as a lack of focus, or impact. Let's be honest, impact is what the M's do very well. I think the increased sense of space is evidence of this battle they had with internal reflections. I also think they've succeeded in retaining the overall character of the V-Moda brand sound whilst at the same time making them considerably more comfortable.

I find that there's more treble and to my ears this is a fact. I use Neutron as my player (why wouldn't i?) and with the M-100's I've had to dial in a slight lift in treble since day one. I'm 49 and do suffer from very slight hearing loss on the upper registers, I've been tested. Half-way through my first track with the XL's - "It's Only Natural" by Crowded House from the album "Woodface" (superb recording) - I turned the EQ off. I'm now ten or so tracks in (from different albums) and the EQ is still off. All through this huge thread I've read people praising the "sparkly" treble. Tyll, in his review on Innerfidelity mentioned it too. It didn't sparkle for me, not without help from an EQ. Now I don't have that problem. This is a good thing.

I'm guessing this slight increase (and it is slight, not night & day) in treble is also down to the internal reflections I think I noticed in the spatial differences between the stock pads and the XL's.

Style - By far the least important factor for me but still important. After all, the V-Moda is a very stylish headphone and in matt black it has a stealthy quality to it that you wouldn't want to destroy with big clumsy looking pads. Thankfully this has been avoided. They're only marginally bigger after all and in use, other than the obvious increase in comfort, you'd never know anything had changed.

Summation - I think Val & V-Moda have done an exceptional job here. Considering the stock pads were never initially designed to be interchangeable it's impressive it's possible at all. I do think when the eventual successor to the M-100 is released that we'll see evidence of this enforced learning curve for V-Moda in the ear pads. One would hope so anyway. The company certainly deserves all the success it receives. It's not often you get to talk with the "Big Man" in a company. Not without an appointment and a cheque book anyway. Kudos.

Addendum - I ordered these pads a fortnight ago (roughly). I'm in Scotland, V-Moda are in the far away side of the USA. At the same time I ordered two CD's from Amazon, whose distribution centre I can drive to in under an hour. Everything arrived today. That is service!

The above is only my opinion. The sonic description is very personal - as I point out in the body of the above text I am 49 and suffer from slight hearing loss at the very top end. As ever YMMV.

Peace out.

 

[SpiderNhan]

Can anyone tell me how the M-100 holds up against the AKG Q701? I currently have the Q701, but am looking to get a more portable option.

I've only given the Q701 a brief listen in a noisy store, but the M-100 isolates a ton better, is just as detailed, has much more bass slam and sub bass presence, but the mids aren't as pronounced and the sound stage is noticeably more congested. Also they don't need an amp as much as the Q701 does. I don't think you're sacrificing sound quality from the Q701 to the M-100, but they are both designed with different environments and sound signatures in mind. For portability the M-100 can't be beat.

 

[Solrighal]

Can anyone tell me how the M-100 holds up against the AKG Q701? I currently have the Q701, but am looking to get a more portable option.

I own both. The difference is night & day. I haven't heard every headphone but I'd probably bet a fair amount that a portable Q701 equivalent does not, and could not, exist. However, I find that owning both the Q's and the M's allows me to cover all bases. If you want anything more specific feel free to ask but both are excellent at what they do. They just do two very different things.

 

[Gryphus0204]

I've only given the Q701 a brief listen in a noisy store, but the M-100 isolates a ton better, is just as detailed, has much more bass slam and sub bass presence, but the mids aren't as pronounced and the sound stage is noticeably more congested. Also they don't need an amp as much as the Q701 does. I don't think you're sacrificing sound quality from the Q701 to the M-100, but they are both designed with different environments and sound signatures in mind. For portability the M-100 can't be beat.

Hmm.. I see. That's true though, that for portability the M-100 is better.
 

I own both. The difference is night & day. I haven't heard every headphone but I'd probably bet a fair amount that a portable Q701 equivalent does not, and could not, exist. However, I find that owning both the Q's and the M's allows me to cover all bases. If you want anything more specific feel free to ask but both are excellent at what they do. They just do two very different things.

Could you care to expand more? Currently with my set up I am in love with my Q701, also kinda because i got it for 200 off Amazon. But I like a really bright and lively sound. Does the M100 fit that category? 

 

[Solrighal]

Hmm.. I see. That's true though, that for portability the M-100 is better.

Could you care to expand more? Currently with my set up I am in love with my Q701, also kinda because i got it for 200 off Amazon. But I like a really bright and lively sound. Does the M100 fit that category? 

Not really I'm afraid. It is lively but it also has levels of bass the Q's can only dream of. I see what Spider says above re detail but I'm afraid I don't agree. The M's have nowhere near the same level of detail as the Q's. Nowhere near the soundstage either. Put it this way, there's hardly anything in my library that would give me equal satisfaction from both sets of headphones. Sorry, that's not going to happen. It would be possible to EQ the Living Daylights (see what I did there?) out of both but that would only result in two crap sets of headphones.

Turn it on it's head. What are you looking for? Are you amping your Q's at the moment?

 

[ratinox]

Can anyone tell me how the M-100 holds up against the AKG Q701? I currently have the Q701, but am looking to get a more portable option.

I'm going to include K550 in this because a) it's the closest thing to a closed-back K701 there is and b) I have K 551 which is K 550 with a iThing control cable. I'm using Headroom's FR graphs for comparison.

The AKGs are big. I mean really big. M-100's cups are about as small as over-ear headphones can get and still be over-ear headphones.

You won't lose anything in overall sound quality with M-100. It's clean and detailed from bottom to top. You might gain a tiny hair of improvement due to better component matching in M-100 than Harman typically puts into the AKG line.

You will lose perceived width. M-100 sounds big for a closed headphone but it is a closed headphone and you will notice a difference.

Frequency response will be an even bigger difference. M-100 has more bass, easily 5-10 dB more bass below 100 Hz than Q701 and about half that more than K550. M-100 has similarly less in the midrange, dipping 5-10 dB below Q701 and K550. M-100 has a deep valley at around 4.5 kHz which the AKGs lack. All three have peaks in the 6.5 kHz to 10 kHz range with the AKGs being about 3-4 dB higher. M-100 treble roll-off is very steep past 10 kHz while both AKGs have an additional peak at about 15 kHz (the so-called treble spike that AKG detractors hate).

So... yeah, they're very different headphones. M-100 has a fun, v-shaped sound signature. The AKGs are reference headphones with more neutral frequency response although not as neutral as monitoring headphones.

 

[Gryphus0204]

Not really I'm afraid. It is lively but it also has levels of bass the Q's can only dream of. I see what Spider says above re detail but I'm afraid I don't agree. The M's have nowhere near the same level of detail as the Q's. Nowhere near the soundstage either. Put it this way, there's hardly anything in my library that would give me equal satisfaction from both sets of headphones. Sorry, that's not going to happen. It would be possible to EQ the Living Daylights (see what I did there?) out of both but that would only result in two crap sets of headphones.

Turn it on it's head. What are you looking for? Are you amping your Q's at the moment?

Yup. Using an external DAC with a Desktop Amp. But its intriguing how my set up makes my Q701 treble sparkle. It doesn't sound neutral with my setup . Without amping it sounds very neutral, but after it becomes alot more musiscal, alot more fun. But currently my Q701 are without the bass mod, and I kinda like the quantity of the bass. But I'm also afraid that the M100 might sound a bit dark to me. So for my next IEM/Headphones I'm also considering a CIEM, maybe the Noble 3C or UM mage. Not too sure.
 

I'm going to include K550 in this because a) it's the closest thing to a closed-back K701 there is and b) I have K 551 which is K 550 with a iThing control cable. I'm using Headroom's FR graphs for comparison.

The AKGs are big. I mean really big. M-100's cups are about as small as over-ear headphones can get and still be over-ear headphones.

You won't lose anything in overall sound quality with M-100. It's clean and detailed from bottom to top. You might gain a tiny hair of improvement due to better component matching in M-100 than Harman typically puts into the AKG line.

You will lose perceived width. M-100 sounds big for a closed headphone but it is a closed headphone and you will notice a difference.

Frequency response will be an even bigger difference. M-100 has more bass, easily 5-10 dB more bass below 100 Hz than Q701 and about half that more than K550. M-100 has similarly less in the midrange, dipping 5-10 dB below Q701 and K550. M-100 has a deep valley at around 4.5 kHz which the AKGs lack. All three have peaks in the 6.5 kHz to 10 kHz range with the AKGs being about 3-4 dB higher. M-100 treble roll-off is very steep past 10 kHz while both AKGs have an additional peak at about 15 kHz (the so-called treble spike that AKG detractors hate).

So... yeah, they're very different headphones. M-100 has a fun, v-shaped sound signature. The AKGs are reference headphones with more neutral frequency response although not as neutral as monitoring headphones.

Hmm.. bass. Not really a big fan of large amounts of bass though. Though I don't really consider myself a treble-head either. And from pictures the M100 cups always seemed really large though. I was kind of shocked when i saw the M80 cup size. But I'm not a big fan of headphones that don't completely cup my ears, so I'm not too sure about the M100's? Haha.

 

[BB 808]

Yup. Using an external DAC with a Desktop Amp. But its intriguing how my set up makes my Q701 treble sparkle. It doesn't sound neutral with my setup . Without amping it sounds very neutral, but after it becomes alot more musiscal, alot more fun. But currently my Q701 are without the bass mod, and I kinda like the quantity of the bass. But I'm also afraid that the M100 might sound a bit dark to me. So for my next IEM/Headphones I'm also considering a CIEM, maybe the Noble 3C or UM mage. Not too sure.

Hmm.. bass. Not really a big fan of large amounts of bass though. Though I don't really consider myself a treble-head either. And from pictures the M100 cups always seemed really large though. I was kind of shocked when i saw the M80 cup size. But I'm not a big fan of headphones that don't completely cup my ears, so I'm not too sure about the M100's? Haha.

You should probably cross off the M-100 from your list and move on...
Apple iPod Classic 160G → V-MODA Vamp Verza → V-MODA M-100 =

 

[plakat]

Yello aren't what they once were musically speaking. I think their older stuff like Stella, One Second & Baby are superior. Actually, Baby has been my dynamics test disc since it was released in 1991. Back then I was working for a Scottish hi-fi retailer and we'd have our annual show in a big hotel in Edinburgh (Scotland's Capital). I was working in the Ruark room (classy loudspeakers) and Ruark were debuting their new flagship floor-stander. It was my first show and had been very nervous the previous week. Anyway, Baby had only been out about a month by then. Nobody knew who Yello were back then so I thought I'd take the disc along and see what happened. I have never been approached by quite so many people saying wow in my life. You could see the smiles on their faces as these relatively huge floor standers pushed the air up & down that room. Some people just sat there laughing, like you might do at a fireworks display. I'll never forget that day.

The whole album is a total blast from the opening track, "Homage to the Mountain" to the closer "Sweet Thunder". Tremendous album.

Sorry for going O/T but music is why we're all here after all.
 

 
Which unfortunately sometimes seems to be forgotten or lost in between measurement values, comparison charts and technical datasheets...
 
Nice to be reminded of Yello, they had some really nice sounding tunes and were always interesting to listen to, be it for their weird sound ideas of for testing equipment.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I absolutely endorse music talk. It IS what we're doing after all. I'm happy to hear about stuff that sounds especially good on these.

 

[Tony6225]

Just wanted to sound off about the K550 comparison to M100. I sold my K550's, which I had for a year, and went with Fidelio X1's for home listening. I then realized I had no portable option and bought the M100. The k550 is a slightly better sounding headphone across the frequency spectrum. Its commonly regarded as a neutral sounding headphone, but unlike many other cans I've tried, adding bass via eq or processing makes them slam really hard, about as much in quantity as the M100 is capable of. The sound-stage, which is my biggest gripe with the M100, is noticeably bigger on the K550. I would say that the K550 can hold its own against some open headphones regarding sound-stage depth.
 
The M100 is far more portable than the K550. It isolates better, it sits on the head firmly, has a removable cable, and doesn't make you look like Princess Leia. The K550 is loose on the head and some even complain that it has problems sealing the cups around the ears although I didn't experience that issue. The M100 also folds inside of itself and comes with a really nice case. Thats all i can think of. Hope that helps.

 

[Solrighal]

... doesn't make you look like Princess Leia

^this^

 

[Red Jacket Mike]

I absolutely endorse music talk. It IS what we're doing after all. I'm happy to hear about stuff that sounds especially good on these.

In that case, I'll have to admit I've been spending way too much time listening to this lately, and liking it a lot: