Well, my Matte Blacks arrived Friday. That was just a tease as I went on a short weekend trip and left them at the house, got to experience the Bass Freqs though in the car and I'm pleased with them...I've only used earbuds and never used IEMs before and thought I would hate them. Turns out IEMs don't feel as weird to me as I thought they would, though I still don't think I could ever prefer them to circumaurals. Decent sound for the price (well, free for me lol, but I would def pay the $20 or whatever it is on Amazon for them), a bass-heavy sig that definitely muddies up the rest of the sig, but I still enjoyed it because I'm so used to the cheap, screeching highs earbuds I've used over the years.
Today I opened up the M-100s and I'm listening to them right now. First impressions, Val is even more of an obsessive freak than before. M-80s were a great unboxing experience, this is just another step above that. I swear even the quality of the box has improved. 2 extra gunmetal shields, have yet to open those but I'm sure they're beautiful. The case: my goodness, so tiny. Are there headphones in there? Opening it up, for goodness sake this zipper is horrible, not a smooth operator here. Only thing I don't like so far (and, expected, never liked the M-80 case's zipper either). Slid a little bit open, caught a peek of the M-100s inside...instantly in love with Matte Black. Pretty much no shininess whatsoever, just so stealthy and exuding quality. Fully opened the case, played with the hinge a bit, definitely like it. The portability of these is a big middle finger to every other portable circumaural out there. "Get on my level." Weight: perfect in hand. Heavy enough to feel quality (always felt my M-80s were too light to appropriately feel expensive; may sound strange but to me it's somewhat equivalent to the nice thunk of a heavy luxury car door) but light enough to feel portable. Padding on the headband feels more plush than the M-80s headband, also noticed it's in 3 distinct sections, one on the top and two on the sides (no idea if my M-80s are the same). Cups: padding is definitely more plush than the M-80s pads, which are a bit stiffer.
Moment of truth: putting them on my head. No joke, this was the moment of truth for these headphones because my concerns about comfort were the reason I've held off on buying them. Will they be true circumaurals for me? Will I cringe in pain? I make adjustments to the headband, going straight for about 4 clicks like I normally have on my M-80s. Getting closer to my head, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...and they're on. O_O my blank face as I'm processing pure stimuli. o_o...where did the headband go? I have KRK KNS 8400s, extremely comfortable headphones. Their pressure point is right on the top of your head, center of the headband (where 2 big memory pads stick out-check my avatar). The M-100s...they're on my head right now, and there is hardly any pressure at any point along the headband. Very light clamping force, similar to the 8400s, definitely surprised me. The cups...why yes, yes, these are true circumaurals for me. Slightly smaller cups than my 8400s, I think, but definitely fully around the ears. Left ear, it goes right over, right ear is a bit tighter (wiggle it a little bit as I put the cup on), but still goes fully over the ear. HUGE sigh of relief. I'm now pretty sure I have a small head and small ears as the M-100s aren't just not uncomfortable for me, they're comfortable. Brought the notches down to 2-3 on both sides, gives it a nice increase in clamp. I'd say on a scale of Light-Medium-Strong clamping force, these are between light and medium. Not so light they don't seal at all (as K550s probably would for me), but not enough for me to rock out much. But I like it. I can rock out mildly and enjoy great comfort. For reference, I wear a 7 1/8 hat size and I'm pretty sure I have small ears. The bottom line is that these are definitely comfortable headphones if they fit your head and ears right. That may sound like a "well, duh" kind of thing, but I've tried headphones before that do fit my head and ears right but still aren't comfortable somehow. One non-positive note here: I've recognized that the pressure point on these (unlike the top headband point of the 8400s) is below the ears, near the jawline. It's like the pressure point of the 8400s: not painful, just slightly unnerving. Actually, it reminds me of what I think when I use my Bass Freqs: it's not that it hurts, it just kind of feels unusual and makes things a little less pleasant. I do have full confidence that this could go away as the fit of my M-80s significantly improved over time (although the M-80s will never be truly comfortable to me and solidified the fact that I don't like supraaurals).
Getting to the music, I thought for a second about which track I wanted to play first. Held the M-100s in my hand as I was going through some music, played a Muse song first. Didn't want to listen to it first, so I just held them in my hands as the track played and did a quick leakage test holding the cups together. Leakage doesn't seem to be a problem here, had to put it up pretty loud before I could detect anything, and even then it was barely noticeable. Really don't want to compare to the 8400s off memory, so I'll have to compare later. Played a Flux Pavilion track with them in my hands, oh my goodness, I think I just felt some vibration from the cups. Never felt that with my M-80s. Settled on Deadmau5-Professional Griefers (Instrumental) for the first track I would listen to. This is 1080p off youtube, so this isn't a test of what the ceiling is for the M-100s in terms of detail retrieval, but it is an important test for me as I'm a fakeophile who isn't ashamed to admit he listens to a lot of music off youtube (and knowing Val, he probably took this into consideration when creating the M-100s-wanted to get great quality sound for addicts who are playing high quality music through their expensive DACs and amps as well as great quality for average consumers like myself who have poorer quality stuff). As the song gets going, yes, the M-100s are definitely bassy. Wow, the bass is just deep and hits hard. I feel like the difference in bass quantity from my 8400s >>> M-80s is about the same as M-80s >>> M-100s. It just hits hard with good definition. I've seen some people say these aren't quite basshead level...my goodness, I wonder how much more you could get than this. Mids did take a bit of a backseat, they were a bit in the background. But they were definitely not encroached upon too much by the bass. The highs were smooth, overall I would say the sound signature is just plain smoove, colored stuff, and I like it. My 8400s are definitely way more balanced, but sound kind of lifeless in comparison. My M-80s: the soundstage is much more in your face, the M-100s are much deeper. Listened to Wolfgang Gartner's Nuke and had similar feelings. We aren't taking about the kind of analytical nature that the 8400s have. But, that's not to say that the M-100s don't have good detail retrieval...I actually noticed something on Professional Griefers about 3/4 the way through that I've never heard with my 8400s (and I've listened to that track many times with my 8400s). That's what leaves me intrigued with the M-100s after a short first listen. Definitely colored, quite so, but we haven't assaulted the mids/highs or detail. I'll have to do more listening to see how I feel, but so far I'm thinking I like what I hear. Ultimately, no matter how the sound ends up, these things have such a nice combination of looks/build quality/portability/features, I'm labeling them top-tier college phones based on those things alone (I can already tell these will accompany many library seshes).
Finally, infinite E-points to whoever came up with the Matte Black+Orange cable combination (I'm pretty sure it was someone on the forum who suggested that combo way back in this thread to Val).
(despite a few photoshop efforts).