V-MODA M-100: Discussion/Feedback, Reviews, Pics, etc.
Feb 16, 2013 at 10:39 PM Post #12,333 of 23,366
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There is some massive trolling going on in this thread.....

 
I see no trolling going on here, just some people expressing their love for the Doctor's Beats! PHD in sound! Just like these fine folks here
 
 
 

 
 
Feb 16, 2013 at 10:44 PM Post #12,334 of 23,366
I guess Ill just wait for the thread to get locked from the off topic then....
 
Feb 16, 2013 at 10:47 PM Post #12,335 of 23,366
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I guess Ill just wait for the thread to get locked from the off topic then....

 
now that you mention it, someone should really take the lead and consolidate all relevant information and start a new M-100 appreciation/reviews/impressions thread since this one's over a year old and 800+ pages now.
 
I would, but I can't find the time to make such a commitment.
 
Feb 16, 2013 at 11:33 PM Post #12,337 of 23,366
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I am thinking about buying V-MODA M100's.  Is it possible to make them compatible with xbox 360 with an astro mixamp or something of that sort.  Also is the Boom Pro Mic for m100s compatible for xbox or just pc.

hey, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the boom pro mic is actually available to be purchased yet.
 
I did read on an amazon review that someone was very satisfied using their M100 w/ an astro mixamp playing Halo Reach.
 
However, if you are actually a professional gamer on a team playing a fps, I would think that you would want a headset from Turtle beach or Tritton with surround sound to better visualize where gunshots are coming from. gaming specific headsets also has niffy features like boosting footsteps and adjusting mic volumes & stuff like that. I think that if you are playing in tournaments or making a living by gaming then you would need a gaming specific headset especially for team-based first person shooters when you are doing call outs & need to be able to know the exact location of sounds.
 
Otherwise, the m100 would be fine for playing halo/cod without disturbing your neighbors. Of course, you would need to buy something like the astro mixamp in addition.
 
Feb 16, 2013 at 11:52 PM Post #12,338 of 23,366
Quote:
Quote:
I am thinking about buying V-MODA M100's.  Is it possible to make them compatible with xbox 360 with an astro mixamp or something of that sort.  Also is the Boom Pro Mic for m100s compatible for xbox or just pc.

hey, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the boom pro mic is actually available to be purchased yet.
 
I did read on an amazon review that someone was very satisfied using their M100 w/ an astro mixamp playing Halo Reach.
 
However, if you are actually a professional gamer on a team playing a fps, I would think that you would want a headset from Turtle beach or Tritton with surround sound to better visualize where gunshots are coming from. gaming specific headsets also has niffy features like boosting footsteps and adjusting mic volumes & stuff like that. I think that if you are playing in tournaments or making a living by gaming then you would need a gaming specific headset especially for team-based first person shooters when you are doing call outs & need to be able to know the exact location of sounds.
 
Otherwise, the m100 would be fine for playing halo/cod without disturbing your neighbors. Of course, you would need to buy something like the astro mixamp in addition.

I tried the Turtle Beach Ear Force XP300 at a GameStop....and I was severely underwhelmed by its performance. Sure the soundstage is "large", but it sound really artificial and echoey like my Skullcandy Hesh headphones. Detailing was very poor and the bass sucked to say the least, very flabby-sounding. On the up-side, they were really comfortable. I would recommend an ATH-M50 any day over those for roughly the same price.
 
Feb 16, 2013 at 11:57 PM Post #12,339 of 23,366
While a lot of you guys might be trolling about the beats, I did compare the Beats Studio with the M100 side-by-side, and honestly the difference was not as pronounced as I would have imagined it with people hating on the beats all the time. My ears had an extremely hard time picking out any differences in sonic quality using 320kbps mp3s without an amp.
 
Now, the Beats build quality/materials is obviously inferior to the v-moda M100, but the beats were actually much much more comfortable than the M100s with adjustable, deeper earcups and softer lining over the drivers. I really do think that for people without access to lossless audio, amps, or have been "trained" to listen for the sonic nuances, I really think it's very difficult to hear these differences that I read about on this website.
 
 
If you guys would like to enlighten me what to listen for specifically or why the beats are so bad, I would love to hear about your personal opinions. I guess I was expecting for the differences in headphone sound quality to be very easily distinguishable, but I really have a lot of trouble hearing why the beats are terrible. I can see that the beats are a ripoff due to cheap materials and high price, but I am really curious why it's sound is so loathed.
 
I think something that would be helpful for me is if you could reference specific sections of certain songs and say what the beats are doing wrong and the m100 is doing right.
 
Feb 17, 2013 at 12:01 AM Post #12,340 of 23,366
Quote:
While a lot of you guys might be trolling about the beats, I did compare the Beats Studio with the M100 side-by-side, and honestly the difference was not as pronounced as I would have imagined it with people hating on the beats all the time. My ears had an extremely hard time picking out any differences in sonic quality using 320kbps mp3s without an amp.
 
Now, the Beats build quality/materials is obviously inferior to the v-moda M100, but the beats were actually much much more comfortable than the M100s with adjustable, deeper earcups and softer lining over the drivers. I really do think that for people without access to lossless audio, amps, or have been "trained" to listen for the sonic nuances, I really think it's very difficult to hear these differences that I read about on this website.
 
 
If you guys would like to enlighten me what to listen for specifically or why the beats are so bad, I would love to hear about your personal opinions. I guess I was expecting for the differences in headphone sound quality to be very easily distinguishable, but I really have a lot of trouble hearing why the beats are terrible. I can see that the beats are a ripoff due to cheap materials and high price, but I am really curious why it's sound is so loathed.
 
I think something that would be helpful for me is if you could reference specific sections of certain songs and say what the beats are doing wrong and the m100 is doing right.

Yup, I totally agree with you there. I don't like the Beats (sound, design, branding, marketing, consumer-base, etc. etc.), but I admit that the Studios and the Solo/Solo HD are amongst the most comfortable headphones I've tried (Bose QC15 goes in the list too).
 
As for the sound, I'm only going by memory here, but I recall the Studios to have a more forward midrange than the M-100's, but they sounded really hollow and lacking in terms of tonality. The M-100's also have a more-realistic sounding treble with its purposely tuned "sparkle" region (whichever frequencies the sparkle is in, lower-treble?). The bass of the M-100 is also a lot tighter and better controlled, as in bass doesn't sound flabby/ill-defined. Also, as mentioned in a lot of reviews, the Studio's really lack in soundstage; instruments have poor instrument separation compared to the M-100's and things sound very one-dimensional in terms of L/R imaging as well as depth.
 
Feb 17, 2013 at 12:10 AM Post #12,341 of 23,366
Quote:
I tried the Turtle Beach Ear Force XP300 at a GameStop....and I was severely underwhelmed by its performance. Sure the soundstage is "large", but it sound really artificial and echoey like my Skullcandy Hesh headphones. Detailing was very poor and the bass sucked to say the least, very flabby-sounding. On the up-side, they were really comfortable. I would recommend an ATH-M50 any day over those for roughly the same price.

I would agree that gaming headsets probably don't sound as good for pure music, but I feel like they have certain features that make them better suited for gaming specifically. The ATH-M50 is unsuited for gaming as it is impossible to swap out the cable to have a mic. For competitive FPS players, they require mics to do callouts w/ team members.
 
I purchased and tried the Turtle Beach Ear Force XP500, and I agree I would never use a gaming headset as portable headphones for music. The M100 definitely blows it out of the water for music. However, the Turtle Beach's mic was crystal clear for voices, there was bluetooth on-board for wireless, and I felt like you can hear footsteps sneaking up from behind you & where shots were coming from pretty well. I never have used the M100 for gaming, so I wouldn't know how it would compare, but from using it for phone calls, I would say that voices can sound muffled. Most music headphones are stereo, but a lot of gaming headphones have surround sound which I think helps a lot for competitive FPS.
 
I guess it depends on your needs. I would think a really nice sounding music-oriented headphones should suffice for most causal gamers, but I have a friend who is uber intense/competitive with Halo who has an 27" TV specifically for the game b/c it is supposed to be the perfect size for aiming. So if that describes you, get a gaming headset.
 
Hypothetically, if/when V-moda does release the Boom Mic Pro & it works well, I can see the V-moda M100 being one of the top choices for people looking for a great portable pair of headphones that you use with your mixamp for gaming as well. Or you could always take the V-moda Boom Mic Pro and use it with another pair of preferred headphones lol
 
Feb 17, 2013 at 3:07 AM Post #12,342 of 23,366
You know, Val, I have to thank you for getting me into the hi-fi audio scene, because you produce REALLY awesome sound.
 
As for my story, it begins after New Years 2012.  I was the kind of kid that could wear out a cheap Creative Labs IEM in about 6 months.  Thankfully, my dad somehow has a bunch of these (I don't wanna know, considering he's NYC DOE), but I was getting tired of IEMs and my Sony MDR-V150s were starting to show road tear.  So, after that Christmas, I knew that a nice supra/circum-aural set was a priority.
 
I already did some preliminary research on the most common stuff, and like any real audiophile will tell you, it's mostly crap (Beats, cheap Senns, Skullcandy, etc.).  Also, I like browsing the B&H catalogs whenever I get them, so I had some exposure to the really good names (BeyerDynamic, the more expensive Sennheisers and Sony's, AKG, etc.).  So, I decided to randomly one day walk into my local RadioShack, and lo and behold, they were selling the Crossfade LP Phantom Chrome.  Now, to me, V-MODA was an unknown brand, and that made me curious, so since I didn't have a smart phone (still don't and I REALLY want the RAZR Maxx HD), and they didn't have one out for testing, I had to call one of my friends and asked him to check up on the reviews on Amazon.  And then after he got back to me, I bought it.
 
Yes, that's right, I dived off a figurative cliff, and hell, BEST.  THING.  EVER.  Compared to even my computer setup (JBL Creature IIs, which I want to replace with Klipsch ProMedia 2.1s), these sounded heavenly, and for the first time, I had headphones that could prevent leaking, which was a problem before.  Now, I see the release of the M-100 and my mouth drools in envy, because I really don't see myself getting one until at least New Years 2014, if I'm lucky.  All in all, though, it is a credit to the extremely high quality that you hold yourself and your company to, and I will gladly say that I am now loyal to the brand.
 
As an aside, I know that I plan to be in California for vacation around mid-July, the same week as San Diego Comic Con (unfortunately, it looks like I'm not going
frown.gif
), but I figure that since I will be in Los Angeles sometime during, and I will definitely be touring Sunset, maybe you'd kindly allow the equivalent of a rookie a tour of the facility, and maybe even some testing?
 
Per Laborem ad Astra,
JbstormburstADV
 
Feb 17, 2013 at 4:24 AM Post #12,343 of 23,366
Quote:
While a lot of you guys might be trolling about the beats, I did compare the Beats Studio with the M100 side-by-side, and honestly the difference was not as pronounced as I would have imagined it with people hating on the beats all the time. My ears had an extremely hard time picking out any differences in sonic quality using 320kbps mp3s without an amp.
 
Now, the Beats build quality/materials is obviously inferior to the v-moda M100, but the beats were actually much much more comfortable than the M100s with adjustable, deeper earcups and softer lining over the drivers. I really do think that for people without access to lossless audio, amps, or have been "trained" to listen for the sonic nuances, I really think it's very difficult to hear these differences that I read about on this website.
 
 
If you guys would like to enlighten me what to listen for specifically or why the beats are so bad, I would love to hear about your personal opinions. I guess I was expecting for the differences in headphone sound quality to be very easily distinguishable, but I really have a lot of trouble hearing why the beats are terrible. I can see that the beats are a ripoff due to cheap materials and high price, but I am really curious why it's sound is so loathed.
 
I think something that would be helpful for me is if you could reference specific sections of certain songs and say what the beats are doing wrong and the m100 is doing right.

I find subtleties in headphones can take longer to pinpoint than just a quick A/B, if they have a similar tone. Its usually not until you've become well acquainted with one pair, where the other's flaws/strengths immediately stand out.That said, do you actually have both to compare for an extended listen? Listening environment also play a role(best-buy booths are okay for sampling; although I wouldnt base my review entirely on that impression).
 
I no longer have either headphone in my possession, but two things I disliked about the Beats Studio was the prominent hissing from the ANC, and treble was a bit strident. Also.. They are noise cancelling headsets, but for some reason, leak sound like a sieve
blink.gif

I havent listened to them in over two years, so my memory memory isnt the most reliable gauge..
As for the M-100, I wasnt a fan of the massive bass slam and somewhat vague midrange, but I honestly grew to appreciate the care in their tuning. The bass slam is very unique, where it's incredibly tight, multilayered/textured, and feels like it reaches to zero; but it so rediculously augmentated that it sounds fake (to me). However, paired with the right music, the M-100's deliver energy that completely blew me away.
I may give the M-100's another listen when the XL pads come out, but coming from the M-80's, I feel my expectations may have been set too high.
 
Feb 17, 2013 at 4:25 AM Post #12,344 of 23,366
havent read the previous 800 pages of post but saw a short review on innerfidelity and the frequency response graph of the m-100.

the dip in treble from 5 to 7 kHz probably means poor female vocals and poor high pitch sound from string instruments.
 
perhaps someone who owns the m-100 can confirm my speculation? :)
 
Feb 17, 2013 at 7:00 AM Post #12,345 of 23,366
Trust me it doesn't, as I listen mostly to female vocals and J-pop most of the time and the M-100 shines with them all.
 

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