Here is my review, it is a very in-depth review. So for those who like in-depth, enjoy!
PRE
As this is my first review I want to thank this community that has really helped me with my questions and decisions with purchases. First the VSONIC GR07-MK2 , second the Sony MH1C, and third the V-MODA M-100. And I would say they were all great purchases and worth the investment and time. So here’s to giving back to the community! I apologize in advance for any grammar errors as I do not have as much free time to proof read this.
OUTLINE
My review format follows more of a consumer review style and I won’t go into too much detail into the audio qualities of the headset as there is plenty of that already and is slightly subjective. But I will also give my own opinion also. My career involves product development and quality assurance, so I will present a slightly more critical analysis in this regard. The purpose of my review is to answer a specific question that I had before this purchase: Is this worth spending $300?
THE PACKAGE AND ACCESSORIES
The way the M-100 presents itself is very nice, it is a compact box and there was some thought put into the design of the packaging. In my personal opinion it seems a little wasteful to use a metal snap closure and PU handle on a potential throw away box, but that's what you get with this box!. A nice touch is the red ribbon that you need to cut to open the box. The interior of the box is also packaged nice and tight. One point is that I never noticed the paper manual warranty card until much later when I emptied out the whole box to be more thorough. The paper material was hugging the side of the box and hidden from my view. Another thing to point out is that for being headphones-on-the-go they are missing airplane adapters.
9/10
THE SHIELDS
V-MODA makes a big case about the customizability of their headphone shields. However, this was my biggest disappointment. The hex screw bar used to remove the screws is not a perfect fit and the result is a frustrating removal of the original shields that takes a lot of effort because it is easy for the hex bar to slip from the screw area. The actual screw recess is slanted while the hex bar to remove the screws is flat, you can imagine this would cause some problems. I ended up scraping a tiny bit of the screw’s paint during this process. You can what i mean from the photo below.
7/10
THE TRAVEL CASE
This travel case is made of the best material I have yet to come across, it is not made like any other I have seen. It doesn’t seem like it would crack and it’s not made of cheap nylon material that is reinforced with an inner plastic material. In fact, the case reminds me of batman’s suit, a flat rubberized solid material. The only minor point to criticize is the ability to leave the headphone cable plugged and zipping up the case. It is doable, but it seems like the case was not designed to leave the cable attached in the case. It’s a big shame as this greatly reduces the convenience of using the case and it is slightly annoying to have to attach the cable every time. Another thing to point out is that because it is a ball shape case it is more suitable for use with a backpack.
9/10
BUILD QUALITY
My overall inspection is very good, but only time will tell how great the build quality is. The only problem I found is the plastic on the share-play cable is slightly ‘deformed’. You can see this macro shot of it to see what I mean. It is likely to a less than perfect plastic molding process or handling of it when the material was not set yet. Other than that all the praise about the build quality is well founded!
9/10
COMFORT/ADJUSTMENTS
Firstly, I wear prescription glasses (IC!BERLIN). So I am picky on comfort. The over-ear pads fit my ears fine, and the depth is fine. Only the clamping force of is slightly more than what I would like. I ended up bending the headband flat twice to reduce the clamping pressure on my temples. I believe this is the primary cause for people complaining about comfort issues with using it the first week. After wearing it for the first week I would say the headphones have conformed nicely to my head and are very comfortable with good clamping force. Without the headband flat-bending “feature” comfort could have been a big problem.
Regarding the glasses issue, I do feel slightly more pressure on my temples because I wear glasses but it is not painful and it is a given compromise with closed-phones. It’s also worth to note that it is even more comfortable if I remove my glasses while listening to them; which I occasionally do when I don’t need to see.
9/10
LISTENING IN QUIET ENVIRONMENT
Even though these headphones are closed ear you would normally think these are not what is recommended for listening in quieter environments. But that is wrong! These headphones shine the best in a quiet environment because the texture of the bass and treble is amazing and everything really pops out. This texture is lost and I can’t hear it in when I am in a vehicle or noisy environment at normal volumes.
10/10
LISTENING IN CAR
If you have a nice car that is air tight sealed you can still hear all the great detail and texture at a reasonable volume. However if you have an old or cheap car and you are on the highway going 70 mph you can forget about having a perfect listening experience. This is my experience from being inside a ‘09 ES Lexus vs a 12 yr old Toyota 4RUNNER. If you are not on the freeway the listening experience is still good overall, but you just won’t be hearing all the details and texture on loose gravel roads.
8/10
LISTENING IN AIRPLANE
The kicker here is that while the wind and road noise in a cheap/old car is annoying I found the listening in airplane to be very enjoyable. They isolated better than my SENN. PXC450 with the active noise blocker turned on. So that tells you something (my PXC450s are several years old so they may not be performing as well) ! Perhaps it may be the bass that was canceling out the hum of the engine but I would say on a commercial aircraft these headphones were great. I wore these on a 13 hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong and watched two movies with them.
9/10
MUSIC
These headphones are made for mobile listening and they match up great with any smartphone on the market, the controls work very well with my Note 2. Nothing at fault here and I don’t believe they need amping to get the best sound out of it. I did find that there were a few songs where the cymbals or hi-hats would be too forward and sounded odd on some rap/hip-hop songs, but it was still an enjoyable listening experience. I suppose this is what everyone means by its colored sound signature?
9/10
MOVIES
Movies sound really great on my mobile and on my PC. The sound is very dynamic and the details really get picked up on these headphones. The downside is that these are not open-ear phones and you don’t get the wide expansive stage that some action packed movies utilize for you to really enjoy. However if you are just watching TV shows or non-epic movies you won’t miss that sound stage.
9/10
GAMES
Games are a double edge sword, if you are social gamer and need to talk or use a mic then closed headphones such as these can be annoying because you can hear yourself talk and you will have trouble listening to others at a LAN party.
If you mainly play single player games or don’t need to talk to anyone during games then closed headphones like these are very suitable.
8/10
COMPARISIONS
VS MH1C
The M-100s are less bassy sounding than the MH1C. Compared to it MH1C sounds much more bass heavy in quantity. If you like the MH1C sound, you will find the M-100 to be light in the bass quantity department. And you will most likely need to add a little bass boost for some songs.
VS GR07-MK2
I found that compared to the GR07 MK2 the m-100 sound gives a similar impression of clarity on both ends of the spectrum. Both feel impressive throughout. While their signature is different, if you like the GR07 I think most will like the M-100 as a big closed ear version of the GR07 with the addition of colored sound signature. The differences that I could tell are that the GR07 sounds a little brighter (more neutral in comparison) and has more sparkle. The sound stage is obviously wider on the M-100 and the bass hits deeper and fuller with slightly more quantity; the overall sound is also fuller sounding.
QUICK REVIEW RATING
PACKAGING and ACCESSORIES 9/10
- Should include airplane adapter
SHIELD PLATES 7/10
- Not easy to install and remove plates, easy to scratch shield in the process
TRAVEL CASE 9/10
- Best quality I’ve seen so far. Not very accommodating to leaving the wire plugged in. In a ball shape more suitable for backpacks.
BUILD QUALITY 9/10
- Very good so far, but only time will tell! Nitpick on the plastic mold deformation on jack.
COMFORT 9/10
- Very good comfort, the key is the headband can be adjusted to reduce clamping force if need while other headsets don’t even allow for that.
LISTENING ENV. USE 8/10
- Sounds good in most listening environments and isolates very well, even beats out my noise canceling headphones on the airplane.
SOUND 9/10
- Colored sound but very enjoyable listening experience. Clear sounding with impactful bass. Excellent all-rounder for many types of music. Only slight annoyance might be the forward emphasis sounds of cymbals and hi-hats and similar sounding frequencies in certain songs.
OVERALL 8.6/10
- The overall rating is an average of the scores above.
Value, Summary, and Personal opinion:
For $300 you really do get what you pay for, I feel that I got my money’s worth and there is a lot offered with the package. It is a shame about the plastic mold deformation, and the lack of airplane adaptor, and the frustration of the shield plates. At this price point I would not say it ranks very high in the value, if discounted to around $250 then these would be the
only closed headphones to recommend. I highly recommend these for any kind non-social listening as I personally can’t stand talking with closed phones and IEMs. Now If V-moda started working on an open-ear version of these at the same price point they would have another winner.
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