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V-Moda M-100 has just been announced,by DJ Mag, as THE HEADPHONE OF THE YEAR!!!! And I am proud to say I am owner of a M-100, and I am proud to say that I voted.
VENI VIDI VICI
WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW I FEEL TEAM!!!
I couldn't have done it without you, truly. I never forget the days in the factory fine tuning every little part to try to satisfy all the consumer groups in all their use cases. It was tough, all the thousands of voices of "you should do this" I ever heard loaded through my head in every move I made.
In fact, M-100 wasn't even on our roadmap! My next projects were SUPPOSED to be "REVOLVER" then "MILANO", which are completely different in structure.
HISTORY OF M-100 "A PRODUCT ROADMAP MISTAKE CHILD"
Most headphones by big brands are built by data and a "marketing needs analysis" I learned after hiring the top engineers and people I could find 8-9 years ago from other "established" headphone brands (and they are gone). But, for V-MODA, I historically always built a product that
I want because what I want is so different that it would never exist by a normal company.
One day, Sander Kleinenberg, a VERY technical video and audio DJ who helped develop pioneer equipment, was in my office. I said "I want your input on Revolver". He looked at a nearly finished prototype and said "forget that, Crossfade LP is going to be a legend, just tweak a few things... change the length (and we measured what he wanted), add a shareplay feature, tune the sound to appeal to more than EDM, etc. I was shocked that Crossfade LP was SUPPOSED to originally be a consumer headphone, but the DJs loved it more!
Anyhow, after we made a M-100 prototype to meet the new DJ needs with a locked coiled cable for Paul Oakenfold and Erick Morilo, we put it in the "PARTNER ONLY" room of our private Venetian Penthouse @ CES (we don't usually do consumer shows as they are "fugazi").
AFTER A FEW MEETINGS, somehow M-100 landed in the "PR SECTION" of the penthouse and photographers had already blogged it!
I yelled at my team in a passionate way, not in a mean way... but I was so sad we leaked M-100. Then I said, ok let's run with it. I'll put it on Head-Fi and get feedback, the cats out of the bag anyhow and it was never on our roadmap. So who cares, it'll be a quick launch. Nearly a year later, it launched (it was supposed to launch 2-3 months later). Once the audiophile community and Head-Fi community got involved, I had to listen more and give it my all. Also, I had to balance my extensive database on both ear size and its relationship to sound as well as its versatility to appeal to multiple consumer use-cases.
RESULT: 10 Editors' Choice Awards (CNET, SOUND VISION, LAPTOP MAG, to name a few off top of my head) and now DJ MAG Headphone of the Year.
THAT IS VERSATILITY.
Allora... once again, thanks and it is very late here in Italy as I wrap up and go to pre-production on a new top secret product "XS". You heard it hear first, once again. It is not an over-ear, so don't hesitate buying a M-100 as it is a different weapon of choice for mobile audio.
Thanks for your support, this truly was a collaborative effort. "GREATEST SOUND FOR THE GREATEST AMOUNT OF PEOPLE".
VENI. VIDI. VICI.
-V^V
PS - the greatest feeling is that a "mistake product roadmap" product is our #1 selling product and I can spend extra time on the other products, Rome wasn't built in a day and the best products in the world take a LOT of time and attention to detail... as a family owned company we only care about "quality" vs "quarterly" earnings, and I am thankful for that every single day to our customers and team
note: sorry for any typos, I wrote this VERY quickly as I have lots of work to do for YOU to meet XMAS deadlines!
Something new to look forward to this holiday season.....
