V-MODA Unveils M-200 ANC, Its First Bluetooth Active Noise Cancelling Headphone

[tinyman392]

Learned more about the weirdness I'm getting with the ANC and my voice echoing. Wearing glasses helps the issue out and makes it a lot better. I feel like my voice is literally echoing in the headphone's housing and having no place to really escape. This sort of gets muffled if ANC is off by all the stuff that the ANC blocks out. With the glasses on, I feel like this gives the sound a place to escape instead of reflecting repeatedly in the housing.

 

[meringo]

Still waiting for a response from V-Moda.

- I too am having issues with the ANC and my own voice. You described my exact experience so far.
- Buttons only seem to sometimes work, have odd behavior (sometimes I have to hold ANC, other times its a single tap)
- App only sometimes connects, seems to lose connection while making changes
- ANC is losing a star with me. In addition to my house furnace test, I pumped simulated plane cabin noise on youtube over my 5.1 living room system, sitting in the center. My FREE Galaxy Buds Pro canceled better -- it's as if the V-moda ANC is totally useless for anything BUT bass sounds. Crossing my fingers for a firmware update. It seems as though firmware updates helped the Buds a ton, hope the same for these V-Modas.
- Call quality is very poor. All call recipients reported bad echo.

Upset. Hope V-Moda gets back to me soon. They seem to have completely disappeared from Head-Fi. Luckily they have a phone number... call if I don't hear back by EOD.

 

[tinyman392]

Still waiting for a response from V-Moda.

- I too am having issues with the ANC and my own voice. You described my exact experience so far.
- Buttons only seem to sometimes work, have odd behavior (sometimes I have to hold ANC, other times its a single tap)
- App only sometimes connects, seems to lose connection while making changes
- ANC is losing a star with me. In addition to my house furnace test, I pumped simulated plane cabin noise on youtube over my 5.1 living room system, sitting in the center. My FREE Galaxy Buds Pro canceled better -- it's as if the V-moda ANC is totally useless for anything BUT bass sounds. Crossing my fingers for a firmware update. It seems as though firmware updates helped the Buds a ton, hope the same for these V-Modas.
- Call quality is very poor. All call recipients reported bad echo.

Upset. Hope V-Moda gets back to me soon. They seem to have completely disappeared from Head-Fi. Luckily they have a phone number... call if I don't hear back by EOD.

I feel like the echoing could in theory be fixed over a software update, but it would not be an easy software update to do (from the R&D perspective). The echo could also be aided by having a more "breathable" pad that allows air out on the front end of the driver IMO. Thin-armed glasses help the problem out, but don't fix it completely.

The buttons are a little tough to press (volume/media control and power). The ANC button I found only requires a short press; so not a quick single-tap, but a short single-tap. I normally press and hold until I hear the tone though. I guess I adapted to that.

Luckily I haven't had too many issues with app connection, though most of the things in there are set it and forget it IMO These issues tend to be very popular and very difficult to diagnose and fix. Hopefully they can figure this one out for you. I really does suck when those features don't work well.

I agree with the ANC. When they announced that transparency mode wasn't going to be a thing I was kind of upset about that. However, with ANC on and no music playing, I can hear people talking at normal volumes and understand them perfectly fine. Granted it's easier with passthrough, the fact that I can do that does really talk about how their ANC is which is unfortunate. With music playing, everything gets drowned out anyways, but I agree the ANC leaves much to be wanted

I haven't tested call quality. I did just now make a few voice recordings on my iPhone to take a look. The microphone seems to not be super sensitive at picking up sound. I did pick up an odd crack here and there. I can see where the echo remark comes from as well; it kind of makes it sound like I'm in a concrete room or something.

 

[meringo]

issues with app connection, though most of the things in there are set it and forget it IMO

100%

Just got a response from the (very friendly, helpful so far) V-Moda agent I spoke to on the phone yesterday. Without going into too much detail, it sounds like they are aware the app still needs some work. The button behavior is also being addressed -- I guess 1.5 firmware made it in-between a tap and long press, which is fine now that it's clarified.

Bad news on the ANC front. There is a reason they say hybrid... Its like a marketing term for "severely handicapped" based on the info provided, I guess the headphones don't produce white noise to counter, like the competition.

Sadly, I think I'm rethinking all of this. I shouldn't be happier with my Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro. Those cost me $500 less, have better ANC and excellent call quality. Return request imminent

 

[tinyman392]

100%

Just got a response from the (very friendly, helpful so far) V-Moda agent I spoke to on the phone yesterday. Without going into too much detail, it sounds like they are aware the app still needs some work. The button behavior is also being addressed -- I guess 1.5 firmware made it in-between a tap and long press, which is fine now that it's clarified.

Bad news on the ANC front. There is a reason they say hybrid... Its like a marketing term for "severely handicapped" based on the info provided, I guess the headphones don't produce white noise to counter, like the competition.

Sadly, I think I'm rethinking all of this. I shouldn't be happier with my Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro. Those cost me $500 less, have better ANC and excellent call quality. Return request imminent

That's very unfortunate regarding the ANC. Realistically, I don't mind that it can't do the upper frequencies (for my use), but that echoing is something that should be addressed as it's very annoying. If the echo issue can't be addressed, I feel like V-Moda might have been better off leaving that feature out completely. The SQ is great for what it is and the price drop from not having ANC would make it very competitive in the 400-ish dollar price bracket (it's comparable in quality to B&W, Drop, etc.).

Edit: I wonder when V-Moda will start selling the pads separately; it may be possible to modify them to help with the echo issue.

 

[meringo]

That's very unfortunate regarding the ANC. Realistically, I don't mind that it can't do the upper frequencies (for my use), but that echoing is something that should be addressed as it's very annoying. If the echo issue can't be addressed, I feel like V-Moda might have been better off leaving that feature out completely. The SQ is great for what it is and the price drop from not having ANC would make it very competitive in the 400-ish dollar price bracket (it's comparable in quality to B&W, Drop, etc.).

I agree with all of this... quickly becoming worried about this brand. The front page post / grand re-entry into the Head-Fi community seems to have been super temp. Have they have since made an exit? -- @V-MODA @V-MODA Team Member still participating on head-fi? I would have done a swap if so, but they disappeared. Bad taste in my mouth at this point.

Edit 1: lol they had the audacity to ask me to pay for return shipping. V-moda, really W TF. This is the anti-thesis to Apple.
edit 2: they have abandoned their phone lines. Six Star support, eh? All options lead to a voicemail system saying they are full.
edit 3: Finally got through, selecting the "custom plates" option in the phone tree. Label will be here tomorrow A.M. Good riddance.

 

[iamkornholio]

I may be returning mine as well...
1. when I first put them on, my first thought was 'I need to shorten the headband'...but I found they were already fully collapsed. I have a large head, having to expand the CFW2 several clicks for the earpads to sit right. With these, I felt that they were too loose on top of my head in their smallest config.
2. With ANC enabled, a weird pressure-sound when moving around, like shaking head side-to-side. I own the Sony XM3's, and they do something similar when running/heavy-stepping - you can feel/hear the impact within the headphones. This may be the echoing effect mentioned by other users. This does not occur with ANC off.
3. Ear-cups are not deep enough - perhaps new pads would help with this, like the XLs do with the Crossfade series.
4. I could overlook the above if the sound was awesome. However, I'm just not impressed. Maybe I'm just used to the traditional V-sound from the CFW2's, but these are...bland. The EQ did not really help.

For the cost, I expected perfection. Instead, I was let down.

EDIT: I may have spoken too soon. After giving these a listen for several hours/day the past few days, I am liking the sound more and more. Now, going to my CFW2s, the bass sounds over-done. Still not liking ANC though. Fortunately, the passive noise cancellation is pretty awesome. Hopefully, ANC issues can be addressed in software updates. Otherwise, would have been better to have left it out and dropped the price. Still too expensive...

 

[tinyman392]

The one thing I actually do like about these is the sound; it feels like it would be a big seller, but its very linear. Comfort is fine for me, though I have a very small head, so clamping force and deep earpads aren't a requirement for me (the OG M-100 was actually deep enough for me), though my ears do touch on these. The ANC becomes the Achille's heal of these headphones which is a shame as that really destroys the value proposition altogether. Just fixing the echoing issues would probably go a long way for me IMO.

 

[meringo]

I would be eager to try a gen 2, but idk what's going on with their team. They gutted the immortal life program, falsely advertise "six star" support, cut the 2-year flagship warranty to 1, and have an extremely overpriced release with known issues -- announced on an enthusiast site, only for the brand to completely disappear once we had comments/questions/concerns.

I'm not sure V-Moda belongs here. They used the front page to sell a few more headphones and demonstrate little interest in the customer or the community at large.

 

[tinyman392]

I ended up posting my comparisons between the AirPods Max and M-200 ANC in the AirPods Max thread.

 

[itchyears]

 

[AnakChan]

How are the buttons on the M200? Do they feel the same as the other Crossfade Wireless?

 

[iamkornholio]

How are the buttons on the M200? Do they feel the same as the other Crossfade Wireless?

Yes, very similar. Hate the buttons as they are mushy with no satisfying click when pressed.

 

[tinyman392]

How are the buttons on the M200? Do they feel the same as the other Crossfade Wireless?

They’re very mushy, somewhat difficult to press.

 

[plakat]

While I do like the looks of the M-200, I finally decided to pass, at least for the time being. I ordered another CF2 Codex though, which I really like. The last model tuned by Val... I don’t want to loose that fun signature. Just love it.