[bizarreorchestra]

Seeing the immortal life program scaled back to a measly 20% makes me sad somehow. Not because it was such a good deal for me, living in EU ate those 50% up quickly (import fees, shipping costs), but its one of those unique things about V-Moda going away.

...

Talking about prices: although there is a V-Moda EU webstore quitting prices in €, items still ship from US, with import fees, delays and shipping costs adding up. Not ordering the M-200 ANC saves me about 680€ -- way more than the APM costs (which is more expensive in EU as well), and I have to admit I'd be surprised if the M-200 ANC would best it in audio quality (not speaking of other features that are harder to achieve like plattform integration).

I'll have to agree with you. I did my math being eligible to the original discount of 50% of my previous purchase (original M-100) and even with the 50% discount it just doesn't compensate against just buying locally or from european amazons. Having a price difference of 5€ or 10€ I prefer to order locally and support local businesses. I'm sparing myself away from the hassle of imports and the price is just about the same. Now, with the 20% off, for us europeans, the discount is of no value. After the inclusion of V-Moda in Roland's portfolio I thought that V-Moda would have an european warehouse in like a few years time, but guess not. Maybe the european market share is not that worthwhile vs US market.

 

[Maukey]

I'm split on these... having owned every model in the line started with the M-100, still owning and using the Codex (despite also owning the APM...), I was quite disappointed with the M-200: the tuning was most definitely not to my liking, and the comfort was even worse than the M-100. Switching the Codex to the XL pads just recently gives me a much more comfortable experience, with a much more likable sound signature.

No specific reason for that, but I always liked 50mm drivers (I know, arguments for and against larger/smaller drivers etc.). Interesting to see the new model switch to 40mm drivers after all its predecessors including the M-200 using 50mm. If this does go with a new tuning (and I'm not only talking about missing low bass, but also about midrange and treble, both of which I disliked on the M-200), I might try this out at some point in time. I'm not going preorder them anymore though, the M-200 was just too much of a disappointment for me personally.

What I really don't understand is the naming scheme though: M-200 sports a radically different sound signature from M-100 and its brethre, so maybe opening a new line (new letter) would have been appropriate. But ok... Yet now a new model with another tuning and even a new driver shares the M-200 name -- what is this supposed to mean? If the tuning is a descendent of the M-100 Master and Codex, M-200 would seem appropriate (with suffix, that might be OK). But given the existing M-200 -- that doesn't make any sense to me.

On the positive side, I like how they evolved the M-100 design with the M-200. Looks really good, and I appreciate the new model coming with a different color scheme. The keys look good as well, and I'd hope they are not as squishy as on the Codex (really bad, almost no feedback and sometimes not working, getting worse over time).

Personally I don't care about ANC, not even on the APM despite it really works well there with still very good sound quality. Much prefer passive isolation -- which brings me back to the too shallow pads on the M-200. Since these seem to not have changed in any way on the new model, I'd expect the same problems with comfort for me. Would be nice to have an XL variant available as an option at least -- plus I did appreciate the subtle changes to the tuning with the Codex when applying those XL pads).

Seeing the immortal life program scaled back to a measly 20% makes me sad somehow. Not because it was such a good deal for me, living in EU ate those 50% up quickly (import fees, shipping costs), but its one of those unique things about V-Moda going away. Just like the unique sound signature with a good focus on the fun side of things, robust exoskeleton case (sorry, the new one is just... a shadow it the old one. Much cheaper to produce though I'm sure...). The new design on itself looks quite nice, but in the grand scheme of things its just another brick in the wall so to say... moving away from Vals ideas. Which may be consistent with Val leaving the company, but still this story was my personal reason to actively follow V-Moda (and purchase so many of their models). This was simply lost for me... now I'll evaluate each model just as every other model. Which is not a bad thing at all, its going to save me quite some money after all.

Talking about prices: although there is a V-Moda EU webstore quitting prices in €, items still ship from US, with import fees, delays and shipping costs adding up. Not ordering the M-200 ANC saves me about 680€ -- way more than the APM costs (which is more expensive in EU as well), and I have to admit I'd be surprised if the M-200 ANC would best it in audio quality (not speaking of other features that are harder to achieve like plattform integration).

Sorry for this post being more on the negative side. I see V-Moda as a brand moving away from what I associated with that name, which obviously I don't like that much. This doesn't mean that evolving V-Moda isn't a good idea -- it may well be. Just not for me I'm afraid, since to me the changes seem to accumulate to take away those unique aspects that made up V-Moda and streamline it, making it disappear on the background of all the other brands doing the same things right now. Which is kind of sad. For me at least.

Agree with this 100%! I returned the M-200 2 days after owning them, the fastest I’ve ever returned a headphone. I for one was extremely skeptical and disappointed when Roland acquired V-Moda. I just had a bad feeling about the direction Roland would go. Val and V-Moda really made every effort to give their fans what they wanted. I just felt like Roland was going to move them to the corporate side of things. After the M-200, I have no confidence in this headphone. I really hope I’m wrong!

 

[archagon]

How different are these going to sound from the Crossfade 2 Wireless I currently have? (Do I infer correctly that these will be more bassy? I really love the tuning of the Crossfade 2!)

Are the media control buttons still made of plastic? (That's my number #2 complaint about the Crossfade 2, apart from the obvious hiss when playing over Bluetooth — which I really hope has been fixed here?)

The 60‑day test drive allows you to try out the product for 60 days when purchased from our website (V-MODA.com). If you are unsatisfied with the product for any reason, you may return it within the 60-day period for a 100% refund of the purchase price.

Is it possible to do this with the Immortal Life program? (i.e. do the 60-day test drive, then cut your headphone cables and get the discount only if you decide to keep them.)

While the headphones do not support mixing bluetooth and wired connections, you can connect two bluetooth sources to it simultaneously.

Does this mean you can play audio from 2 BT sources simultaneously? (e.g. overlapping audio from two devices.) Or will only a single source ever play at a time, like with the Crossfade 2?

 

[tinyman392]

How different are these going to sound from the Crossfade 2 Wireless I currently have? (Do I infer correctly that these will be more bassy? I really love the tuning of the Crossfade 2!)

Are the media control buttons still made of plastic? (That's my number #2 complaint about the Crossfade 2, apart from the obvious hiss when playing over Bluetooth — which I really hope has been fixed here?)



Is it possible to do this with the Immortal Life program? (i.e. do the 60-day test drive, then cut your headphone cables and get the discount only if you decide to keep them.)



Does this mean you can play audio from 2 BT sources simultaneously? (e.g. overlapping audio from two devices.) Or will only a single source ever play at a time, like with the Crossfade 2?

In their FAQ, they say that the sound is between the M-100 Master and M-200. Both of which are more linear than the Crossfade Wireless 2 (by measurements). I'd also assume that with the BT, it's one device source at a time, but you can switch between them pretty painlessly without needing to enter pairing mode or re-pair them.

 

[plakat]

Does this mean you can play audio from 2 BT sources simultaneously? (e.g. overlapping audio from two devices.) Or will only a single source ever play at a time, like with the Crossfade 2?

I'm sure it only supports normal Bluetooth pairing with two devices simultaneously where only one can send an audio stream at any given time, i.e. you can listen to music on your DAP and your phone can chime in when there's a call coming in, stopping the music. After the call the music might even resume in the best of cases... but in my experience multi-device pairing is rather underwhelming (e.g. the phone might send audio for notifications and stop the music...).

 

[jonnio]

Never thought I'd see the day Vmoda made an anc headphone. I remember Val being anti anc.

Val previously said that he didn't like anc/bluetooth because the tech wasn't there. Way back, he had built headphones with both, but because he wouldn't use them he wouldn't sell them.

moving away from Vals ideas. Which may be consistent with Val leaving the company

I didn't see that Val left V-Moda....that is enough there to prevent me from pre-ordering these as my above comment about the tech not being good enough for Val could be very relevant to these now.

Sad to see the immortal life program is now just 20%..

It's VERY hidden, but they are still grandfathering old immortal life participants in...just if you buy now it's kind of a worthless guarantee. My M-100 are falling apart, but still work, so I'll probably keep them rather than using the program.

 

[Aerdowaith]

It's VERY hidden, but they are still grandfathering old immortal life participants in...just if you buy now it's kind of a worthless guarantee. My M-100 are falling apart, but still work, so I'll probably keep them rather than using the program.

As in if you used the program previously you are grandfathered, or if your headset purchase is before 2019 when they changed the policy, they will Grandfather you? And to clarify, that would mean they are honoring their previous amounts, which if memory serves was 50% of the value of the headphone you sent in? So a crossfade 2 codex purchased full price for 370 would hypothetically get you $185 in credit?

 

[tinyman392]

Never thought I'd see the day Vmoda made an anc headphone. I remember Val being anti anc. I still have my crossfade 2 codex and crossfade wireless. Sad to see the immortal life program is now just 20%. I'll just hold on to what I have until a sale happens some time down the line. Love the signature sound of Vmoda. Regarding the price, remember when Sennheiser came out with the momentum wireless 2 they were 500 as well.

To be honest, it depends on when Val started his anti-ANC thought. If it was around the time the M-80/M-100 started up, then yes, he was absolutely right to kind of be anti-ANC. At that time ANC implementations were not the greatest but even further the way most were implemented also changed the base sound signature of the headphone. Nowadays the changes to the base sound signature are maybe a decibel or two across the frequency range at best; most being extremely minor and difficult to tell even when doing an AB test. Back then you'd see huge swings in FR response with ANC.

That said, I can see someone like Val supporting this as the technology and signal processing techniques have improved with respect to ANC and even BT DACs/amps as a whole.

 

[tinyman392]

As in if you used the program previously you are grandfathered, or if your headset purchase is before 2019 when they changed the policy, they will Grandfather you? And to clarify, that would mean they are honoring their previous amounts, which if memory serves was 50% of the value of the headphone you sent in? So a crossfade 2 codex purchased full price for 370 would hypothetically get you $185 in credit?

Is that how it works? I've never actually used it. I always assumed the XX% off was on the headphone you were purchasing vs the original value of the headphone you were trading in.

 

[bizarreorchestra]

Is that how it works? I've never actually used it. I always assumed the XX% off was on the headphone you were purchasing vs the original value of the headphone you were trading in.

Aerdowaith is correct. The original discount is 50% of the value of the cans you're sending/discarding.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

It's so weird seeing people using years-old comments about various technology as reasons not to use it now. 5-10 years ago a lot of us were pretty against wireless entirely (especially true wireless earbuds) but surprise! The tech caught up and now it's all pretty dang viable.

 

[V-MODA Team Member]

Does this mean you can play audio from 2 BT sources simultaneously? (e.g. overlapping audio from two devices.) Or will only a single source ever play at a time, like with the Crossfade 2?

I'm sure it only supports normal Bluetooth pairing with two devices simultaneously where only one can send an audio stream at any given time, i.e. you can listen to music on your DAP and your phone can chime in when there's a call coming in, stopping the music. After the call the music might even resume in the best of cases... but in my experience multi-device pairing is rather underwhelming (e.g. the phone might send audio for notifications and stop the music...).

You are correct in your assumption that only one source can play audio at a time in the same vein as the Crossfade 2 Wireless. Sorry for the delay in our responses Getting caught up on some of these now.

Will update FAQ to reflect this.

 

[jonnio]

@AndrewY Can you add a little more info on the ear cup/pad size? Are they larger than M-200, but smaller than M-100 with the XL pads or are they comparable to the XL padded M-100? Do you guys plan to make XL or other types of pads for the M-200ANC?

 

[V-MODA Team Member]

@AndrewY Can you add a little more info on the ear cup/pad size? Are they larger than M-200, but smaller than M-100 with the XL pads or are they comparable to the XL padded M-100? Do you guys plan to make XL or other types of pads for the M-200ANC?

Sure, so, in terms of overall size of the pads on the ear cups the order goes like this M-200 ANC > M-200 >M-100 XL pads; That said, the classic over-ear XL pads that would go on the M-100 for example, have more depth than the ones that ship with the non-ANC M-200.

 

[yoitsmegabe]

To be honest, it depends on when Val started his anti-ANC thought. If it was around the time the M-80/M-100 started up, then yes, he was absolutely right to kind of be anti-ANC. At that time ANC implementations were not the greatest but even further the way most were implemented also changed the base sound signature of the headphone. Nowadays the changes to the base sound signature are maybe a decibel or two across the frequency range at best; most being extremely minor and difficult to tell even when doing an AB test. Back then you'd see huge swings in FR response with ANC.

That said, I can see someone like Val supporting this as the technology and signal processing techniques have improved with respect to ANC and even BT DACs/amps as a whole.

It was back when the first crossfade wireless came out. There was a post or quote about anc losing the "purity of the sound" and how he was always on planes with vmodas just fine. People have been wanting anc on the wireless models for ages, hell, I'm one of them.