Monoprice Monolith: A new planar?

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by MrTie, Sep 13, 2016.

  1. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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  2. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

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    Glad this thread is back open. I should have a pair of M560's sometime tomorrow. I hope to have time to give some brief initial impressions. But it's pretty busy around here... Too bad I don't have a measurement rig.
     
  3. Valolilol

    Valolilol Acquaintance

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    Based in Europe I cannot order these headphones without paying extra fees (and it's without considering customs) so if you guys could give some impressions, reviews, at best measurements, I would be so thankful. These headphones are really tempting but one must have an idea before going for it.
     
  4. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

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    Just received the M560's a few minutes ago...

    Very early first impressions from JRiver -> Modi Multibit -> Vali 2 (GE JAN 5670W):

    Harsh treble. Must be a peak somewhere up there. Sibilant. Reminds me of stock HD800's, but worse.
    Makes mids sound recessed? Maybe treble is so bright that everything below is much lower level. (I have to turn down the level a lot to avoid the pain in my ears from the treble.
    Bass extension is OK, but bass level is low. Very lean sounding. Even mid bass is not there.

    Honestly they remind me a lot of when I first got a stock pair of HD800's. I guess everyone will love them! A $200 HD800. :p (But the M560's are much more closed sounding and less refined, less detail.)

    Even with closed covers on, bass is too low. But with covers off, the highs aren't as harsh. Still harsh, but not as bad as with the covers on.

    I'll start breaking them in and see if anything changes.
     
  5. MuppetFace

    MuppetFace Sultana of Seafoam Green - Moderator

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    I suspect ortho ninja team modding will be necessary to unlock their potential.
     
  6. Out Of Your Head

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  7. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    At first blush, just based on rough shape, I am reminded of a T50RP driver.
     
  8. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Wow yeah, but with a simpler trace pattern.
     
  9. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

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    Jack of all trades, master of none.

    Open? Closed? Both.... ah, no.
     
  10. spoony

    spoony Spooky

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    Can you try using tape around the earpads to improve the seal against the baffle to see if the bass level is improved? Otherwise that paper calls for a nice hole in it.
     
  11. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

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    I've been doing more listening.
    Seems like I am hearing more bass than I initially thought. Weird. I think the highs were So distracting that I couldn't hear anything else.

    Anyway, I wrote some more impressions over at Head-Fi:
    http://www.head-fi.org/t/820107/mon...-and-m560-planar-headphones/165#post_13019559

    Quick comparisons with some of my other headphones:
    http://www.head-fi.org/t/820107/mon...-and-m560-planar-headphones/165#post_13019657
     
  12. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Well, the ether C really needed 50-100 hours of burn it. Maybe the mono price one does too.
     
  13. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

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    Coming up on 24 hours of burn in.
    I have to say, I have never heard a headphone change so much after a few hours of burn in. I never believed it too much. I thought it was more brain burn in than anything.

    But today, bass is WAY stronger. Treble is less harsh (but still pretty bright). A touch of EQ at 8K or 9K -3dB and then a little mid bass boost really helps a LOT.

    These things are almost listenable now. We'll see if it keeps changing...
     
  14. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    One of the measurement guys should do a before/after...
     
  15. doublea

    doublea New

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    I'm not sure if I like the idea of a set of $200 cans that are "almost listenable"... let's hope the M1060 is a completely different beast or else I doubt they'll even affect the everything-new-has-to-be-$1k-or-up planar market
     
  16. AllanMarcus

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    Darin has a little, just a little, experience with measurements :)

    Still, would be good to get a before/after (and every 20 hours). set of measurements.
     
  17. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

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    I only measure speakers and rooms. I don't really do headphone measurements.

    I do have some in-ear mics that could be used for measurements, but I only tried it once to measure headphones and I was pretty lost trying to figure out Arta or REW. Then on top of that I wasn't sure if I was even getting decent results. I shoudl try again sometime...
     
  18. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    REQ Wizard is far easier to start with. Just get the preferences set with correct input and output devices, and load the calibration file for the mic. The rest of it should be pretty familiar to you as you've done Speaker measurements, which aren't any different. 90dB @ 1000Hz is the standard. Measurement variation based on coupler design and mic variations is fine and expected. As long as you have a reference headphone like HD6X0 or maybe a Hifiman, that would be great!
     
  19. takato14

    takato14 God of Ruin

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    M560 driver looks much better than T50RP driver on the front for sure, a lot moire open acoustically. Still, whoever thought square ortho drivers are a good idea needs their teeth kicked in. I think monoprice did it here to conserve on earcup space...

    Mine will be arriving some time next week. I'll offer some measurements and if they're not impassibly awful, will start modding them.
     
  20. Out Of Your Head

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    OK, please don't laugh and ridicule me, but I tried doing a headphone measurement for the first time. Yikes! I have absolutely no clue what I am doing. (The room/speaker measurements I do are nothing like this and I don't use REW.)

    So, the measurements were done with a Panasonic WM-61 stuffed into my ear and a custom built mic preamp from bluemonkeyflyer on Head-Fi. I then fed the line out into a RME Babyface into my PC laptop via USB.

    I know the measurements are pure crap, and I am embarassed to even post them, but I measured my stock HD600's too just as a frame of refernce so you can see how far off my measurements are.

    BUT, WTF with the Monoprice M560 measurement? I measured some of my other headphones and none of them looked so weird. Could my crappy measurement attempt be that messed up?

    Oh well, here it is:
    [​IMG]
     

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