Monoprice Monolith: A new planar?

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

  1. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    12,285
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Colorado
    Home Page:
    Make sure the in-ear mic fits super snug in the ear canal and is flush with the opening of the ear canal.

    Also, do a loopback measurement with the RME device and mic PSU (without mic in place, obviously), so you can find any possible bass roll-off or other frequency response anomalies so that you can use that as a way to apply compensation for your hardware. My SB1240 mic in + mic PSU, also provided by BMF, had a huge hardware bass roll-off. Trying to compensate for the mic itself is near impossible without sending it to a pro.
     
  2. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    518
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Home Page:
    Yes, clearly the mic's bass is rolled off a lot.

    Thanks for the tips. I will investigate further when I get a chance.
     
  3. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    12,285
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Colorado
    Home Page:
    It ain't easy getting it just right. Good luck!
     
  4. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

    Pyrate BWC MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,594
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    near Munich, Germany
    Well, that doesn't mean it's pointless I'd say, it just takes a long time to approximate a calibration accurately. With headphone couplers the microphone body can often make resonances appear or disappear. For example the two resonances in the upper treble that I got with my HD800 coupler measurements in my thread are gone with the WM-61A (as can be seen in my HD600 raw driver measurement thread).
    The WM-61A with the circuit I use often has little to no bass rolloff in the audible spectrum, but this does depend on your individual mic. I had 10 of them and some measured with more bass rolloff (but not anywhere close to what Darin got). The biggest differences will be in the sensitivity and frequency response in the upper mids and treble. Most were slightly bright, while some were slightly warm or neutral. Maybe it's just the preamp or maybe the mic is dead?
    There are a couple of options that come with an individual calibration file. Not sure how accurate those really are, but I doubt that it's that inaccurate. Calibrating against one of these should be sufficient. For this I would use speakers as, as I said, the results get affected too much by different mic dimensions/bodies with headphone measurements.

    (I still haven't bothered to make a really good calibration file for my WM-61A, but that's mainly because I wanted to explore other options. (I do use a preliminary calibration for my microphone.) Those tiny 1/4" microphones are very noisy and the WM-61A with the circuit I use actually distorts more than the HD800. Would be interesting to try 1/2" or even 1" mic capsules to see just how much TOTL headphones really distort. The 0.02% at 102db at 1kHz figure Sennheiser specs is probably not too far off and it's probably even better at 90db. The HD6X0 is probably not that much worse. Even the best speakers don't get close to that.)
    The lowest I measured was -72db D2 at 440Hz at 95db: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/hd800-measurements.2720/#post-80296
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2016
  5. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,969
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Los Alamos, NM
    Home Page:
    Are you sure you didn't sneeze when you measured the M560? :)
     
  6. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    518
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Home Page:
    Yeah it looks crazy, but I measured several times yesterday and this morning and it looked the same. I also measured the HD600's right after each M560 measurement to make sure the measurement rig wasn't completely broken. Very strange.
     
  7. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    518
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Home Page:
    OK, I think my mic for the previous measurements was not working right.
    I switched to different mics and tweaked some settings. Not saying these are accurate, but at least the bass is not totally whack.

    The M560's still look really wonky.
    Here's some comparisons to various headphones I have for a frame of reference when compared to the M560's:

    vs. HD600 (version 2):
    [​IMG]

    vs. HD800 with Superdupont:
    [​IMG]

    vs. Focal Utpoia:
    [​IMG]

    vs. Fostex T50RP:
    [​IMG]

    vs. Audio Zenith PMx2 (older version):
    [​IMG]
     
  8. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

    Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2015
    Likes Received:
    3,999
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Tempe, Arizona
    Looks a lot better. It's interesting how on the HD800 and Focal Utopia the ~4kHz area is boosted but on the HD600 measurement, that looks pretty close to other measurements. There's also a null that shows up around 8kHz on some measurements. Overall way better. If the M560 goes on Amazon I'll pick one up and measure it.
     
  9. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

    Staff Member Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Likes Received:
    1,119
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Bay Area CA
  10. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    12,285
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Colorado
    Home Page:
    Nice, those results are starting to look good! You're definitely on the right track. Did you check to see if your hardware, minus mic, had any bass roll-off and correct for it if so?

    If the distortion figures are OK on the headphone, they might be decent after mods. Let's not forget the stock T50RP Mk2! (Not saying they'd be worth the money or a giant-killer post-mods, but, still...)
     
  11. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

    Staff Member Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Likes Received:
    1,119
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Bay Area CA
    Darin,
    Can we safely assume these measurements are all taken with the open configuration?


     
  12. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    518
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Home Page:
    Yes. Sorry forgot to mention that. I guess I should measure them in the closed configuration too. Easy enough to compare since the covers can go on without removing the headphones. I would have the same mic placement and cup position.
    I will try to do that later today.
     
  13. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    518
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Home Page:
    Here's the open vs. closed measurement: (Purple is the closed measurement.)

    [​IMG]
     
  14. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

    Staff Member Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Likes Received:
    1,119
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Bay Area CA
    Thanks. Man, what is going on at 4k-ish...
     
  15. takato14

    takato14 God of Ruin

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2015
    Likes Received:
    654
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Michigan, USA
    I am a slow man.

    I don't know but these look like they're not very well tuned. I'll have to throw them on my rig to be sure though, your rigs results are looking very different from mine with the HD800.
     
  16. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,969
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Los Alamos, NM
    Home Page:
    Are they sounding significantly better with breakin?
     
  17. Out Of Your Head

    Out Of Your Head Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    518
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    Home Page:
    Well, "better" is a relative term. Generally, I would say yes, they have definitely gotten better than straight out of the box.

    But after 60 hours of burn-in, I don't think they are changing that much more. They sound OK, but I don't see them getting a whole lot better. Who knows? Maybe I'll be surprised and they will get better.

    As I said before, when you can get a pair of HD6XX for $200, these M560's will probably never get to that level. OK, maybe you can't really get HD6XX's for $200, but I suspect Massdrop will make them available again in the future like all their other headphones.

    I'll keep burning in and measuring and see what happens. I have 30 days to return them...
     
  18. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

    Pyrate BWC MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,594
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    near Munich, Germany
    Heh, that's what I've been saying for a while now :p. Don't you think those in-ear results look more accurate?
    Darin, are your HD800 pads old and worn? I don't think I get as much 2kHz with only the SD mod, but that could be pad, ear and mic differences. Part of my mods also reduce 2kHz, so it could be that. It also looks like your setup still has some bass rolloff, but otherwise those results look pretty good to me.

    BTW: The great thing is we already have many speaker in-ear measurements from Darin. I once measured all the presets for OOYH.
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2016
  19. music4mhell

    music4mhell New

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2016
    Likes Received:
    26
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Location:
    Bangalore (India)
  20. takato14

    takato14 God of Ruin

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2015
    Likes Received:
    654
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Michigan, USA
    Far from it. If your rig doesn't show a ~4kHz dip on both stock and SDR HD800, there's something seriously wrong with it.
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2016

Share This Page