V-Moda M200 : No Longer Basshead Heaven

I had no business reading this thread, was never interested in v-moda, but I did, and now I am ..listening to v-moda. I checked M200 on Amazon but instead found a warehouse deal, for M100 for $125 US, $163 CAD, supposedly with some scratches.
Never owned basshead cans, and was tempted. They arrived today, I checked everything, factory packaging, no scratches, all accessories, warranty etc.. those are new headphones. But what stunned me was the m100 form factor. I do not think i have ever seen more exciting looking headphones.
And for casual listening to jazz, rock, flamenco, M100 are amazing. Pads are too small for my big ears, and I but I already ordered XL.
My friend ordered M200 and I will have both to compare, b utif M200 are decent neutral headphones, as you all claim they are, then I want them both. I just love the look and feel of them.

 

I've been testing myself if these m200 can serve for me as a daily main driver. I've refrained myself from saying anything good so far but folks, I had one full week of successful experience. They were more satisfying than assumed when I pulled the trigger.

Yeah, they're still closed back. So, we can never expect natural airflow of open-backs.

That said, m200 could do certain things even better than my existing collections (grado, zenn, zmf). Thoughts below.

• Bass is botherline lean, but extends very lowly yet decent clarity not lost. It can do low notes in both classical contexts (Saint-Saens) as well as modern ones (Beyonce). Easily smokes Hemp and HD650 in that regard. Verite did bass overall better in nuance and delinearation but m200 pleased me with harder and heftier sounding. As the graph suggests, midbass is a little recessed, but I failed to find anything overly done in that part. Well controlled indeed.
• All my collections do midrange fairly well. So, it's very difficult for m200 to stand out over them particularly. Reversely speaking, however, m200 do not show any slouch, either. I can hear body and meat of nearly every instrument quite convincingly. Cup sounding is mostly killed maybe too much -- it's a little weird verite open has more cup reverb than m200 lol.
• Highs are a little mixed bag. They're forwarding but not overly daunting at all. Top end extension was damn fantastic, easily smoking senn and grado, only bested by verite. Good airs, ambience, and spatial cues, too.
• Nevertheless I should say I couldn't be fully bought by their somewhat unnatural tone. It's not unacceptably done but time to time pianos and trumpets make me a little doubt regarding the timbre. Very listenable. Maybe enjoyable enough. But not fully convincing. Hard to specifically describe at the moment.
• Everything else omitted is pretty good to me. At least on par with my other headphones. I don't find they're inferior to 'good to great' open backs if not superior. A matter of different presentation.
• Comfort-wise, at least for now, I start to think they're more comfortable than f-cushioned grado. Once got accustomed, they didn't create any significant problems in multi hour listening.
• What's rather weird to me is they sound noticeably better when driven from balanced outputs. I may test this with more amps later but magnius bal outs were better synergized with m200 than unbal outs from other amps (magnius, magni 3+, cheaper zen). The improvement occurs in all criteria -- the most dramatically with microdynamics.

 

And from these devices, only Hifiman is only one actually making such devices anymore. Not sure why V-Moda made such decision.

On 3.5PRO, the whole socket is recessed, it's supposed to be safety feature, so you don't connect unbalanced headphones to balanced output.

 

^Ah, now that makes sense...

 

Knowing your pretences that to me is a bright red flag - if you find it slightly lean and the treble slightly off to me it'll be a bright mess.

 

Yeah, that can be likely. It's far from being midbassy and I found it kinda spot on to my taste (although I also time to time seek for a little bassy presentation). But I do think the bass is voiced considering quiet environment in mind. It won't work beyond quiet office or home.

And I don't think it bright any day. At least less bright than hd600. It just doesn't sound that dark even though being a little dark-tilted.

I believe Roland engineers tried to obtain something subjectively neutral to themselves. And fortunately, their preference happens to coincide mine. Maybe that's because I listen to hella jpops. lol

 

I used to buy Roland monitors back in the day when I needed smaller powered speakers. sounded really good for their size/price. also make good usb interfaces. had one of their midi controllers once and keys were nice but buttons kinda sucked.

i would say my best Roland purchase was the LAPC-1, aka the internal version of the MT32. One of best synthesizers of all time IMO.

 

I have a DAC that has 2 3Pin XLR outputs. What would I need to set up a balanced connection with the single sided balanced cable of the V-Moda M-200? Can it be done? Thanks in advance. My Dac is the Project Pre Box Digital RS.

Also, can this headphone be used for balanced play on a Pono?

 

So I take it a dual male 3 Pin XLR to single 3.5 cable would not provide a balanced signal.

 

The XLR outputs of your DAC can't drive your headphones. They have to go to an amp.

 

You sure about that? My DAC is a headphone amp.

 

The amp output is on the front...

 

OK.

Hey there, please do yourself and us a favor by reading the rules and introducing yourself in the appropriate threads linked here as well as on the big banner at the top of the site.

As to your question, looking up that particular box shows a single ended headphone amp output on the front, and balanced (or at least XLR) line-out jacks on the back. Those are not headphone jacks, they are analog pre-amplifier outputs for use with an amplifier.

 

Thank you for the information and clarification. Much appreciated.

 

Dropping some thoughts on my Vmoda M200 I've cumulatively collected for 4+ months.

• Sad to see M200 couldn't get any interest from most audio forums I visit. I do think they're overlooked than they deserve in sonic perfection.
• That doesn't mean they are immune to deal-breaking issues. What bugged me most frequently in using them is a bad choice of cable material. Both cables coming with them didn't look that bad and maybe are made of good material.. but microphonics are hyper more evident than any other products I've ever used. Orange cable (unbalanced) is a little better than the black cable (balanced) but unfortunately the latter had better sonic benefits when good balanced sources available.
• Another major annoyance comes from super high sensitivity. I don't think 2V source out with unit max gain amp good for them by any means. I can't even crank up with iphone direct connections (1V out). They're more sensitive than that notoriously efficient Grado. WTF..
• Despite such critical problems, I found myself very difficult to find any moderate flaws from their sound. They really nailed it when ti comes to pure sonic quality, and easily has been my top favorite for certain categories. Let me be more specific. They're "best small earcup headphones" to me.
• Apart from nicely tuned tonal balance shown in my measurement in the first post, I am still impressed by how much they're capable of in sub-optimal situations. For example, I've been using them directly out of Topping DX3+Dell laptop or Apple iphone 6s+ when loafing around on bed. You will never be able to imagine what this seemingly poor combo can reproduce. Well beyond what I regard 'acceptable'. Except significantly compromised macrodynamics and plankton, they can do everything else very decently. Well articulated bass? Yes. Midrange with moderate clarity? Oh yes. Some dimensionality and incisiveness on top end? Heck yes. Anything to enjoy music there.
• In other words, they allow me to enjoy very audiophile-ish stuffs without hardcore audiophile configurations.
• I might be a little too high today because I am typing this post as I rock Nirvana with them. Haha. Anyway, that's what I honestly feel with M200 so far.

 

I was definitely keeping tabs on this thread since 5 mins with them in an electronic store with an iPhone was enough to tell that they were versatile(easy to drive), comfortable and fairly portable.

If I was to build a system around something like a Fulla 3/Hel that I can bring around, I’d definitely consider them.

I think with me already having an HD650 that I’ve been sitting on to build a proper system around, and with how I’m stuck at home lately anyway, I probably will just stick to saving up.

 

Has anyone had a chance to compare the M200s directly with the M100 Master?

I'm in the market for a durable closed portable and they're both on my radar. When I demoed the original M100 a couple years ago I found the bass hump to be too much but I understand the Master edition has brought that down and is an overall more balanced headphone.

If the M200 bass is too lean the Master might actually be preferable since I'm sure it's still north of neutral, but if detail retrieval and overall tonal balance is much better on the M200s it might be worth the extra hundred bucks to me. So anyone with experience on both?

 

That's wise. Particularly if you're focusing on one single ultimate rig, there's no chance M200 can shine over already well-proven transducers.

They can be fantastic for a secondary system (not necessary portable or commuting purposes as it isn't quite robust against high level noise). I can easily think myself to pick them up first for business trips or office environment

That said, I'd add M200 isn't well scaling. They're rather equating whatever I hooked up with. Except revealing amps' residual noise too much.

No first hand experience but decision will depend on how much happier you can be with leaner and linear response. Some considerations below.

• M200 isn't very portable, where I expect much higher level in noise isolation. M200's linear and flatter bass does no help to fight against low-freq environmental noise.
• If I recall correctly, M100 couldn't pick up as much details and nuances as M200 do, even after equalizing lows and highs. I believe there clearly exist driver-level differences.
• For those coming from more commercially tuned products, M200 may be too lean. I found both HD650 and Grado Hemp sound noticeably bassier although M200 did reach to lower frequencies with better texture/articulations.