PRODUCT REVIEW: Monoprice Modern Retro Over-Ear Headphones ... and some other stuff!
(The Voice - Alan Parsons)
There are good days, and there are bad days. Then there are days when a friend calls you up out of the blue and says, "Hey, I read this article on your blog where you reviewed X and I want you to take a look at Y because I think it'll blow your mind." When Y happens to be a new pair of headphones that demand you listen to good music to evaluate them, that's not a hard offer to accept.
Sometimes, this is a very, very good gig.
We set our sights today on Monoprice and their Modern Retro Over-Ear headphones. Never you mind that the name is an oxymoron. My friend, he comes to me and he says that these are the best headphones he's laid his hands on for under $100. That's a bold claim as claims go. See, there are three ranges of headphones when it comes to price:
CHEAP: These are typically cans that are anywhere from $10 to $99. You can play music through these, but any self-respecting audiophile will demand more than what they will offer. Get close to triple digits and you run into something else entirely though.
VALUE: The $100-$200 range is where some really great tech lives, including some of the best Bang For Your Buck headphones that I've ever used. My Go To brand of headphones, Sennheiser, has loads of offerings in this range and they're all very, very solid.
RISKY: Get above $200 and you start to run into some serious risk where headphones are concerned, as well as the law of diminishing returns. For anyone not familiar, the law of diminishing returns states that after a certain point, a product will not improve commensurate to its price. $400 headphones might not be four times as good as $100 headphones. Are there amazing headphones that you can buy for $300? Absolutely! Unless you're a hard-core audiophile that's done his or her research though, you're likely to get hooked on a glamour brand that's more about the badge than the performance. I'm looking at you, Beats Audio.
All of this is further muddied by personal preference. In the world of HiFi audio, everyone has an opinion, so there's typically going to be a great deal of subjectivity to any reviews for equipment like this. You can present all of the technical information you want, and someone will still point to their own cans and say, "Well yeah, but these sound better."
Now that the caveats are out of the way, let's talk about those Monoprice cans in the article title. DO me a favor though. If you're going to start reading this article, finish it. It doesn't end the way you think it does, and the ending is the best part.
Good plan? Great plan.
Let's address the claim that was made about these Monoprice cans. First thing on the list is the badge: Monoprice. Anyone who has dabbled with computers or other electronics knows who Monoprice is, and knows what they're good for: Cheap, generic components that are usually reliable. These headphones are no exception and their price backs that up. They're a whopping $25 on Amazon.
Stick with me, because I'm not done with the black paint yet. We're moving on to design next, and for that, we need to head over to the Monoprice website, which you can find here.
If you're thinking to yourself, "Wow, those look...cheap." you wouldn't be alone. They do look cheap, and they feel cheap too. That's all plastic on the sides of the cans, thin, plastic support wires for the arch between them, and a thin, cheap-feeling cord that leads to your 3.5mm headphone pin. The worst part about these things by far though are the ear cushions. They're non-porous, non-breathable, non-desirable plastic-covered things. You just know you're gonna sweat when you wear these things.
Finally, we get to the last nail in the coffin, which is the sound. It's just...not there. They're not very loud. I tried playing audio through my computer and my tablet, and even on full blast, I just...wasn't getting the volume that I was after. Aside from that, the audio was about like you'd expect from a $25 pair of cans. The EQ is a little bass-heavy like everything else these days, and...yeah.
An unremarkable pair of headphones then? Perhaps, but my friends know how picky I am about my music, and they typically don't bring sub-par things to my attention. This is where things get interesting, in my opinion.
When my friend brought these headphones over to me, the first thing I called out was how comfortable and well-made the ear pads looked. See, I hadn't looked at them online yet, so I couldn't have known that my buddy had modded them with a pair of Brainwavz XL Memory Foam ear pads. You can grab a pair on Amazon for $25. Once my friend explained to me what he'd done, I couldn't resist anymore and I put the headset on. That's sort of where things started to turn on their ear for me.
These are, hands down, the most comfortable pair of over the ear cans I've ever worn. They auto-adjust to fit your head, and that wide strap of material in the arch prevents any one part of your head from taking the weight of the headphones. Those flimsy support wires? They're -just- enough to hold the things onto your head without slippage if you move around from side to side. There's no pressure, no weight, no fatigue from use. They're just kind of ... there. Mind you, a bit piece of this comfort comes from the ear pad mod that costs as much as the cans themselves, but we'll get to that in a moment.
We all need to pause at this juncture and acknowledge the fact that once you put a pair of new ear pads on these headphones, they're very much 'good enough' for most folks who don't know any better about audio. Need a pair of beater headphones that you wouldn't mind getting lost somewhere? These are perfect for that, and they're $25. Yes, I'd buy the replacement pads, which makes these a very usable set of headphones for $50. Are they good enough to go toe to toe with my Sennheisers? No, but they're also half the price, and they're way, -way- more comfortable. For $50.
It would be enough at this point to end this article, but the rabbit hole actually goes way, WAY deeper on this particular topic. See, if you poke around the Monoprice website forums, you'll find any number of comments about how the hardware inside of these cans is excellent, but there typically isn't enough power coming over the 3.5mm jack to drive them to the extent that their guts can handle. How do you get over this? With an amplifier, of course. My buddy knew all of this prior to bringing these cans to my attention, so when he gave me a pair to demo, he made sure to provide me with such a beast. In this case, a SMSL M3 DAC Amp that he bought off of eBay for $30.
Before we go on, let's review:
- Headphones: $25
- Replacement Ear Pads: $25
- USB Amp: $30
We're at $80 now, still $30-$40 less than a nice pair of Sennheisers.
Like a lot of people, I listen to a great deal of audio on my Mac, so this DAC was perfect. I was able to USB into my system, hook into the DAC through a standard 1/4" port on the front -- the Monoprice cans come with a handy 1/8 to 1/4" converter, natch! -- and then... well, then I got my world knocked on its ear again.
Yes, the amp made it possible to get the headphones much louder; that's a given. What I wasn't ready for was how much it affected the sound stage of the headphones or the sheer quantity of detail I picked up in music that I've been listening to my whole life. Here's what I tested with in terms of music:
- "Time" by Pink Floyd
- "Seven Bridges Road" by The Eagles
- "Adagio For Strings In G Minor" by Tomas Albioni from Richard Kapp's Greatest Hits of 1720
- "Hot Like Dimes" by Pretty Lights
Whenever I test audio equipment, I go to these four songs because of their wide range of highs, mids, and lows. Plus, I know all of these songs really well and have listened to them on good equipment before, so I know what I'm listening for.
The combination of the headphones, the pads, and the DAC served to unpack music in ways that I've never really heard before. Pink Floyd is my favorite band for a variety of reasons, one of which is the rich soundscape they provide in almost all of their songs. There's -a lot- going on inside of most of their music, and I found myself hearing things that I'd never picked up on before.
This setup goes beyond that for me though. I enjoy listening to music a great deal, and this setup just makes me want to do that more. It makes the whole experience more pleasurable, more detailed. And let's not forget, we're talking about $80 here. Yes, they're still a bit too bass-heavy for truly retentive HiFi snob, but an EQ program would fix that easily if you were so inclined. The great thing about this setup is that it offers you a much more robust listening experience than a typical pair of cheap cans, and it does it for a ridiculously cheap price. Yes, it's a bit of light lifting to get the replacement pads and find a used DAC, but even with a new M3 priced at $90, you're still only at $140 for this setup.
"But Steve," you cry, "I can get some current-gen Sennheiser HD280 Pros for $100 from Amazon, and I don't have to go through the heartache of buying replacement ear pads or buying a DAC, or all of that extra wiring."
So, a few things here:
- If you want bang for your buck with no effort at all, the Sennheisers are a great option. I can't recommend them enough. I had a wonderful pair of Sennheisers that I literally wore the earpads off of....which was a problem for me because of this next item.
- Sennheiser headphones have oblate ear pads instead of round ones, so getting replacements for them, especially nice ones like the Brainwavs, is difficult at best. I cannot stress enough how comfortable these Brainwavs pads are. If you're going for long listening sessions, they're a necessity.
This setup is not for the casual listener. It's for the listener who deeply enjoys music and has time to listen to it in one spot for an extended period of time. I'm fortunate enough that I can do that. Not everyone is, or is inclined to be. For those that can, and are, this is a freakishly cheap setup with a few really incredible advantages to it that go far beyond the price:
- Accidentally break your Monoprice headphones? No problem! Just buy another pair! THEY'RE CHEAP. Find 'em on sale for $15! BUY TWO PAIRS! Then move your Brainwavs over to the new pair!
- Already have an incredible set of wired cans? No problem. Plug them into the DAC. I dare you to say it doesn't make a difference. Most devices with a 3.5mm jack on them don't push enough power to use the hardware inside of the headphones to its fullest extend, so a good Amp will improve the listening experience across the board. It's an added bonus that you can buy a stupid cheap set of headphones that still sound really great.
Any gripes about this setup? Sure. There are a lot of wires involved, but that's the price you pay for fidelity without shelling out a ton of cash for high-end wireless gear. It's a little bass-heavy, but you can fix that with a software EQ if you're so inclined. The kids like it bass-heavy these days though, and it's WONDERFUL for anyone listening to classical music. Heck, it's wonderful for anyone listening to music made before 1985 when they inexplicably stopped understanding how to properly engineer audio on recordings.
You win, Pikachu. Consider my mind blown.
There are good days, and there are bad days. Then there are days when a friend calls you up out of the blue and says, "Hey, I read this article on your blog where you reviewed X and I want you to take a look at Y because I think it'll blow your mind." When Y happens to be a new pair of headphones that demand you listen to good music to evaluate them, that's not a hard offer to accept.
Sometimes, this is a very, very good gig.
We set our sights today on Monoprice and their Modern Retro Over-Ear headphones. Never you mind that the name is an oxymoron. My friend, he comes to me and he says that these are the best headphones he's laid his hands on for under $100. That's a bold claim as claims go. See, there are three ranges of headphones when it comes to price:
CHEAP: These are typically cans that are anywhere from $10 to $99. You can play music through these, but any self-respecting audiophile will demand more than what they will offer. Get close to triple digits and you run into something else entirely though.
VALUE: The $100-$200 range is where some really great tech lives, including some of the best Bang For Your Buck headphones that I've ever used. My Go To brand of headphones, Sennheiser, has loads of offerings in this range and they're all very, very solid.
RISKY: Get above $200 and you start to run into some serious risk where headphones are concerned, as well as the law of diminishing returns. For anyone not familiar, the law of diminishing returns states that after a certain point, a product will not improve commensurate to its price. $400 headphones might not be four times as good as $100 headphones. Are there amazing headphones that you can buy for $300? Absolutely! Unless you're a hard-core audiophile that's done his or her research though, you're likely to get hooked on a glamour brand that's more about the badge than the performance. I'm looking at you, Beats Audio.
All of this is further muddied by personal preference. In the world of HiFi audio, everyone has an opinion, so there's typically going to be a great deal of subjectivity to any reviews for equipment like this. You can present all of the technical information you want, and someone will still point to their own cans and say, "Well yeah, but these sound better."
Now that the caveats are out of the way, let's talk about those Monoprice cans in the article title. DO me a favor though. If you're going to start reading this article, finish it. It doesn't end the way you think it does, and the ending is the best part.
Good plan? Great plan.
Let's address the claim that was made about these Monoprice cans. First thing on the list is the badge: Monoprice. Anyone who has dabbled with computers or other electronics knows who Monoprice is, and knows what they're good for: Cheap, generic components that are usually reliable. These headphones are no exception and their price backs that up. They're a whopping $25 on Amazon.
Stick with me, because I'm not done with the black paint yet. We're moving on to design next, and for that, we need to head over to the Monoprice website, which you can find here.
If you're thinking to yourself, "Wow, those look...cheap." you wouldn't be alone. They do look cheap, and they feel cheap too. That's all plastic on the sides of the cans, thin, plastic support wires for the arch between them, and a thin, cheap-feeling cord that leads to your 3.5mm headphone pin. The worst part about these things by far though are the ear cushions. They're non-porous, non-breathable, non-desirable plastic-covered things. You just know you're gonna sweat when you wear these things.
Finally, we get to the last nail in the coffin, which is the sound. It's just...not there. They're not very loud. I tried playing audio through my computer and my tablet, and even on full blast, I just...wasn't getting the volume that I was after. Aside from that, the audio was about like you'd expect from a $25 pair of cans. The EQ is a little bass-heavy like everything else these days, and...yeah.
An unremarkable pair of headphones then? Perhaps, but my friends know how picky I am about my music, and they typically don't bring sub-par things to my attention. This is where things get interesting, in my opinion.
When my friend brought these headphones over to me, the first thing I called out was how comfortable and well-made the ear pads looked. See, I hadn't looked at them online yet, so I couldn't have known that my buddy had modded them with a pair of Brainwavz XL Memory Foam ear pads. You can grab a pair on Amazon for $25. Once my friend explained to me what he'd done, I couldn't resist anymore and I put the headset on. That's sort of where things started to turn on their ear for me.
These are, hands down, the most comfortable pair of over the ear cans I've ever worn. They auto-adjust to fit your head, and that wide strap of material in the arch prevents any one part of your head from taking the weight of the headphones. Those flimsy support wires? They're -just- enough to hold the things onto your head without slippage if you move around from side to side. There's no pressure, no weight, no fatigue from use. They're just kind of ... there. Mind you, a bit piece of this comfort comes from the ear pad mod that costs as much as the cans themselves, but we'll get to that in a moment.
We all need to pause at this juncture and acknowledge the fact that once you put a pair of new ear pads on these headphones, they're very much 'good enough' for most folks who don't know any better about audio. Need a pair of beater headphones that you wouldn't mind getting lost somewhere? These are perfect for that, and they're $25. Yes, I'd buy the replacement pads, which makes these a very usable set of headphones for $50. Are they good enough to go toe to toe with my Sennheisers? No, but they're also half the price, and they're way, -way- more comfortable. For $50.
It would be enough at this point to end this article, but the rabbit hole actually goes way, WAY deeper on this particular topic. See, if you poke around the Monoprice website forums, you'll find any number of comments about how the hardware inside of these cans is excellent, but there typically isn't enough power coming over the 3.5mm jack to drive them to the extent that their guts can handle. How do you get over this? With an amplifier, of course. My buddy knew all of this prior to bringing these cans to my attention, so when he gave me a pair to demo, he made sure to provide me with such a beast. In this case, a SMSL M3 DAC Amp that he bought off of eBay for $30.
Before we go on, let's review:
- Headphones: $25
- Replacement Ear Pads: $25
- USB Amp: $30
We're at $80 now, still $30-$40 less than a nice pair of Sennheisers.
Like a lot of people, I listen to a great deal of audio on my Mac, so this DAC was perfect. I was able to USB into my system, hook into the DAC through a standard 1/4" port on the front -- the Monoprice cans come with a handy 1/8 to 1/4" converter, natch! -- and then... well, then I got my world knocked on its ear again.
Yes, the amp made it possible to get the headphones much louder; that's a given. What I wasn't ready for was how much it affected the sound stage of the headphones or the sheer quantity of detail I picked up in music that I've been listening to my whole life. Here's what I tested with in terms of music:
- "Time" by Pink Floyd
- "Seven Bridges Road" by The Eagles
- "Adagio For Strings In G Minor" by Tomas Albioni from Richard Kapp's Greatest Hits of 1720
- "Hot Like Dimes" by Pretty Lights
Whenever I test audio equipment, I go to these four songs because of their wide range of highs, mids, and lows. Plus, I know all of these songs really well and have listened to them on good equipment before, so I know what I'm listening for.
The combination of the headphones, the pads, and the DAC served to unpack music in ways that I've never really heard before. Pink Floyd is my favorite band for a variety of reasons, one of which is the rich soundscape they provide in almost all of their songs. There's -a lot- going on inside of most of their music, and I found myself hearing things that I'd never picked up on before.
This setup goes beyond that for me though. I enjoy listening to music a great deal, and this setup just makes me want to do that more. It makes the whole experience more pleasurable, more detailed. And let's not forget, we're talking about $80 here. Yes, they're still a bit too bass-heavy for truly retentive HiFi snob, but an EQ program would fix that easily if you were so inclined. The great thing about this setup is that it offers you a much more robust listening experience than a typical pair of cheap cans, and it does it for a ridiculously cheap price. Yes, it's a bit of light lifting to get the replacement pads and find a used DAC, but even with a new M3 priced at $90, you're still only at $140 for this setup.
"But Steve," you cry, "I can get some current-gen Sennheiser HD280 Pros for $100 from Amazon, and I don't have to go through the heartache of buying replacement ear pads or buying a DAC, or all of that extra wiring."
So, a few things here:
- If you want bang for your buck with no effort at all, the Sennheisers are a great option. I can't recommend them enough. I had a wonderful pair of Sennheisers that I literally wore the earpads off of....which was a problem for me because of this next item.
- Sennheiser headphones have oblate ear pads instead of round ones, so getting replacements for them, especially nice ones like the Brainwavs, is difficult at best. I cannot stress enough how comfortable these Brainwavs pads are. If you're going for long listening sessions, they're a necessity.
This setup is not for the casual listener. It's for the listener who deeply enjoys music and has time to listen to it in one spot for an extended period of time. I'm fortunate enough that I can do that. Not everyone is, or is inclined to be. For those that can, and are, this is a freakishly cheap setup with a few really incredible advantages to it that go far beyond the price:
- Accidentally break your Monoprice headphones? No problem! Just buy another pair! THEY'RE CHEAP. Find 'em on sale for $15! BUY TWO PAIRS! Then move your Brainwavs over to the new pair!
- Already have an incredible set of wired cans? No problem. Plug them into the DAC. I dare you to say it doesn't make a difference. Most devices with a 3.5mm jack on them don't push enough power to use the hardware inside of the headphones to its fullest extend, so a good Amp will improve the listening experience across the board. It's an added bonus that you can buy a stupid cheap set of headphones that still sound really great.
Any gripes about this setup? Sure. There are a lot of wires involved, but that's the price you pay for fidelity without shelling out a ton of cash for high-end wireless gear. It's a little bass-heavy, but you can fix that with a software EQ if you're so inclined. The kids like it bass-heavy these days though, and it's WONDERFUL for anyone listening to classical music. Heck, it's wonderful for anyone listening to music made before 1985 when they inexplicably stopped understanding how to properly engineer audio on recordings.
You win, Pikachu. Consider my mind blown.
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