Monolith M560 Over Ear Planar Magnetic Headphones - Black/Wood With 56mm Driver, Open or Closed Back Design, Comfort Ear Pads For Studio/Professional

Firstly: These are great for their intended purpose of being a hybrid open/closed set of cans, don't buy them to crush either class completely.Great set of cans. For reference heres my kit: Matrix Quattro / K712 Pro / T50rp mk3 (modded) for desktop or a Fiio e18 on the field with a laptop. Most of my music is lossless.So I usually listen to more heavy rock/ punk and i'm a fan of neutral sound, maybe a slight hump in the mids.Tips:-Bend the living hell out of that headband to make it clamp more.-Foam those wooden covers up even if its slightly, and avoid snapping the covers on while wearing, its a painfully loud snap.-Burn the daylights out of them, at least 40hrs in my testing. I'm not going to argue facts on burning because I don't care, but in the case of these cans the difference is absurd.-Try to amp them. Not a huge difference for me from a blade 2016, but I do feel the stage opens a bit, at least for me.-Look at other pads. The stock are usable but pretty small, I have ears that fit but they push on all my helix piercings.I read a few reviews online for these, I wanted a new set of cans for work since I work in a studio where its either loud or quiet sometimes. I looked at MSR7's, M40x's, PM-3's and Edition S's before getting these. Of those I could only test the M40x's and PM-3's. I've used the m1060's too but couldn't handle the ringing they produced without mods. I actually really enjoy being able to use these closed and open, they really do go both ends without toooo many issues. Its very clear what you lose when you place the covers on, less bass, sibilant highs etc. But they're not that bad, in terms of i'd rather spend $200 on these and have one pair for trips than taking a set of closed and open everywhere...The reason for buying these is for a decent set of planars where you frequently have noise levels changing, say if you work later in the day through the loud afternoon and quiet evenings. They block a pretty damn good amount for me and closed they don't leak much at all for my listening levels. They're built like a tank, which is almost bad due to the weight and heft of these, but at least I know they wont break.Overall I'd say get em, if you want that crazy clear planar sound with some of that metallic tint they're damn good for their price, and yes the covers do work to about 90% in terms of quality for what they are.

I got a pair of M560's as part of the pre Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving day. It just seemed like too good a deal to pass up. I received them a week ago today and have been letting them burn in because out of the box they were, underwhelming. Each night I'd go back and plug them in and they hinted at what they could do. 25hz test tone shook my head. Wow! That was impressive. But they sounded odd. Just odd. Very strident and shouty.Today I was able to spend a little more time with them and I'm fortunate to have several amps to try these on. At my computer I have a Topping A30/D30 stack which I figured would have a difficult time bringing out the best in the 560's due to their high output impedance. I was not disappointed in that expectation. It drives them fine. It drives them to a high volume fine. BUT these do not sound great through them.I also have an Emotiva BasX A100 hooked up to this setup for hard to drive headphones. The Emotiva again drives them fine. However, when you place the jumpers into the Emotiva to bypass the 200 ohm resistors in the headphone output they say it brings up the noise floor. I'm not sure if that's what was happening or if I just have noisy power coming into the amp, but there's definitely a noticeable hiss underneath the sound. In any case, the sound of the M560's through this D30/A100 combo is better but still not great.After a week of burn in I was left contemplating if perhaps this was just the best I was going to get from these cans. Out of curiosity I took them to another room where I have my PS4. I have my TV hooked up via optical to an FX Audio DAC X-6 into a Parasound Zpre2 and a Parasound Zamp (v.2) pushing a set of bookshelf speakers.The Zpre2 has surprised me with the quality of its onboard headphone amplification prowess on other headphones. Unfortunately this time the M560's proved to be an odd pairing for the Zpre2.The FX Audio uses the same TI Opamp as the Topping and also has a 10 ohm output impedance so I didn't figure it would be a good amp for the M560's. This was very obvious and was the worst sounding of the bunch. (Sidenote, if you have something like HD6xx's and want a cheap DAC/Amp combo that sounds pretty good this is not a bad product even if it doesn't play nice with M560's.)Finally, the Zamp v.2 has a headphone output. I have no idea what the output impedance is. I wasn't expecting it to be any different than any of the other amps in my arsenal. Boy was I wrong. I plugged them in and all of a sudden it was like I was listening to different headphones. They were open and airy. The bass was thunderous and immediate. The vocals were clear and in your face. Highs were clear and articulate without being too harsh. Cymbal crashes splashed without being sibilant. Soundstage and imaging were excellent.I had all but given up home on these headphones and that either I got a bum pair or all of the reviews I had seen were full of it. I figured I'd keep them. The build quality is incredible. I noticed the pads were now decidedly an on ear design. I thought I would try to 3d print the base of the pads and glue some magnets not that so I could use some aftermarket pads (I will probably still do this). Or I would try hit the forums and see how people were modding these to make them sound better. Again I may still look into this, but I don't have to.I just wanted to share my experience and throw out there that your ability to get the best out of these headphones may be contingent on your amp's ability to work with them. I don't know exactly why. If anyone has a good link explaining how to pair up magneplanars with amps and what to keep in mind I'm keen to read it because this one had me scratching my head. Now I'm considering the M1060C's because the immediacy of the magneplanar drivers is really something to experience.

I waited a while for this to arrive, and was eager to try them out. My main speakers are a pair of restored Magnepan SMGc's, so I was keen to get more of that planar sound, which I love.It was understated when I first plugged it in and streamed music off Tidal. Listened to Sheffield Lab's Drum and Track album, and Reference Recording's Pomp & Pipes, a sonic blockbuster.Heard them closed-backed, then open, then closed, then open again. I marginally prefer them open.Music sounded decent, low and mid-bass seemed light, so I'm going to keep at it, to perhaps facilitate a little break-in.Will come back again.<updated Tues 17 Dec 2019>It's 8am in the morning and the family's on vacation and asleep in our hotel room, so I've got some quiet time with the M560's. Thankfully I brought them out.First listen was to Reference Recording's Pomp and Pipes, a favourite of mine. If you know the recording well, you'll know that with the first few listens, you're listening only to the fireworks, the drum whacks, deep organ pedal notes etc. It's exhilarating.On further listens, you begin to wonder, why is it so well thought of, as an audiophile piece?It's the density of the music, the million and one things that we going on all at the same time. While that 32Hz note is playing, there are horns and higher tone notes playing simultaneously above it, with the organ underpinning everything. The foundation, if you will.Speakers and systems that are good will resolve it all nicely, and you won't be tempted to shut it off. Or put down the headphones.I must say, after playing a couple of Die Hard movies over them last week, they've broken in a bit, and Paul Riedo playing "6 pieces d'orgue" sounded very fine!Back soon.<updated 27 Dec 2019 >Not had a chance with the phones for a week while we celebrated Christmas.Small additional observations. I listened to a few RR recordings of The Dallas Wind Symphony. At the beginning of each piece, you can hear a collective intake of breath, as the conductor kicks it off. I knew it was there, but this..... Wow! I gave the review an extra star.DanielSingapore

M560 review (~1 month)They need some burn in at first. Fresh from the box has weak bass/sub bass.Sound quality is great. Bass and treble extension is good. Sound stage is great.It's built like a tank, essentially no plastic, only metal, but this causes it to be heavy. Cable is two 3.5mm into headphones, and a 3.5mm or 1/4", and is straight rather than the m1060's stupid 90° connector.The headband uses a suspension system. I personally didn't like it. you'd have to adjust it frequently because it's not a set spot. If it's too high, the bottom of your earlobes get sensitive from the suspension system pushing the headphones upwards.One thing though, the stock earpads are THE smallest I've ever seen. They are just too big for on-ear. And way too small for over ear. My ears had to fold to fit into it.M1060 Review (~3 year ownership)Sound is beautiful, build is good. The cups don't have a locking mechanism so they can swivel full 360. It gets annoying at times, but I've learned to adjust to them. Revision 2 does not have the 5k ring, and has swapped off the mini-xlr. One big downside to this set of headphones is the pads. They are plush, and large, BUT they do not last due to build quality. The pleather will slowly unglue itself over time, the pad itself will also slowly unglue itself from the headphones. They will either need RMA, or super glue. I've personally done one RMA, and didnt want to deal with the second RMA, so i super glued it second time.

Priced a bit high in India...but worth india...nice job amazon

These are some of the best planar magnetic headphones for the price tag. If you've never had planars before than this is a really good entry pair. You will hear new things in songs you've listened to hundreds of times, that's the planar experience. Audio quality aside I have a few other comments...My first pair broke in about 3 months, one of the channels wouldn't work. However, I got it replaced by Monoprice and it was actually pretty quick. I think the turnaround was under 7 business days. Great customer service on their end.In terms of comfort these have a long way to go. I have changed the earpads because the originals are more of an on-ear experience and would hurt after awhile. Now the earpads I've chosen are much bigger and heavier and the weight of the headband hurts the top of my head after awhile.Overall these headphones are still fantastic especially for the price, potentially the best sounding headphones in this price range.

I used to have Hifiman Sundara which I liked, I also tried Hifiman HE-560, so these Monoprice Monolith M560 are my third planar magnetics I had to chance to listen to. I owned also few other good sounding headphones like Beyerdynamic T1, Shure SRH1840, Sennheiser HD600, so have something to compare to. Overall I was surprised with built quality of the M560 cans at this price. Although I knew from few reviews that they are very nicely built. And, yes, they are indeed. So the first experience after opening the box was very positive. Although I found that there were two spots with worn out paint and one of the magnets for the pad was bit loose inside the can. These are quality control issues which could be improved easily. The headband is nice and soft. I also like cable quality and length. Pads are not too bad in terms of feel and build quality but to me they have too small holes for ears. So decided to do something about this. I bought replacement pads with the same outside diameter but thicker and softer and also the hole is circular. I cut two discs from ABS 1.5mm sheet and stuck 4 neodymium magnets in places. Wearing comfort increased and now I can wear them for long time without fatigue to my ears. Comfort wise overall these headphones are good, clamping force is not too bad, they don't feel that heavy too. Now, sound. Using them with nice wooden covers on is not recommended. They don't sound bad with covers but sound is definitely better without them. I gave them some hours of burn in and I think it improved sound a bit. Overall they sound quite good but I was expecting a bit more from these. I think that drivers are too small in them, they don't sound that airy as Sundara (which I would score 4/5) in example, they don't give that sense of space. I would give them 3.5/5 for overall sound quality. They are good value for money cans (planars) in my opinion but I gave 3 stars only because I would prefer to add some cash and buy Hifiman Sundara for better sound experience.