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

I should of bought the 1060 but fell for the Zeos hype saying these are 95 percent of the 1060. You look like a tool with these on, but they are very solid and well made. The stock earpads are very small and shallow. I have to readjust the fit after an hour,which isn't bad. These sound very good, open but not wide,they image sounds well, if you want to try a planar headphone,get this or the Monoprice, 1060, 1070,0570, mono price has slashed the price on these almost half the price I pàid 4 years ago. Forget about using these with the covers on they sound better with them off. If you listen,to acoustic,classical,classic jazz,or vocal music, classic rock,classic soul atlow to moderate volumes,these are great. These leave a bit lacking when you want blast a song. If you play these at full volume over 20 minutes,your ears will be ringing. I just desired that sub bass impact you get on todays modern music. The other drawback is the 400 milliwatt limit on amplification. Somtimes I want 11 instead of 10 on the dial. I keep them in the well made case,and when I want to listen to oldies,or acoustic music its these. I still enjoy them but seldom use them. This is a great starter headphone and well made its 4 years old and looks new, I like it.

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.

*Note to future buyers, these DO require a break in period for them to fully spread its wings*These headphones are AMAZING! They're built to last with all metal bands, pivot points, and cup frames, and are stylish too. You can choose to either use them as closed or open-back headphones which is a great feature,much like the HiFiman Edition S. Easily one of my favorite headphones, although they are heavy on the head because of its all metal construction. Music is crisp, vocals are clear, bass isn't over emphasized and I would say more natural sounding when it comes to percussion instruments. Because of its open or closed back nature, it's like having two pairs of great sounding headphones. Open creates a wider sound stage and oddly enough, bass sounds like it reaches further. Closed back sounds tight but still acoustically pleasing but it does leak sound since it doesn't seal completely. Still very much usable in public places.That being said, why are you reading this? Go and buy it, your ears will thank you.