New Planar Magnetic headphones designed for mixing.



$399 - Shipping late July/early August.

https://www.audeze.com/products/mm-100

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2023

They are based on MM-500 ($1699), so what's the catch?

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2023

Im intrgued. I want to buy a set of Planar so that would fit the budget.

 

There must be differences obviously.
Hopefully some knowledgeable tech will do a serious review.

 

Yeah, but it's a $1300 difference, and if the cheap one is good, nobody will buy the expensive one. At least $399 is low enough to be a 2nd headphone if the functionality is ok. The review will be interesting, and I am guessing that the new one is being made outside of the USA?

 

Last edited: Jul 19, 2023

I've been diving deep on headphones the past week after watching this video about it. After doing a bunch of research the best value buy for great planar headphones is the Hifiman Anando Nano. A mix/mastering engineer i trust called Emrah Celik recommends them. He's a headphone junkie that tests 15-20 headphones per year and songs he works on get into the Spotify top international songs. I was able to ask him a bunch of questions directly in a facebook group i'm in and he was generous enough to answer all them. He thinks Audeze are good but they're overpriced and they have a weird house signature. He uses Slate VSX for mixing and the Nano's for mastering. I haven't heard the Nano's myself but i've got my finger on the buy button right now lets say that. They're $599 as well and i'd bet that they're better than the MM-100.
https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/ananda-nano.html

Check out a podcast with Emrah Celik and Paul Third about mixing on headphones if you wanna dive deeper. On the Produce Like a Pro podcast channel

I've also been looking into Slate VSX as an option, which i never thought i'd hear myself say. I was sceptical at first but the user experiences are undeniable. Overwhelmingly positive. Many top engineers call them game-changing. Apparently they translate extremely well and it takes the guesswork out completely.

The problem with all the tech reviews i find in the headphone world is that they're coming from a hifi/audiophile perspective rather than mixing/mastering perspective. At the end of the day translation is the priority for us

 

I would agree that the VSX system is a great alternative for sub optimal environment. An Issue I have faced with that system is the difficulty to get used to the ''reverberated'' environments presented in the different rooms of the product. The SUV itself was described to me on a forum as a good reference to get bass response and level accurately. It didn't worked at all for me. When I mix my bass and kick on the SUV, I get anemic mixes. So I used the Club Bass response and it gave me a better translation. The SUV to me sounded like 4runner in the middle of an empty basketball arena with windows down. It really just doesn't work for me. What I'm trying to say is that there is an important amount of time that need to be spent in the different ''virtual environment'' to get used to them and understand what it can help you with in your day to day mixing challenges. The SUV example is just one example that came to mind in that regards where most of the people I read talking about the VSX agree that it is sort of a reference for mass leveling. It is not for me. Also, the target curve change quite a bit between versions. I started on Version 3 and had a very hard time getting used to the whole product. The version 4 seems to be a lot better to me but I am also a bit more used to the product now so I'm not a reference in that matter. The headphones by themselves are great to my personal taste. They are un-hyped to my taste and there's a good amount of details even without the software. I get decent results making some tweeks on those headphones and cross referencing on my other monitors right now.

Now the culprit is that they have announced a systemwide implementation and it is about to go live for Windows user but it's limited to 48khz. I work only at 96 khz. I'm the type of guy that spend all his time with a new product in all possible environment (DAW, Tidal, Youtube, Netflix etc...) to get used to what I have bought and I sometime quickly cross reference with my known monitors to understand what I hear and how I hear it. The sample rate limitation of VSX will be an issue for me as I will be leaving for the whole winter in 2 months. Normally, that would be enough for me to get used to a new product and feel confident that I can use it in very specific and critical ways to work abroad. I think I will have no other choice but to play with my Sample rate clocking so I can use the VSX system with confidence before I leave at the end of September.

But yeah, great tool really. Love the Beryllium driver headphones.

 

Last edited: Jul 19, 2023

Don't be so sure about that, there are always people that
1 think expensive is better
2 showing off with a 1300 headphone is great.
3 They can't mix bad if they use an expensive headphone, right?

 

I'll just add that the MM-500 got good reviews for mixing, and Manny Marroquin is still associated with the tuning of the MM-100, so hopefully there will be some honest user reviews once the product is released.