Review on 🎧 Monoprice 116150 Modern Retro Over Ear Headphones with Comfortable Ear Pads – Ideal for Mobile Devices, HiFi, and Audio/Video Production – Black by Luis Mercado

First time I've literally dropped my jaw on a pair of headphones, and that's not counting the price! Stumbled across Z's review and the hype is real! REPLACING THE GASKETS OF BRAINWAVS XL (sheepskin or leather) MANDATORY! Large Brainwavz XL Interchangeable Memory Foam Ear Pads - Fits Many Other Large In-Ear Headphones - Sennheiser, AKG, HifiMan, ATH, Philips, Fostex, Sony (Black Leather) Headphones, I have done A/B tests with akg 712 and audeze lcd-2 and it convinced me to return my akg 702 for a refund because they are so good. A few caveats about this price I will explain below1. Aside from the already mentioned major upgrade of the pads, get an amp, I would find it almost as important to make them sing to heaven, at 32 ohms they really are unamped but amped up and driving wow and you don't need an expensive one, A3 by Fiio ($60) will wield it like a champ and amaze you. 2. The cable is very long and permanently attached while being very loose. It seems like it's easy to accidentally hook the cable on something and pull it out, which would require soldering and disassembly to repair. There are mods to install an outlet Plug it in so the cable can be detached, google "monoprice retro cable mod". I found a small workaround by applying some superglue to the small gap between the cable and the case to create a padding that prevents the cable attachment from moving freely. any type of glue/epoxy or squeezable glue should work just as well, otherwise you're done! Sound wise I just bought a pair of K702's which I will use for comparison as the 702 brand and AKG are highly regarded in my profession as the industry standard, they sound GREAT if you use them for what. They are built for: critical listening/mastering/mixing i work as a producer/engineer in the music industry so i have canisters on my head 8 hours a day the soundstage of the k702 is amazing but as many have said they weren't blown away by -for the lack of bass I disagree, I heard and felt a lot of bass, my problem with the 702s is how sensitive they are, they need to be less "loud" loud to find the sweet spot without distortion , and smooth response, but they distort very quickly no matter what amp I use (O2, magni3, Fiio). I think the lack of bass felt by many is due to the open design which allows air to escape and to compensate we turn up the volume to pump the bass out to the clean mids/highs and the broad sound range fits. The 702 has, as the saying goes, an amazing pair of headphones and they deserve all the accolades they have, you just can't crank them up. open. They're on par with everything I've thrown at them so far, even tried intentionally doubling up a few amps to try and get them to distort to see how much they can handle and you'll get hearing damage , before you hear clipping provided your source is good (flac, 320mp3). I wish Monoprice had AKGs with some pointers on how to make them sound like part of the price, and I'm not sure if the "burn-in" myth plays a role, but if it does, then I do I can't imagine Monoprice retros sounding any better than they already sound! I wonder how small the change in headphones is the difference between the cost of hundreds of dollars. There are many models of headphones from many brands that are positioned as the company's flagship product and are priced accordingly, but contain the same driver as cheaper models and the only difference is in the case/build settings for changing the sound signature, so you end up paying hundreds more for a piece of foam added for the half-price model's ear cups to accentuate the bass/die Changing mids, etc. With these, however, it's as if the opposite happened, as if they just "downgraded" their more expensive models by replacing the ear pads with really inferior ear pads that improve the sound from night to day change. This all happens within hours of receiving it in the mail, so I'll update this review if anything changes: TL; DR1. Purchase Brainwavs XL leather or sheepskin replacement pads (REQUIRED)2. The cable is too long and NOT detachable, besides it is not fixed well, mods can be done.3. When 1 and 2 are complete you might have the best $30 headphones ever made, period.