Review on 🎧 Monolith M1060 Over Ear Planar Magnetic Headphones - Black/Wood: 106mm Driver, Open Back Design, Studio Comfort Ear Pads by Maria Campbell

I bought these late January 2018, this is an updated version with 2.5mm sockets instead of MMCX. I tried several planar headphones, Audeze LCD3, Opportunity PM-3, AudioQuest Nighthawk, HifiMan HE560 and none of them stuck with me. I don't think I've ever found a set that had the sound I liked at a price commensurate with its quality and that I wanted to spend time with rather than my Sennheiser HD800S headphones. When I came across the 1060 for under $300 I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it out. For the money they are beautifully made and presented. They didn't sound bad out of the box, but they definitely benefited from a 60 hour run. Now I have to say that this is just a very musical set of phones, warm and pleasant to listen to. I've compared them to Schiit Jotununheim's HD800S and it's no wonder they don't compare in terms of soundstage, clarity and high-fidelity, but for the price it's not what I'm looking for. Real use for me is as a range of phones to occasionally listen to music from my Fiio X7 Mkii and they are great for that. They're comfortable, a little heavy, but not to the extent that I notice. The pads creaked a bit on first use but settled in, becoming plush and providing a good, comfortable seal. I have no complaints about the cable, which is really flimsy but feels solid enough and doesn't feel like a mic. With a new 2.5mm headphone jack and a 3.5mm player jack, this cable is easy to swap out if you have problems. In terms of sound quality, they have a fairly wide soundstage but not much front-to-back depth. The bass is slightly emphasized and the highs roll off a bit. I've seen reviews complaining about the 5kHz spike and other issues but I don't notice it and for me these are NOT reference headphones, they have a lot of music to listen to and for me they're comfortable. the sound is musical, not harsh, not super harsh, but not too muddy either. A sound to just sit back and enjoy, maybe not with a "wow" but with a long smile. (Surprisingly, some people who don't notice the 5kHz problem ask for advice on how to find it so it doesn't bother them, weird!). They're pretty easy to operate from a stock X7 AM3, of course. amplifier module. I bought a balanced cable from Revain and tried this output on X7 with M1060s. Impossible to do an A/B comparison but I was under the impression that the balanced version provided a little more open highs but took away some of the bass and didn't help the warmth so I sent this cable back and returned happy the supplied SE cable. Finally, I leave the M1060 to quiet listening. If I want to listen more seriously, I'll still use my HD800S or Shure SE846 for the Fiio X7 Mkii. The fact that I'm happy to hear the M1060 once I've got used to the sound in TOTL and IEM headphones speaks volumes about the quality of the M1060, and for the price it's an absolute win.