DKims

Before Reading:
I'm not really a fan of using super colorful words because they really aren't helpful for people just starting out so I will try not to use them.
Everything here is MY IMPRESSION. This means that some things will not be the same for you. If there's one thing that I've learned from this hobby, it's that everyone is different so my impression will be different from yours. Also my bank account hates me for getting into this.
I'm pretty much just writing down whatever I think without paying too much attention to what others may think, kinda like Zeos I guess, but with less "it sounds like UUUUUUGH" - Zeos 2017, and a little more describing of how they sound.
Reviews that I write up will most likely not have pictures. I don't think it's worth the effort taking pictures through my phone and moving them to my computer (especially when you can just look them up online for products that have been out for a while) unless there are anomalies or things that I think I need to clarify.
I buy anything I feel like reviewing, just like pretty much every reviewer on this forum. I am not paid by any companies or sent any products for review. I'm just some guy that likes to share his opinion.
 
IMPORTANT:
It is crucial that you read this section. I mentioned this in my review of the Sennheiser HD598s and I will mention this in any write that I do. The scoring in the SOUND and OVERALL sections are relative. This means that the scores in other sections will all a regular 0-10 scale. An 8 is good and a 1 is garbage like in a normal scale. However in the sound and overall sections, an 8/10 in one review does not mean it is equivalent to an 8/10 in another review (a one is still garbage). This is to give me a wider range of ratings without making the scale extremely wide, which makes things hard to really compare (and a 40/100 does not look good even if I say that it is good) and this will prevent perfect scores since no headphone is perfect. This is largely to keep things in different price brackets somewhat away from each other. For example, the HD598s that I gave an 8/10 will definitely not be the same as or even close to a 9/10 that I give to higher end headphones. The 8/10 will most likely be equivalent to a 6/10 in the review for the higher end cans. This allows them to be comparative in some ways while also distinguishing the price differences. An 8/10 is still very good for any review, but just remember it is relative to the products in the same price bracket, so it is definitely not the same as an 8/10 for an LCD-2 type of review, which are about 6x more MSRP (an example. I don't own LCD-2s).
 
Review:
The SMSL M3. A budget DAC Amp combo that supposedly delivers great sound for a great price. At $83.99, it is clearly a direct competitor to the Schiit Fulla 2 and the Fiio E10k (although it sits in the middle of the two in terms of price), and is about $30 greater than the FX Audio DAC-x6. Unfortunately I do not own any of the other amps to compare, and the only other amp I have to compare the M3 to is the NFB 11.28, a significantly more expensive DAC Amp combo. With that said, there will be some comparisons in order to clarify and better illustrate some things (just no direct sound comparisons).
 
Specs:
Output levels:1.9Vrms
THD+N:0.0006%
Dynamic Range:112dB
SNR:107dB
CHANNEL separation:105dB
32Ω 108mW @THD=0.1%
64Ω 85mW @THD=0.1%
150Ω 49mW @THD=0.001%
300Ω 24mW @THD=0.001%
THD+N:0.0002%
SNR:100dB
24-bit 92khz over USB
24-bit 192khz over optical or COAX
 
I'm not completely sure about output impedance but I believe it is .1 ohms. I could be wrong because someone is saying that it is 10 ohms on another forum.
 
Looks and Build
The M3 comes packaged in a small square looking (but not, so don't try to force it back in the wrong way) white box with black text and designs, which looks very nice. Be careful when you take off the outer covering of the inner box since once you take it off, the M3 can fall right out if the box is upside down (the top of the box is open and only covered by the outer shell). Once you take the cover off you'll see, what is thankfully, soft cell foam. A little unnecessary for such a small and tightly packed product but it is definitely not a downside; better safe than sorry. The box also has the specs listed out on the side, which is convenient.
Under the M3 and its protective foam, you'll find a white micro usb to micro usb cable, a decently long (I think 6ft) white usb A to micro usb cable, and a 3.5mm to quarter inch adapter.
I'll get to why I italicized later, but it might be pretty obvious after reading this part.
The SMSL M3 has a metal housing, with a matte black finish and non-sharp edges (looking at you Schiit). At the front (from left), you'll see the power button, which has a white LED, a grid of more white LED indicators, a quarter inch jack (fun fact the headphone jack is the socket, not the plug, which I may be guilty for mixing in my HD598 review), and a volume pot. The volume pot is plastic and also finished with a matte black paint and ridged for grip.
On the back (from left), you'll see RCA outputs for both right and left channel, COAX input (IN 3), Optical (IN 2), micro USB (IN 1), and another micro USB (IN DC) for power.
In short, the M3 is very well built and looks great, without attracting finger prints unless you have oily or sweaty hands. The volume pot feels very nice to turn too.
 
The problem comes in with the WHITE CABLES. It's a very minor complaint and it's certainly not as bad as the blue, aquamarine-ish, transparent and thick USB cable that Audio-gd gives but why would you ship a BLACK DAC Amp with WHITE cables? The Audio-gd cable isn't even that bad since the amp is so big that it pretty much hides the cable if you put it at the back of your desk. The M3, on the other hand, is small so it definitely won't be at the back of any desk since the volume pot has to be reachable, and it doesn't cover the cable because it's small and not at the back of the desk. Again, a minor complaint, but extremely annoying at the same time.
 
The white LEDS on the other hand are not really minor. Yes, they are not blue, thank you, but they are tiny, bright, fuck you LEDS that don't even look dimmer when you look at it from above like with the NFB 11.28, which has a tiny, bright, fuck you blue LED but looks dimmer at an angle and it only has ONE. The M3 has one big tiny, bright, fuck you LED and another 3 other smaller tiny, bright, fuck you LEDs. I think you get the point now.
 
With that said, if you don't stare at them at night or you have brighter things near it like monitors, it really isn't too bad. Still very distracting and somewhat painful at times.
 
Looks and build: 9/10. Fucking LEDs
 
Features
Let's start from the front again.
The power button is actually more of a standby button. Holding the button turns on the DAC and Amp. Holding it again turn it off. Strangely SMSL decided that the standby should shut off both the amp and DAC, which makes Foobar freak out. If there is a later revision of this, the DAC should at least stay on.
The power button also has another function when turned on. Pressing it changes the input modes, leading into the next feature, the grid of LEDs. The first column indicates inputs 1, 2, and 3 (USB, Optical, COAX respectively). The next sets of LEDs indicate the sample rate. The sample rate changes automatically depending on the source. Initially it will start with 44khz when Windows starts but it will eventually go to what Windows outputs. One thing to remember is that the M3 is NOT COMPATIBLE WITH 16 BIT AUDIO - only 24 bit, which is fine, just set Windows and Foobar to output 24 bits.
The quarter inch jack is hardly a feature and honestly every amp should just use quarter inch except for the thin, portable amps. Although this is portable, it is clearly meant to be used as a desktop amp that can be connected and powered by a phone.
The volume knob for the pot feels like plastic ridges with a metal cap - not too sure and I can't confirm anymore since I sold it to the same friend who bought the HD598s from me (again, two days ago as of writing this review). I can say, though, that the volume pot feels very smooth and it is most likely logarithmic since sound levels are logarithmic.
 
Moving on to the back.
I've already listed the possible inputs and outputs so I won't be explaining those any further.
Things to note are that the RCA outputs are LINE OUT meaning they do not control the volume. The RCA outs are mostly for using the M3 as a pure DAC and connecting it to an external amp.
The optical and coax inputs are the only ways to get 24 bit 192khz because the USB input only goes up to 92khz, so if you have optical you might as well use it.
Here's the important part. The IN1 (USB) and IN DC (also USB) are completely different things. IN1 does data and power so if there is a USB connected to IN1, IN DC does not function. You do not get extra power from plugging in a second USB cable. As this suggests, IN DC only does DC power and is for using the amp with coax or optical inputs. If you are going to use coax or optical, you will most likely have to use IN DC and not IN1. I'm not sure if IN1 is even functional while optical and IN DC are plugged in - I don't have optical or coax because MSI decided that it would be smart to remove it for more random analog jacks that have bullshit features on them (Like Surround Sound). It doesn't matter since it's not like having all them of them would affect anything. The input selection will just ignore other inputs.
 
Interestingly the amp portion is more of a feature to the M3. It is not even listed under the amp portion on their website, only under DACs. It's also always on high gain, as there is no gain switch.
 
DOES NOT WORK WITH APPLE PRODUCTS. Don't ask why, that's just how its made. I guess it's the plug and play aspect of it, since a lot of plug and play products seem to be like this.
 
Features: 9/10. For this price it's pretty good but a gain switch would've been nice to have rather than the array of LEDs. While they are convenient and look cool, a gain switch would make these better for IEMs.
 
What Can It Drive?
Unfortunately I only have (had, sold my HD598s around two days before the writing of this review) two headphones to vouch for. People have reported that they can drive HD650s to decent levels because they are somewhat sensitive headphones.
What I can say, though, is that these surprised me quite a bit. My usual listening levels are around 80db for any loud music and 60db for classical music. Unsurprisingly, these can drive HD598s easily and can reach 85db at around 9-10 o'clock depending on the track. However, the real kicker is that these can get HE560s to 86db max (from my measurements) and that was honestly too loud for me anyway. At my normal listening volumes, I was anywhere between 11 to 2 o'clock on the volume pot, which didn't give it much headroom until max since the dial can only turn to 5 o'clock. I am certain that if these can drive HE560s, anything else that is more efficient will be driven properly by this amp.
 
Drive: 7/10. It can drive my HE560s to reasonable levels but I cannot say anything for high impedance headphones or more inefficient ones but I'm pretty sure the more inefficient planars would not get passed 70db. That said, pretty damn good.
 
Sound
So, it can drive HE560s to comfortable and satisfying listening levels (unless you're a fiend and listen to music at 90db), but does it drive them properly?
 
Let's start with the HD598s first.
I mentioned in my HD598 review that these do in fact make them sound better, and a noticeable yet somewhat subtle difference from on board audio. The difference wasn't too noticeable at first but going back to on board, I could immediately tell the difference.
Compared to on board, the bass was more controlled, detailed and not overrunning the mids. In general, the bass was very clean. Mids had a lot of vocal clarity and were generally brought out more and highs were much clearer and less veiled on the 598s.
With the HD598s already being mid centric and bass light, it was a little annoying to have the bass pulled back slightly. It was more pleasant to have them controlled and not muddy, but the HD598s were already known for having less bass than other headphones, so that put me off a little. There wasn't any impact in sub bass but that was because of the headphones and not the amp itself.
Mids were absolutely magical on this combo and gave me the chills everytime (listen to Walkure from Macross Delta for mid centric music, they are amazing).
The highs that were veiled were also brought back, but without the sibilance, so they still had less highs than other cans but they were definitely better than the on board audio.
Sound stage was noticeably wider than on board and imaging/positional audio was slightly improved but not by much. The HD598s are not exactly great at positional audio from my experience.
 
HD598 combo: 7/10. Kinda lifeless in songs that are mastered that way, but I don't fault the amp for that. It will really depend on the track.
 
Although the bass was pulled back and highs were brought out, this amp is actually slightly warmer than what I would consider neutral. It's just that the on-board was a cluster fuck of garbage pulled through Realtek's CEO's ass and passed right into MSI's CEO's hands who just smashed it all together then went about his day without washing his hands of the disgusting material. All of which made the M3 sound brighter/neutral. Some compared this to the Fulla 2 and Magni Modi combo (for some reason) and stated that both were brighter/neutral compared to the M3. The M3 is stated, for the most part, to be more detailed than the E10k.
 
Now for the HE560s.
This is going to be difficult to describe without direct comparisons to my NFB 11 and reviewing the HE560s at the same time (which I haven't written yet so I'd rather not say too much), but I will try my best.
I honestly did not think that this was a bad combo in anyway. The SMSL M3 was surprisingly engaging and nothing sounded thin or tinny. With the HE560, the sound was slightly (like very slightly) warm with bass having impact and the low rumbles in electronic music was very fun to listen to. Mids were still very clear and distinct and highs were clearly more present than the HD598s which was somewhat fatiguing, but that is the fault of the headphones and not the amp. It is not NFB 11 in terms of highs, since those are ear rape with highs and this pair of cans.
That being said, it was clear to me, even without having listened to higher end amps before the NFB 11, the M3 struggled with bass extension and even some bass detail. There were times that the bass was not as clear or the grungy-ness was too amplified or not there. Bass control was clearly a problem.
In any  tracks with somewhat louder bass, the bass almost always had the rumble and punch to it, which was fun to listen to, but it was almost always there (which will be a turn off for some people in certain tracks). It did not overflow into the mids and did not detract from the music (in fact I think I prefer this).
With classical music, I wasn't blown away by this combo. It wasn't bad - clarity was still fine - but the highs (while not veiled) didn't have the sparkle that I wanted to hear from a violin or piano (although it was great for piccolo, flutes and high octave clarinets because no ear rape and fuck piccolo players). This was strange but I'm guessing it was due to the recordings and the amp not being super neutral). It was certainly better than the highs of the HD598s IMO.
I don't want make a direct comparison with the NFB 11 so I will leave it there.
 
HE560 combo: 7.5/10. It was definitely fun to listen to this combo but bass in heavy bass or low level bass tracks, while not thin sounding, had clear control issues. Some will be able to tell (although anyone who hasn't listened to anything more than Beats or Streets by 50 won't because they don't know much better), and most audiophiles will pick up on this. I did enjoy the M3 more than the NFB 11 in some of the bass light or mid heavy tracks because it was more engaging, which is a huge plus.
 
I saw one report that there is channel imbalance at lower positions on the volume pot. I looked around for similar posts and could not find any. While I do not have IEMs to test this and really no longer have the amp on me, I can say that I did not hear any channel imbalance with either of the headphones I tested. Noise could not be heard with both headphones either with the volume pot maxed out. I would be wary about the imbalance and noise with IEMs if you have them (will have an update once I get earbuds or IEMs).
 
Overall
If you're on a tight budget and you don't plan on buying planars that are more inefficient than the HE560 (HE400i and HE400s are less sensitive and may be better with the M3) or don't plan on buying planars at all, this is definitely a good budget option. It's compact enough to be taken around, has a quarter inch jack, good build, looks, and features. It even sounds pretty good and is, in my opinion, more engaging and fun, at times, than the more neutral NFB 11 (not all the time but I'll get into that in my NFB 11.28 review, which will not be out until I finish the HE560 review, which will most likely not be out until I get my Ori pads from Massdrop, which are estimated to ship on October 31, so not for a while). I would definitely take this over the E10k, since the E10k doesn't really have as many features (the bass boost is pretty much unusable) and the M3 just sounds more detailed in the lows. I cannot say anything about the Fulla 2 personally since I have never heard it, but I'm sure there is a comparison somewhere online. I hope that in later revisions, and there better be some, the LEDs are less fuck you and more "here's some info you might want to actually look at without hurting your eyes" (keep them white though, just dimmer), the DAC isn't shut off  when in standby, and a high low gain switch is added. Highly recommended at this price (especially for dynamic headphones), and even more if you can get one for cheaper.
 
Overall: 8.5/10. It does what it says and I really enjoyed listening to music through this DAC Amp combo.
 
This review is subject to change. Not in opinion but in content. I will add an IEM section, although the IEMs are cheap MEE Audio instead of their more expensive line, since I don't really have earbuds or IEMs. They're not coming in for a while because I ordered them off Massdrop. Some of the wording may be edited as well since I wrote this at 4AM.
 

Before Reading:
I'm not really a fan of using super colorful words because they really aren't helpful for people just starting out so I will try not to use them.
Everything here is MY IMPRESSION. This means that some things will not be the same for you. If there's one thing that I've learned from this hobby, it's that everyone is different so my impression will be different from yours. Also my bank account hates me for getting into this.
I'm pretty much just writing down whatever I think without paying too much attention to what others may think, kinda like Zeos I guess, but with less "it sounds like UUUUUUGH" - Zeos 2017, and a little more describing of how they sound.
Reviews that I write up will most likely not have pictures. I don't think it's worth the effort taking pictures through my phone and moving them to my computer (especially when you can just look them up online for products that have been out for a while) unless there are anomalies or things that I think I need to clarify.
I buy anything I feel like reviewing, just like pretty much every reviewer on this forum. I am not paid by any companies or sent any products for review. I'm just some guy that likes to share his opinion.
 
IMPORTANT:
It is crucial that you read this section. I mentioned this in my review of the Sennheiser HD598s and I will mention this in any write that I do. The scoring in the SOUND and OVERALL sections are relative. This means that the scores in other sections will all a regular 0-10 scale. An 8 is good and a 1 is garbage like in a normal scale. However in the sound and overall sections, an 8/10 in one review does not mean it is equivalent to an 8/10 in another review (a one is still garbage). This is to give me a wider range of ratings without making the scale extremely wide, which makes things hard to really compare (and a 40/100 does not look good even if I say that it is good) and this will prevent perfect scores since no headphone is perfect. This is largely to keep things in different price brackets somewhat away from each other. For example, the HD598s that I gave an 8/10 will definitely not be the same as or even close to a 9/10 that I give to higher end headphones. The 8/10 will most likely be equivalent to a 6/10 in the review for the higher end cans. This allows them to be comparative in some ways while also distinguishing the price differences. An 8/10 is still very good for any review, but just remember it is relative to the products in the same price bracket, so it is definitely not the same as an 8/10 for an LCD-2 type of review, which are about 6x more MSRP (an example. I don't own LCD-2s).
 
Review:
The SMSL M3. A budget DAC Amp combo that supposedly delivers great sound for a great price. At $83.99, it is clearly a direct competitor to the Schiit Fulla 2 and the Fiio E10k (although it sits in the middle of the two in terms of price), and is about $30 greater than the FX Audio DAC-x6. Unfortunately I do not own any of the other amps to compare, and the only other amp I have to compare the M3 to is the NFB 11.28, a significantly more expensive DAC Amp combo. With that said, there will be some comparisons in order to clarify and better illustrate some things (just no direct sound comparisons).
 
Specs:
Output levels:1.9Vrms
THD+N:0.0006%
Dynamic Range:112dB
SNR:107dB
CHANNEL separation:105dB
32Ω 108mW @THD=0.1%
64Ω 85mW @THD=0.1%
150Ω 49mW @THD=0.001%
300Ω 24mW @THD=0.001%
THD+N:0.0002%
SNR:100dB
24-bit 92khz over USB
24-bit 192khz over optical or COAX
 
I'm not completely sure about output impedance but I believe it is .1 ohms. I could be wrong because someone is saying that it is 10 ohms on another forum.
 
Looks and Build
The M3 comes packaged in a small square looking (but not, so don't try to force it back in the wrong way) white box with black text and designs, which looks very nice. Be careful when you take off the outer covering of the inner box since once you take it off, the M3 can fall right out if the box is upside down (the top of the box is open and only covered by the outer shell). Once you take the cover off you'll see, what is thankfully, soft cell foam. A little unnecessary for such a small and tightly packed product but it is definitely not a downside; better safe than sorry. The box also has the specs listed out on the side, which is convenient.
Under the M3 and its protective foam, you'll find a white micro usb to micro usb cable, a decently long (I think 6ft) white usb A to micro usb cable, and a 3.5mm to quarter inch adapter.
I'll get to why I italicized later, but it might be pretty obvious after reading this part.
The SMSL M3 has a metal housing, with a matte black finish and non-sharp edges (looking at you Schiit). At the front (from left), you'll see the power button, which has a white LED, a grid of more white LED indicators, a quarter inch jack (fun fact the headphone jack is the socket, not the plug, which I may be guilty for mixing in my HD598 review), and a volume pot. The volume pot is plastic and also finished with a matte black paint and ridged for grip.
On the back (from left), you'll see RCA outputs for both right and left channel, COAX input (IN 3), Optical (IN 2), micro USB (IN 1), and another micro USB (IN DC) for power.
In short, the M3 is very well built and looks great, without attracting finger prints unless you have oily or sweaty hands. The volume pot feels very nice to turn too.
 
The problem comes in with the WHITE CABLES. It's a very minor complaint and it's certainly not as bad as the blue, aquamarine-ish, transparent and thick USB cable that Audio-gd gives but why would you ship a BLACK DAC Amp with WHITE cables? The Audio-gd cable isn't even that bad since the amp is so big that it pretty much hides the cable if you put it at the back of your desk. The M3, on the other hand, is small so it definitely won't be at the back of any desk since the volume pot has to be reachable, and it doesn't cover the cable because it's small and not at the back of the desk. Again, a minor complaint, but extremely annoying at the same time.
 
The white LEDS on the other hand are not really minor. Yes, they are not blue, thank you, but they are tiny, bright, fuck you LEDS that don't even look dimmer when you look at it from above like with the NFB 11.28, which has a tiny, bright, fuck you blue LED but looks dimmer at an angle and it only has ONE. The M3 has one big tiny, bright, fuck you LED and another 3 other smaller tiny, bright, fuck you LEDs. I think you get the point now.
 
With that said, if you don't stare at them at night or you have brighter things near it like monitors, it really isn't too bad. Still very distracting and somewhat painful at times.
 
Looks and build: 9/10. Fucking LEDs
 
Features
Let's start from the front again.
The power button is actually more of a standby button. Holding the button turns on the DAC and Amp. Holding it again turn it off. Strangely SMSL decided that the standby should shut off both the amp and DAC, which makes Foobar freak out. If there is a later revision of this, the DAC should at least stay on.
The power button also has another function when turned on. Pressing it changes the input modes, leading into the next feature, the grid of LEDs. The first column indicates inputs 1, 2, and 3 (USB, Optical, COAX respectively). The next sets of LEDs indicate the sample rate. The sample rate changes automatically depending on the source. Initially it will start with 44khz when Windows starts but it will eventually go to what Windows outputs. One thing to remember is that the M3 is NOT COMPATIBLE WITH 16 BIT AUDIO - only 24 bit, which is fine, just set Windows and Foobar to output 24 bits.
The quarter inch jack is hardly a feature and honestly every amp should just use quarter inch except for the thin, portable amps. Although this is portable, it is clearly meant to be used as a desktop amp that can be connected and powered by a phone.
The volume knob for the pot feels like plastic ridges with a metal cap - not too sure and I can't confirm anymore since I sold it to the same friend who bought the HD598s from me (again, two days ago as of writing this review). I can say, though, that the volume pot feels very smooth and it is most likely logarithmic since sound levels are logarithmic.
 
Moving on to the back.
I've already listed the possible inputs and outputs so I won't be explaining those any further.
Things to note are that the RCA outputs are LINE OUT meaning they do not control the volume. The RCA outs are mostly for using the M3 as a pure DAC and connecting it to an external amp.
The optical and coax inputs are the only ways to get 24 bit 192khz because the USB input only goes up to 92khz, so if you have optical you might as well use it.
Here's the important part. The IN1 (USB) and IN DC (also USB) are completely different things. IN1 does data and power so if there is a USB connected to IN1, IN DC does not function. You do not get extra power from plugging in a second USB cable. As this suggests, IN DC only does DC power and is for using the amp with coax or optical inputs. If you are going to use coax or optical, you will most likely have to use IN DC and not IN1. I'm not sure if IN1 is even functional while optical and IN DC are plugged in - I don't have optical or coax because MSI decided that it would be smart to remove it for more random analog jacks that have bullshit features on them (Like Surround Sound). It doesn't matter since it's not like having all them of them would affect anything. The input selection will just ignore other inputs.
 
Interestingly the amp portion is more of a feature to the M3. It is not even listed under the amp portion on their website, only under DACs. It's also always on high gain, as there is no gain switch.
 
DOES NOT WORK WITH APPLE PRODUCTS. Don't ask why, that's just how its made. I guess it's the plug and play aspect of it, since a lot of plug and play products seem to be like this.
 
Features: 9/10. For this price it's pretty good but a gain switch would've been nice to have rather than the array of LEDs. While they are convenient and look cool, a gain switch would make these better for IEMs.
 
What Can It Drive?
Unfortunately I only have (had, sold my HD598s around two days before the writing of this review) two headphones to vouch for. People have reported that they can drive HD650s to decent levels because they are somewhat sensitive headphones.
What I can say, though, is that these surprised me quite a bit. My usual listening levels are around 80db for any loud music and 60db for classical music. Unsurprisingly, these can drive HD598s easily and can reach 85db at around 9-10 o'clock depending on the track. However, the real kicker is that these can get HE560s to 86db max (from my measurements) and that was honestly too loud for me anyway. At my normal listening volumes, I was anywhere between 11 to 2 o'clock on the volume pot, which didn't give it much headroom until max since the dial can only turn to 5 o'clock. I am certain that if these can drive HE560s, anything else that is more efficient will be driven properly by this amp.
 
Drive: 7/10. It can drive my HE560s to reasonable levels but I cannot say anything for high impedance headphones or more inefficient ones but I'm pretty sure the more inefficient planars would not get passed 70db. That said, pretty damn good.
 
Sound
So, it can drive HE560s to comfortable and satisfying listening levels (unless you're a fiend and listen to music at 90db), but does it drive them properly?
 
Let's start with the HD598s first.
I mentioned in my HD598 review that these do in fact make them sound better, and a noticeable yet somewhat subtle difference from on board audio. The difference wasn't too noticeable at first but going back to on board, I could immediately tell the difference.
Compared to on board, the bass was more controlled, detailed and not overrunning the mids. In general, the bass was very clean. Mids had a lot of vocal clarity and were generally brought out more and highs were much clearer and less veiled on the 598s.
With the HD598s already being mid centric and bass light, it was a little annoying to have the bass pulled back slightly. It was more pleasant to have them controlled and not muddy, but the HD598s were already known for having less bass than other headphones, so that put me off a little. There wasn't any impact in sub bass but that was because of the headphones and not the amp itself.
Mids were absolutely magical on this combo and gave me the chills everytime (listen to Walkure from Macross Delta for mid centric music, they are amazing).
The highs that were veiled were also brought back, but without the sibilance, so they still had less highs than other cans but they were definitely better than the on board audio.
Sound stage was noticeably wider than on board and imaging/positional audio was slightly improved but not by much. The HD598s are not exactly great at positional audio from my experience.
 
HD598 combo: 7/10. Kinda lifeless in songs that are mastered that way, but I don't fault the amp for that. It will really depend on the track.
 
Although the bass was pulled back and highs were brought out, this amp is actually slightly warmer than what I would consider neutral. It's just that the on-board was a cluster fuck of garbage pulled through Realtek's CEO's ass and passed right into MSI's CEO's hands who just smashed it all together then went about his day without washing his hands of the disgusting material. All of which made the M3 sound brighter/neutral. Some compared this to the Fulla 2 and Magni Modi combo (for some reason) and stated that both were brighter/neutral compared to the M3. The M3 is stated, for the most part, to be more detailed than the E10k.
 
Now for the HE560s.
This is going to be difficult to describe without direct comparisons to my NFB 11 and reviewing the HE560s at the same time (which I haven't written yet so I'd rather not say too much), but I will try my best.
I honestly did not think that this was a bad combo in anyway. The SMSL M3 was surprisingly engaging and nothing sounded thin or tinny. With the HE560, the sound was slightly (like very slightly) warm with bass having impact and the low rumbles in electronic music was very fun to listen to. Mids were still very clear and distinct and highs were clearly more present than the HD598s which was somewhat fatiguing, but that is the fault of the headphones and not the amp. It is not NFB 11 in terms of highs, since those are ear rape with highs and this pair of cans.
That being said, it was clear to me, even without having listened to higher end amps before the NFB 11, the M3 struggled with bass extension and even some bass detail. There were times that the bass was not as clear or the grungy-ness was too amplified or not there. Bass control was clearly a problem.
In any  tracks with somewhat louder bass, the bass almost always had the rumble and punch to it, which was fun to listen to, but it was almost always there (which will be a turn off for some people in certain tracks). It did not overflow into the mids and did not detract from the music (in fact I think I prefer this).
With classical music, I wasn't blown away by this combo. It wasn't bad - clarity was still fine - but the highs (while not veiled) didn't have the sparkle that I wanted to hear from a violin or piano (although it was great for piccolo, flutes and high octave clarinets because no ear rape and fuck piccolo players). This was strange but I'm guessing it was due to the recordings and the amp not being super neutral). It was certainly better than the highs of the HD598s IMO.
I don't want make a direct comparison with the NFB 11 so I will leave it there.
 
HE560 combo: 7.5/10. It was definitely fun to listen to this combo but bass in heavy bass or low level bass tracks, while not thin sounding, had clear control issues. Some will be able to tell (although anyone who hasn't listened to anything more than Beats or Streets by 50 won't because they don't know much better), and most audiophiles will pick up on this. I did enjoy the M3 more than the NFB 11 in some of the bass light or mid heavy tracks because it was more engaging, which is a huge plus.
 
I saw one report that there is channel imbalance at lower positions on the volume pot. I looked around for similar posts and could not find any. While I do not have IEMs to test this and really no longer have the amp on me, I can say that I did not hear any channel imbalance with either of the headphones I tested. Noise could not be heard with both headphones either with the volume pot maxed out. I would be wary about the imbalance and noise with IEMs if you have them (will have an update once I get earbuds or IEMs).
 
Overall
If you're on a tight budget and you don't plan on buying planars that are more inefficient than the HE560 (HE400i and HE400s are less sensitive and may be better with the M3) or don't plan on buying planars at all, this is definitely a good budget option. It's compact enough to be taken around, has a quarter inch jack, good build, looks, and features. It even sounds pretty good and is, in my opinion, more engaging and fun, at times, than the more neutral NFB 11 (not all the time but I'll get into that in my NFB 11.28 review, which will not be out until I finish the HE560 review, which will most likely not be out until I get my Ori pads from Massdrop, which are estimated to ship on October 31, so not for a while). I would definitely take this over the E10k, since the E10k doesn't really have as many features (the bass boost is pretty much unusable) and the M3 just sounds more detailed in the lows. I cannot say anything about the Fulla 2 personally since I have never heard it, but I'm sure there is a comparison somewhere online. I hope that in later revisions, and there better be some, the LEDs are less fuck you and more "here's some info you might want to actually look at without hurting your eyes" (keep them white though, just dimmer), the DAC isn't shut off  when in standby, and a high low gain switch is added. Highly recommended at this price (especially for dynamic headphones), and even more if you can get one for cheaper.
 
Overall: 8.5/10. It does what it says and I really enjoyed listening to music through this DAC Amp combo.
 
This review is subject to change. Not in opinion but in content. I will add an IEM section, although the IEMs are cheap MEE Audio instead of their more expensive line, since I don't really have earbuds or IEMs. They're not coming in for a while because I ordered them off Massdrop. Some of the wording may be edited as well since I wrote this at 4AM.
 

Before Reading:
I'm not really a fan of using super colorful words because they really aren't helpful for people just starting out so I will try not to use them.
Everything here is MY IMPRESSION. This means that some things will not be the same for you. If there's one thing that I've learned from this hobby, it's that everyone is different so my impression will be different from yours. Also my bank account hates me for getting into this.
I'm pretty much just writing down whatever I think without paying too much attention to what others may think, kinda like Zeos I guess, but with less "it sounds like UUUUUUGH" - Zeos 2017, and a little more describing of how they sound.
Reviews that I write up will most likely not have pictures. I don't think it's worth the effort taking pictures through my phone and moving them to my computer (especially when you can just look them up online for products that have been out for a while) unless there are anomalies or things that I think I need to clarify.
I buy anything I feel like reviewing, just like pretty much every reviewer on this forum. I am not paid by any companies or sent any products for review. I'm just some guy that likes to share his opinion.
 
IMPORTANT:
It is crucial that you read this section. I mentioned this in my review of the Sennheiser HD598s and I will mention this in any write that I do. The scoring in the SOUND and OVERALL sections are relative. This means that the scores in other sections will all a regular 0-10 scale. An 8 is good and a 1 is garbage like in a normal scale. However in the sound and overall sections, an 8/10 in one review does not mean it is equivalent to an 8/10 in another review (a one is still garbage). This is to give me a wider range of ratings without making the scale extremely wide, which makes things hard to really compare (and a 40/100 does not look good even if I say that it is good) and this will prevent perfect scores since no headphone is perfect. This is largely to keep things in different price brackets somewhat away from each other. For example, the HD598s that I gave an 8/10 will definitely not be the same as or even close to a 9/10 that I give to higher end headphones. The 8/10 will most likely be equivalent to a 6/10 in the review for the higher end cans. This allows them to be comparative in some ways while also distinguishing the price differences. An 8/10 is still very good for any review, but just remember it is relative to the products in the same price bracket, so it is definitely not the same as an 8/10 for an LCD-2 type of review, which are about 6x more MSRP (an example. I don't own LCD-2s).
 
Review:
The SMSL M3. A budget DAC Amp combo that supposedly delivers great sound for a great price. At $83.99, it is clearly a direct competitor to the Schiit Fulla 2 and the Fiio E10k (although it sits in the middle of the two in terms of price), and is about $30 greater than the FX Audio DAC-x6. Unfortunately I do not own any of the other amps to compare, and the only other amp I have to compare the M3 to is the NFB 11.28, a significantly more expensive DAC Amp combo. With that said, there will be some comparisons in order to clarify and better illustrate some things (just no direct sound comparisons).
 
Specs:
Output levels:1.9Vrms
THD+N:0.0006%
Dynamic Range:112dB
SNR:107dB
CHANNEL separation:105dB
32Ω 108mW @THD=0.1%
64Ω 85mW @THD=0.1%
150Ω 49mW @THD=0.001%
300Ω 24mW @THD=0.001%
THD+N:0.0002%
SNR:100dB
24-bit 92khz over USB
24-bit 192khz over optical or COAX
 
I'm not completely sure about output impedance but I believe it is .1 ohms. I could be wrong because someone is saying that it is 10 ohms on another forum.
 
Looks and Build
The M3 comes packaged in a small square looking (but not, so don't try to force it back in the wrong way) white box with black text and designs, which looks very nice. Be careful when you take off the outer covering of the inner box since once you take it off, the M3 can fall right out if the box is upside down (the top of the box is open and only covered by the outer shell). Once you take the cover off you'll see, what is thankfully, soft cell foam. A little unnecessary for such a small and tightly packed product but it is definitely not a downside; better safe than sorry. The box also has the specs listed out on the side, which is convenient.
Under the M3 and its protective foam, you'll find a white micro usb to micro usb cable, a decently long (I think 6ft) white usb A to micro usb cable, and a 3.5mm to quarter inch adapter.
I'll get to why I italicized later, but it might be pretty obvious after reading this part.
The SMSL M3 has a metal housing, with a matte black finish and non-sharp edges (looking at you Schiit). At the front (from left), you'll see the power button, which has a white LED, a grid of more white LED indicators, a quarter inch jack (fun fact the headphone jack is the socket, not the plug, which I may be guilty for mixing in my HD598 review), and a volume pot. The volume pot is plastic and also finished with a matte black paint and ridged for grip.
On the back (from left), you'll see RCA outputs for both right and left channel, COAX input (IN 3), Optical (IN 2), micro USB (IN 1), and another micro USB (IN DC) for power.
In short, the M3 is very well built and looks great, without attracting finger prints unless you have oily or sweaty hands. The volume pot feels very nice to turn too.
 
The problem comes in with the WHITE CABLES. It's a very minor complaint and it's certainly not as bad as the blue, aquamarine-ish, transparent and thick USB cable that Audio-gd gives but why would you ship a BLACK DAC Amp with WHITE cables? The Audio-gd cable isn't even that bad since the amp is so big that it pretty much hides the cable if you put it at the back of your desk. The M3, on the other hand, is small so it definitely won't be at the back of any desk since the volume pot has to be reachable, and it doesn't cover the cable because it's small and not at the back of the desk. Again, a minor complaint, but extremely annoying at the same time.
 
The white LEDS on the other hand are not really minor. Yes, they are not blue, thank you, but they are tiny, bright, fuck you LEDS that don't even look dimmer when you look at it from above like with the NFB 11.28, which has a tiny, bright, fuck you blue LED but looks dimmer at an angle and it only has ONE. The M3 has one big tiny, bright, fuck you LED and another 3 other smaller tiny, bright, fuck you LEDs. I think you get the point now.
 
With that said, if you don't stare at them at night or you have brighter things near it like monitors, it really isn't too bad. Still very distracting and somewhat painful at times.
 
Looks and build: 9/10. Fucking LEDs
 
Features
Let's start from the front again.
The power button is actually more of a standby button. Holding the button turns on the DAC and Amp. Holding it again turn it off. Strangely SMSL decided that the standby should shut off both the amp and DAC, which makes Foobar freak out. If there is a later revision of this, the DAC should at least stay on.
The power button also has another function when turned on. Pressing it changes the input modes, leading into the next feature, the grid of LEDs. The first column indicates inputs 1, 2, and 3 (USB, Optical, COAX respectively). The next sets of LEDs indicate the sample rate. The sample rate changes automatically depending on the source. Initially it will start with 44khz when Windows starts but it will eventually go to what Windows outputs. One thing to remember is that the M3 is NOT COMPATIBLE WITH 16 BIT AUDIO - only 24 bit, which is fine, just set Windows and Foobar to output 24 bits.
The quarter inch jack is hardly a feature and honestly every amp should just use quarter inch except for the thin, portable amps. Although this is portable, it is clearly meant to be used as a desktop amp that can be connected and powered by a phone.
The volume knob for the pot feels like plastic ridges with a metal cap - not too sure and I can't confirm anymore since I sold it to the same friend who bought the HD598s from me (again, two days ago as of writing this review). I can say, though, that the volume pot feels very smooth and it is most likely logarithmic since sound levels are logarithmic.
 
Moving on to the back.
I've already listed the possible inputs and outputs so I won't be explaining those any further.
Things to note are that the RCA outputs are LINE OUT meaning they do not control the volume. The RCA outs are mostly for using the M3 as a pure DAC and connecting it to an external amp.
The optical and coax inputs are the only ways to get 24 bit 192khz because the USB input only goes up to 92khz, so if you have optical you might as well use it.
Here's the important part. The IN1 (USB) and IN DC (also USB) are completely different things. IN1 does data and power so if there is a USB connected to IN1, IN DC does not function. You do not get extra power from plugging in a second USB cable. As this suggests, IN DC only does DC power and is for using the amp with coax or optical inputs. If you are going to use coax or optical, you will most likely have to use IN DC and not IN1. I'm not sure if IN1 is even functional while optical and IN DC are plugged in - I don't have optical or coax because MSI decided that it would be smart to remove it for more random analog jacks that have bullshit features on them (Like Surround Sound). It doesn't matter since it's not like having all them of them would affect anything. The input selection will just ignore other inputs.
 
Interestingly the amp portion is more of a feature to the M3. It is not even listed under the amp portion on their website, only under DACs. It's also always on high gain, as there is no gain switch.
 
DOES NOT WORK WITH APPLE PRODUCTS. Don't ask why, that's just how its made. I guess it's the plug and play aspect of it, since a lot of plug and play products seem to be like this.
 
Features: 9/10. For this price it's pretty good but a gain switch would've been nice to have rather than the array of LEDs. While they are convenient and look cool, a gain switch would make these better for IEMs.
 
What Can It Drive?
Unfortunately I only have (had, sold my HD598s around two days before the writing of this review) two headphones to vouch for. People have reported that they can drive HD650s to decent levels because they are somewhat sensitive headphones.
What I can say, though, is that these surprised me quite a bit. My usual listening levels are around 80db for any loud music and 60db for classical music. Unsurprisingly, these can drive HD598s easily and can reach 85db at around 9-10 o'clock depending on the track. However, the real kicker is that these can get HE560s to 86db max (from my measurements) and that was honestly too loud for me anyway. At my normal listening volumes, I was anywhere between 11 to 2 o'clock on the volume pot, which didn't give it much headroom until max since the dial can only turn to 5 o'clock. I am certain that if these can drive HE560s, anything else that is more efficient will be driven properly by this amp.
 
Drive: 7/10. It can drive my HE560s to reasonable levels but I cannot say anything for high impedance headphones or more inefficient ones but I'm pretty sure the more inefficient planars would not get passed 70db. That said, pretty damn good.
 
Sound
So, it can drive HE560s to comfortable and satisfying listening levels (unless you're a fiend and listen to music at 90db), but does it drive them properly?
 
Let's start with the HD598s first.
I mentioned in my HD598 review that these do in fact make them sound better, and a noticeable yet somewhat subtle difference from on board audio. The difference wasn't too noticeable at first but going back to on board, I could immediately tell the difference.
Compared to on board, the bass was more controlled, detailed and not overrunning the mids. In general, the bass was very clean. Mids had a lot of vocal clarity and were generally brought out more and highs were much clearer and less veiled on the 598s.
With the HD598s already being mid centric and bass light, it was a little annoying to have the bass pulled back slightly. It was more pleasant to have them controlled and not muddy, but the HD598s were already known for having less bass than other headphones, so that put me off a little. There wasn't any impact in sub bass but that was because of the headphones and not the amp itself.
Mids were absolutely magical on this combo and gave me the chills everytime (listen to Walkure from Macross Delta for mid centric music, they are amazing).
The highs that were veiled were also brought back, but without the sibilance, so they still had less highs than other cans but they were definitely better than the on board audio.
Sound stage was noticeably wider than on board and imaging/positional audio was slightly improved but not by much. The HD598s are not exactly great at positional audio from my experience.
 
HD598 combo: 7/10. Kinda lifeless in songs that are mastered that way, but I don't fault the amp for that. It will really depend on the track.
 
Although the bass was pulled back and highs were brought out, this amp is actually slightly warmer than what I would consider neutral. It's just that the on-board was a cluster fuck of garbage pulled through Realtek's CEO's ass and passed right into MSI's CEO's hands who just smashed it all together then went about his day without washing his hands of the disgusting material. All of which made the M3 sound brighter/neutral. Some compared this to the Fulla 2 and Magni Modi combo (for some reason) and stated that both were brighter/neutral compared to the M3. The M3 is stated, for the most part, to be more detailed than the E10k.
 
Now for the HE560s.
This is going to be difficult to describe without direct comparisons to my NFB 11 and reviewing the HE560s at the same time (which I haven't written yet so I'd rather not say too much), but I will try my best.
I honestly did not think that this was a bad combo in anyway. The SMSL M3 was surprisingly engaging and nothing sounded thin or tinny. With the HE560, the sound was slightly (like very slightly) warm with bass having impact and the low rumbles in electronic music was very fun to listen to. Mids were still very clear and distinct and highs were clearly more present than the HD598s which was somewhat fatiguing, but that is the fault of the headphones and not the amp. It is not NFB 11 in terms of highs, since those are ear rape with highs and this pair of cans.
That being said, it was clear to me, even without having listened to higher end amps before the NFB 11, the M3 struggled with bass extension and even some bass detail. There were times that the bass was not as clear or the grungy-ness was too amplified or not there. Bass control was clearly a problem.
In any  tracks with somewhat louder bass, the bass almost always had the rumble and punch to it, which was fun to listen to, but it was almost always there (which will be a turn off for some people in certain tracks). It did not overflow into the mids and did not detract from the music (in fact I think I prefer this).
With classical music, I wasn't blown away by this combo. It wasn't bad - clarity was still fine - but the highs (while not veiled) didn't have the sparkle that I wanted to hear from a violin or piano (although it was great for piccolo, flutes and high octave clarinets because no ear rape and fuck piccolo players). This was strange but I'm guessing it was due to the recordings and the amp not being super neutral). It was certainly better than the highs of the HD598s IMO.
I don't want make a direct comparison with the NFB 11 so I will leave it there.
 
HE560 combo: 7.5/10. It was definitely fun to listen to this combo but bass in heavy bass or low level bass tracks, while not thin sounding, had clear control issues. Some will be able to tell (although anyone who hasn't listened to anything more than Beats or Streets by 50 won't because they don't know much better), and most audiophiles will pick up on this. I did enjoy the M3 more than the NFB 11 in some of the bass light or mid heavy tracks because it was more engaging, which is a huge plus.
 
I saw one report that there is channel imbalance at lower positions on the volume pot. I looked around for similar posts and could not find any. While I do not have IEMs to test this and really no longer have the amp on me, I can say that I did not hear any channel imbalance with either of the headphones I tested. Noise could not be heard with both headphones either with the volume pot maxed out. I would be wary about the imbalance and noise with IEMs if you have them (will have an update once I get earbuds or IEMs).
 
Overall
If you're on a tight budget and you don't plan on buying planars that are more inefficient than the HE560 (HE400i and HE400s are less sensitive and may be better with the M3) or don't plan on buying planars at all, this is definitely a good budget option. It's compact enough to be taken around, has a quarter inch jack, good build, looks, and features. It even sounds pretty good and is, in my opinion, more engaging and fun, at times, than the more neutral NFB 11 (not all the time but I'll get into that in my NFB 11.28 review, which will not be out until I finish the HE560 review, which will most likely not be out until I get my Ori pads from Massdrop, which are estimated to ship on October 31, so not for a while). I would definitely take this over the E10k, since the E10k doesn't really have as many features (the bass boost is pretty much unusable) and the M3 just sounds more detailed in the lows. I cannot say anything about the Fulla 2 personally since I have never heard it, but I'm sure there is a comparison somewhere online. I hope that in later revisions, and there better be some, the LEDs are less fuck you and more "here's some info you might want to actually look at without hurting your eyes" (keep them white though, just dimmer), the DAC isn't shut off  when in standby, and a high low gain switch is added. Highly recommended at this price (especially for dynamic headphones), and even more if you can get one for cheaper.
 
Overall: 8.5/10. It does what it says and I really enjoyed listening to music through this DAC Amp combo.
 
This review is subject to change. Not in opinion but in content. I will add an IEM section, although the IEMs are cheap MEE Audio instead of their more expensive line, since I don't really have earbuds or IEMs. They're not coming in for a while because I ordered them off Massdrop. Some of the wording may be edited as well since I wrote this at 4AM.
 

So a little while back, I decided that I wanted to buy a secondary pair of headphones to my HE560s. Being a college student who regularly uses the loud and crowded buses to get around the campus, I needed a decent closed pair of headphones to take around with me. After a few weeks of searching, I found the AKG K182 on Ebay that had a starting bid of $40. After losing multiple bids on the Audeze EL-8C, I decided to just go for this pair since no one seemed to really be that interested. I later found out that this pair is worth $100 so I think I got a bargain

So for $100 what do you get (or for $40 if you can find them)?

Build and Comfort:
 
In short, it's pretty good. The plastic seems thick and heavy duty, the headband and folding joints have a rubberized feel and coating on some parts that feel pretty good but I'm not sure why they went for that. The ear cups are a smooth, matte black plastic that feel solid and don't seem to scratch unless you intentionally pressed your keys against them.
 
The rubber cable is OK. It's definitely too long and there isn't a short cable included, which is weird since these were meant for on the go use. The cable isn't the straightest either and doesn't like to stay straight even after a bit of cable training. You can also hear the cable if it rubs on your shirt or zipper inside the left cup, which may not seem that bad, but you can hear it clearly and right passed the music you're listening to.
 
There are two downsides to the build and comfort, though: creaking and the earpads.

These creak quite a bit. I mean just pressing the headphones slightly made them creak and that sound goes straight into the cups so you can hear them clearly. This is a pretty big disappointment since I readjust them quite often while on the bus from all the moving around that I do while the bus is moving. This might not be a big deal for the people who will only use them indoors but it becomes a problem for people who want to use them on the go - just like they're meant to be used.

The earpads... oh god the pads. To be frank, they're not the worst. They could be M40X levels of bad, but they aren't. They seem durable enough to last a good while, and they aren't filled with hard foam. However, the pleather feels cheap (how did Hardware Canucks think that they were leather? If this is real leather, then this is the cheapest leather that I've ever seen) and they are deceptively shallow.

What does that mean?
They look pretty deep at first, but as soon as you put them on, you realize that they actually aren't. My ears were easily able to touch the driver (my ears aren't big either) and after about 30 minutes, my ears were in enough pain to just take them off and not wear them for a few hours. The opening is decently large and really can't be anymore than what it already is because of the size of the cup.
I don't fully blame the pads, though. I think that the driver is way too far out and should've been deeper in the cup and angled.
They're conveniently labeled L and R in a huge font so at least there's that.
 
The headband doesn't help either. The headband has a small and hard pad at the top that's just really uncomfortable. To be fair, it's much better than feeling the plastic of the headband but being better than a plastic mold isn't really anything to brag about. After about 30 minutes (again), I started to get a headache at the top of my head from the pad being uncomfortable.

The clamp isn't bad, it's actually fairly good. But that's really all I have to say about the comfort.
 
The isolation is pretty good - any sound in the headphone is kept inside pretty well (I was listening to them at around 70 dB) and noises from outside, other than the loud as fuck droning sound of the bus was kept out pretty well.

Build: 7/10. Creaks way too much and pads feel cheap. Cable also takes off points.
Comfort: 4/10. Can't really figure out why people are saying these are comfortable. Maybe they're coming from non-pad rolled M40s or on ear headphones?
 
Sound:
 
These are pretty easy to drive. I plugged them into my Audio-GD NFB 11.28 and only had to go up to 9 o'clock on low gain. My reference is the HE560s.

Let's get this out of the way. I don't like the sound. In any way. It is very thin sounding and muffled. Sound stage is non-existent, and imaging goes about as far as LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER.
They do improve in sound when put on an amp like the NFB 11 but that's really not a good thing since the NFB 11 is more than 3x the price of the headphones. You almost never want to spend more on the amp/DAC than the headphones themselves, especially budget options.
I also tried them on an SMSL X4 portable DAC/amp and they sounded decent there too, but compared to the NFB 11, it was pretty disappointing.
Even when put on an amp like the NFB 11, they don't sound great anyway. I'm having a hard time saying that they're even just OK at $100 or even $40, which is what I got them for.
 
The fact that the K182s are that sensitive to the amp that they are fed from is really disappointing for an on the go pair of headphones.

Treble: The treble sticks out way too much, which is partly why the sound is so thin.
 
Mid Treble: Muffled. All I have to say.
 
Mids: Thin and also muffled sounding. Decent for male vocals.
 
Bass and Sub-Bass: It's certainly there, but this is what really contributes to the headphones sounding thin. Bass drum kicks are extremely digital sounding, and again, thin. There's almost no sub bass to back it up with impact or bloom, so the bass just sound empty. Sometimes, on electronic music, it just sounds like a one-note fart. That's not exactly how it is obviously, but that was the first that came to mind.
 
These are extremely boring. The HE560s, which many people thought were boring and did not have enough bass (which is I think is ridiculous but to each their own since we're talking about headphones), were much more enjoyable to listen to. The K182s were just not full sounding, it was almost as if there were a bunch of one note sounds playing instead of all of them meshing together. That also contributed somewhat to the muffled sound.
 
It's not even like these were really detailed and "revealing" so that they're "great for studio use." Overall the K182s were pretty forgiving of many of the tracks that I had that were poorly mastered. Not much of anything was revealed and bass details felt lost.

Without the NFB 11 or even the X4, everything was just flat out worse.
 
Sound: 5/10. At least they aren't Beats or the crappy old Sony's from a few years ago.
 
New Pads:
 
So recently (at the time of writing), my HE560s had to be replaced (again. Seriously starting to question the driver life span) so I returned them and obviously with the stock pads. Then I got the idea of putting on the ZMF Ori pads that were on the 560s on the K182s. This is the result:
 
They look pretty ridiculous since the pads aren't meant for cups this small. Although the since the cups look like they're layered, it doesn't look all the bad.

Overall, there was improvement to everything. Especially comfort. My ears no longer were touching the driver and I was able to wear these for a longer period of time (but not like hours longer, maybe about an hour and a half longer, which is much better than before). The headache at the top of my head is still there after some time.
 
Sound was also improved overall, but not enough in my opinion. There were some downsides to these pads too.

Treble: SSSSSSSSSSibilance. The treble was pulled back slightly but, high hats were painful to listen to. It was bad enough to make me change my foobar layout to have an EQ even though I never use EQ (I like to listen to headphones and music the way they were meant to be). I lowered the 14kHz range about 4dB. And the S's. THE S's OH GOD THE "SSSSSSSSSSS" IT HURTS.
 
Mids: Since the treble was pulled back a bit, the mids were much clearer and did not seem as pulled back. But again, there was some added sibilance, making the higher notes for female vocals shouty.

Bass: Much better than before but still not there as much as it should be unless the track had been mastered to have stupid amounts of bass.

Sound stage is somewhat there now and imaging is still LEFT, RIGHT, and CENTER.
 
Overall, improvement is there, but the sound is still thin and somewhat muffled and there is added sibilance. Some thin felt around the insides of the pads should fix this but not worth the fix in my opinion.

The ZMF Ori pads  are $60 without shipping. That makes these headphones around $160 if you add these pads and you still have to consider adding a felt ring on the inner parts of the pads to counter the sibilance. This is seriously not worth the price and even at $40 for the headphones alone, this is not worth it.

Edit: Tested with SMSL X4 and ZMF Ori Pads
 
Much better than with NFB11.28. Sibilance is less than before but still there since the Wolfson DAC is much warmer than the Sabre DAC. Detail is lost but it's better than sibilance. I still have the EQ set to pull the mids and highs back a bit.
 
6/10 with a Wolfson DAC. 6.5/10 once my EQ is dialed in.
 
Overall:
 
At $100, I don't think these are worth it. There are better options for under that price and especially when you factor in the mods that were mentioned above. There are many open pairs that will simply outclass these cans for lower and even for closed there are a few options like the M40s, which are slightly more but need a pad upgrade, and the Status Audio CB-1s (although the build is no where near as good, the comfort is way better at stock).

At $40, they might be worth it. They're better than most cheap, celebrity branded/common (Sony from a few years ago) options so they might be worth buying as a backup pair (and they don't look ridiculous at stock like the Koss Porta Pros). But I say that with a bit of hesitation.

The pickiness of amp/DAC is also a big downside since these are meant for on the go use.
 
Overall: 5/10. The only thing going for these is the build quality. At $100 these are simply not worth the price and I simply cannot understand how these got any good reviews. Decent I can understand, good? Not really.

Haven't heard them, but I can't imagine them being that good, since people say m1060s  are better and well you know what I think of the m1060s.
 
TBH first go out and try a pair of planar headphones, because you might hate the more lean sound.
Audio is very personal, so it is best to go out and try shit and maybe take some notes.

I thought that was just a Phantom series problem.
 
Anyway now I'm just stuck between the H440 (white/black because it would look awesome with blue leds) and the Define R4 (same reasoning)