Monoprice Monolith M1060 V2 Review: The False Prophet

[Max_Settings]

When Monoprice announced the Monolith M1060, to say there was hype would be an understatement. Monoprice was bringing a full sized, wooden, planar headphone to the market for the relatively affordable price of $300. The initial reviews were quite good, with Youtubers such as Zeos and DMS proclaiming that they were better than the $1000 Audeze LCD-2. But quickly they became controversial. From stolen designs, to bad connectors, to wood cracking, to a 5K peak in the sound, the praise of this headphone quickly started to fall. Monoprice solved a few of these issues in V2 revision, with the change to MMCX connectors, an improved headband design, and thicker wood to prevent cracking. While some believe the V2 M1060 is quite good, I don't understand how anyone with their hearing still in tact could say that. The Monoprice Monolith M1060 is a false prophet of sorts. It came bearing so many claims that so many people bought into, yet when they started to dig deeper, they discovered all of its deception and lies.

 

Monoprice Monolith M1060 V2 $300:

 

 

Now I am not going to do this like a normal review with my rankings of every category, because I simply can't. For those of you who want to skip reading this entire long review the gist of it is this, don't buy these headphones, period. Now onto the problems. Let's start with stolen tech. If you take a look at the M1060 and the Audeze LCD-2, the M1060 grill design looks remarkably similar to that on the LCD-2, that is because Monoprice stole the general design of the grill to make them look like an Audeze headphone. Now if we dig deeper, the general design of the driver has also been stolen from Audeze, something Audeze's CEO has stated publicly that he is not fond of. Also, the pads are very similar to the Audeze pads in their design in thickness, and they are also glued on. If we move up to the headband, I'll direct your attention to the Hifiman HE560 (review on those shortly). The headband design was stolen directly from Hifiman. It uses the same shape, same adjust method (albeit a cheaper version of it), and even has the same slits in in the metal on the top. The M1060 is just a giant heap of stolen tech, which is something that I do not support, and I hope you don't either.

 

 

 

Now we get into problems with the build. These headphones are extremely poorly built. Now, on the V1 there were even more build problems. For starters they used the MMCX connector which is an IEM connector that is known for having a very high failure rate, so many people had problems with that connector dying. Secondly, there was an issue where the headband strap would pull out of the adjustment mechanism. And finally, the wood was too thin around the hinge. The problem with this was that wood expands and contracts and people were developing cracks there. 

 

 

All 3 of these issues were fixed in the V2, with the switch to 2.5mm, improving the headband to not pull out, and thicker wood to prevent cracking. Even with these fixes these headphones are still very poorly built. My pair squeaks then the cups move, the cups are coming slightly loose off the headband, the glued pads fell off and one came apart and need to be re-glued, and more. Speaking the pads, while glued pads are not recommended, if do use glued pads, don't glue the leather to the back of the pad and tuck it under, that means if the pad comes un-glued, then so does the leather from the rest of the pad, that's a terrible design. Comfort is good though despite the weight, I will admit that.

 

As for the rest of the package, these come in a massive box that is pretty standard. But, then we have to talk about the case. These headphones come in case that is the biggest carrying case pretty much ever just shy of the Audeze Pelican cases. That is more acceptable on the Audeze headphones because that is more of a storage box, they don't really intend for you to carry them in that. This Monoprice case is almost a soft case and almost a hard case. It's supposed to be hard, but its made on plastic that you could easily crush. Also it round for some reason and is a massive waste of space. This case is bigger than some backpacks and you can almost fit a 13in laptop in it. It's basically worthless. As for the wire, I actually like it. It's a 6ft braided dual 2.5mm mono cable that's extremely flexible, one of the most flexible cables I have ever seen. It also ends in a 3.5mm with a regular 1/4in adapter and not a screw on which is always my preferred termination. What bugs me is that it's right angle. Why is it a right angle? Right angle usually means portable use, and you aren't taking these things portable. We already went over these case is too big to carry and these don't fit into regular headphone cases either like the popular Slappa case. They are massive headphones and you'd look stupid wearing them in public. Also, they are open back planars, as most of you will know, open back planars are basically speakers, they leak sound like crazy. They aren't very hard to driver, so maybe they did want you to use them portable, explaining the right angle, but still, you aren't using these portable. 

 

 

Now we get to the sound. These headphones have one flaw that makes them unusable, at that is a 5K ring. I've tried to start this review many times, but every time I go to do my final listening they hurt so much after just a few minutes I get a headache. Every time I try them the same thing happens, major headache. For those of you who don't know what a ring is, a ring is when a certain frequency a headphone produces in majorly more pronounced than the others. This peak is like 15-20db greater than anything else which is massive. Some people can hear it and others can't. I can't particularly hear it, but man do I feel it, they are so fatiguing to listen to. That alone makes them unusable, regardless of how the rest of the sound is. And yes I did try the mod a lot of people recommend where you remove the foam from behind the driver, not any batter. Now even if these didn't have that ringing they still wouldn't be very good. Their only good aspects is they have good bass, sound stage, and somewhat decent detail. The mid range and treble is just hollow and dull sounding. It is lacking body, and is just bad. That is about all I can about them. And honestly, you shouldn't care anymore than that because that ringing makes them unusable. I know some of you are going to say I am exaggerating, I am not even remotely. I am being 100% serious, that ring makes them unusable and painful. 

 

 

In conclusion, you shouldn't buy these headphones, not for any price. They aren't better than LCD-2s, they aren't even close to being better than something like the Hifiman HE-400i or HE-4XX. The M1060 is a false prophet that came forward bearing all these promises. But upon further digging we discovered that it was full of lies, made of stolen tech and with a stolen design; also bearing fatal flaws. These I am holding in lower regard than the Audio Technica ATH-M50X that I hate so much, these are even more unusable than that. Just avoid these at all costs. Below I'm going to link the HD 6XX, HE-4XX, and HE-400i. All of those are light years ahead of the M1060 for less, buy one of those.

 

HD 6XX

HE-4XX

HE-400i

[kokakolia]

Well, if there’s anything I learned from internet audiophiles: 

 

- Loud Treble peaks, hollow mids = much clarity! Wow! 

 

How else would you explain the cult following behind all of KZs IEMs? 

[KaminKevCrew]

The headphones were made by monoprice. For the low cost, and the fact that they're monoprice cans, you should have expected some questionable use of design elements. That's the way that monoprice works. That's how they make such cheap cans. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if their drivers come from drivers that failed at the factory that Audeze uses or something like that.

 

That being said, I do think that the 5k ring is absolutely unacceptable for any headphone, unless they're some $5 item from your local gas station. So, I would definitely agree that people shouldn't buy the cans based on that sound characteristic, but I certainly don't think that the design of the headphones is necessarily anything to knock them for, as that's what monoprice generally does.

[Max_Settings]

1 minute ago, KaminKevCrew said:

The headphones were made by monoprice. For the low cost, and the fact that they're monoprice cans, you should have expected some questionable use of design elements. That's the way that monoprice works. That's how they make such cheap cans. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if their drivers come from drivers that failed at the factory that Audeze uses or something like that.

 

That being said, I do think that the 5k ring is absolutely unacceptable for any headphone, unless they're some $5 item from your local gas station. So, I would definitely agree that people shouldn't buy the cans based on that sound characteristic, but I certainly don't think that the design of the headphones is necessarily anything to knock them for, as that's what monoprice generally does.

That doesn't matter that it is what they usually do, it's still wrong to steal people's designs like that.

[kokakolia]

1 minute ago, KaminKevCrew said:

The headphones were made by monoprice. For the low cost, and the fact that they're monoprice cans, you should have expected some questionable use of design elements. That's the way that monoprice works. That's how they make such cheap cans. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if their drivers come from drivers that failed at the factory that Audeze uses or something like that.

 

That being said, I do think that the 5k ring is absolutely unacceptable for any headphone, unless they're some $5 item from your local gas station. So, I would definitely agree that people shouldn't buy the cans based on that sound characteristic, but I certainly don't think that the design of the headphones is necessarily anything to knock them for, as that's what monoprice generally does.

I am all for people copying each other in general. I believe that copyright laws do more harm than good. But that is another discussion for another forum. Ultimately, copying good designs well leads to great results. 

[KaminKevCrew]

7 minutes ago, Max_Settings said:

That doesn't matter that it is what they usually do, it's still wrong to steal people's designs like that.

Actually, it's not wrong. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I think that the people that were lauding over these headphones when they were first released were a bit misguided, and I think that the design isn't really all that great in this case. I will say though, that while these cans may not be amazing, they are something that will help to drive the cost of planar headphones down, and that's a good thing for the market because it means that more people will be able to try different kinds of driver technologies, so they can see if they prefer one style of driver over another. At worst, what Monoprice did was a little shady. At best, they were copying designs that were already out there so that they could eliminate R&D costs as much as possible, and sell the consumer the least expensive headphones possible. That's a good thing, because it drives the costs down.

6 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

copying good designs well leads to great results. 

That's only true if you copy a great design well. I'd say that a good design, at best, will lead to copies that are good, rather than great.

[Max_Settings]

Just now, KaminKevCrew said:

Actually, it's not wrong. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I think that the people that were lauding over these headphones when they were first released were a bit misguided, and I think that the design isn't really all that great in this case. I will say though, that while these cans may not be amazing, they are something that will help to drive the cost of planar headphones down, and that's a good thing for the market because it means that more people will be able to try different kinds of driver technologies, so they can see if they prefer one style of driver over another. At worst, what Monoprice did was a little shady. At best, they were copying designs that were already out there so that they could eliminate R&D costs as much as possible, and sell the consumer the least expensive headphones possible. That's a good thing, because it drives the costs down.

That's only true if you copy a great design well. I'd say that a good design, at best, will lead to copies that are good, rather than great.

They thing I don't like is that grill design. They purposely made it look like the Audeze grill, which is suck a d*ck move IMO. 

[KaminKevCrew]

3 minutes ago, Max_Settings said:

They thing I don't like is that grill design. They purposely made it look like the Audeze grill, which is suck a d*ck move IMO. 

It doesn't look anything like the Audeze grill, aside from the fact that there are holes in it (which by definition, you need to make it a grill) and the fact that it has a triangular design. However, the monoprice cans have a concentric triangle design, whereas the Audeze cans literally have an 'A' that runs through the grill. Those are significantly different designs. Sure, at a glance, they look similar, but your whole argument here would be like arguing that because hifiman uses a punched steel mesh on the backs of their headphones that any other company that uses a similar material is stealing the design from hifiman.

[kokakolia]

10 hours ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Actually, it's not wrong. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I think that the people that were lauding over these headphones when they were first released were a bit misguided, and I think that the design isn't really all that great in this case. I will say though, that while these cans may not be amazing, they are something that will help to drive the cost of planar headphones down, and that's a good thing for the market because it means that more people will be able to try different kinds of driver technologies, so they can see if they prefer one style of driver over another. At worst, what Monoprice did was a little shady. At best, they were copying designs that were already out there so that they could eliminate R&D costs as much as possible, and sell the consumer the least expensive headphones possible. That's a good thing, because it drives the costs down.

I am starting to believe that history is repeating itself...frequently. This story is very similar to how Superlux copied AKG but not completely. I am thinking about the Superlux HD 681 and the AKG K240. Some people even said that both headphones shared the same components. But one thing is certain to me: the cheaper Superlux didn’t sound “right”. There was definitely a nasty treble spike there. And I’m thinking that you can’t just slap some decent audio components together and call it day. Well, that’s basically what Superlux and KZ are known for. And their headphones sound bad (IMHO). There’s most definitely some R&D involved to make a particular driver sound good in a headphone. Otherwise, you’re gonna have nasty treble peaks and dips here and there. 

 

This Monoprice headphone seems like a hobbyist’s dream. I have no doubt that the price of the headphone is rather close to the sum of its parts. If you like to tinker with audio it could be interesting. Someone will no doubt mod the guts out of the m1060 and brag about it on the internet. 

[Spuriae]

In my mind, there's nothing wrong with emulating the technology. There's nothing proprietary about planar drivers, nothing proprietary about waveguides, nothing proprietary about damping; all of this has been around since planars first came out. Aside from a handful of patents aimed at very specific implementations or more advanced fine-tuning techniques, little is protected or should be expected to be protected.

 

That said, Monoprice did it completely wrong. Take a look at their housings, their magnet arrays, and their diaphragm; none of the acoustic improvements that other brands and DIY'ers have explored were implemented in the M1060. No waveguides, fazors, damping, filters, venting, semipermeable pads... the things that are copied are devoted to making it look like Audeze.

 

10 hours ago, kokakolia said:

This Monoprice headphone seems like a hobbyist’s dream. I have no doubt that the price of the headphone is rather close to the sum of its parts. If you like to tinker with audio it could be interesting. Someone will no doubt mod the guts out of the m1060 and brag about it on the internet. 

Is it really worth it when T50RP's are well-documented, have proven potential, and are way cheaper? Because of Audeze's price inflation, everyone seems to forget that reasonably priced planars have been around since forever.

 

[Max_Settings]

1 minute ago, Nimrodor said:

In my mind, there's nothing wrong with emulating the technology. There's nothing proprietary about planar drivers, nothing proprietary about waveguides, nothing proprietary about damping; all of this has been around since planars first came out. Aside from a handful of patents aimed at very specific implementations or more advanced fine-tuning techniques, little is protected or should be expected to be protected.

 

That said, Monoprice did it completely wrong. Take a look at their housings, their magnet arrays, and their diaphragm; none of the acoustic improvements that other brands and DIY'ers have explored were implemented in the M1060. No waveguides, fazors, damping, filters, venting, semipermeable pads... the things that are copied are devoted to making it look like Audeze.

 

Is it really worth it when T50RP's are well-documented, have proven potential, and are way cheaper? Because of Audeze's price inflation, everyone seems to forget that reasonably priced planars have been around since forever.

 

I said that in a later comment, the way they did it was trying to make them look like Audeze which is really douchey. But yes, they just don't know how to make a planar, they just suck. And yes there are other cheaper planars that are much better. HE400i you can find new below $200 now, and those are very good.

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

Almost as bad as the M-50X?

[Max_Settings]

7 hours ago, NoRomanBatmansAllowed said:

Almost as bad as the M-50X?

Honestly, worse.

[GamerDude]

1 hour ago, Max_Settings said:

Honestly, worse.

Oh, the humanity!

[Draeft-Lore]

Did you do zeos' modification he did for the review and the sound demo?  He opened the back and removed the foam which anyone can do, not that hard.  He also didn't have any 5k noise from what I could tell by listening to the demo with my audeze isine10 headphones.

[KaminKevCrew]

11 hours ago, Draeft-Lore said:

Did you do zeos' modification he did for the review and the sound demo?  He opened the back and removed the foam which anyone can do, not that hard.  He also didn't have any 5k noise from what I could tell by listening to the demo with my audeze isine10 headphones.

From what I've heard, the iSine 10 and 20 sound almost identical. According to this FR graph https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudezeiSine20.pdf it looks like there's a significant dip at 5k, which would mean that if you're listening to a pair of headphones that has a peak at 5k, they'll sound pretty flat. 

Also, one would hope that if a headphone will sound better by simply removing some foam that they'd do that from the factory, no?

 

[Draeft-Lore]

10 hours ago, KaminKevCrew said:

From what I've heard, the iSine 10 and 20 sound almost identical. According to this FR graph https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudezeiSine20.pdf it looks like there's a significant dip at 5k, which would mean that if you're listening to a pair of headphones that has a peak at 5k, they'll sound pretty flat. 

Also, one would hope that if a headphone will sound better by simply removing some foam that they'd do that from the factory, no?

 

I just bought the iSine10s based on zeos' and other reviews. All I know is that they sound a lot clearer than my Razer krakens v2s.  They present similar sounds better to me atleast but the sines come in much clearer. I Bought an audeze Mobius in June to replace them completely as my Razer headset. I didn't not look into frequency response graphs.  Majority of my music is through Spotify so I tend not to care too much about that stuff.  Does it sound good and is it comfortable is all I care about.

 

I was going to get the monoprice and mod them after buying a 3D printer from them also and fixing my gripes that I have with the design of the LCDs and them and find a way to time them better for potential resale. But if that isn't worth my time I will just not do that

 

I will say that the iSine10s don't sound good being powered by my mac's and my phone's 3.5mm Jack.  For the Mac I runs creative sound blaster g1, until I can buy the topping D20 dac and A30 amp.  Side question is there a good Android headphone dac and amp combo you would recommend.  $155 is my limit.

[GamerDude]

7 hours ago, Draeft-Lore said:

 

I will say that the iSine10s don't sound good being powered by my mac's and my phone's 3.5mm Jack.  For the Mac I runs creative sound blaster g1, until I can buy the topping D20 dac and A30 amp.  Side question is there a good Android headphone dac and amp combo you would recommend.  $155 is my limit.

The iSine10 sounds pretty good on my LG G7+, I use my G7+ almost exclusively now when I'm out and about. Haven't tried the iSine10  with my DAP's though, so I can't compare the sound on my G7+ vs my DAP's (HFM HM901s, Fiio X3 II).

[Max_Settings]

On 9/7/2018 at 3:31 AM, Draeft-Lore said:

Did you do zeos' modification he did for the review and the sound demo?  He opened the back and removed the foam which anyone can do, not that hard.  He also didn't have any 5k noise from what I could tell by listening to the demo with my audeze isine10 headphones.

Yes I did do that. 5K still exists there. I don't know how he doesn't hear it.

[KaminKevCrew]

4 hours ago, GamerDude said:

The iSine10 sounds pretty good on my LG G7+, I use my G7+ almost exclusively now when I'm out and about. Haven't tried the iSine10  with my DAP's though, so I can't compare the sound on my G7+ vs my DAP's (HFM HM901s, Fiio X3 II).

I have a G7 ThinQ that I use with my Shure SE215 SE for my general commuting, etc. And they sound fantastic on the phone. They isolate amazingly well, and they sound super fun! The LG phones with the quad DAC are in a league of their own when it comes to audio quality (For phones)

 

I've also got the Fiio X5 iii which I'm loving with my Audeze EL-8C

 

12 hours ago, Draeft-Lore said:

 

I just bought the iSine10s based on zeos' and other reviews. All I know is that they sound a lot clearer than my Razer krakens v2s.  They present similar sounds better to me atleast but the sines come in much clearer. I Bought an audeze Mobius in June to replace them completely as my Razer headset. I didn't not look into frequency response graphs.  Majority of my music is through Spotify so I tend not to care too much about that stuff.  Does it sound good and is it comfortable is all I care about.

 

I was going to get the monoprice and mod them after buying a 3D printer from them also and fixing my gripes that I have with the design of the LCDs and them and find a way to time them better for potential resale. But if that isn't worth my time I will just not do that

 

I will say that the iSine10s don't sound good being powered by my mac's and my phone's 3.5mm Jack.  For the Mac I runs creative sound blaster g1, until I can buy the topping D20 dac and A30 amp.  Side question is there a good Android headphone dac and amp combo you would recommend.  $155 is my limit.

I listen to most of my music through Spotify too - I still care about FR graphs, but that's just because they can give me an idea of how a headphone will sound relative to another pair that I own which really helps me with my purchasing decisions when it comes to headphones. 

 

I'm glad you've got some cans you like though! Honestly, that's all that matters. If it sounds good to you, who gives a damn what anyone else thinks. Audio is personal preference, through and through. Stick to it!

Hoenstly, modding the LCDs with a 3d printer won't be worth your time, at least if you don't have a lot of audio experience. Changing small things can drastically change the sound of the headphones. You could try a few things based on stuff that already exists, but be prepared to spend a LOT of time doing trial and error work, and blasting through tons of PLA.

[Norjia-technoob]

On 7/24/2018 at 9:54 PM, KaminKevCrew said:

 I will say though, that while these cans may not be amazing, they are something that will help to drive the cost of planar headphones down, and that's a good thing for the market because it means that more people will be able to try different kinds of driver technologies, so they can see if they prefer one style of driver over another.

speaking from 3 years in the future here: the prices for for planar magnetic headphones have gone down significantly even, electrostatic headphones have started to dip in price. by now you can get hifiman planars for around 150€ which is bonkers considering some of sony's Bluetooth headsets cost 200€ and besides noise canceling those don't have anything special going for them.

 

personally i bought myself the Monoprice M1060C and absolutely love them. they have none of the problems of the M1060 and are easily modable to be open-back

[rice guru]

3 hours ago, Norjia-technoob said:

speaking from 3 years in the future here: the prices for for planar magnetic headphones have gone down significantly even, electrostatic headphones have started to dip in price. by now you can get hifiman planars for around 150€ which is bonkers considering some of sony's Bluetooth headsets cost 200€ and besides noise canceling those don't have anything special going for them.

 

personally i bought myself the Monoprice M1060C and absolutely love them. they have none of the problems of the M1060 and are easily modable to be open-back

The m1060c stock was stupid muddy to me had a lot of good rumble but that's all it had going for it the treble was harsh and everything below it was muddy. Honestly the hifiman plants are kinda killing it lately is probably the beast cheap way to experience planar.

[Norjia-technoob]

2 hours ago, rice guru said:

The m1060c stock was stupid muddy to me had a lot of good rumble but that's all it had going for it the treble was harsh and everything below it was muddy. Honestly the hifiman plants are kinda killing it lately is probably the beast cheap way to experience planar.

i don't find the trebble in the m1060c stock too harsh but i am not using an amp either considering those absolutely don't need an amp. my volume is a bit controlled and i actually like the sound a bit warm. that's why i got them. other than that even for them being muddy i hear much more character in acoustic guitars now

[rice guru]

4 hours ago, Norjia-technoob said:

i don't find the trebble in the m1060c stock too harsh but i am not using an amp either considering those absolutely don't need an amp. my volume is a bit controlled and i actually like the sound a bit warm. that's why i got them. other than that even for them being muddy i hear much more character in acoustic guitars now

Pretty characteristic of planar honestly I was not impressed by any planar I've tried at first but when I listen to acoustic guitar or drum and bass it literally makes a bad planar headphones to good sometimes. It's just something about the driver speed that lends them to be strong with specific instruments.

[Norjia-technoob]

12 hours ago, rice guru said:

Pretty characteristic of planar honestly I was not impressed by any planar I've tried at first but when I listen to acoustic guitar or drum and bass it literally makes a bad planar headphones to good sometimes. It's just something about the driver speed that lends them to be strong with specific instruments.

if this forum had an upvote system you'd get one XD

 

when it comes to bass planar magnetics are just a whole nother world compared to dynamic drivers it's just so wonderfully pronounced without being overbaring.

 

(sorry about my bad grammer, english ain't my native language. heck not even my second)