Entry level Audiophile headset!

Psittac · August 3, 2023

I should probably make this a status update, however I want to make it somewhat of a review/update. (probably only a post for the regular's here)

The Rode NTH-100M is what Everyone looking at buying a wired headset should be considering. It has all of the Audiophile characteristics of a headphone and has an optional mic. The only downside I see with this headset would be the flawed technology of TRRS connections.

The headphone itself is perfect for people on a budget because it sounds nearly as good with an onboard solution as it does with a $900+ dac and amp combo. I call this an "opaque" headphone as it isn't as transparent as something like a Sennheiser HD6xx which shows every last detail from the 1's and 0's all the way to the cable connecting it to your meat holes. Someone that isn't convinced they want to spend the money on a dac and amp should take a serious look at these headphones, and at the price it's right on point with the "entry level audiophile" headphones if not a $50 premium to a few select headphones. Still that $50 allows you to not get anything else and achieve a full sound signature. I would call these a "consumer" focused sound signature without the bloom or bloat associated with something like beats or perhaps Sony (I should get some Sony's). It is a VERY satisfying headphone to listen to.

The reason I haven't been recommending them recently is because of a controversy over them cracking the ratcheting mechanism, and I haven't posted sooner due to the fact that I wanted to be certain on my conclusion of this potential fatal flaw. I got my first pair of NTH-100 and loved them so much that I took them to sleep with me, only to flop over onto my bed after a long day and completely crush them. I did an RMA and got a replacement pair (which I explicitly expressed a complete fault of my own doing), during which time I learned of the controversy. This replacement pair cracked multiple times and was fixed with super glue, I thought a trip from CO to AZ would prove them to be fixed with super glue however they developed their second crack. I e-mailed Rode to ask about potential replacement parts and mentioned the turmoil of ownership and they quickly offered to send me an extra pair as a free gift and claimed that they were aware of the problem and it was a batch issue early on. Since I had a mostly functional pair I decided to give the new pair to my brother in law a few month's ago. And my sister just confirmed today that there are no cracks, even with my ~10yo nephew using them on a road trip to SD.

So, to all the regular's here, I highly recommend these headphones and wish I could get a single convert. The optional mic is barely less than a mod mic uni and it suffers potential bleed from output to input. But I submit that this will DESTROY any "gaming" headset that would bring the same potential downfall and it will do it at a competitive price. They will fit basically any head size despite the appearance and the cooling gel pads actually work. To quote Jayz-two cent's, it's not about the problem that happens rather it's about how they respond to the issue. And I would say that Rode has been TOP NOTCH on the customer support.

BiotechBen · August 3, 2023

3 minutes ago, Psittac said:

I e-mailed Rode to ask about potential replacement parts and mentioned the turmoil of ownership and they quickly offered to send me an extra pair as a free gift and claimed that they were aware of the problem and it was a batch issue early on. Since I had a mostly functional pair I decided to give the new pair to my brother in law a few month's ago. And my sister just confirmed today that there are no cracks, even with my ~10yo nephew using them on a road trip to SD.

Literally had a similar cracking issue with my LTT water bottle. Think it was my third? one (first got stolen) and the handle snapped after picking it up off the floor while full. Got a replacement via TMB, and it took a tumble off the roof of my car full of water and the bottle now has two minor dents and the handle is only scuffed.

Where the first one broke, it looks like it was an injection molding issue since it was right where the handle connected to the lid.

Injection molding is part science part dark magic, failures sometimes happen and it looks like Røde did a good job with customer support addressing the issue.

Heats with Nvidia · August 3, 2023

I am currently quite happy with my collection, but will check them out when i get the chance.

By the way, at first i thought you were mentioning country codes and just a look into your profile cleared that up for me that you meant Colorado with CA. And not Colombia. Just a hint that these codes might be a little confusing for everybody who isn`t living in the US.