V-Moda M80 was a big hit when it was released and is still considered as one of top on-ear headphones available today (it’s even recommended by us here!). It was therefore not surprising that V-Moda attempted to improve on it even more and they do so by making sure that their customers’ feedback are considered.
The M80 is part of the top on-ear triumvirate which has the HD-25 1-II (or Amperior) and the Beyerdynamic DT1350 included. While some people consider the M80 as the more inferior amongst the two, the headphone still garnered a lot of praise as the most good-looking and less fatiguing of the bunch. It was also the least expensive of the three too.
We like the M80 very much and we included it on our various lists of top portable headphones and top on-ear headphones. But just like any other headphones, it has its own share of flaws (well we make sure that we try our best to find one anyway :p ). Some of the things we wish could be improved are:
- Better passive noise isolation – It has vents that is beneficial to the tightness of bass however it really hurts the ability to isolate noise. Considering this is meant to for portable use, it certainly didn’t help.
- Fit & comfort – It’s not the most uncomfortable headphone obviously but the fit is kind of hit and miss on these. Initially, we felt that it would never fit our head but it did after some time.
- Too relaxed-sounding – We mentioned above that it’s not fatiguing but the direct drawback of it is it lacks the treble presence. The other two headphones aren’t definitely fatiguing so when we’re on the M80 we tend to ‘treble boost’ a bit. Thankfully, the headphone responds decently to the EQ.
- Could be more portable – The headphone itself is not that big however it’s not foldable and while there’s a good-looking and sturdy carry case included, it is also hardly portable either. All in all, it takes quite some space on our backpack.
The V-Moda XS is said to fix all of those. Better seal and comfort, more sparkle up top, better passive noise isolation and being extra small when folded, yes it is foldable now. Yay!
We obviously don’t have the headphone here yet and considering we live somewhere in Asia, it may take time before we could get ours here (shipping is brutally expensive plus customs fee). In any case, here’s an interview from Jude of Head-fi to the owner of V-Moda and he gives us a brief primer on what to expect on these headphones.
The headphone sounds promising isn’t it? Are you getting your pair of the V-Moda XS? If you already have, then let us know your impressions in the comments section below!