Avantone Mixphones MP-1

As a happy owner of Avantone Mixcube I bought these headphones as I thought they give me the same mid-range focused sound, a kind of magnification glass over mid-range area.
The headphones look stylish and while they are big and they are very comfortable to wear for a long period. The headphones equipped with two cords: short one and long one. The cords have mini jacks on both ends and have a wrench on one side to tie them to headphones to avoid disconnection. The cords are very thin and when I stepped twice on the longer cord on the first day of usage, I damaged it. Therefore, I have to use shorter one now, which is actually too short to be used in any reasonable situation.
Now about the sound. I think it is due to their too low impedance, but these headphones sound different in each headphone amplifier I connected them into! I had the worst sound in hi-fi amplifiers, probably because they are usually optimized for high impedance headphones. I had average results with headphones outputs of different multichannel audio interfaces. Well, they sounded somehow but the sound was not good enough to use them for mixing, there was too much high-end roll-off and too few clarity. The best sound I had was when I plugged them into iPad and MacBook. Therefore, they sound good when plugged in consumer devices.
The headphones are able to reproduce very low frequencies, which is impressive. Nevertheless, they have very limited dynamic range especially for low end. The sound starts compressing first and then you have audible distortions.
The headphones have a switch, which allows changing mode to mid-range focused or to mono. I did not find much usage of mono switch (while I switch monitors to mono very often). It seems the mid-range focus mode changes the headphones impedance and this mode sounds different in each headphone amplifier too. The sound varies from unusable to very subtle differences from normal mode. But I was not able to reproduce original Avantone Mixcubes sound with any headphone amplifier I tried them with.
Finally, I use these headphones when play a guitar late night. They are comfortable to wear and their high-frequency roll-off and limited dynamic range suit good for the guitar sound.

Sound, Pros:
- very detailed highs, some songs feel less "smudgy" on high frequencies;
- audible and deep bass.

Sound, Cons:
- mids seem to dented;
- there is very noticeable "hump" in around 100HZ which causes music to hum.

Comfort, Pros:
- large cups covering ears entirely, pretty good seal thus good isolation;
- comfortably thick headband cushion;
- manageable pressure comparing to my previous headphones (Beyer DT-770 Pro), which were squashing my head like vices until I loosened the headband.

Comfort, Cons:
- comparing to my previous headphones, these are kind of small, pushing the rails all the way through and they still barely fit on my head.

Build quality, is good. Material selection is good. But it doesn't scream "STURDY" like with Beyers.

Having two pairs for swappable cables is very nice.

Having the ability to switch to mono is very nice.
"Cubes" switch on the other hand is questionable: the difference between the normal stereo mode and the "cubes" mode is so subtle that it will probably fail the blind test. I suppose it is a marketing gimmick.

At the time of writing mixes done with these come out bass-deficient.
If I had tested them live before buying, I would probably not consider buying them.

Ich hatte die Chance, die Avantone Mixphones MP-1 mit den Beyerdynamic DT-880 Pro zu vergleichen.

Was als erstes auffällt, ist die Verpackungsgröße. Die Mixphones sind größer und etwas schwerer, daher auch wuchtiger verpackt. Stört mich allerdings nicht, da genau diese Verpackungsart durch den in Passform geschnittenen Schaumstoff weitaus sicherer ist, als die Verpackung der DT-880 Pro.

Der Tragekomfort der Avantone Mixphones MP-1 ist am Anfang etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, da das Gewicht und der Anpressdruck deutlich höher als bei den Beyerdynamic DT-880 Pro ist. Nach kurzer Zeit habe ich mich aber daran gewöhnt und die Kopfhörer sind sehr komfortable, da die Polster auch das ganze Ohr umschließen. Auch in der Verarbeitung schließt Avamtome besser ab. Hier gibt es wenig Kunststoffteile und der Kopfhörer wirkt wirklich massiv.

Beim ersten Hören war das Erlebnis ähnlich. Die Avantone Mixphones MP-1 wirken am Anfang etwas flacher oder dumpfer als die Beyerdynamic DT-880 Pro. Hört man aber genauer hin und beginnt mit den Kopfhörern zu arbeiten, merkt man schnell, dass die Mixphones weitaus linearer arbeiten. Zudem ist die Positionierung einzelner Instrumente hier besser ersichtlich, was bei Beyerdynamic etwas verwaschener klang. Den Mono und Contured Mix Mode (Mixcube Emulation) nutze ich nur selten, ist aber zur Kontrolle des Mixes wirklich hilfreich.

Im Großen und Ganzen finde ich persönlich die Mixphones einfach besser. Ein weiterer Pluspunkt für Avantone ist auch das austauschbare Kabel in gerader 3 Meter und geringelter 1 Meter Variante.

Der einzige Minuspunkt sind die 16 Ohm Widerstand, die bei Beyerdynamic durch die verschiedenen Variationen einfach besser gelöst sind. Hier muss man den Pegel doch etwas zurücknehmen, sonst klingen die Höhen unsauber.