dbuller

No problem I suppose with all the misinformation and gullibility on the internet, I shouldn't complain about a little skepticism from time to time! I'll update later on, and look forward to reading your review as well.

And as I said, it's not technically "unreleased," it's just that there aren't enough in stock to cover all the pre-orders yet. Or at least that's what Amy Unger (Klipsch customer service) told me

Lol did you really think I was dreaming all that up?? Ah, oh well, here they are, in my very own hand As an update, I think my ear is getting more slightly acclimated to the comfort issue. I'll still be looking forward to getting the Dacron foam in there (it's in the mail).

I would definitely wait for the M40. Beats are a niche product, designed for people who want big, booming, dominating bass. M40 is a well-rounded, high-quality headphone for people who care about punchy yet high quality sound. Almost everyone familiar with quality headphones will tell you that Beats are overrated and overpriced, and that Klipsch gives you great sound quality for the price.

A batch came to the Klipsch warehouses but they were already all claimed by those that had gotten their preorders in early (as I had). So from what I've been told, they have sort of been released already, but they're still listed as "available for pre-order" because they're still awaiting further shipments to fully meet pre-order demand.

My review of the Klipsch Mode M40: Packaging and accessories: The Mode is very luxuriously packaged in a a hard cardboard box. Accessories include a microfiber cloth bag for the cans, an extra cord (lacking the Apple remote/mic), airplane adaptor, and larger-plug (I forget the size) adaptor. However, the real prize is the leather semi-hard case. The leather is very nice and lined with soft felt inside. Also, the cord attaches to only one earcup, which is a far bigger plus than I had anticipated -- it stays out of your way and doesn't get tangled nearly as easily. Klipsch moved the remote/mic farther up the cord, which helps the mic pic up your voice more clearly than with the Image One or S4i mic placement. The cloth cables are fantastic, too. The headphones themselves look great. They are rather large, but remember, these are noise-cancelling, high-end, dual driver headphones. The headphones put a decent amount of pressure around your head, but luckily the earcups (soft leather over firm memory foam) go around your ears, rather than on top of them. The sound quality is truly fantastic (I tested them with hip-hop, electronica/dance, folk, jazz, various sub-genres of classical, choral, alternative, and rock, as well as movies). Bass is powerful and punchy, but restrained and not dominating. Midrange is clear, with perfectly prominent vocals. Highs are clear and bright without being sharp or fatiguing. Sound effects in movies (from Blu-Ray) are powerful and immersive, while dialogue is clear and balanced (the Image One overemphasizes the lower end of deeper male voices, making them sound unnaturally "electronic" and "subwoofer-ey" -- the M40 completely avoids this). The dual-driver idea (40mm woofer and 15mm tweeter) seems to have been a home-run for Klipsch. The M40 (to my taste) excells in every area, with powerful, detailed sound across the range, without any one area (like bass) getting out of control or dominating the sound. One note: Klipsch rightly notes that these can work with active noise cancelling (ANC) turned off, which is useful once your AAA battery dies. However, the manual also says that you "may" notice a decrease in bass quality with ANC turned off -- cross out the "may." You will notice a decrease. The volume of the headphones drops when you turn of ANC, and the bass loses a lot of its punch. Still, the sound quality remains impressive, and it's certainly far better than nothing when your battery dies! (I'm still curious why the bass "punch" decreases -- any Klipsch engineer want to fill us in? are these somewhat "powered" headphones, by the battery?) My previous headphones were the Image One, so allow me to compare it with that. I went back and listened through my One again to note the differences. The bass on the One is significantly more pumped up than the M40. It dominates, and tends to "bleed" over into the lower midrange, making the rest of the range sound recessed, distant, and weak. Those that thought the bass was too strong on the One will no doubt love the M40. And those (like me) that didn't understand the criticisms of the One will understand after a few minutes of listening to the M40. Ironically, even though the bass on the One is more elevated, it was the M40 that significantly sounds more powerful. The restraint on the bass just makes it sound more controlled and impressive, and the power and quality across the rest of the range of the M40 just makes it sound much more high-quality and impressively powerful. I loved the sound quality of the One, but after listening to the M40, I'll never go back! This is what music should sound like. As for the noise cancelling, I'll wait for someone else to review that. I haven't used these in a particulary noisy environment yet, and I've never used ANC headphones before, so I don't have any standard to judge them against. I can tell you though that the passive noise cancelling of these cans is absolutely phenomenal -- really, very very impressive isolation, even with the ANC switched off. With all this in mind, I have only one complaint. My ears are merely average-sized, but unfortunately, the earcups are not deep enough to keep the hard center of the earcup (where the plastic grill over the drivers is) from pressing against the hard part of my outer ear. It's just slightly annoying at first, but after a while the discomfort grows. Once these come out in stores (if you can wait!), you might want to try them on to see how they feel on your ears -- give them a few minutes for the memory foam to compress and let you evaluate their comfort. I contacted Klipsch about this, and they've been very helpful in giving me advice to fix this. I asked if there's any sort of padding I can fit in there to fix things, and their engineers suggested an "open celled foam" (one permeable to air) to keep from muffling the sound. Dacron foam was recommended, so I've ordered some ($10 with shipping, available online) and will see what I can do with it when it comes and update this review accordingly. A little bit of pressure on that part of my ear is fine (lots of headphones -- like the B&W P5 -- sit solely on that part of your ear); it just needs a touch of padding to minimize discomfort. Hopefully the Dacron foam will be a quick, easy, comfortable fix. I'll let you know. So, as a summary: these are premium, quality headphones with truly high-end sound. Bravo, Klipsch. The discomfort issue is my only dark lining to this shining silver cloud, but I'm optimistically hoping the foam will eliminate that problem. If you have any questions at all about these headphones, post away, and I'll let you know!

correction: those others *aren't klipsch, and...

According to a video on youtube with a Klipsch employee at CEDIA, it has 12dB of noise cancellation. So that's not a percentage, but perhaps it helps. From a quick comparison I did with other cans, that's a bit lower than other ANC headphones, but then again...those other Klipsch. And they'e not dual driver. And they don't have 45hr batt life, use without battery too, etc...so I'm going with the M40