My Klipsch Mode M40 review

[dbuller]

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!

[justin_tx_16]

How did you get a set? They aren't released.

[dbuller]

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.

[krab]

Hey, new guy here looking for some advice. I've been looking at the mode m40`s for about a month now and everything about them seem amazing. I was planning on waiting until some store would have a pair for me to try them before I made my decision to buy them (side note: I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada). My birthday was just the other day and my friends bought me a pair of orange beats studio's. I have yet to open them and I there is a gift receipt to return them.

Now from your experience with these headphones, is it worth it for me to return the studio's and wait out for the m40's?

Another side note: I have tried the image ones before and loved the sound quality.

Thanks in advance, Krab

[dbuller]

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.

[BLSamuel]

My birthday was just the other day and my friends bought me a pair of orange beats studio's. I have yet to open them and I there is a gift receipt to return them.

Now from your experience with these headphones, is it worth it for me to return the studio's and wait out for the m40's?

Another side note: I have tried the image ones before and loved the sound quality.

Thanks in advance, Krab

I would recommend you return the beats unless you are deaf or are a very huge fan of music with over bloated bass and little else. I'm not sure that I've even demoed the orange beats studio's but I've tried the in store demo of a few beats models, very briefly, but I was very disapointed. I have demoed the Image One for a very short time and I did love the sound quality.

I have demoed a pre-production M40 with a dead battery so couldn't try the noise cancellation and the sound quality without the active noise cancellation was very good.

Give that you love the sound quality of the Image One, reread Justin's review of the M40 and then decide but I think you could do a LOT worse than the M40 for the cost. A WHOLE LOT WORSE. But I think they would be hard to beat for the cost. Justin's description of headphone's I've heard that he's reviewed is spot on... I really can't comment on Image One compared to M40 as my very brief auditions of each was months apart. But if I had $350 to spend on 'phones the M40 would be at the top of my list.

Any beats model. Not on my list. Maybe some Grado's. The more than $350 wood model Grados are uber cool. I was thinking it was time to upgrade from my Grado SR60 most likely to at least the SR125 and then went to the Klipsch Pilgrimage in 2007. I was totally blown away by the demo of the Klipsch in ear 'phones all pretty much in prototype form at that time. So I had to have some and ordered the Custom 2 (RIP - not mine, they are in mint condition) the night before they were officially on sale. Then finally got some Image x10 December of 2008. And wish I could have gotten a set of the Image x5 (RIP) when they were being closed out as I like the sound of the x5 better than the x10. And hate things in my ears. So my Grado SR60's still do get some use.

(edit) oops review was by dbuller but from my very brief audition of pre-production M40 I would not hesitate to recommend, especially if you love the sound quality of the Image One which I've also briefly auditioned albeit a production model for longer than the M40 including a very brief in-store demo

[krab]

After calling bestbuy and double checking their return policy, which is 30 days regardless if the headphones had been open and used or not, I decided to open up the studios just to try em out. I have to agree with you guys, even compared to the image ones, the beats are not putting out good quality audio. I have until the 30th to return them, so once I get some time this week I will go return them.

Now the wait begins for the m40s

[justin_tx_16]

I'm sure you have pictures. Sorry but anytime someone says they have an unreleased product and then review it, it's only smart to ask for pictures before passing judgement. I can't think of any reason why this shouldn't be easy to do if you have the M40. Thanks.

[dbuller]

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).

[dbuller]

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

[justin_tx_16]

I've just been on bulletin boards for a long time and people have spread both good and bad, false rumors about products. I am happy to see you actually do have a set. Thanks for that. I'll look forward to your thoughts after a few weeks/months with them. Still waiting to get my hands on a pair for my review.

[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.

[BLSamuel]

They have shipped some. I stopped in to Klipsch HQ a couple of weeks ago and Professor Thump was kind enough to take a few minutes out of his day to let me try out a pre-production demo unit. With a dead battery and it was all he had available. So can't wait to hear a full production version with a good battery. First impressions were these are VERY GOOD. As they ought to be for $350 but probably better than most $350 'phones I've heard. (Rhymes with hose) and Beats for brief instore demos. The Beats made the (rhymes with hose) sound pretty good though in all fairness to (rhymes with hose) I think it may have been only a $299 model but did try out a $350 Beats. Beats sound pretty dreadful to me but everybody hears differently and likes different sound.

And I got to say hi to Miss Amy, Trey, and Andy.

I only wish I'd have paid attention as I've lived in Kokomo IN about an hour north of Indianapolis and Klipsch HQ since 1994. And wasn't aware of the Klipsch Pilgrimage until 2007. So I've made 2007 and 2008 with our youngest daughter. There wasn't an official Pilgrimage in 2009 but an unofficial get together Friday afternoon and CP1 did a massive all Klipsch PA for TAFM09. And just couldn't make it to Hope in 2010 and 2011. Our youngest daughter wants to go to Hope. Thought we could swing it last summer as she spent a week or so with her friend in Amarillo I was thinking how far can it be from Hope to Amarillo. A lot farther than we thought. But Hope is "only" 10 to 11 hours from where I live. And now a train stops in Hope so maybe next time.

[CJH]

Well I cant wait to get mine home and start havin a listen. Even just opening the postal wrap to see the box I was impressed.The packaging is really classy. Bring on home time, can't wait for my shift to end.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/20111214190911.jpg/

[vavavarun]

Hey, I was just wondering how those Dacron foam pads worked out for ya, and if you had any updates on the headphones. (since you've had them for a few months now)