Blue Mo-Fi Headphone review.

electronpirate

electronpirate

Axe-Master
So I picked up a set of the Blue's. The only other one's in the mix after I narrowed it down with reviews were the Beyerdynamic 880.

Background:
I came from a very nice pair of Grado's. The one thing I both liked and disliked about them was the concept of 'open', or 'spatial'. They sounded very good, but because of their design, I felt like the openness of them lost some of the detail in more 'rock' recordings. Not that the detail wasn't there, but that there was a bit too much 'air' to the experience. I liked them very much with classical or predominantly acoustic listening. This took the 880's out of the equation for me.

Not so much with the Blue's. It's RIGHT THERE, with detail. Another double edged sword...if it's a crappy or low res file, you hear it...conversely, the good ones sound REALLY good. The closed design makes it practically soundless to outsiders (I tested it out on one of my daughters...father of the year.) As far as the settings, I'm with Yek on the middle position; I like the boost there, but the bass on the third position is exactly why I do not like the 'Beats' line. The 1st position is good as well for 'don't care' listening...and I like that it will work in passive mode when it runs out of charge. They sound great with the Axe II (loving the long cable), and I could find very few flaws in the presets' I've dialed in. I would feel confident I would be able to 'get close' for gig volume and tweak on the fly at the venue. I would say a very close approximation to my CLR's (bass response is slightly more forward on the Blue's)

The only mild drawback was that moving around I pulled out the cable from the headphones (thank you, btw, for NOT making the cable wired into the headset...) But I can work with that by not jumping around so much when I play.

Overall, excellent sound. Extremely pleased with my purchase. Thanks to Yek and Matt who had the most relevant information for my needs.

Lastly, in research on this whole deal, I've been introduced to the concept of 'burn in' that takes @50-100 hours of operation before the full character of the cans is realized. If they sound this good now, I'm looking forward to 100+ hours. FWIW, I did alot of research on amazon reviews, and headphone . com where I learned much more than I cared to know, but instrumental (natch) in my purchase.

There you go. Hopefully I put enough keywords in there so that every week when we get another 'what headphones?' thread, it will pop up in a search.

R
 
Damn you. Why did I read this...
Now I need to find a reason not to spend that money on pair of headphones..
Those are just beautifull.

Tks for the review.
Cheers
 
I'm unfamiliar with these. It'll be hard to get me to move from my collection I already have and quite love, but I'm always up for trying a new set of cans. The built-in amp is a bit of a turn off, as I can't use my own with them :-/.
 
selta said:
I'm unfamiliar with these. It'll be hard to get me to move from my collection I already have and quite love, but I'm always up for trying a new set of cans. The built-in amp is a bit of a turn off, as I can't use my own with them :-/.
Click to expand...

You don't need to use the built in amp. There's a setting to keep it off. I find it nice to have if I'm listening on a plane, or otherwise away from your own amp.
 
Well, sweet then. Somehow I didn't see that option in the literature I read on their website. I guess I simply missed it somehow. I'll get a pair of these ordered then. It'll be hard to de-throne any of my current pairs, but hey, I won't know unless I try :). Thanks for the review.
 
Man, this was my biggest regret from NAMM this year....there was a station set up where you could demo the Blue headphones, and I never found the time to put a pair on. It was on my list, but NAMM is just so overwhelming sometimes.
Thanks for the review Ron, this is helping push me in the direction of getting some.

(BTW, the 'father of the year' comment made me laugh out loud)

So have you dialed in on your Blue's and then gone to a gig without first testing through CLR?
Just curious because this would be amazing for me (with a newborn at home).
 
BBN said:
Man, this was my biggest regret from NAMM this year....there was a station set up where you could demo the Blue headphones, and I never found the time to put a pair on. It was on my list, but NAMM is just so overwhelming sometimes.
Thanks for the review Ron, this is helping push me in the direction of getting some.

(BTW, the 'father of the year' comment made me laugh out loud)

So have you dialed in on your Blue's and then gone to a gig without first testing through CLR?
Just curious because this would be amazing for me (with a newborn at home).
Click to expand...

I didn't. Merely said I'd feel confident doing so.

I dialed in a few patches, mostly defaults with minor tweaks to gain, or sag, or cutting frequencies in the CAB block. Also used the VU meter. Then compared them to my 'gig ready' patches. They sounded great to my ears. The key was to NOT use the built in amplifier, so you get as honest a tone as you can get. After that, there were minor tweaks as far as gain and shaving freq's. Any of which could be done during a quick sound check before a gig.

It's not a straight one-to-one substitute for building a patch at gig volume, or playing, but I don't believe that headphones are ever going to fully replace 'standard' amplification for the Axe. But it still is great for house-harmony (or apartment/condo harmony) at low tonal compromise.

R
 
I love the Blue MoFi's. With the Axe I use them with the built in amp off, because otherwise I feel they are too loud. When recording and mixing the built in amp in First position sounds amazing or just plain listening to music. I end up hearing things I've never heard before. Highly Recommended!
 
Hey electronpirate, thanks for all the detail on your first impressions of the Blues. But now that you've had a couple more days to play with them (hopefully) I was wondering if your impressions were still pretty much the same?
 
chucma said:
Hey electronpirate, thanks for all the detail on your first impressions of the Blues. But now that you've had a couple more days to play with them (hopefully) I was wondering if your impressions were still pretty much the same?
Click to expand...

Got my interest up also, I have Grado 80's (I think) and had been thinking of upgrading to a more expensive set of Grado's (need better isolation)
 
NeoSound said:
Got my interest up also, I have Grado 80's (I think) and had been thinking of upgrading to a more expensive set of Grado's (need better isolation)
Click to expand...

I've got a pair of Beyer Dynamic DT770 Pros, I spent a few hours dialling in some presets last night when the kids were asleep, and then this morning tried the presets through my monitors and they sounded awful! :) So I'm thinking either the Blues or DT880s, from what I understand the Blues have really good isolation.

The DT770s also have good isolation, but sometimes it feels like a vacuum is sucking on both ears if you have them on too long.
 
I finally picked up a pair this weekend. I actually heard about these here from Cliff quite a while back and kind of like electronpirate I decided to test on someone else so I told one of my friends at work and talked him into buying a pair as I had just gotten a new pair of Beats Executives for Christmas. Well after 5 other people bought a pair at work I decided to suck it up. The only thing that took so long was that they are just not portable at all. My Beats folded up nicely in a great little carrying case and for work they are fine I suppose. But I noticed that when I would turn my head they would cut out in the left driver. Well actually they didn't, my ear would shift to wear it was closing it or something weird and I finally just got pissed off and bought the Blues.

Now they are great for music, I love the fact that I can turn off the amp (can't with the Beats), they last longer, I can charge them with a USB cable, etc., etc. The drivers are big and they sound really wide open. They sound substantially better than the Beats did and without the damn noise cancelling hiss either. Isolation is fantastic as I can put them on and don't have to crank them too loud to drown out the guys at work....but I do crank them up because I like my music loud and it doesn't bother them either.

As far as with the AxeFXII I am not sure about how I feel with them yet. I have a pair of old (and I'm talking over 10 years old) Sennheiser HD25-1's that I love and there is a significant difference between the two with the AxeFXII. I don't know if it's a matter of better or just being used to the forwardness of the Sennheisers, but these may just end up being used for music and work. They are better for music IMHO. Then again I've never found a pair of headphones that I liked more than those old Sennheisers for anything so that should be a pretty good endorsement for the MoFi's.

If you've got a decent interface or control room monitor/headphone amp you don't have to use the built in amp which is just a massive plus mark in my book.
 
I am really enjoying mine. I love the sound isolation. You can hardly hear anything going on around you. I just wish they were more portable but that's the price of having larger drivers.

I just saw Sweetwater is running a free $50 gift card special if you buy a pair. It might be a good time to snatch a pair up.
 
79_limited said:
I am really enjoying mine. I love the sound isolation. You can hardly hear anything going on around you. I just wish they were more portable but that's the price of having larger drivers.

I just saw Sweetwater is running a free $50 gift card special if you buy a pair. It might be a good time to snatch a pair up.
Click to expand...
Musician's Friend is running the same promo....weird.
 
Thanks for the review. This leads me to a dilemma I have having with the Axe Fx II. I have had it for about 4 months now and it sounds amazing through my QSC K10s, but when I play it through headphones, it sounds mediocre. My current headphones are CAD MH310s which are relatively decent budget headphones. They sound really great when used with an iPod etc. However, when I use them with the Axe Fx II, it sounds kinda flat and "digital" :(.... I suspect it might be the headphones but am I missing something here?
 
RobMFX said:
Thanks for the review. This leads me to a dilemma I have having with the Axe Fx II. I have had it for about 4 months now and it sounds amazing through my QSC K10s, but when I play it through headphones, it sounds mediocre. My current headphones are CAD MH310s which are relatively decent budget headphones. They sound really great when used with an iPod etc. However, when I use them with the Axe Fx II, it sounds kinda flat and "digital" :(.... I suspect it might be the headphones but am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
In my experience, my presets which sound good at volume through FRFR don't sound as marvellous through my headphones, even good ones like the Mo-Fi (which I own). I actually have a couple of "headphones" presets for home practice/jamming, with stero delay, enhancer, etc, for a more enjoyable headphone experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom