Skip to main content

V-Moda M-100 headphones offer slick features for the urban audiophile with a fancy price tag to match

 

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Check out our full review of the V-Moda Crossfade M-1oo headphones. 

Today,  V-Moda launched their M-100 headphones, which it says were designed by “crowdsourcing” DJ’s, journalists, and consumers. Once the design team had collected enough input, they began working on the headphones with outside recommendations in mind. Still, the company indicates it was never going to stray too far from its roots, as an organization reportedly obsessed with the intricacies of audio.

“Speaker drivers must be carefully quality-controlled like grapes at fine vineyards,” said Val Kolton, Chief Visionary Officer at V-MODA. You know when a company is comparing the crafting of its speaker drivers to the making of fine wines, it’s run by folks who consider themselves real audiophiles. If you’re not one yourself, you may want to skip this high-end offering.

The real question, however, is: do the M-100’s deliver? As part of the Crossfade series, the phones are billed as versatile, durable, and functional. In terms of versatility, the dual inputs are said to allow the phones to serve as an on-the-go mixer, and there’s also the option to add-on a Boom Pro mic if you’re the gaming/podcasting/broadcasting type. As for durability, the V-Moda M-100 come equipped with detachable, kevlar-reinforced cables, and in terms of functionality, the phones feature a SharePlay cable for music sharing without the aid of extra adapters.

The literature for the M-100’s is laden with the phones’ supposed features, but no amount of marketing savvy can make a shoddy pair of cans sound spectacular. When we reviewed the V-Moda Crossfade LP’s, we found the sound quality a bit lackluster but we’ve yet to get our hands on these as of yet, so we’re still in wait-and-see mode. Looks like we may be there for a while too, as  V-Moda is a bit nebulous on release details. The company says only that the Crossfade M-100 will be available this holiday season. They’re priced at $300 and for an extra $10, you can pre-order a pair at V-MODA.com, which will ship with an extra set of personalized shields and a set of Faders VIP Tuned Earplugs for a limited time.

Adam Poltrack
Adam is an A/V News Writer for Digital Trends, and is responsible for bringing you the latest advances in A/V…
The Beats Pill is back, baby!
A pair of Beats Pill speakers.

In what's been one of the worst-kept secrets of the year -- mostly because subtly putting a product into the hands of some of the biggest stars on the planet is no way to keep a secret -- the Beats Pill has returned. Just a couple of years after Apple and Beats unceremoniously killed off the stylish Bluetooth speaker, a new one has arrived.

Available for preorder today in either black, red, or gold, the $150 speaker (and speakerphone, for that matter) rounds out a 2024 release cycle for beats that includes the Solo Buds and Solo 4 headphones, and comes nearly a year after the Beats Studio Pro.

Read more
Ifi’s latest DAC is the first to add lossless Bluetooth audio
Ifi Audio Zen Blue 3 DAC (front).

Ifi Audio's new Zen Blue 3 wireless digital-to-analog converter (DAC) will officially be available to buy for $299 on July 9. When it is, it will be the first device of its kind to support a wide variety of Bluetooth codecs, including Qualcomm's aptX Lossless, the only codec that claims to deliver bit-perfect CD quality audio over a Bluetooth connection.

Admittedly, there are very few devices on the market that can receive aptX Lossless (and fewer that can transmit it), so it's a good thing that the Zen Blue 3 also works with the more widely supported aptX Adaptive, LDAC, and LDHC/HWA codecs (all of which are hi-res audio-capable), plus the three most common codecs: AAC, SBC, and aptX.

Read more
The new Beats Pill might replace Sonos on my back porch
The 2024 Beats Pill and an aging Sonos Play:1.

If I were to build an outdoor stereo in 2024, I'd do it with a pair of portable Beats Pills instead of Sonos speakers. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

In 2017, after more than a decade in our home, my wife and I added a pool. With it came a covered deck, making what basically was a new outdoor room. Not uncommon at all in Florida, but new to us.

Read more