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Monoprice Modern Retro Over Ear Headphones

$21.85
$35.99
+48 Deal Score
29,407 Views
Amazon has Monoprice Modern Retro Over Ear Headphones (116150) for $21.84. Shipping is free with Prime or on orders $25+.

About this item:
  • The soft split-leather ear pads help prevent fatigue and the large size will fit comfortably around almost any set of ears.
  • The 50mm drivers are 25% larger Than most headphone drivers which helps them produce a solid 15Hz 25kHz frequency response with Deep and rich bass clean and sparkly highs and expressive vocals.
  • Professional sound from everyday headphones. Looks great anywhere you go
  • Enjoy clean robust sound across the Audio spectrum
  • Perfect for mobile devices hafiz and Audio/video production
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Original Post

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Edited April 6, 2021 at 01:50 AM by
Arguably the best sounding headphones under $50. Also known as one of, if not the cheapest headphones you can experience Sound Stage. Best price shipped I've seem in a long time and direct from Monoprice too. Many people also get the brainwavz XL memory foam pads but I found the stock ones comfortable enough.

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-...B01M7Z0VKR
https://www.ebay.com/itm/232136952938 NLA

I've been wanting these for a while and waiting for a sale. Amazon has also price matched it now.
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Created 03-06-2021 at 03:34 PM by Hello1877
in Headphones, Headsets & Earbuds (7)
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Deal
Score +48
29,407 Views
$21.85
$35.99
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Price Intelligence

Model: Monoprice Modern Retro Over Ear Headphones

Deal History 

Sort: Most Recent
Post Date Sold By Sale Price Activity
02/24/24Monoprice$15.40 frontpage
21
03/20/23Amazon$21.85
2
02/22/23Monoprice$20.69
0
08/24/21Monoprice$16.70 popular
17

Current Prices

Sort: Lowest to Highest | Last Updated 4/25/2024, 10:07 PM
Sold By Sale Price
Monoprice.com$25.69
Amazon$29.59
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I have these already, for the price they are great. Bassy is an understatement, and its not muddy trash bass like beats by dre, these are like you're in a home theater with a 12" sub, you can feeeel it. It makes movies feel epic, music sounds great, in games it has good sound stage, good detail, in csgo I heard footsteps wayyyy better than any headset i've used, I knew exactly how far people were and where they were coming from. In games like battlefront 2 the pew pew pews and explosions made it feel like an event.
There are 2 cons to these headphones: 1. the stock pads aren't great, swapped them out for brainwaves xl pleather ones and haven't looked back. 2. the sensitivity is kinda low so you'll need either a pre-amp or an amp, nothing that strong but a little amplification will do this good. Also at first I felt like they had too much clamping force which annoyed me cause I wear glasses but you can bend them fully backwards and adjust how much clamp you want, wish I noticed that immediately rather then 2 months into use >_<..
If you like bass these are nice, I rock these with a neewer nw-7000 condensor mic and my gaming setup sounds way better than any sub $100 gaming headset.
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my friend ghosted me for this slick deal
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Does z ever dislike anything? LOL. Just look at the recent overhyped Gold Planar GL2000.
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Joined May 2015
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justye
03-08-2021 at 11:43 AM.
03-08-2021 at 11:43 AM.
Quote from kasbarsbeard :
I have these already, for the price they are great. Bassy is an understatement, and its not muddy trash bass like beats by dre, these are like you're in a home theater with a 12" sub, you can feeeel it. It makes movies feel epic, music sounds great, in games it has good sound stage, good detail, in csgo I heard footsteps wayyyy better than any headset i've used, I knew exactly how far people were and where they were coming from. In games like battlefront 2 the pew pew pews and explosions made it feel like an event.
There are 2 cons to these headphones: 1. the stock pads aren't great, swapped them out for brainwaves xl pleather ones and haven't looked back. 2. the sensitivity is kinda low so you'll need either a pre-amp or an amp, nothing that strong but a little amplification will do this good. Also at first I felt like they had too much clamping force which annoyed me cause I wear glasses but you can bend them fully backwards and adjust how much clamp you want, wish I noticed that immediately rather then 2 months into use >_<..
If you like bass these are nice, I rock these with a neewer nw-7000 condensor mic and my gaming setup sounds way better than any sub $100 gaming headset.
Do you have suggestions for pre-amps or amps? Preferable something cheap...
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dcpoor
03-08-2021 at 12:07 PM.
03-08-2021 at 12:07 PM.
I'm tempted just to add a fake k240/k270 to my AKG collection. lol Frown
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UKtour
03-08-2021 at 02:52 PM.
03-08-2021 at 02:52 PM.
Quote from kasbarsbeard :
I have these already, for the price they are great. Bassy is an understatement, and its not muddy trash bass like beats by dre, these are like you're in a home theater with a 12" sub, you can feeeel it. It makes movies feel epic, music sounds great, in games it has good sound stage, good detail, in csgo I heard footsteps wayyyy better than any headset i've used, I knew exactly how far people were and where they were coming from. In games like battlefront 2 the pew pew pews and explosions made it feel like an event.
There are 2 cons to these headphones: 1. the stock pads aren't great, swapped them out for brainwaves xl pleather ones and haven't looked back. 2. the sensitivity is kinda low so you'll need either a pre-amp or an amp, nothing that strong but a little amplification will do this good. Also at first I felt like they had too much clamping force which annoyed me cause I wear glasses but you can bend them fully backwards and adjust how much clamp you want, wish I noticed that immediately rather then 2 months into use >_<..
If you like bass these are nice, I rock these with a neewer nw-7000 condensor mic and my gaming setup sounds way better than any sub $100 gaming headset.
Oh, so tempting but when I see so many retailers are drop shipping (item ships from third party seller: Monoprice) (Sold & shipped by Monoprice Inc) I wonder if Monoprice is dumping them for a new model or problems. I did notice one reviewer said they won't work with a PC.

More important for me, would a Android cell phone provide enough power to produce decent sound without using an external amp. Might it damage the phone with its load?

Best deal for me might be Walmart who offers a protection plan for a dollar a year.

Thanks
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kasbarsbeard
03-08-2021 at 10:56 PM.
03-08-2021 at 10:56 PM.
Quote from justye :
Do you have suggestions for pre-amps or amps? Preferable something cheap...
FX-Audio DAC-X6 its a decent dac/amp, pumps 450mW@32Ω which is more then enough and it's $65 so it won't break the bank. The modern retros don't have high impedance just a low sensitivity so without an amp you'll see yourself putting the volume around 70-100 on just your pc's onboard audio. With the dac-x6 you would have more then enough headroom for these headphones + some overhead for your next headphones.
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kasbarsbeard
03-08-2021 at 11:01 PM.
03-08-2021 at 11:01 PM.
Quote from UKtour :
Oh, so tempting but when I see so many retailers are drop shipping (item ships from third party seller: Monoprice) (Sold & shipped by Monoprice Inc) I wonder if Monoprice is dumping them for a new model or problems. I did notice one reviewer said they won't work with a PC.

More important for me, would a Android cell phone provide enough power to produce decent sound without using an external amp. Might it damage the phone with its load?

Best deal for me might be Walmart who offers a protection plan for a dollar a year.

Thanks
I don't have any experience with third party sellers, I got mine straight from monoprice and use my exclusively with my pc, no issues. As for using it with an android phone, it doesn't really have enough juice at max volume, you can pre-amp it with software though, I use blackplayer for music on my phone and it has that feature, I've tried it an it works. Only con with using it with a phone is the cable is really long (like 9ft or something) and not detachable.
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Bender7
03-09-2021 at 06:22 AM.
03-09-2021 at 06:22 AM.
In for one with velour pads! Seems like there's quite a following, willing to try.
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UKtour
03-09-2021 at 07:23 AM.
03-09-2021 at 07:23 AM.
Quote from kasbarsbeard :
I don't have any experience with third party sellers, I got mine straight from monoprice and use my exclusively with my pc, no issues. As for using it with an android phone, it doesn't really have enough juice at max volume, you can pre-amp it with software though, I use blackplayer for music on my phone and it has that feature, I've tried it an it works. Only con with using it with a phone is the cable is really long (like 9ft or something) and not detachable.
Hey, thanks for the reply, just the info I was looking for. Gonna give it a try with the BlackPlayer app and if that doesn't work it'll work for my TV with that long cord.
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All4theglory
03-09-2021 at 10:44 AM.
03-09-2021 at 10:44 AM.
I've had these for a couple years, used them regularly for a while, now they;re hooked up to my turntable at a little listening station I have set up. They're pretty good, not great, but definitely serviceable for the price. They're far from flat sounding. Lots of bass, but it's rich and fairly clear. They're pretty comfortable - I have a big head and they weren't too tight. My only complaints are the ear pads, which make my ears sweat like a priest at the AVN awards, and the permanently attached cable. The cable is so long that it has resulted in me tripping over it and pulling something off of my desk on several occasions. Other than that, they're actually really good. You could do a lot worse for the $20 or so they're usually on sale for.
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justye
03-10-2021 at 06:23 PM.
03-10-2021 at 06:23 PM.
Quote from kasbarsbeard :
FX-Audio DAC-X6 its a decent dac/amp, pumps 450mW@32Ω which is more then enough and it's $65 so it won't break the bank. The modern retros don't have high impedance just a low sensitivity so without an amp you'll see yourself putting the volume around 70-100 on just your pc's onboard audio. With the dac-x6 you would have more then enough headroom for these headphones + some overhead for your next headphones.
I just got these headphones and tried them out. You were right about needing to keep the volume high to hear certain things on my computer, but it depends on the file quality or streaming quality. It does seem plenty loud at what I'm computer is capable of doing, so I don't know if it would be a good idea to go higher than this. Does an amplifier improve the sound quality in some ways? I'm currently listening to some music and while I like the overall sound and the soundstage of what I'm hearing, I feel like I'm not getting the bass that I expected. There's an extra oomph that I feel like I'm missing.
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Bender7
03-11-2021 at 08:07 AM.
03-11-2021 at 08:07 AM.
Quote from justye :
I just got these headphones and tried them out. You were right about needing to keep the volume high to hear certain things on my computer, but it depends on the file quality or streaming quality. It does seem plenty loud at what I'm computer is capable of doing, so I don't know if it would be a good idea to go higher than this. Does an amplifier improve the sound quality in some ways? I'm currently listening to some music and while I like the overall sound and the soundstage of what I'm hearing, I feel like I'm not getting the bass that I expected. There's an extra oomph that I feel like I'm missing.
Maybe a roundabout to answer your question, but what is the equipment you're using now?
I find something like Behringer UCA202 is excellent for driving most headphones and very inexpensive. The bass is usually more demanding on power by simple physics, the diaphragm has to move at greater amplitude to produce lower notes than higher.
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TekkenLord
03-11-2021 at 08:11 AM.
03-11-2021 at 08:11 AM.
How does it compare to the Marantz MPH-2?
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justye
03-11-2021 at 10:07 AM.
03-11-2021 at 10:07 AM.
Quote from Bender7 :
Maybe a roundabout to answer your question, but what is the equipment you're using now?
I find something like Behringer UCA202 is excellent for driving most headphones and very inexpensive. The bass is usually more demanding on power by simple physics, the diaphragm has to move at greater amplitude to produce lower notes than higher.
I'm just using my laptop's soundcard (Realtek High Definition Audio - model unknown). Plugging the 3.5 mm jack straight into my laptop's input. I'm not using any DAC/AMP. I've heard these headphones are better with an amplifier, but that they do work fine without them. The problem I'm having is not volume. I can crank my laptop's OS volume to 70 and everything is loud enough. I feel like I'm missing some of that bass that everyone is bragging about with these headphones. I'm just not sure if an amplifier helps with that or just boosts the overall "loudness" of headphones/speakers. I hope that makes sense. I don't want to invest money into a DAC/AMP and end up only being able to get my headphones louder, which isn't what I need.

Quote from TekkenLord :
How does it compare to the Marantz MPH-2?
I can't find much about those headphones. They don't have the same level of hype that the Monoprice Modern Retro have. I found this Reddit post [reddit.com], where the top comment doesn't have a favorable take on them. It seems that if you're looking for over ear headphones at this price range, it's best to look at the Monoprice Modern Retro or Samson SR-850. The main difference between the two is that the Monoprice headphones are closed back, while the Samson is semi-open. Closed back tend to have more bass and in your head sound, while open headphones will tend to be more neutral sounding and an "airy" sound. Also, closed backs don't leak a lot of sound, while open back headphones will.
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Last edited by justye March 11, 2021 at 10:16 AM.
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Bender7
03-12-2021 at 05:29 AM.
03-12-2021 at 05:29 AM.
Quote from justye :
I'm just using my laptop's soundcard (Realtek High Definition Audio - model unknown). Plugging the 3.5 mm jack straight into my laptop's input. I'm not using any DAC/AMP. I've heard these headphones are better with an amplifier, but that they do work fine without them. The problem I'm having is not volume. I can crank my laptop's OS volume to 70 and everything is loud enough. I feel like I'm missing some of that bass that everyone is bragging about with these headphones. I'm just not sure if an amplifier helps with that or just boosts the overall "loudness" of headphones/speakers. I hope that makes sense. I don't want to invest money into a DAC/AMP and end up only being able to get my headphones louder, which isn't what I need.
Well, one suggestion I have is try headphones with different source: even most iPhones will have decent DAC (not power, though). I find that even a receiver can sometimes have decent headphone output, especially older ones. Try multiple sources to understand if you hear a difference.
As anecdote, I have my HD-600 hooked up to a cheap but powerful Chinese amp -> old Denon avr-4802 (as DAC) -> UCA202 (as source) -> PC. With fairly sensitive headphones such as ATH-M50 I simply plug them into UCA-202 and love the sound. Again, as opinion, laptop sound cards are usually not so good as either DAC or headphone source. Before buying anything, it's good to make certain you don't simply dislike the headphone sound signature, which may very well be.
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KaladinStormborn
03-12-2021 at 10:41 AM.
03-12-2021 at 10:41 AM.
How do these compare to something like the $200 HD6xx on Drop?
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rootbear
03-12-2021 at 10:55 AM.
03-12-2021 at 10:55 AM.
Quote from natofrombombato :
Not gonna lie, but I will probably just buy these.

How do these compare to the samson sr850 semi open back headphones? I bought those awhile ago at a similar price ~$30
Samson's sound really good for the money but they break easy.
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