Audeze is an American brand known for making a variety of products, from some serious audiophile-grade headphones to some of the best gaming headsets we've ever tested. Their MM-500 is more of the former option, being a set of big, thick and impressive flat magnetic cans with an eye-watering price tag – you'll only have to pay £1699/$1699, no big deal It's really a good deal.
I've tested some pretty good headphones before, but none left the same first impression as the MM-500s. Products like Focal Bathys come in sleek, gorgeous hard cases, while Audeze has opted for a full briefcase to transport the jars. It's made from a mix of metal and plastic, making it very sturdy, and inside, there's plenty of molded foam for transporting the MM-500. Open the briefcase and you'll feel like a member of the U.S. Secret Service.
After opening the briefcase, the MM-500 comes into view. They're all-metal, with a mix of machined aluminum and spring steel, giving them a premium feel, while also being fairly lightweight at just 495 grams. That's still quite heavy for a pair of Grados, for example, although lighter than you might initially expect. The MM-500 look like a pair of classic Audeze cans, with a thinner headband, earcups with oval cutouts on the outside, and large, plush angled earpads that are incredibly soft and supportive while Also features greater clamping force to ensure they stick to your head.
The weight of the MM-500s takes some getting used to, especially with the stiffer headband, but according to Audeze, if the clamping force out of the box is too strong, placing it on a pile of books can help reduce the weight a bit. . It's tight, but I didn't have much of an issue when I used them at night to listen to some music or play some games.
The MM-500's earcups may be the opposite of the Grado Hemps I recently tested. The Hemps are a thinner, shallower option with fabric padding, while the MM-500s have these sweet, deep cups that have some of the best feel I've ever had on a pair of headphones outside of the Focal Bathy I use every day. Soft leather. The angle of the earcups also fits the fact that people's ears are not actually parallel to the sides of their heads, but rather tilted slightly outward. This means the sound goes directly into your ears, unlike other headphones that don't rotate the earcups to achieve the same purpose.
Your ears are also very close to the drivers inside the MM-500, although they aren't necessarily drivers themselves. After all, these are planar magnetic headphones, not the more common dynamic drivers. I'm not an expert on this by any means, but being planar magnetic in nature means they work by suspending the earphone's diaphragm material between magnetic fields that cause vibrations, rather than by placing the driver on a coil that pulls on Dynamic drive case via magnets. This means that the planar magnetic cans require a larger surface area to work, so the MM-500 are quite bulky for more “standard” headphones.
In terms of tuning, the MM-500 differs from previous Audeze efforts, moving more towards a reference can set, as is the case with Sennheiser's HD660S2. After all, they're probably designed more for music production and studio work than for general use. This is arguably due to the name quietly emblazoned on the MM-500 earcups. Look closely and you'll see Manny Maroquin's name on the side. You may not have heard of his name, but you certainly own albums and songs from artists he's produced or remixed. For example, Taylor Swift's “Red”, Natasha Bedingfield's “Unwriting” or Bruno Mars' “Unorthodox Jukebox” all have Marroquin's works, and he also collaborated with Audeze on the MM-500. It was so recognising.
With this in mind, it will change your opinion of the MM-500. After all, they may not be as exciting or dynamic as other jars, but they are designed with a specific purpose – to provide the most accurate view of the music possible. Basically, if audio sounds like it's supposed to when mixed here, it'll be great elsewhere. Another thing about these that are designed for audio mixing is that they come with a huge quarter inch jack on the end, but also come with a 3.5mm adapter for plugging into more common devices so you can put the MM -500 for use with a laptop, or DAC.
I should say that you can indeed use them with a MacBook or other devices – they are very easy to drive, with impedance as low as 18 ohms. While this isn't a foolproof way to measure how easy your headphones are to use, it means you don't necessarily need professional audio equipment to make them work and produce enough sound. I had no issues using them on a MacBook Pro, or using their bundled headphone jacks on a regular gaming PC, although giving them more power via a DAC or DAP would probably result in higher-quality listening.
The music coming out of the MM-500, whether it's Latin pop, hard rock or jazz fusion, has an extremely smooth and warm quality that sounds great. Plugging them into my HiBy R3 II, FiiO M11S, or Chord Mojo 2 DAC, I received some gorgeous audio that was deep but not overbearing, with excellent and more prominent mids and smooth highs. Listening to Riverman on Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is a good example of this, with reassuring bass, excellent vocal processing, and solid, crisp highs and cymbal work on the track.
This deep bass is also present on Earth, Wind & Fire's “Let's Groove,” which features a prominent funky bass line, while Rush's “YYZ” has appropriate, spot-on hooks and beautiful extensions. As for the mids, James Taylor's Lighthouse is gorgeous, with the MM-500 handling his vocals well, as well as the song's prominent acoustic guitar and drum work, while Peter Mayer's The Last Island is dominated by his vocals, Presenting a rich soundscape, as well as the track’s brilliant percussion work.
The MM-500's treble processing also has a smooth and crisp effect, rather than being overly sharp like some other headphones I've tested. The intermittent cymbal crashes and tambourine hits of Phil Collins' “I'm Not Moving” illustrate this point well, while the track's insistent tolling of bells on Ralph MacDonald's “Calypso Breakdown” The sound has been handled skillfully. Steely Dan's “Do It Again” has always been a track I use to test my high notes, and the song's percussion-laden intro is a potential minefield for some cans. The MM-500 delivers excellent results, with everything from cymbals to chimes and organs delivered with exceptional smoothness and precision.
The soundstage here isn't as wide as other even more “affordable” open-back speakers I've tested, although there's a good sense of width and stunning precision, such as Rush's 2112, whose legendary 20 Minutes is much longer vocal tract sound. I always test headphones with part of the prog epic. The track's “Discovery” section, which builds from limited electric guitar parts and ambient water noise to staccato vocals and even harder rock, was a particular highlight of the test as it gives you a feel for the width and space of a set of cans , especially in the beginning. Also, I’ve been paying attention to the placement of the snare drum in “September” from “Earth” and “Wind and Fire.” If done correctly, they are far to the right, giving an excellent sense of location.
The more pronounced midrange in the MM-500's frequencies also helps make games more immersive, with footsteps in CS:2 being prominent, for example, while the open-back nature of the headset also helps enhance immersion. Solid stereoscopic imaging also helped me immerse myself in a Forza Horizon 5 match and hear the engine sounds of nearby cars, while performing well in Assetto Corsa. Playing GTA Online with the MM-500 was also a ton of fun, whether it was drift racing in the game or when I was running over pedestrians and fighting other online players in the heart of Los Santos.
The Audeze MM-500 are an excellent set of planar magnetic headphones, and while they're designed first and foremost for studio mixing and production, I'm frankly quite surprised at how well they perform for gaming and general music listening. Their bass is deep without being overbearing, the mids are excellent and precise, and the highs are smooth, making everything from Ultima to Grand Theft Auto a wonderful listening experience. The biggest problem, of course, is their hefty price tag – at £1,699/$1,699 they're purely for pro-level enthusiasts or those with plenty of spare change. Are they worth the price? For what you get, that's probably true. Would I recommend you buy them? No.
Allow me to explain – the MM-500 are one of the best headphones I use for pure listening as they have a reference-like neutral profile and great detail, although if you're looking for more energy in your music, more fun The thing is, Grado Hemps are awesome and only a third of the price. Or, if you want the fun of planar magnets without breaking the bank, pick up a pair of Audeze Maxwells, one of our favorite gaming headsets.
I'm not saying that the MM-500 are a bad set of cans from a contextual perspective, because they really aren't – the last 1600 or so words should prove that. But they're only worth it if you want neutral sound, the reputation of these planar magnetic drivers, and you've got £1699/$1699 to spare. Otherwise, they are a bit difficult to sell.
