 In the never-ending debate about headphones versus monitors for mixing, I've always sat firmly on the fence, saying each to their own, but I personally prefer to mix with monitors. But all that changed with these headphones, the Audis MM500s. Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you're well. I have many studio headphones in fact, and most of them are quite familiar to home recording studio enthusiasts, and many of them are great quality in terms of design, build and sound as well. And whilst I do use them in my mixing process, I've never felt quite comfortable enough to use them as my primary mixing tool. And then these came along, the Audis MM500s. These are a very different beast indeed. Now I'm going to talk about some experiences I've had with these headphones, which I've had with no other headphones at all. We'll get into that later. But first of all, there is a subject which we must address before any other price. Spoiler alert, these are the best headphones I've ever used by a pretty big margin. But they're also the most expensive headphones I've ever used. Now whilst that's a significant factor, I'm going to suggest that for some of you, you may be better off investing your money in these than in studio monitors. I can't believe I just said that. Now before I tell you the price, I just want to make a deal with you. When I do tell you the price, I just want you to stick around for long enough to hear me out as to why I think that may be the case. Do we have a deal? Good. Okay. So these headphones are currently $1,699. Remember our deal. Now, as I say, I think for some of you, you may be better off spending that money on these headphones than on studio monitors. But in order to figure out why I'm saying that, we have to get back to that debate. Headphones versus monitors. So here's how the debate generally goes. Studio monitors can be superior in terms of frequency response, sound stage, and they also have natural phenomena such as crossfeed. Studio headphones, on the other hand, are highly convenient. They won't annoy the neighbors. They're great if you're on the go and they take the room out of the equation. Now that last point is really important because if you've got some studio monitors in a well-shaped, well-sized room with well-placed room treatment, then I'd say they win almost every single time. But let's get real. Our home studios are not generally even in well-designed rooms or even designed rooms. In fact, your room is probably the only one that was available after all the bedrooms and dining rooms, et cetera, were already taken by the rest of the family. Now studio monitors in a badly-shaped, badly-sized room, perhaps with no room treatment, will sound like garbage. That is just sadly the case. So after you've spent your hard-earned money on your studio monitors, you're definitely going to need to invest some time and money in some room treatment and it's got to be pretty well placed. Now at this point, the $1,699 you're going to spend on headphones like these doesn't seem so bad if you can be sure that you can use these as your primary mixing tool. That for me is where the MM500s come in because I think these can be that tool. The MM500s are open-backed headphones with a frequency response of 5Hz to 50kHz, an SPO of 130 decibels and an 18 ohm impedance. As you would hope for headphones in this price range, they deliver wonderfully in terms of build quality and materials. The design is pretty simple. The metal cups are connected to a rock-solid metal hinge which also swivels 180 degrees as they connect to the height adjusters. These are in turn connected to the metal headband which has a comfortable soft strap attached. There are no cables running through the headband as the main detachable cable is connected to each side with dedicated high quality connectors. The straight braided cable connects directly to a quarter inch jack. I particularly enjoy the well padded left and right shaped ear pads which encircle my ears with a pretty good even connection to the side of my head. You receive the headphones in a super nice lockable travel case where you find a certificate of authenticity and a warranty card. There's one thing which is completely different about these headphones to any other headphones in my collection. Most headphones use what they call dynamic drivers. This is a similar technology to that which we use in our loudspeakers. These however use something called a planar magnetic driver. Now I've put a link in the description down below to an article which explains the differences between these two much better than I ever could. But a couple of the advantages are that you can get a more extended and more natural bass frequency response so that's very welcome. You can also get a better soundstage with this type of driver but they are much more expensive to manufacture. And all of this is all very well but what about the experience? So before I received these headphones they were kind of hyped up to me. I had some friends who had used planar magnetic headphones before and they talked them up to me and I also read some of the marketing material so I was expecting good things and often that's a recipe for disaster because you'll find that when you've hyped them up to yourself that items like this will struggle to live up to that hype. All I can tell you is that after a few seconds of using these I simply said wow. I mean these were miles apart from any other headphone I'd ever used or experienced. Now the best word I can think of to describe them is natural but they're not coloured or hyped in any way and on the other hand they don't feel kind of sterile and bland either. They just feel like you are in the room with the musicians if that makes any sense at all. Now one of the great things about them is the bass response for me is just the most natural bass response I've heard in any headphone. I felt like I could really trust it and you just generally feel like you're hearing a lot of detail and that you're in a nice space. They're probably the closest thing I've ever heard to good studio monitors in a well treated room and that brings me to the unusual experience that I've had with these. So usually when I'm switching from my studio monitors to open backed headphones I mute my studio monitors. If you don't then you get the sound of those studio monitors coming in through the grills of the headphones and you get a sort of unreliable experience if you do that. Now once in a while I've put my headphones on and I think oh I forgot to mute my speakers I can still kind of hear them, I take them off, I mute them and then I carry on. What's happened with these several times in the last month that I've been using them is I've put them on, I've started using them and I thought oh I forgot to mute my studio monitors. I take them off and then realise no I did mute my studio monitors. I think that speaks to the kind of experience that you get with these. It's much lighter, it's much more airy. It doesn't feel like the sound is just being pumped straight into your ears quite as much. Now often open backed headphones are a bit more like that but with these as I say I thought I was hearing the monitors through the headphones. I've never had that experience before with any of the other headphones which I own. As I say I think it speaks to how well these work in terms of their natural feel. Now the good news is that while Audis did send me these headphones so that I could review them, the opinions are still 100% my own. And although these are the best headphones that I've ever used they're still not in fact perfect. Now this is a lot of money to spend so I think it's really important to let you know that these are also the heaviest headphones I've ever used. Weighing in at 495 grams they're significantly heavier than any other headphones in my collection. I didn't personally find this a problem, I've been using them a lot for the last month and it hasn't bothered me but I did notice it the first time I use them. So if this kind of thing can be a problem for you then it's definitely worth taking into consideration. These headphones were designed in collaboration with 11 time Grammy award winning Manny Mara Quinn who shares credits with people like Alicia Keys, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran and a whole host of other A-list artists. Audis also claim that Manny used these headphones to mix a recent number one album from Kendrick Lamar and I can believe it to be honest with you, it's definitely something that I'll be doing. I mean mixing with these headphones that is, I don't know about the Grammy award winning part of it but in all seriousness if you are having to work in a less than ideal environment and you're going to be ending up spending a lot of money on monitors and then room treatment only to perhaps find out that you're still in a less than ideal environment then I would definitely give these serious consideration. They are a bit on the higher end of the price range but I personally think they are well worth it. Let me know what you think in the comments down below and I'll see you in the next video.