I’ll put together an article on this headphone shortly but wanted to post the measurements and some quick notes here first.
RODE NTH-100 frequency response taken on the GRAS 43AG with KB5000 anthropometric pinnae:
Assessment: While at first glance this looks decent and in general I’d say it is decent, there are some subtleties to this that should be pointed out. Strict target adherence acolytes will likely rejoice at a result like this, but others may find it a bit on the thick/muddy side of things. I find myself in the latter camp on this one.
There’s quite a lot of masking going on in the upper bass and lower mids that tends to obscure the clarity of the upper mids, yielding a kind of sound more cynical audiophiles might describe as ‘warmpoo’. But the bigger issue in my view is that this has the same kind of problems that affected the Drop Panda, in that the treble region is a bit too rolled off - especially in relation to the elevated midbass and lower mids.
With that said, there is still a lot of good here as well, specifically with the upper mid section of the ear gain being about where you’d want it to be, so maybe the better way to describe the NTH-100 would be “warmpoo done right”, if such a thing were possible. Moreover, this one is going to be very easy to improve with EQ, which is commendable as well.
Channel Matching:
I had a slightly harder time getting the right channel to seal, but for the most part, as we’d expect, the bass level is determined by the coupling. Otherwise, this unit does damn well on the channel matching front.
EDIT AGAIN: I tried it both with the connector plug out and with it in (and with the cable swapped to the other side), and there’s essentially no change to the right side bass. So it’s likely just to do with subtle differences in the pads or coupling.
Harmonic Distortion (not as meaningful as people think):
Normally the harmonic distortion on modern headphones is low enough for it not to matter, but in this case I think it’s worth pointing out. This is taken at 94dB at 1khz (externally calibrated), which is loud, but at a level where I’d expect this to be better kept in check. What’s more worrying is the elevated 3rd and 5th (almost reminiscent of BA driver behavior). Is it audible? I’ll need to spend some more time with it, but I dare say it might be given that the higher order products are also quite elevated.
Notes:
- Excellent build quality & comfort, with a unique arm extension system. I can see this being very useful for Rode’s intended audience (pro applications, creators, and so forth). It’s also very lightweight.
- The pads are triangle shaped, which is interesting. I think this will work for most people, but I have abnormally large ears so I think they could’ve been a bit bigger for me.
- Subjective qualities are generally acceptable, apart from some blunting on trailing ends of tones.
- Some minor smearing/haze with generally poor image separation, but also potentially as a result of the tonality masking issues in the mids and rolled off treble.
- Isolation is pretty good actually, but I’ll need to test this more because my studio is a quiet environment.
All in all, the AKG K371 still reigns supreme for closed-back sound quality on a budget - at least for those who want a high degree of clarity from their headphones. But I do think RODE mostly hit their target with the NTH-100, as it offers a fantastic build and design (that’s far superior to the K371), with good isolation, and sound quality that, while not dethroning the well-established leaders at this price, is at least competitive. I imagine anyone looking for a warmer and thicker presentation will find something to like here. For the rest of us, it’s really just a matter of tweaking the lower mids and bass the tiniest bit to get it there.
EDIT: Upon further listening, there’s definitely some blunting going on for trailing ends of tones. I’m going to remove the front-damping felt piece and measure afterwards to see how this improves things.