“What did I do with the headphones?” Thank you so much for not editing this out. Had to clean the coffee off of my tablet. 
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RTINGs has just posted RØDE NTH-100 Headphones Review with their usual assessments and measurments. Spoiler: they scored low for wireless gaming and phone calls.
Results seems to be consistent with most folks’ observations despite a driver mismatch in the tested unit.
I’ve been enjoying mine with my Fosi Audio P1 tube pre-amp with Voskhod 6J1P-EV pentode tubes between my Topping E30 amd L30. Photos of these components are in the album.
While I have no tube amp, a man with a camera on his head reports that the NTH-100 does nothing special, as expected from a low impedance fairly sensitive headphone.
Since I shared my positive experience with these. Here’s an update:
The locking mechanism broke. It actually happened only shortly after my last posts in this thread right after I got them.
One day I grasped the earcups and lifted them off my ears just enough to remove them and it snapped.
The part is not replaceable. Even though the hole looks like an allen key, there’s a rivet in there. They’re non repairable.
The rest of the build and materials seemed so good that I don’t know what the deal was with that. The part was EXTREMELY brittle.
I am so gentle and careful with my stuff and tend not to ever drop or snag that if something breaks that I own it’s proof that it’s defective.
I talked to RODE and they offered to replace if I pay to ship my pair off to them at my cost, but I have been too busy.
If they don’t revise that material drastically, these are pretty much useless in spite of all of the good things about them.
I am seeing a pattern with some of the headphones that I have bought over the last few years where the plastics are so terrible they can’t survive the most gentle and careful handling and use. I can’t even imagine them surviving a user that sometimes drops or snags sometimes.
I owned an ATHM50 that I used daily for a decade and it was made completely of plastic and they have a new owner now and they’re still fine. Too bad they didn’t sound good lol. Everyone else needs to get on that level. except with better sound.
If I get a replacement I’ll ask if they have revised the material, if they haven’t, there’s no way anyone should buy these at all despite how good everything else about them is for a simple field recording headphone where I found them the most useful.
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Mine hasn’t snapped yet, but one of the locks has cracks. If you google it, it’s becoming a common problem with NTH-100.
“They’re non repairable.” “We can’t send you the part.” They wanted me to send the entire headphone across the country to get a replacement where the defect in the very brittle plastic had not been addressed. I see that as a way to simply provide a solution that acts as a deterrent. Shipping would have probably cost a large percentage of the cost of the headphones and the cycle would never end or produce something usable.
Behold the bolt mod. Hardware store parts. I’ve been using mine this way for a few months and it works great. The rest of the build on these is great and the parts the hardware here interface with are metal, it seems to be fine. Forward and backwards tilt are lost.
Now that I have been actually using the headphones again the right side has now shattered as well. The left side plastic part cracked and disentegrated and the entire earcup fell off eventually. The right side is broken, but still holding on. I will see if the comfort is affected once both sides have been bolted on, I don’t really think so.
The parts list in order of the stack in the picture: Nut, lock washer, washer, washer, bolt.
The hole on the plastic part is indeed an hex allen screw and not a rivet. These are repairable.
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It seems like it’s just par for the course on these. You should go ahead and get the hardware so that you will be ready because the breakage happens suddenly.
I replaced the other side with the hardware right after I posted last. No issues from the loss of the forward and back articulations on both sides. The cup swivel covers the fit for my head just fine. If these hold up just the way they are for a long time these were still a good acquisition for me, but only time will tell. The rest of the build seems so good. I mean the structure that the terrible plastic part mounts to is all metal lol.
I was really feeling burned at first, but now it’s all good. Customer service from RODE did not impress me at all. They need to reformulate that plastic because that part is junk and they need to offer replacement parts for people who ask. When I was removing the right side the other day I squished the broken part in my hands just to examine it and the plastic was just pathetically brittle and weak and I could just smoosh it to bits in my hand. If all of them are like that and they didn’t change it, every single customer’s headphones are going to break from normal light use.
I still like these for my everyday lighter weight comfortable youtube, movies, monitoring for field recording etc. headphones. It’s just too bad that you have to help them along to keep them in one piece.
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