Some would say that this headphone has W rizz.
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Thanks for the review! Curious about this vs FT1 Pro. Basically trying to achieve HD600 with more bass + spaciousness.
If you’re comfortable using parametric EQ, you can give the HD 600 more bass and a more spacious sound. I wouldn’t recommend much more than a 5 dB boost in the low frequencies, as going too high could increase distortion to perceptual levels. More bass is certainly attainable, though.
I don’t have Azurys on hand anymore unfortunately, but 480 Pro is similar in bass but a bit "cleaner’ in the mids, with smoother treble and much better ergonomics. Same story for Hadenys though it has more bass than Hadenys.
I like that the MV1 doesn’t have any sort of scoop in the low midrange/upper bass which makes things sound fuller/thicker/denser/heavier, and I find that for certain bass instruments the treble peak around 6 kHz actually makes them sound extra textured in an interesting way. That said, HD 480 Pro’s treble is way way smoother on my head than MV1’s is.
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Satyr 4 is considerably darker and less smooth, while still a bit too boomy in the bass for me. Solid headphone, but 480 Pro is better for me overall, if my memory of Satyr 4 is accurate. Satyr 4 is also quite comfortable but not as well built.
I picked up a pair yesterday. It’s too early for listening impressions except that they are definitely one of the best closed backs I’ve heard. Easily better than the DCA Aeon 2 Noire or Fiio FT1 for me. It didn’t take me long to feel the need to boost the sub-bass region a bit tho (PK 40hz, 3db, Q1.4).
My only real issue right now is unfortunately comfort. The cups are pretty small and to not feel them rub my ears immediately, I need more tilt in the oval cups. I get this by pushing the headband back on my head more than I normally would, which feels a bit odd. But the real issue is that even with this, after 15-20 mins my ears get irritated by contact with the padding and I need to take them off. The cups are just ever-so-slightly too small to fit around my ears. 
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Sorry to hear that man. Your experience makes me wonder if they’ll fit me.
@listener Are the openings and depth identical to the 490 Pro pads? Both the producer and mixing pads fit me size-wise, but the latter weren’t deep enough and my ears touched the L & R screen. I do recall finding the comfort of that headphone with the producer pads to be phenomenal, though.
Most similar to the producer pads, mixing pads compress more and gave me the same issue.
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Hello. Thank you for the review @listener
I wanted to ask about some comparsions to the Sony MDR-MV1.
Im wearing glasses, and I find that the MV1 is somewhat comfortable. Better than my DT 990 pro(which clamps way to hard)
however, My upper ear is kinda pushing into the cup/speaker mesh. So It does create a small amount of pain.
and Im struggling abit to have it sit correctly over my head and ears.
and I found that the MV1’s is somewhat sharp sounding to me.
the DT 990 PRO I have doesn’t necessarily sound great. but they never caused me ear fatigue.
So Im wondering if replacing my MDR-MV1 with the HD 480 Pro would perhaps solve some of that.
What I liked with the MV1 was the design, and the build quality is decent also.
and when it comes to sound, I enjoyed the bass, and mids. but I think that the higher frequencies seemed a little bit harsh which got
a little much after an extended period of time.
Thank you.
Nice! How do they compare to the Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee? Thanks!
@listener-reviews, this sounds music to my ears finally owning the HD490 pro and not having a single good closed back headphones. Would EQing help in improving the dynamics, slam and tactility of bass. I’m just curious. Great comparisons by the way. Thank you.
Thanks for the reply! Outside of the stock tuning, would you say then the 480 Pro is the better EQ platform given the treble is better out of the box? Would it be easy enough to get the ‘‘thickness’’ back into the bass on the 480 Pro with some EQ?
This is a really interesting pair. I’ve been in the market for a pair of closed back headphones, and decided to give these a try after the positive review (I too am a big fan of the Edition XV and sensed that I might have a similar ear/preference).
However, in this case, I’m not totally sold. The bass is full and fun (not really neutral or reference-sounding to my ear though), and the mids are nice. The treble is actually where these let me down a little bit: to my ear, these aren’t overly even in the treble, and sound lacking in the upper frequencies. For lack of a better term, this makes the HD 480 Pro’s sound relatively “low resolution” to my ear, compared to my open-back sets like the Hedd D1 and even the Edition XV, which has an overall more natural sounding treble presentation to my ear, and generally sounds more detailed overall.
I had a recent similar experience with the Bose QC Ultra Gen 2s (though those were obviously significantly worse in the treble, to my ears, than the 480 Pros). I’d love to better understand it, as I assume this is something unique to my ear. In any case, I think these are overall still an excellent pair, and maybe the best closed-backs I’ve heard so far. I’m not sure yet if they’re for me, though.
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For me 480 lacks in clarity because of a dip around 4khz, also there is an unpleasant peak around 6.5khz on my head.
After fixing these two they are pretty good sounding closed-back. But sure, a good pair of open-back like D1 will be better for me as well at least because of openness.
Also, it’s sad no Capra Strap is available for 480, I have a hot spot on top of my head.
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Wow, thanks for this post. The 4k dip certainly is what I’m hearing. Adding a couple of db in that region gives me what I was looking for (I’m not hearing any 6.5k peaks though). With that said, I could see how having less energy there might make these an easier listen for long periods. This is definitely a pair which is growing on me.
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Closed backs will be more variant across listeners than open backs, especially in the treble. Sounds like you would benefit from doing some personalized EQ using sine sweeps, pink noise, etc.
Briefly had these (they’re on their way back to the retailer now).
Definitely a solidly tuned headphone and probably the most neutral and inoffensive closed back I’ve heard, but I must say it was inoffensive in a derogatory sense as well.
Very soft sounding. Somewhat dark, though not across the board as I got some listening fatigue from them after an hour or so.
My partner hated them and said they sounded “echoey” which I thought was interesting. To me they sounded more hollow, but perhaps that’s getting at the same perception.
They are quite comfortable so I was tempted to keep them but briefly comparing them to the Aeon Noire 2 (with the black felt inserts) disavowed me of that. The Noire 2 is problematic in the treble, but it’s lively and (treble aside) one of the best out-of-the-box headphones I’ve heard.
The 480 Pro makes less mistakes but sound lifeless in comparison.
I should note I have longish hair, beard and glasses, basically the worst case scenario for a seal with a closed back.
I think the 480 Pro sealed better on my head than other closed backs, but it definitely wasn’t quite there. Boosting bass and filling in that notch improved the headphone’s sound, but overall it was still pretty soft sounding.
Not for me, particularly given the headphones I already have on hand.
On a non-sound note, the build quality on my unit was not up to snuff. The plastic felt cheap and there was a crease on one of the cups, where it looks like the finish was unevenly applied. Which made it look like thick paper folded over on itself.
EDIT: oh, I should say they sounded much better the louder you turned them up, but I don’t like to listen above the low 70s very often or for long, so that doesn’t really work for me.
If I got a better seal (so less bass loss) or was using them consistently with EQ capabilities that would minimize some of my issues.
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I have been able to mitigate the small cup size discomfort by reducing the amount of clamp. The steel headband is pretty stiff so I have to be brutal with it to get anywhere. But once it loosens up I notice the cups much less.
Speaking of the MV1s I was loookin to step into this world most of everything I’m hearing is jargon to me I’m not an audio file I just like headphones haha but me specifically I like something exciting like maybe punchy bass (explosions and gunshots) to hit hard I’m not super tuned to hear how perfect diff headphones are but I’ve been running the maxwells for my daily’s and I like them but just to me there kinda boring I mostly listen to music (tool and things alike) and I’m gaming as well I don’t care about competitive advantage but a wider sound stage would be cool to hear things where there actually happening like voices from NPCs where there coming from and I just want something exciting with bass keep in mind I barely know what I’m talking about I watch you guys on YouTube and you seem to like the MV1s a bit and was wondering if you would recommend those for my next purchase?