Monoprice Monolith M1060

Measured

On oratory1990's GRAS rig the M1060 sits about 4 dB above his HD 600 at 20–30 Hz and level with it from 60 to 150 Hz; InnerFidelity's rig shows the same pattern (+6.7 dB at 20–30 Hz, −1.3 dB at 60–150 Hz against its own HD 600). Against the Harman target it is still a few decibels shy in the deepest octave. SoundStage! found “a flatter measured response than the other planar-magnetics, with more bass” than the $299 HiFiMan HE400S and Tidal Force Wave 5.

vs. listeners — The graphs show extension, not quantity: what is elevated is the 20–60 Hz octave, while the punch region is no fuller than a Sennheiser HD 600's. That is why one camp hears “bottomless” bass and the other hears no body — they are listening to different octaves of the same curve.

Measured

oratory1990's unit runs 1–2 dB above the Harman target from 1 to 3.5 kHz; InnerFidelity's unit sits about 3 dB under its own HD 600 at 2–3.5 kHz — the opposite lean. SoundStage! measured “an apparent mismatch between the right and left channels between 1 and 4kHz”, and purr1n's waterfall shows a semi-broad bump at 1 kHz that he calls the most bothersome element of the tuning.

vs. listeners — The forward and veiled camps map onto the two rigs: a unit like oratory1990's leans forward through the upper mids, a unit like InnerFidelity's is recessed there. With channel mismatch measured on several samples, two listeners may simply have heard two different headphones.

Measured

oratory1990's GRAS trace has a narrow spike at 4.44 kHz about 6.6 dB above his HD 600, then runs 2–2.5 dB under the HD 600 from 5.5 to 12 kHz. SoundStage! found “the response between 8 and 16kHz is lower than I’m used to seeing” and a spectral-decay plot with “a strong series of resonances centered at 4.5kHz”, matched by an impedance bump to 57 Ω at 4.4 kHz. InnerFidelity's unit instead shows a dip at 4–5 kHz; reading those graphs, AMW1011 noted that the resonance sat at 5 kHz in one channel and 4 kHz in the other. DMS3 TV's grille-and-foam tests point at the stock grilles, not the rear foam, as the cause of the treble irregularity.

vs. listeners — Everyone's data shows the resonance; nobody's data predicts who will hear it. purr1n, who measured it, writes that “There is debate to whether these are audible with music”, while Max_Settings reports a headache within minutes and several owners say their pairs never ring. If 4–5 kHz is a sore spot for you, buy where returns are easy.

Measured

Against the Harman over-ear target, oratory1990's unit stays within about −1 to +2.3 dB from 150 Hz to 4 kHz, spikes narrowly at 4.4 kHz, then falls 4–6 dB short from 5.5 to 12 kHz. Reading InnerFidelity's graphs, AMW1011 summed it up: “It measures as very smooth tbh. The presence region is heavily recessed like the earlier Audezes it is trying to copy.”

vs. listeners — A curve that hugs the target through the midrange but drops away above 5 kHz can read as neutral on a graph and as mid-forward or dark in the ear — which is exactly how the two camps describe it.

Measured

Nothing measures stage directly, but the top octave that listeners read as “air” and hall depth is where every rig finds the M1060 soft: 8–16 kHz on SoundStage!'s G.R.A.S. rig, 5.5–12 kHz on oratory1990's.

Measured

SoundStage! measured a right/left mismatch between 1 and 4 kHz — “the best match I was able to get after many attempts” — and purr1n reported “some channel level and diaphragm tension imbalance with this unit.” On InnerFidelity's sample the treble resonance sat at a different frequency in each channel.

vs. listeners — Separation and channel matching are different things, so the praise and the measured mismatch can both be true — but it makes imaging the aspect most likely to differ between two pairs.

Measured

SoundStage! reports that “The M1060s’ total harmonic distortion (THD) is about as low as I’ve measured”, and a member reading purr1n's SBAF distortion plots called them some of the lowest he had seen on that rig. Hands' own rig, by contrast, found distortion rising above 3 kHz along with the ringing.

Measured

“The sensitivity of the M1060s, measured between 300Hz and 3kHz with a 1mW signal, is 100.5dB.” Impedance is flat at 50 Ω apart from a bump to 57 Ω at 4.4 kHz, and adding 70 Ω of source impedance changed nothing: “the M1060s’ tonal balance won’t change depending on the amp used.”

vs. listeners — 100.5 dB/mW gets it loud from a phone, yet owners keep reporting that a desktop amp transforms it. Both can hold: average level and current on dynamic peaks are different questions.

Measured

Monoprice rates it at 500 g. On Amazon, 23 reviews mention weight (8 positive, 15 negative) and 24 mention comfort (11 positive, 13 negative). The Master Switch found it “did start to get a bit weighty at around the three hour mark”.

Measured

Owner tallies rather than lab data: in the 8,000-post Head-Fi thread, 24 owners report their own cracked wood ring between March 2017 and August 2018 — including a second-revision pair — and 18 report MMCX socket failures on launch units. Amazon's review topics run net negative on build quality (13 positive, 26 negative) and durability (8 positive, 19 negative). SoundGuys records that “Some people had a little trouble with the MMCX interconnects in the ear cups; so they were replaced by 2.5mm jacks.”

Measured

Measured against an 85 dB SPL external noise field on the G.R.A.S. rig, attenuation is essentially nil across the band.

Measured

Launched at $299.99. On 14 October 2026 Amazon sold it for $392.98 and Monoprice's own store listed it at $399.99, in stock. Amazon reviews that mention value run 27 positive to 8 negative.