Recording - November 2014 - 31

which have a 16-click volume adjustment
from silence to full blast, the difference
between Off and On was about four clicks.
So, for example, if you usually run your
iPhone with its volume set anywhere from
12 to flat out, the On setting lets you hear at
the same level with a setting of 8 to 12.
When you leave the mobile world, the
amp quickly becomes overkill. On every
audio interface I tested that had any sort
of real juice in its headphone circuit,
more than a tiny nudge above dead
silence was enough to make the Mo-Fi
too loud for comfort.
Sound
In the review process, I spent about 30
hours under the Mo-Fi phones. I found the
sound of the Mo-Fi to be quite enjoyable; it's
a very mid-forward and present phone, well
suited for rock and roll. On the low end,
bass is well-defined and abundant, thanks
in part to the large drivers and sealed
earcups. The highs are smooth and even;
they're not muffled or hashy or smeared,
delivering excellent results even in comparison with phones that have a lot more treble
extension according to the spec sheet.
While most of my mobile listening was
done on Apple gear, I did manage one
informal test with a Samsung Galaxy S4
smartphone. The phone's owner confirmed
that the On setting was a significant
improvement over what he was used to
hearing from his phone.
Interestingly, the On+ setting does not
make the Mo-Fi a lot louder; it's a subtle but
very pleasing EQ tweak (Blue proudly states
that it's all-analog, no DSP involved) that
brings the bass and low mids a hair upward
and is well-suited to dance music, hip hop, or
anything you'd like to hear with more boom
and thump. I wouldn't engage it for critical listening, but it's a lot of fun in casual use.
Blue markets Off mode as a sort of fallback position for when the amp runs out of
charge, but I actually liked it better than On
mode! The phones were no longer overly
loud when used with audio interfaces, I felt
the sound quality wasn't compromised in
the least on my Apple hardware, and the
42 ohm impedance allowed the phones to
get plenty loud even when connected to an
iPhone. Also, with one or two poorly shielded "semi-pro" audio interfaces, the On
mode produced a faint background whine,
which vanished in Off mode.

The weight of the Mo-Fi combines with its
headband design to create a divisive
ergonomic experience: you either love the
comfort and isolation, or you find the weight
and pressure distracting. I got the most comfortable results for my head when loosening
the top bar all the way; tightening the headband added pressure behind my temples but
didn't ease the weight on the top of my skull.
The lower joints, above the earcups,
allowed for a tight seal regardless of
where the top bar was placed, so I could
move it back and forth in a search for the
most comfortable fit, but they didn't help
support any weight that I could feel. I
couldn't wear the Mo-Fi for more than a
half hour before the discomfort above my
forehead and the tension in the back of my
neck from the weight demanded a rest; frequent breaks were the order of the day.
I needed to be sure that it wasn't just
me, so I took the Mo-Fi to a gathering of
local musicians, set the phones on a table
with an iPad, and let people try them on
their own without any introductory commentary beyond "Here's how you adjust
the headband, here's how you turn them
on, mind your levels." Pretty much everyone enjoyed the Mo-Fi's sound, and one
or two of the attendees flat-out loved how
they felt, but almost everyone else commented on their weight and/or uncomfortable feel, and only one person was
eager to wear them for more than a few
minutes. (It was the guy with the Samsung
smartphone, if you were wondering.)
On balance
All of my listening sessions with Mo-Fi
ended the same way. I would be listening
happily, totally immersed in the sound of the
phones, and I'd be yanked out of the

moment by my aching head and sore neck.
I have been known to sigh with relief when
taking off headphones, but usually after four
or five hours, not 30 minutes.
As for sound, we've given thumbs up to
other strongly mid-forward phones before,
but when we do, we have to advocate caution before using them for mixing or editing.
The Mo-Fi might sound fun and engaging,
but I wouldn't call it studio-neutral.
The Mo-Fi technology, cool as it is, seems
to me to be a solution in search of a problem. Adding the extra gain stage-even
one well matched to the drivers-doesn't
seem to offer sonic benefits that counterbalance the added weight and discomfort. It's
not impossible to build a great-sounding
passive headphone that coexists happily
with even the tiny amplifier in a mobile
device. I would even say that Blue's already
done it... just listen to the Mo-Fi with its amp
turned off!
Ironically, setting aside the amplification
and headband that make the Mo-Fi unique
might well produce a better headphone.
The earcups and drivers on the phones
sound great without the amp stage; a passive version at half the weight (and half the
price) would be an amazing competitor in
the world of pro audio headphones. But
the current design is simply too heavy and
fiddly to be a slam dunk, at least for this
reviewer.
Only time will tell if this technology will
be refined to the point where it's as common as active studio monitors, or if it
becomes a historical footnote along with
multitrack MiniDisc recorders and Digital
Compact Cassettes. In the meantime, MoFi is certainly a bold endeavor for a company with a history of exciting innovations,
but one that definitely falls into the "you
need to try it for yourself" category.
Price: $350
More from: Blue,
www.mofiheadphones.com

Carry that weight
There's one more number on the Mo-Fi
spec sheet that I haven't discussed yet: a
weight of 466 grams, a hair over one pound.
It's not impossible to build a headphone that
is heavy yet comfortable-the AKG K812
weighs nearly 14 ounces and you barely
notice you're wearing it-but the sensation of
weight is the first thing you feel when you pick
up the Mo-Fi phones, and when you put them
on your head, it intensifies.
RECORDING November 2014

31


http://www.mofiheadphones.com

Recording - November 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - November 2014

Contents
Recording - November 2014 - Cover1
Recording - November 2014 - Cover2
Recording - November 2014 - 1
Recording - November 2014 - 2
Recording - November 2014 - 3
Recording - November 2014 - 4
Recording - November 2014 - 5
Recording - November 2014 - Contents
Recording - November 2014 - 7
Recording - November 2014 - 8
Recording - November 2014 - 9
Recording - November 2014 - 10
Recording - November 2014 - 11
Recording - November 2014 - 12
Recording - November 2014 - 13
Recording - November 2014 - 14
Recording - November 2014 - 15
Recording - November 2014 - 16
Recording - November 2014 - 17
Recording - November 2014 - 18
Recording - November 2014 - 19
Recording - November 2014 - 20
Recording - November 2014 - 21
Recording - November 2014 - 22
Recording - November 2014 - 23
Recording - November 2014 - 24
Recording - November 2014 - 25
Recording - November 2014 - 26
Recording - November 2014 - 27
Recording - November 2014 - 28
Recording - November 2014 - 29
Recording - November 2014 - 30
Recording - November 2014 - 31
Recording - November 2014 - 32
Recording - November 2014 - 33
Recording - November 2014 - 34
Recording - November 2014 - 35
Recording - November 2014 - 36
Recording - November 2014 - 37
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Recording - November 2014 - 72
Recording - November 2014 - Cover3
Recording - November 2014 - Cover4
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