V-Moda Crossfade M-100: Quality at a price

If you are an audiophile and want some excellent music quality while travelling, without looking like an alien with bulging earphones, the V-Moda Crossfade M-100 seems a right choice. The only issue would be a small hole in your pocket—well, the V-Moda Crossfade M-100 doesn’t come cheap, but at a whopping Rs 24,990. However, the investment won’t leave you sad.

The Crossfade M-100 features a very good build quality. With CliqFold metal hinges, the M-100 folds into a tiny bundle, allowing for greater portability when not in use. The wires are detachable and the headphones come bundled with a zipper-based clamshell type exoskeleton carry case for protection. The M-100 has a replaceable metal shield for each ear cup and can be customized with different colours to match your style.

The Crossfade M-100 has a rugged build and an extremely comfortable design. The headphones have comfortable, replaceable ear cup memory foam cushions, which provide noise blocking, but to an extent. Loud audio can be heard outside, while when you are listening to low volume music, you can also hear your surroundings (if loud enough). The springy actions of the headband provide for a comfortable grip over the ear and lay just-enough pressure for comfort. Each ear piece features a 50mm driver, a combined impedance of 32 Ohms and have a frequency response of 5Hz to 30KHz. The M-100 weighs around 280g. The Crossfade M-100 comes with a two-year warranty period. Additional accessories for the Crossfade are custom shields, memory cushions, boomPro microphones and coilpro cables.

Bundled along with the headphones are a pair of Kevlar-reinforced cables, one which can be used for regular stereo audio while the other as a headset with a mic provision in-line with the wire. Both have 3.5-mm headphone jacks at either ends and can connect to either the left ear or right ear cups. The audio jacks in the ear cups can also be used for daisy chaining another set of earphones for sharing your music with another pair of headphones. The regular audio cable also features a second parallel 3.5-mm audio slot for SharePlay, using which, you can share your audio with a friend and another pair of headphones or use it with DJ equipment in tandem without adapters. A 6.3mm, gold-plated adapter is also bundled for converting the 3.5-mm headphone jacks for high-end audio equipment.     

On the performance front, the M-100 fits into the crossover headphone arena and audiophiles will definitely find the quality of the audio pleasing to their requirements. The audio quality is crystal clear, has a great bass response with a punch and features good levels of mids and highs. At higher volumes too, the audio quality doesn’t budge—the drivers can take high volume audio without any distortion, whatsoever. The audio quality is almost with no match, but we must say there are a few others that could still outperform the M-100s. Nevertheless, the Crossfade M-100 is an ideal equipment for DJs or for those hunting for great quality audio while listening to concert music, heavy rock, and alike. A great contender for gaming and movies too—if you are investing for a good pair of headphones and wouldn’t mind your pockets a bit lighter, the M-100 is a good investment.

The Crossfade M-100 is definitely one of the superior-class headphones available out there. With a great build and good audio quality combined with detailed design and ergonomics, the M-100 is definitely here to impress you. Although the price seems to be touching the roof, audiophiles hunting for quality, be it sound, build, comfort or design, won’t feel the pinch as much.