Audeze MM-500 review: planar magnetic comes at a premium

Audeze is an American brand best known for making everything from some serious audiophile grade headphones to some of the best gaming headsets we’ve tested. Their MM-500 is more of the former option, as a big, chunky and impressive set of planar magnetic cans which have an eye-wateringly high price tag to boot – you’ll just need to fork out £1699/$1699, no big deal really.

I’ve tested some reasonably dear headphones before, although none have made quite the same initial impression as the MM-500s. Whereas the likes of the Focal Bathys come with a sleek, gorgeous hard case, Audeze has chosen to go for a full-on briefcase for transporting these cans in. It’s made of a blend of metal and plastic, and is seriously sturdy, while inside, there’s a generous helping of moulded foam for transporting the MM-500s. You feel like you’re a member of the US Secret Service opening the briefcase up.

Once you open the briefcase up, you’re greeted with the MM-500s. They’re fully metal, with a blend of machined alumnium and spring steel, which gives a premium feel while also being reasonably light at 495g. That’s still quite heavy against a pair of Grados, for instance, although is lighter than you’d initially expect. The MM-500s look like a classic pair of Audeze cans, with a thinner headband, earcups with oval cutouts on the outside, and big, plush angled earpads that are wonderfully soft amd supportive, while also coming with a heavier clamping force to ensure they stick on your noggin.

The weight of the MM-500s takes some getting used to, especially with the stiffer headband, although placing it over a stack of books can help to loosen it up a tad if the clamping force is too much out of the box, according to Audeze. It is on the tighter side, but I didn’t have much of an issue with it when using these in the evenings to listen to some tunes or play some games with.

The MM-500’s earcups are perhaps the opposite to the Grado Hemps I’ve also tested recently. Where the Hemps were a thinner, shallower option with fabric padding, the MM-500 has these luscious, deep cups with some of the plushest leather I’ve felt on a set of headphones outside of my own Focal Bathys I use every day. The earcups are also angled to conform to the fact that people’s ears aren’t actually parallel to the sides of your head – they’re angled out a little. This means sound goes right into your ears, as opposed to on other headphones which lack the adjustability for you to swivel the earcups to achieve this same purpose.

Your ears also sit quite close to the drivers inside the MM-500, although they aren’t necessarily drivers per se. After all, these are planar magnetic headphones, as opposed to the more common dynamic drivers. I’ve not an expert on this by any means, but, in essence being planar magnetic means that they work by suspending the headphones’ diaphragm material between magnetic fields which cause vibration, as opposed to working by placing the driver over a coil that’s pulled by a magnet, in the case of dynamic drivers. It means that planar magnetic cans need more surface area to work, hence the fact that the MM-500 are quite bulky against more ‘standard’ headphones.

In terms of their tuning, it’s here where the MM-500 mark a departure from previous Audeze efforts, with a move more towards a reference set of cans, in the same vein as Sennheiser’s HD660S2. After all, these are designed perhaps more for music production and studio work than they are for generalist use. This is arguably due to the name that quietly adorns the MM-500’s earcups. Look closely, and you’ll see Manny Maroquin’s name on the side. He might not be a name you’ve heard of, but the albums and songs by artists he’s produced or mixed you most certainly will have. Taylor Swift’s Red for instance, Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten or Bruno Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox, have all had work on by Marroquin, and he’s produced the MM-500 in collaboration with Audeze. That’s quite the endorsement.

With this point in mind, it changes how you view the MM-500. After all, they might not be as exciting or energetic as other cans out there, but they’re designed with a specific purpose in mind – to give the most accurate view of music possible. Fundamentally, if audio sounds as it should when mixed in here, it’s going to be excellent elsewhere. The other thing about these being designed for audio mixing means they come with the massive quarter-inch jack on the end, but do come with a 3.5mm adapter for plugging into more normal things, so you can use the MM-500s with your laptop, or a DAC.

I should say that you can genuinely use these with a MacBook or otherwise – they’re remarkably easy to drive, with a low impedance of just 18 ohms. While it isn’t a foolproof method of measuring how easy headphones are to work with, it means you don’t necessarily require specialist audio gear for them to work, and get plenty loud. I had no issues using them with my MacBook Pro, or usual gaming PC for that matter with their bundled headphone jacks, although giving them more oomph with a DAC or DAP is likely to yield higher-quality listening.

Music out of the MM-500s, whether it’s Latin pop, hard rock or jazz fusion, has this wonderfully smooth and warm quality that sounds excellent. Upon plugging them into either my HiBy R3 II, FiiO M11S or Chord Mojo 2 DAC, I was greeted with some gorgeous audio with a deep but not overbearing low-end, excellent and more prominent mid-range and smooth treble. A listen to Riverman from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds exemplified this wonderfully, with reassuring bass, fantastic vocal handling and solid, crisp treble with the track’s cymbal work.

That deep low-end was also reflected in the fantastic Let’s Groove from Earth, Wind & Fire, with the track’s prominent funky bassline, while Rush’s YYZ carried appropriate, accurate oomph with wonderful extension. As for the mid-range, James Taylor’s Lighthouse was gorgeous, with the MM-500 handling his vocals well, as well as the song’s prominent acoustic guitar and drum work, while Peter Mayer’s The Last Island was a rich soundscape fronted by his vocals, and the track’s brilliant percussion work.

The MM-500 also handles treble with a smooth and crisp finish, as opposed to it being too sharp, as with some other headphones I’ve tested. This was demonstrated well with the intermitted cymbal crashes and tambourine hits in Phil Collins’ I’m Not Moving, while on Ralph MacDonald’s Calypso Breakdown, the track’s constant bell hits were handled with panache. Steely Dan’s Do It Again is always a track I use for testing treble, with the song’s percussion-laden introduction a potential minefield for some cans. The MM-500 served up a sublime result with everything from its cymbals to chimes and organ having this excellent smoothness and precision to it.

The soundstage here isn’t as wide as other, even more ‘affordable’ open backs I’ve tested, although there is a good sense of width and awe-inspiring precision, such as on Rush’s 2112, the legendary 20 minute long multi-part prog epic I always use for testing headphones. The track’s ‘Discovery’ section, which builds from limited electric guitar parts with ambient water noise into intermittent vocals and even harder rock is a particular highlight for testing, as it gives you a sense of how wide and spacious a set of cans can be, particularly at the beginning. In addition, I’ve always paid attention to the position of the bongos on Earth, Wind & Fire’s September. Get it right, and they’re far off in the distance on the right hand side, with an excellent sense of placement.

The more pronounced mid-range in amongst the MM-500’s frequency also helped to make games immersive too, with footsteps being prominent in the likes of CS:2, and the open back nature of the headphones also helping immersion. The solid stereo imaging also helped my immersion in Forza Horizon 5 races with engine notes of nearby cars, while also working well in Assetto Corsa, too. GTA Online was also fantastic fun with the MM-500, with the fun of the game’s drift racing or when I was simply running over pedestrians and picking fights with other online players in the midst of Los Santos.

The Audeze MM-500 is a brilliant set of planar magnetic headphones that, while designed for studio use for mixing and production first and foremost, quite frankly surprised me for how good they are for both gaming and for general music listening. They’ve got a deep bass that isn’t overbearing, an excellent and precise midrange and smooth treble that made everything from Genesis to Grand Theft Auto a sublime listen. The big problem, of course, is the big price they come with – £1699/$1699 is purely for pro-grade peeps or those audiophiles with a fair chunk of change. Are they worth the price? In the context of what you’re getting, probably. Would I recommend you buy them, though? No.

Allow me to explain – the MM-500s are simply some of the best headphones I’ve used for purely listening, given their reference-like neutral profile and immense detail, although if you’re looking for a bit more energy in your music and more fun, then the Grado Hemps are wonderful, and cost a third of the price of these. Or, if you want the fun of planar magnetics without spending loads, go grab a pair of Audeze Maxwells, which is one of our favourite gaming headsets.

I’m not saying the MM-500 is a contextually bad set of cans, because they really aren’t – the last 1600 or so words should demonstrate that. But they’re only worth it if you want a neutral sound, the reputation of these planar magnetic drivers, and also if you’ve got £1699/$1699 to burn. Otherwise, they’re a bit of a difficult sell.