Hey guys, it's Lachlan here, and this is Lachlan Likes A Thing, a show where I take a thing
and see whether or not like it.
Now the thing we're looking at in this video is the Yamaha HPH MT120 studio monitoring
headphones.
Now this is a headphone that I got completely out of curiosity, Ic couldn't find much information
at all about these headphones but I did see them on sale at Dick Smith for $125 so I picked
up a pair of these a while ago.
And these headphones have a recommended retail price of $180 which puts them in the kind
of studio monitoring space competing against things like the Audio Technica ATH-M50 or
the Shure SRH 840.
This is I think a new line of studio monitors from Yamaha and there's also a bigger brother
of this headphone, the Yamaha MT220.
I haven't had a chance to hear that but apparently it's pretty good.
So let's take a closer look!
So you can see that Yamaha is doing something a bit interesting with the design of this
headphone, you have this two tone black and white plastic which kind of reminds me of
their pianos.
You have these big squared off earcups and this very wide chunky headband here.
And one of the first things you'll notice when you pick up this headphone is that it's
actually a very lightweight headphone for its size.
I mean this is a big studio monitoring headphone with big earcups but it only weighs 242g.
Now on Yamaha's website this is listed at 320g but they weight it with a cable and you
know, that's basically, no one else does that in the industry.
The weight of this headphone without the cable I measured at 240g which is lighter than the
Audio Technica ATH-M50 which is 290g and even lighter than the Sony ZX700 which is already
a lightweight studio monitor at 250g.
So at 240g for headphone of this size that's really quite remarkable.
And how Yamaha appears to have achieved this is basically by going for as lightweight plastic
parts as possible, and that means that even on some parts of the headband there's actually
no fill on the plastic.
It's completely hollow.
Now while this makes for a lightweight headphone the result is that in some parts the Yamaha
MT120 feels a little plasticky, and a little cheap.
And especially around this headband with this exposed cabling and you know, this mechanism
here, it just feels a little bit lightweight.
That said the Yamaha MT120 certainly doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart, it's a
relatively solid feeling headphone so I have no real concerns there.
Now what I do have a big concern with with the MT120 is the cable because the cable on
the MT120 is THE WORST cable that I have ever encountered on a headphone.
And I haven't just deliberately tangled up this cable just for this video just to show
you, you know, kind of emphasise this point.
This cable will as soon as I put it down or I try to straighten it out it instantly coils
up into this tangled shape which is what it came with out of the box and since that time
it has never lost the memory in the rubber and quite honestly and I don't normally use
this kind of strong language but this cable is garbage.
And honestly I have no idea how this passed product testing for Yamaha.
Because you could tell immediately that this would be an endless source of frustration
to anyone who wanted to use this headphone in a studio to have to uncoil this.
Even if you try and coil it, I cannot, I cannot even coil because it just sticks together
and it's just, it's just awful, honestly I could go on and on about this all day.
If you try to coil up this cable what happens is that basically the kinks remain in the
cable so that if I do this with the cable, right, and I let go, instantly, you see, instantly,
it turns into this shape.
I did not make this up.
This is an awful, awful cable.
And as you can see, it's awful enough to actually declare this a deal breaker for the MT120.
But if you're still interested, let's have a look at the rest of the headphone.
As far as comfort goes you can tell that the earcups are quite large and they have this
big open space for your ears.
The earpads are relatively soft but they are relatively flat which means that when you
actually put them on your ears you can actually feel that the tip of your ears, or at least
my ears, touch the inside of the driver of this headphone.
Now that's not terrible but after a few hours I can imagine that that will become irritating.
The headphone itself is quite comfortable because of its light weight and because it
doesn't have a particularly strong clamping force and as you can see here it sits relatively
securely on my head.
Noise isolation is about average but honestly you know obviously you're not going to take
this headphone out on the street.
This is a studio monitoring headphone and you're going to use it at home where this
awful cable will torment you to no end.
So let's move onto the sound of the MT120 and you may have just noticed that it appears
to be magically a different time of day and the reason for that is that this is actually
the second time I've attempted to record my impressions of the sound of this headphone.
And the reason for that is because it is slightly hard to describe.
This headphone, normally what you want with a studio monitor is a sound that doesn't emphasise
the bass or the treble too much because you want a, a generally accurate kind of representation
of the sound.
With the MT120 I think Yamaha has gone a bit too far the other way in that they've made
a headphone which is relatively neutral but it underemphasises the bass and it underemphasises
the treble and what you're left with this kind of mid-band emphasis in the middle with
the vocals that makes the vocal range very forward compared with the bass and the treble.
And the result is that at low volumes you can hear the kind of, vocals quite clearly,
it's quite easy to listen to but because you can't really hear the bass notes or the treble
as well you do lack, you do miss out on a sense of definition in the beats of the track
and some of the spatial information that comes in the treble.
And at high volumes the actual vocals themselves become too aggressive, they become too forward.
And this is quite interesting as a vocal signature because compared to the Audio Technica M50
and the Sony ZX700 which are the two studio monitors I have on hand, those ones, those
headphones have a lot more kind of mid bass warmth.
Whereas with the MT120 I wouldn't say that it's a terrible sounding headphone but it
has a signature where the vocals are forward enough in this mix that it actually sounds
a little unnatural to me, it actually sounds somewhat rubbery and even a little dull because
you don't get a sense of that visceral slam from the bass or the kind of definition from
the treble.
And I have heard headphones that sounds quite similar to this, I mean I've heard quite a
number of AKG headphones that have this kind of mid-forward signature and that's why it's
not really my preferred signature in terms of sound but I do know that some people really
like the AKG K701 for instance.
Now it might seem like I really don't like this headphone and there's lots of things
I don't like about it, not the least of which is the signature, it's also this cable.
But oddly enough this headphone does make me really curious about the Yamaha MT220 because
I feel like Yamaha has done a good enough job where they've gotten enough right with
this headphone in terms of making a comfortable light weight studio monitor that I'd be really
curious about all the little tweaks that they've made with the MT220 to improve upon this model
and from the kind of descriptions I've read apparently it's quite good so I'm very very
interested in getting a pair of those.
But for now I think this MT120 I'm going to have to put back in the box.
If you are a studio engineer and if you have some opinions on what studio monitors should
sound like.
I only really use studio monitors to you know, do occasional monitoring for videos, and especially
these videos basically.
So I would be really interested to hear if you, even if you use the MT120 or the MT220
for monitoring I'd be really curious to hear what you think of these headphones.
Anyway for the rest of you and for my regular subscribers thanks, I'm looking forward to
your comments and click the Like button if you find this video helpful.
You can talk to me on Facebook at facebook.com/lachlanlikesathing or on Twitter @lachlikesathing.
Happy listening!