Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the Monolith by Monoprice M1070C on a headphone stand that is actually a set of two artificial ears complete with soft-molded human ears and a couple of different adapters acting as the top of the head. This has been mounted on a tripod, which also showcases how headphones would look on a human head, with the artificial ears spaced ~20 cm apart. As with all headphones, getting a good fit and seal is crucial, so make sure to properly use the pivot points and height adjustability of the headband and ear cups. In this case, two pairs of stock ear pads are provided—lambskin and velour, shown in the same order above. The lambskin set is more isolating and sealing, but can get warm and physically fatiguing over time. The relatively massive 642 g weight of the headphones before the cable doesn't help either, but the velour pads do wonders for increased ventilation and overall comfort. Just be aware that velour pads are going to get dirty way sooner than lambskin ones, but still try them both out and see what works best for you. The closed-back nature of these headphones allows for good passive isolation already, especially with the about average clamp force keeping them firmly in place on my medium-sized head. I also did not observe any sound leakage with these on another person's head across the room from me—at least with the lambskin pads. As expected, the velour pads do not isolate as well.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

As with the cable, there is very little information available on the planar magnetic drivers used in the Monolith 1070C. From my short glimpse at them after having removed the ear pads, a large set is used, and Monoprice confirms as much with the use of a whopping 106 mm transducer with neodymium N52 magnets on either side. I am not expecting as much innovation here as with the likes of Audeze and HIFIMAN, especially since these drivers are suspected to be from Fostex. If you are curious about how planar magnetic drivers work and differ from standard dynamic drivers, take a look at the equivalent section of this page. These generally allow for larger, faster transducers and are my go-to over dynamic drivers if executed properly. Monoprice's M1070C is clearly a full-size set and continues the trend of planar headphones being more challenging to drive. Not only do we have a rated impedance of 60 Ω, which is higher than average for planar magnetic headphones, but the sensitivity is also not doing us any favors at 97 dB/mW. Note that the product page also erroneously lists a 90 dB/mW sensitivity once, but based on my testing, that is unlikely. Regardless, 97 dB/mW at 60 Ω corresponds to 20 mW of required power from your source to hit favorable transient peaks of ~110 dB, so a decent portable DAC/amp is the least I will recommend, with a more standalone setup better anyway given the bulk of these headphones. It's not really a portable listening solution, is it? This is where the provided 1/4" adapter is handy for pairing it with more substantial desktop sources, and balanced outputs are not necessary.

Frequency Response Measurement and Listening

I will mention that I have a general preference for a warm-neutral signature emphasizing a slightly elevated bass and smooth treble range with detailed mids and good tonal separation. I also generally prefer instrumental music over vocals, with favored genres including jazz and classical music.


We now get to use our new headphones test setup, which has a set of two custom in-ear microphones for the two channels. These microphones closely adhere to the IEC711 class, but have been tweaked to be more reliable in the >10 kHz frequency range that was the issue with my previous setup, which is still very good and will continue to be used for IEMs and earphones. Two soft silicone pinnae are installed on the sides, separated by a distance matching my head, and multiple "height" adapters have been 3D-printed for further customization based on fit and head-size and shape. Each set of microphones has an XLR output I separately adapted to 3.5 mm. I did power the headphones using a dedicated source, the JDS Labs Element II.

This artificial head simulator feeds into a reference USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running and the headphones connected to the laptop through the sound card and/or a separate DAC/amp as needed. I begin with an impulse measurement to test for signal fidelity, calibrate the sound card and channel output, account for floor noise, and finally test the frequency response of each channel separately. Octave smoothing is at the 1/12th setting, which nets a good balance of detail and noise not being identified as useful data. Also, the default tuning was used for testing, and no app-based settings were chosen unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is tested thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the three individual measurements for statistical accuracy. The raw data is then compensated based on a custom curve created after having worked with Crinacle from In-Ear Fidelity to have measurements with this setup on par with a GRAS 043AG industry-standard measurement rig, so big thanks to him for that.


As before, you can find my headphone frequency response measurements on VSG.squig.link along with all the earphone measurements. Scroll to the bottom and choose different targets there, as I have added new ones, including two from Harman Kardon developed after years of R&D. The Harman 2018 over-ear target in particular is a reference curve many headphone makers aim for now, but I find it too bass-boosted. As such, I am opting for the Harman 2018 curve with the bass target from the Harman 2013 curve, which is what is being referred to as the "Harman Combined" target there.

There is a lot to dig through primarily because the Monolith by Monoprice M1070C is effectively two headphones for the price of one courtesy the vastly different set of provided ear pads. In both cases, we see good channel matching, which is a good sign already. The slight deviations in the measurements are not really felt in person, and there is always the factor of fit. Regardless, I would classify the tuning of the Monolith M1070C with stock lambskin pads V-shaped, while the sound signature with the stock velour pads is more neutral. As such, I will aim to briefly summarize how both sets fared in tonality and my listening experience.

The lambskin pads are the way to go for most people looking into these headphones, especially if you are in the market for closed-back planar headphones without breaking the bank. There is the expected boosted bass shelf with the much better seal these pads provide, and we have the clear-cut elevation starting at 500 Hz I want to see with this tuning. There is ~6 dB elevation in the mid-bass, making this more of a warmer than a basshead set. Indeed, we see decent sub-bass extension, but with a slight decrease in SPL going down to 20 Hz. This works well enough since I am not convinced these drivers and the rest of the acoustic chamber make for a highly dynamic set in the first place. The bass quality feels lower than it actually is, with leading edges of kick drums in particular not getting the impact I want. They do take very well to EQ though, and a +2–3 dB to the bass shelf will add more contrast and punch to better appreciate rock and metal genres. The velour pads, on the other hand, are not very good for the bass response courtesy the worse isolation and increased leakage. Hilariously enough, these have the M1070C sound more like an open-back set, so you already know which set of pads to go with if the lower frequencies are your jam.

But as we get to the mids, my preferences shift more toward the velour pads, as those make the M1070C far more neutral, and a decent set for music monitoring if you can cope with the weight. The lambskin pads with the V-shaped tuning make for more forward-facing vocals at the expense of instruments, and the generally worse technical performance relative to other planar headphones I've listened to makes that a less desirable experience for music with vocals and instruments, but it can be the way to go for podcasts. The velour pads are also better for general media consumption, with more range for everything also making for a good movie watching and gaming experience. The tuning is again let down by the technicalities, with imaging passable only when it comes to an orchestra, or gaming, and a soundstage that feels more closed-in than it should. I did try with a couple of different sources, both of the solid state and tube variety, and there wasn't any magical synergy that made things tangibly better.

Both pads have the slightly elevated upper mids in common, and the 1–2 kHz region especially makes some female vocals sound somewhat nasal and harsh, so that podcast application has an asterisk next to it. I will give Monoprice, or whoever the OEM is, due credit for having good pinna gain. On the M1070C, both pad types did much better than many far more expensive headphones I have experienced thus far, though the velour pads were again more to my preference. This continues in the treble response, where the velour pads come off more naturally damped than the lambskin ones that are still dominated by the bass shelf throughout. The drivers do favorably here anyway, allowing for layered music to be appreciated. Particularly piano-centric pieces are very good on these headphones no matter the ear pads used, and smooth jazz is another genre that works favorably with the Monoprice M1070C. It's still not a fast set, planar timbre remains a divisive entity, and detail and resolution are not high points either. So the general story of decent tuning and mediocre technical performance continues across the entire frequency range.


This being a closed-back planar set, let's compare the Monolith by Monoprice M1070C to a few other such entries, including the more expensive Audeze LCD-XC, even more expensive Meze Liric, and less expensive closed-back dynamic set that is also a deliberate V-shaped tuning. I also have the HIFIMAN HE-R10 Planar Version as this is written, and you can compare to its tonality in my database if you wish, but that set costs more than ten times as much and is tuned worse. Of course, it does beat the pants off the M1070C technically, especially when it comes to resolution and overall detail retrieval as well as instrument separation, and the same could be said of the LCD-XC. I am primarily using the lambskin pad sound signature since it is more in line with the other two sets, and do have to say Monoprice really impressed with the tuning. I can see scope for picking up the M1070C just because of that, but that is just half the story.


The Audeze LCD-XC makes a return because its tuning is really more in line with the Monoprice M1070C with the velour pads, though the former clearly has better bass extension and makes the M1070C seem warmer throughout by extension. This is really the extent of the closed-back bass and upper mids response on the M1070C, which I could otherwise easily compare to some open-back headphones, such as the Sennheiser HD 650 represented here with the HD 6XX driving home my point of the velour pads making the M1070C a far more relaxing set even with the closed-back intimacy involved.