V-MODA M-200 ANC is a wireless pair of headphones, and in fact, this is the first pair from V-Moda to have ANC. If you are not familiar with V-MODA M-200 ANC, then keep in mind that they are one of the well renowned name in audiophiles.
I always like the V-Moda M-200 ANC, not only because I felt like they sounded much better than the competition, but also because they were built like a tank and they had a unique look to them.
In fact, I think V-Moda M-200 ANC liked the look of those so much that they pretty much carried that same design throughout all of their headphones all the way up to this pair.
Price of V-Moda M-200 ANC
Especially compared to some of the other models in the market.
But compared to pairs like the Airpods pro max, which retail for $550 or even compared to the Drop thx pandas that come in at $400. But doesn’t have active noise cancelling, maybe there is a chance.
Let’s check whether they justify their price.
Design of V-MODA M-200 ANC
Starting with build quality because the build quality of these is definitely one thing that makes them unique.
They are using a lightweight metal throughout the headphone, even through the headband, which is wrapped in protein leather, so this is one of those pairs you can twist and stretch. I just never had any concern that they were going to break now.
They do have the metal frame that comes down. I don’t like the design that many companies do is this loose wire that runs from the headband into the ear cup.
The reason for that is anything can catch or pull this anything can cut this and then you can’t really use your headphones.
But there is an apparent reason why they do this and why not the cable through the metal frame, because that will add some bulk and kind of cut down on the flexibility of these.
They got multiple color designs. In fact, you can even order different color screws and what that does is allow you to have more of a custom feel.
They personalize this to the extent you can even send your own logo or design. They can print it, or laser engrave it onto the shields themselves.
So, there is a lot of other options that you can choose from, and again I like that because it makes it where you can have a pair that feels like it is more made just for you.
The only other thing on here is the USB Type-c input for charging. Then you have the port for a three and a half millimeter cable, which they’ve also included for your convenience.
Ear cups of V-MODA M-200 ANC are slightly larger than ear cups that they have used in the past, and the reason I like this decision is a lot of the other earpads on their other Headphones were very thin, so on their site, they always offered the ability to order xl ear pads to switch out, but these are kind of in between the flatter ear pads and the thicker earpads of the xl.
So I like that they go ahead and give you this out of the box. The earpads are just held on by a magnet, so it is easy to remove. That is kind of like the Apple AirPods pro max now.
One thing that I do want to point out that is a difference between this wireless ANC pair compared to the regular wired M-200s is the wired version was using a 50 MM driver and this wireless pair they chose to go with a 40 MM driver.
But the Wired version really benefited from being plugged into an amp where obviously using these wireless, it has its own amplification inside. So it definitely pushes these enough to sound very comparable to the wired version.
Box of V-MODA M-200 ANC
Now, moving over to talking about some other things they have included inside the box, you do get the exoskeleton case.
V-MODA M-200 ANC has always had some of the best cases. You can see that it is much smaller than the headphones and that Is because headphones fold down so small that they are able to fit in this tiny little case, which is very rugged.
The case al ways feels like it has you protected and it doesn’t take up a whole lot of space in your bag. Now the only other thing in the box is an airline adapter for you guys that still use that.
It does come with a three and a half millimeter headphone cable because you can use these wired, and then it also comes with that USB type-c cable.
Controls in V-MODA M-200 ANC
Since V-MODA M-200 ANC are wireless headphones, I do want to point out that all of their controls are button controls and it is very simple, you have three buttons up top that control the play, pause, the track, control volume, control.
On the bottom, you have your power button and your noise cancelling button, so it is effortless, these do have an ambient mode which they call their voice in mode.
Suppose somebody comes up to talk to you. In that case, you can cover the left ear cup, and then it will allow the microphones to pull in all of the sounds around you, which makes the conversation easy.
All of your controls are on the right hand side, and then you just cover the left ear cup to use that voice in mode now.
Features of V-MODA M-200 ANC
Now some other things technology-wise in these is they are using Bluetooth 5.0. They have Apt-X HD playback for users using android devices and have AAC playback for IOS Device.
Latency of V-MODA M-200 ANC
Now, as far as the connection goes, I didn’t have any kind of connection issues.
I also didn’t have any sort of lag with movies or videos, so this is easily a pair that you can use for all media types.
Battery Time of V-MODA M-200 ANC
Now, as far as the actual battery life on these, the only you are going to get around 20 hours with the noise cancelling on.
If you are going to compare this to some of the other models, that is the same battery life that the AirPods pro max has, but it is still 10 hours less than the sony wh-1000x m4s have.
So I really would have liked to have seen them squeeze a little more battery life out of these, and it also has the fast charge feature where a 10 minute charge will get you an hour and a half worth of use.
App Compatibility in V-MODA M-200 ANC
One significant thing about these headphones is that V-Moda has designed an app to work with them. What is unique about that is that it allows you to update these.
It also has some pre-built eq settings, and it also allows you to customize these yourself.
Important reason is that they have tuned these to sound very, very neutral out of the box. Because of this, these headphones sounded like a studio style headphone, but it handles it very well.
So you can really just kind of alter these to sound How you want them to. Another thing that the app does is. It does allow you to switch between 10 different levels of noise cancelling.
This is very similar to what the bose 700s do, In the V-Moda, you can just adjust the slider so that if you want to get as much noise cancelling as possible, or if you want it kind of in the middle or just pulled all the way off.
ANC in V-MODA M-200 ANC
As far as the noise cancelling goes, if you are looking at this pair specifically for that, I will say that the noise canceling is not as strong as the Apple AirPods pro max the Sony the Bose.
It is very, very close, but without them being as strong as some of those pairs, you don’t have to worry about having that vacuum suction type feel.
But you are only going to be blocking out maybe around 80% of your surroundings, where those other pairs are blocking out around 90%. So the noise cancelling is not as strong, but it is still very impressive.
Mic and Call Quality of V-MODA M-200 ANC
Now, moving over to the microphones on here, for you guys that like to use your headphones for phone calls, I think it is doing a pretty decent job.
I personally don’t like using my headphones for phone calls, but I don’t think those that do are going to have any issues when it comes to the quality, it does an excellent job of picking up my voice, so you guys like to use your headphones for phone calls.
Sound
Now, let us talk about the sound because I feel like the sound definitely makes them separate from the other headphones.
These are the most neutral sounding wireless noise canceling headphones that I have heard.
This is easily the most neutral sounding headphone that V-MODA M-200 ANC has made.
You can tell right out of the box that they’re not trying to do too much to boost the bass or push the treble too much.
Now I still would not say that it is a flat reference Sound. Still, it is incredibly close, but what I really like about these again goes back to using these with the app.
That you want, in a way where I felt like the bass had plenty of impacts. This is still not going to be a pair for bass heads because it doesn’t give you that head shaking type feel. I feel like the bass is really tight on these, which I actually like.
But the way that mid sound in these, I think, is the most vital point in these headphones.
The vocalists sounded very natural.
You could hear every little subtle thing in male-female vocals. If they had a raspy voice, you could hear every little tone of that.
So if a vocalist has a bunch of different ranges, you’re able to hear all the shifts in their vocals very nicely, everything is so clean in here.
And then, as far as the treble goes, you can get these to sound, very bright. I actually like doing That because I like to hear many subtle things in songs, so if you listen to drums, you want to feel the impact of the beat.
But you also want to hear the crashing of the cymbals. You want it to have this sound of being live and hearing the band, and this pair really pulls that off, and another thing that adds to that is the spacious audio?
It sounds like you are in an extensive open environment and again because you are able to hear subtle details. It sounds really nice at being able to pick apart where things are coming from.
How Well Do the V-MODA M-200 ANC Headphones Operate?
On to operating the headphones. Thanks to the array of buttons, there is plenty of control placed in your hands. The buttons are slightly damp when pressed, but that doesn’t detract from the ease of operation.
Having buttons means you don’t accidentally press a control just by brushing the headphones with a finger, for example. This would be the case with capacitive controls.
As mentioned, the volume control buttons sit at the top with the multi-function button.
The volume controls are responsive and adjust the sound as required, with no sudden jumps in volume, as with some headphones.
Pressing both at the same time wipes the Bluetooth pairing history so you can pair with new devices.
The multifunction button, as you might expect, performs several tasks, few of them are mentioned below:
- Press once to answer a call, press and hold to reject a call or hang up.
- Press once during playback to play or pause, press twice to skip forward a track, and three times to skip back.
- Press and hold for three seconds to activate your smartphone’s voice assistant.
ANC button is very simple. It switches between ANC and no ANC. However, if you have the feature, you may as well turn it on. Especially seeing as you also have the Voice In feature.
Placing your hand over the left ear cup will reduce the volume and switch ANC off. This means you can hear the world outside in crystal clarity.
Remove your hand, and ANC kicks back in, as does whatever you’re listening to. This is an excellent feature; it means you can hear people speak without fumbling for your playback device and stopping everything.
You can further tailor the headphones using the V-MODA app. I found this to be a little on the basic side, with features like adjusting the ANC level, as well as access to an equalizer and some sound presets. Other than that, the app doesn’t do a huge amount.
Operating the M-200 headphones works perfectly, and I had no issue using the headphones during testing.
Conclusion
I still have to come back to some of the cons that I have with these. I do still think these are little pricey, I think sound quality wise.
They definitely separate themselves from a lot of the other ones that are leaning more towards a consumer-friendly sound.
I really wish that there was a little bit more battery life out of these, maybe closer to 30 hours, and then I don’t think this pair will be for bass heads.
This was the closest thing that I have had on a wireless noise canceling pair that sounded like plugging a wired studio pair of headphones into an amp.
So I was very impressed with the audio quality.
