I'd already tried these at an audio store when I'd gone in to buy something else (why, another microphone, you needed to ask?) and they were absolutely stunning. Then a flash sale came on at another seller which was impossible to ignore. So I got myself a pair. Still getting used to them compared to the Sennheiser HD 280 PRO headphones I normally wear. Can't believe how light these things are and the cooling effect of the material in the ear pads is just amazing.

So, here we have an unboxing to show and tell.

Andrew

And here's our good friend Mr Judd with his review of the headphones.

RODE NTH-100 Headphones Review - YouTube

Thanks Andrew. Rode make good affordable gear since the 1970s and they would have spent many months designing the features, costing and testing their first set of headphones in an already huge market. One clever feature missed by reviewers is the braille lettering for ‘left’ seen on headphone in your video.

As usual a nice review by Curtis Judd and as he says, headphones have to be auditioned before buying any.
Cheers.

Andrew, what do you think of your new Rode cans now? Are you hearing 5Hz-35Khz? It’s interesting that Rode released ‘over ear’ headphones first, they’re probably working on the features for their ‘open ear’ version as we speak. Hard cases for them are likely on their list as well.

Another product I thought they would have released by now, is a 3 or 4 channel audio video mixer/recorder, no I’m not referring to their RODECaster Pro.

We know market research is big time, so that’s probably what’s holding Rodes up, but when they do release theirs, it’ll have some new features at a price, not seen before. Now what could they be?

One feature for me is the variable led light metering on each rotary fader on Sound Devices MixPre mixer/recorders, love ‘em, if I had one I couldn’t get enough.

Maybe Rodes will have sliding faders that light up?
Cheers.

Short of running a diagnostic test, I have no idea if I am hearing 5Hz-35Khz. I'm not just that techy. :-)

What I do notice is the stunning clarity of audio through these headphones. (I'm used to the Sennheiser HD280 Pro which I use with the camera when filming, and elsewhere.) I did initially hook them into my laptop and thought the sound was a bit lacking in oomph, but I can tell you that it's the headphone driver on the laptop which just isn't up to it. I've since had them plugged into the RodeCaster mixer unit and they perform superbly.

From some of their announcement materials, Rode had been working on these for 10 years. Glad they did, and true to nature everything that Rode puts out is just awesome. Rode simply does things well.

All things being equal, I'd choose these headphones just for the "cooltech" gel material that instantly cools your ears and continues to dissipate heat away, making for a more comfortable working day. You really feel it as soon as you put them on.

The most resounding thing that stays with me as I listen with the headphones is the clarity of what you are hearing. This might sound strange, but it's like having a pair of Event 20/20 (or other make) reference speakers strapped to your head, but in the handy form factor of a set of lightweight headphones.

Andrew

Andrew as you’d know 5Hz-35Khz is well outside the auditory sense of humans, well it is mine :-) All the headphone manufacturers list their own similar results, which make good advertising.

Years ago when I was associated with RODE they wanted to keep reminding everyone that providing the original sales docket can be produced, all their products have a 12 month warranty.

But even back then, Rode buyers could register their new products serial numbers with the Rode site for a 10year warranty. This is still not well known.
Cheers.

Here's an audiophile level review of the headphones. Not perfect as a headphone could possibly be for a frequency response curve, but otherwise quite complimentary for the build quality and what you get for the price. Bear in mind that these guys are audio engineers and they'll be far more nuanced in their assessments and opinions than we mere video guys will.

Andrew

RODE NTH-100 - Good enough for an audiophile? - YouTube

Some have found that the headphone connection adjustment component has broken on them, and there are a few who have commented that they too have had the issue. There is a possible design flaw that didn't get noticed through testing and I wouldn't be surprised if Rode are actively working on the solution already. It may have even been an issue in early manufacturing batches.

The reviewer openly admits that he flexes his headphones (one on ear and one off ear for the room sound) and this may be the root cause for his pair.

In the larger scheme of things, this will be a minor hiccup in what will be an awesome product. Sometimes these things just happen and you don't get to solve everything before a new product is released.

Andrew

My Rode NTH-100 Headphones Snapped On The Locking Connector After Two Months Use!!!! - YouTube

This video is a lot more positive, and all its points are valid for the use of headphones. There are so many aspects to headphones and how you would design them.

One thing I hadn't previously realised is just how strong the supplied (and user replaceable) headphone cord is, and that the connector plug is deliberately made from a softer plastic than the headphone body it attaches to. So if you get a massive yank force on the cable, the replaceable cable is what cops it and not the headphones themselves. Further, having a choice of which side you connect the cable to also means you have a backup connection point.

"The most feature rich studio monitors that I have this price point" he says whilst noting how a lot of thought has gone into making them reliable for a long time in addition to being very usable.

Andrew

RODE NTH-100 - The PERFECT headphones for Voiceover?? | Booth Junkie - YouTube

Some have found that the headphone connection adjustment component has broken on them, and there are a few who have commented that they too have had the issue. There is a possible design flaw that didn't get noticed through testing and I wouldn't be surprised if Rode are actively working on the solution already. It may have even been an issue in early manufacturing batches.

The reviewer openly admits that he flexes his headphones (one on ear and one off ear for the room sound) and this may be the root cause for his pair.



RODE would have designed and tested the NTH-100 quick lock system so that users could listen with one earphone only and the other positioned behind the ear. A lot of folk do that so this would have been high on their list of tests, which makes me think that set of NTH-100s got more harsh treatment than they’re capable of handling. But if RODE is getting a lot more complaints of this nature, then they’ll be looking at redesigning the system and doing a recall - and that’s expensive.

If there isn’t a RODE serial number on the NTH-100s, then the warranty is likely to be only 12 months.

Cheers.

Serial number if on a sicker on the box it comes in. Registered mine and the warranty is two years. That ought to cover it. :-)

Andrew

Yep Andrew, just take care with the quick lock system. We should keep our ears open, no pun, for any further news about it breaking, and what RODE is doing about it.

This reviewer likes his NTH-100 cans but mentions it along with another QC problem he found … https://den-fi.com/rode-nth-100/

Cheers.

Rode are marketing these to recordists and DJs from what I can see - the various ways of wearing them are pretty typical of a work environment not a domestic hi-fi one. Headphones will have the cable stood on. They will get pulled off by the cable. They will be put on and off with one hand, because the other may have something even more expensive in it. My DT100s have survived unbroken for years and even the headset versions have stood being trodden on and genuinely accidentally abused. For a two month old pair, this is not good. Could be a fluke - maybe a bubble in the plastic or some other manufacturing fault, but something that brakes like this rules them out for me. This video is exactly what people need to know. One would assume another pair is flying to him this very moment, if he hasn't got them already, because one fault like this in 100 is unacceptable for a professional product. They should be musician proof. If they need care and attention, then they're not suitable. A good case would be colleges and students. If a product is not student proof, then it is a bad one for anyone to buy, because it's like buying tools. Buy decent tools and you rarely replace them. They have the word 'professional' in the title. This means they don't snap. End of.

RODE make excellent products at good prices for the audio enthusiast and professional. But these new professional NTH-100 headphones are not marketed in the high end audiophile range and the price reflects that. But they have new features which will be the envy of other professional headphone manufacturers, who are now wondering why they never though of them. Clever RODE who will now be working on their open ear version with new features.

I spent some time reading NTH-100 reviews, many with graphs, measurements, details and comments beyond my knowledge and other puzzled readers. The only thing to do is read the summary at the end of each review, and if you’re still interested take your reference CD, go to a friendly sound shop, and audition a pair. Then if you buy them, treat them with the same respect you’d treat anything else you spent your hard earned money on.

Cheers.

No. If you use your own money to buy kit, you treat things very differently. Is a product suitable for hire stock, or for giving to a bunch of musicians, that is the test of a professional piece of equipment. If you record an orchestra or choir and have to provide 30 pairs of headphones, you know they will yank cables, sit and bend the headset band in boredom period, put them on and off dozens of times. Your choice is cheap and cheerful that you throw away when they break or cut out, or expensive ones you can repeater and fix as all the parts are available? Are these professional quality or not? The fact a reviewer broke a pair suggests they’re consumer products dressed up as pro ones. This is enough for me to discount these. You stand on the cable and they rip off your head ….. and break? Really? If they cannot cope with this they are consumer products. My very expensive mics have wear and tear on the housings, exactly as they should have. If you see the boom arm slowly accelerating towards the ground when somebody trips on the cable, that is life sadly. In over 45 years I’ve never damaged a proper pro product in this way. They’re built properly and if they fail on the first accident, they were not up to it.

RODE have got the necessary reputation and stand by all their products.

So we can expect more about their new professional NTH-100 headphones and if there are any potential design problems.

Cheers.

We will just have to wait and see. Allan. I appreciate you have a strong support for Rode, but you did call them clever. Hopefully an isolated incident and not a trend. A design that features hinges is always going to be a potential problem, especially as many buyers will be heavy users. I just find it surprising this reviewer broke them.

Yes Paul I also think it’s surprising that reviewer broke them, he did something stupid. RODE they would have tested the NTH-100s in all situations. But if there is a problem we’ll hear about it, a while ago they did have a problem with an item and released an upgraded version with a recall of the earlier one.

And yes RODE are clever, the unique features of the NTH-100 are a perfect example. And they’re all excited about it, you can actually sense it in the air when you go through their factory. Owner Peter Freedman 63 has just refused an offer of a billion dollars to buy the whole place and why would he, he’s having fun making his many millions.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see RODE release a mobile phone with some clever unique features, maybe in conjunction with Google or Samsung or another established phone manufacturer.

Cheers.

Their customer service has always been beyond legendary. I suspect they engage in being awesome just for the sake of being awesome. Given that the culture comes from the top down, I suspect Peter Friedman is a top bloke.

After modifying it Mr Freedman produced a quality consumer microphone that could be sold much cheaper than comparable ones.

A salesman told Freedman that: 'Mate, these will sell as fast as a rat up a drainpipe.'

This inspired the brand name Rode, which is short for rodent.

The story about the name (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10859249/Rode-audio-equipment-mogul-Peter-Freedman-debuts-Rich-List-701MILLION.html) seems legit. That sort of thing happens in Australia, and we enjoy being this way and not taking ourselves too seriously.

Andrew

That story is true Andrew, I knew Henry Freedman, Peter’s father. Henry ran a guitar repair shop on Parramatta Rd. One day a guitarist bought in a Chinese mic that had a problem. Henry fixed it, and updated some components. The guitarist told his friends about the improved sound and Henry made his own mic for sale. A friend said this will sell like a rat up a drainpipe hence as you say, Rodent RODE with the first mic. being the NT1 to round it off.

This story is slightly different when you read this but it’s very similar … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Røde_Microphones

I was involved at the time of their new NTG 3 shotgun release, at the time it caused a mild sensation. At RODE, blind listening tests put it ahead of the Sennheiser 416 shotgun, the industry standard and importantly, at a much lower price. When I told Peter he said I made his day and we celebrated with a coffee from his new expensive office coffee machine. It’s quality all the way out at RODE.

Peter has just bought a huge area west of Sydney to build a storage facility for materials used in his factory, so he won’t be caught with any import restrictions.

Cheers.

https://youtu.be/H-EE72yaAM4
Another similar one. We'll need to watch this one. I know just two youtube videos is hardly a trend, but they both have the same issue and at least point to a problem.

Uh oh, doesn’t look good Paul. Good reviews on the B&H site but there’s another one … ‘The headset broke already. Not even two full months, and I used it very minimally. Reached for it by earpiece, and it broke.’

This is from the RODE NTH-100 manual …

‘Every component was made to last, right down to the wire that links the earcups. These are rated to withstand over 25kg of force, so if it gets snagged on something in your bag, it will not stretch or break.
The cable and earcup sockets are rated to 12kg, and the bayonet connector is made from a slightly softer material than the socket, so if the cable gets pulled in extremis, it’s the* (user-replaceable) connector that deforms, not the*headphones themselves.

We used robotic technology to pull, bend, tug, rotate and stretch the final construction of the headphones thousands of times to ensure they will withstand decades of use and still, look and sound flawless.
The NTH-100s were also put through several environmental testing procedures for durability assurance in a wide variety of potential scenarios – everything from climate and water tests to drop and abrasion tests.
They passed with flying colors.’

Maybe a production run got some inferior ‘softer material’ and they’re now out in the shops. If so, RODE might be able to tell by the serial numbers on the boxes and institute a recall. But these breakages will put many people off buying them, so I guess we’ll hear from RODE soon.

Cheers.

Sometimes the tests miss what people do with the headphones, and of course loads of problems. Other than the audio and video stuff I sell and hire two way radios. One brand advertise them as the toughest, and you really can drop them, bash them about and they rarely break. Then a new model had a different antenna, and they started snapping off. Nobody had realised the simplest way to pull them radio out of the charger was via the antenna, and the perfectly good radio and the perfectly good antenna were like a hammer with a thin handle. They simply went back to the old design with a broader screw on base and the problem went away.

The people who reported these breaks both noticed them being broken when they picked them up, not when they put them down. I bet we find the issues is related to this, not when you wear them?

I've previously been a beta tester for super complex graphics software. Sometimes, despite all of your testing and the scenarios you can imagine possibly ever happening, someone will do something truly outside of the box and crash the released product. You can only test for so much, and the work that has otherwise gone into their headphone product really shows.

They're probably beside themselves as to how this could have happened. Really, it's just one of those things.

You can safely bet they're already working on a solution and it will be going through extra-extensive testing before the updated part is manufactured in bulk and released to the customer base. If I were them I'd simply mail out the updated component to all who have registered their product, with instructions on how to change it over.

Andrew

To put all that confirmation in the NTH-100 manual, then have at least 4 people reporting breakages will have RODE worried their bottom line and their reputation is going to suffer. There will be other users not reporting their breakages, and new owners reading this thread will now take more care.

Andrew, knowing RODE I think they’ll institute a recall and replacement via all their outlets, and make a big noise about doing it.
They think any publicity is good publicity.

Cheers.

Andrew, thinking about it, once RODE determines what happened, probably some rogue plastic got in their NTH-100 production line, they might well do as you say, it’d be the more economical way to go.

As well as the open back version, we can also expect a RODE Bluetooth version but by then they will have corrected the problem. I’m currently listening to Audio Technica ATH M50x headphones. It’s interesting the way they’ve now released these in 5 colours. I managed to get a second red pair for $A90 at a sale. Maybe RODE will do this too.

Cheers.

Speaking of sales, I picked up a Rode Procaster (https://rode.com/en/microphones/broadcast/procaster) today which was on special at $50 AUD off the usual price. No, I'm not addicted to buying microphones and can stop any time I want.

I don't think this short term issue is about to affect their bottom line as the company is way too big with a ton of products. But they still care passionately about everything, including customer service, and it will get resolved in time. At least it's far from many thousands upon thousands of headphone units suffering breakages, else you'd really be hearing it (no pun intended).

(quickly searching for ways to include puns on levels and head room)

Andrew

Good buy, the Procaster is a great voice mic. We don’t know how many NTH-100 cans are breaking, but RODE head office probably do, through getting breakage warranty claims, while watching their worldwide sales slowly fall as a result of negative utube and social media. I expect once they resolve the problem, they’ll put something up on their site.

It’s headphone city here, I’m waiting delivery of a new pair of AKG K371 I heard at a mates place. I found mine on Amazon Aust. at a great price, order on line in the morning they deliver before 8pm the same day.

But I’m an Audio Technica ATH M50x fan and AT haven’t stopped, check this out. The features on their new Bluetooth version are mind blowing, including an app with which you can adjust everything. There’s no question RODE will be looking at all these features …

(New 2021) Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT2 Headphone Review - Time to upgrade? - YouTube

My AKG K371 headphones were ordered on line at 9.30am and arrived on my doorstep at 2.15pm same day, no delivery charge, pretty good service.

To avoid diluting Andrews thread any further I’ll start a new thread.
Cheers.

Just a quick additional note on how excellent Rode's support is.

With the Rode Procaster I had purchased, I placed it in the shock mount cage on the mic boom arm holder thingy and discovered that in the last decade the shock bands had lost a bit of their elasticity and had become saggy, resulting in a sagging microphone.

Back when I bought the mic holder arm and the shock mount unit, there were no serial numbers on the product and naturally they were not registered. Not that it mattered in the end.

A couple of emails later, and a photo of the saggy shock mount (likely to ensure they were sending me the correct part), I received some new bands via road courier today and they're now on the shock mount unit. No money needed to change hands -- they just sent the thing out.

Ya just gotta love the customer support you get from Rode.

Andrew

Yes RODE is proud of their reputation and go out of their way to support their customers world wide. They also read the forums and I don’t believe there’s any staff as a member here, so on their behalf, thanks Andrew :)

So far no further news on the NTH-100 breakages. The ratio of known to actual breakages is about 1 to 20, so RODE HQ at Silverwater in Sydney will now have a few breakages returned to examine, and the owners will have or be expecting their new replacement under warranty. Mainly driven by social media, I think we can still expect a NTH-100 revision from RODE.

Cheers.

Update: The Rode headphones now come with an extra sticker on the box. :-)

Details in a separate post.

Andrew

That’s interesting, Rode has obviously had a few broken ones, maybe word has gotten around the traps and sales have dropped.

Their cheapest ‘fix’ is that lifetime sticker, better than their standard 10yr warranty.
If sales don’t improve, stage 2 will be a redesign.

Cheers.

I don't think that's quite why they are doing it.

I suspect that it was always an excellent quality product that had a couple of surprise points of failure that only showed up once they were out in the market.

The early headband failures showed up with some of the reviewers but I haven't heard complaints since on the socials. They would literally have been given product that was from the first production batch as it was sent out (with embargo agreement) ahead of the formal release date to give time for review. The headband issue could have been fixed with a mere change in the exact type of plastic used in the clip, for example.

I'm thinking that they've comprehensively fixed everything now and this gives them the confidence to upgrade the warranty to lifetime. They have enough data to know that it's not about to break, and the warranty upgrade still gives increased confidence to the market (those that noticed the chance at least, which won't be the regular punter).

All said, Rode are still legendary with their product support. You just can't go wrong purchasing their products.

Andrew

Hi Andrew, the Rode NTH-100 lifetime warranty has been available since Nov. 2022.

They say, ‘We are very confident that the build quality and manufacturing expertise that has gone into these headphones will ensure they last as long as you need.’

If they’d improved the ‘suspect’ headband they would have said so …

https://rode.com/en/about/news-info/the-nth-100-headphones-are-now-covered-by-a-lifetime-warranty

It says to me they were worried about the breakage reports on some audio sites saying some have broken, and they’re obviously trying to counter it. Why else would this lifetime warrranty first appear in Nov. 2022, 5 months after the first release in June 2022.

For the prospective buyer now seeing the new release in a shop, it’s a prominent sticker on the front of the box and is the only Rode product to ever guarantee it. I’d say they are the world’s only headphones with a lifetime warranty.

Don’t get me wrong, it may not read like it, but I’m pro Rode, I knew them when they were starting out in small shop here in Sydney and years ago I did some listening tests out at their factory at Silverwater. Rode is now a huge manufacturing success in Australia and in 2020, founder Peter Freedman paid 9million for the late Kurt Cobains guitar, he’s donated it to the Sydney Festival here.

A few minutes ago I just saw the U.S. Marine Corps band playing and singing their wonderful rendition of Oh Come All Thee Faithful on tv here in Sydney. They had all RODE mics. If you saw this Peter Freedman you should be very proud, happy Christmas mate.

Cheers.