The Venture Electronics Monks +
Let me immediately get this out of the way now; Giant Killers?: Yes. End of Review.
Haha ok, ok. Let’s dig in a bit deeper. Ill elaborate for some of you who haven’t experienced the fun yet. I’m just gonna review these on the basis of my TEMPTATION to do so, despite there being already so many reviews rating these at almost 5 stars.
The VE Monks have now gained an almost cult status, and all for good reason. You get just the right, natural sound with that open sound-stage. At a 64 ohms rating, you still get effortless performance running off mobile devices with no need for an amp. The make is just the right quality for the money. But the sound quality you ask? It’s many times over the price… MANY… times… over.
I got these for $5+$3 for shipping. In mainland China, they'd still be $5. What do you get for five dollars in this big, wide world nowadays? Not this kind of stuff. Not at this price, anyhow. Yet here we are.
In my arsenal over the years I’ve had many Sony buds and in-ears, a pair of Edifier buds (that came with my Transcend MP3 player back in 2003 or something - that’s what these are built upon), A4Tech buds, V-Moda Bass Freq, Razer Hammerhead Pros, Philips buds, KZ ZN1s, Xioami Piston Hybrids, and several stock phone buds from LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson. I’ve even heard many high-ends like Westones, those 10-BA each side, $1000 Noble IEMs and much much more… I’d easily take these over all else. Yes, even the Nobles. Call me crazy, or maybe I’m some mental cheapo. BUT… it’s $5. I mean maybe there’s no fair comparison, but I remember I didn’t get sound-stage on the Nobles the way I did on these. But anyhow, let’s not put up $5 against a $1000. The nobles are made God-like, and probably that alone may be an over $300 range caveat at the least.
Back to these $5s: What’s there to just not give these a shot? Skipping a sandwich or a milkshake? Just assume you bought two this morning and order one pair of these. You’ll save yourself from some extra calories and end up having a quite exemplary piece of audio equipment in the process.
But hey! These are BUDS. I know. Been there. Done that. Just like 2 months ago when these were recommended to me, I was like… BUDs? That’s so early 2000s. I recalled my experience and was like… man, the bass must suck. What about the fit? Yeah, that’s gonna be terrible. Everything’s like ear canal these days. I saw them on Massdrop and said to myself… wow. These guys are sure digging up the past. They wanna step in the Sony Walkman era. Duh!
It’s now twice that I have stereotyped and underestimated things. The Koss Porta Pros were my first underestimation. These are my second.
What’s in the candy-like package:
1 Pair of VE Monks
3 pairs of colored foams (full, donut etc.)
SPECIFICATIONS (that I copied off another headfier's review):
Type: Open dynamic ear-bud
Driver: 15.4mm dynamic
Frequency Range: 8 Hz – 22 Khz (though I'd say, 30 Hz or so to 20KHz. I can't hear over 20KHz. Can you?)
Impedance: 64 ohm
Sensitivity: 112dB +/- 5dB (1mW)
Plug: 3.5mm gold plated, straight jack (Really? How do you afford 'GOLD' within five dollars of total cost? Beats me. Anyways, fine.)
Cable: 1.2m, TPE outer coat, 128 x 0.06 4n ofc copper
Weight: Approx 15g with single full foam covers
IEM Shell: Polycarbonate / hard plastic
DESIGN & BUILD:
At this point, you really have to look beyond all the bling bling. These aren’t those timeless looking, all metal buds that you’ll look supercool with on the street. Nope. It’s an old-school design. Everyone who looks at you wearing these will thing lowly of you. They’ll probably assume you couldn’t afford better gear and probably got them out of your last cereal box or with some real cheap Chinese phone you just bought online. The feel, though not that cheap, is still plasticy. No detachable cable. No new, eye-catching design. No luxurious build here. No sir.
It has a nice rubber cable. Doesn’t feel cheap or if it will break any time soon. Connector is nice. Don’t know if in this price it’s gold-plated, but who cares. Earbuds are plastic, dark transparent.
There is one thing that did happen to me though… maybe I manhandled my first pair, and it had rattling induced. The second pair I ordered, also seemed to have some rattling issue out of the box. What I did was replace the drivers from one pair to another, and now I have the right pair. Cost me $10 in total.
But this still doesn’t hold me back to praise them all the same. What’s another five dollars for this kind of sound? Nothing, really…
So, just to get it out there, there is that risk of receiving a pair that may have some faults. Again, just a chance; check what policy they have for QA, warranty or other issues.
HANDLING & DURABILITY:
They’re not your usual throw-away-and-just-chill buds. I think I damaged one side of my first pair (the driver began to rattle), so I would urge you to be careful. Once you realize how good they are, you begin to take care of them a bit more than you would of your metal body IEMs or stuff. So I would strongly recommend taking care of them here.
If treated right, they will last. But well, for the money they’re at, you can always buy another… and another… and another. So relax. This is the kind of luxury you won’t really get.
Power handling is nice. I run these off my Samsung Note 5, and no… I don’t need an amp, unless I prefer damaging my hearing as or risk over-powering these buds. On my PC I’m using them over a Creative E5 or the Xonar DX/XD or any other chain with my fiiO E07k.
FIT & COMFORT:
The fit can be a bit of a challenge. As some other earphones and IEMs I have, these always require some turns, some twists and I may take em out and put em back again and do that a few times to get the adjusted right. If you move your head too much, the fitting will get loose. As such, I do not recommend these for working out routines, or a morning run, or skate-boarding. Even on the street, each step may make this a bit looser, and they'll have the urge to fall out, so you have to use them accordingly.
I don’t recommend using them naked, unlike some have suggested. That doesn’t seal that well at all (cuz of buds, you may not get that proper canal-like seal anyhow), so you lose bass and decibels too. And then they’ll keep falling out even more. To me, it's pointless.
Changing foams from those complete ones to donut ones is ideal for me and adds all improvements I'm looking for, in sound and fit. They then give me just the right amount of bass, and surprisingly, tone down the mids and highs for me a bit, too, for higher volumes - not to say that the mids or highs are in any way discomforting otherwise. The donut foams are also a bit more dense than those full foams so, they fit better and keep the sound inside more.
Comfort is just fine with them. You do tend to forget they’re there. There’s no sweating, and though it may feel a bit intrusive after some hours, it’s generally just fine. It feels much better to me now compared to ear-canals. Over the years, I adapted to those. Now the ear canal IEMs just feel so intrusive to my comfort.
ISOLATION & LEAKAGE:
Semi-open nature will surely leak some sound. What can we expect? And yes, isolation/passive noise cancellation is just average at best. At high volumes though, it works fine.
PACKAGING VARIATIONS:
They come as VE Monks +, and there is also an EX Pack for $10 (in pictures) that contains a dozen of those foams, some plastic holders and stuff, though I didn’t find much use for them. Old-school foam is just fine, so may as well get the basic five dollar deal.
There’s also candy monks for $15 I think for those who want a better, colorful cable and metal connectors. That’s probably worth the money too.
Here's the EX package:
SOUND QUALITY:
Remember how I said these will look cheap, and you’ll probably be asking yourself a few times over why you even bought these. What’s to them really? Why? Just why? That is… until you plug them in and press play…
The sound... that, natural, OPEN sound… Soon you’ll realize these are just more than you’d expected from em. Much, much more.
After DIYing together the right pair (as highlighted earlier), I realized they sound awesome just out of the box and burn-in doesn’t matter. Why? Cuz my previous pair had been burning in, and I swapped one of the drivers from the out-of-the-box second pair. I don’t feel any difference, nor did I between my burned-in and the brand new pair. So they’re just right out of the box.
These, for me, are for any genre. I’m mainly an electronic music guy. But I love any genre of music out of em. Anything, goes. Classical, OST, Trance, Progressive, House, Dubstep, Chill-Step, Trap, Chill-Trap, Tribal Trap… anything.
COMPARISONS:
Better sound than all that I have. These are indeed my go to in-ear/earphones. They get 97% use, whenever I’m not using headphones. And sometimes, even on my PC I end up using them instead of my cans.
I have the YMHFPJ MX500 300 ohm buds. They sound a bit darker to me, though they’re the next best thing, and still better than all else I have. I still take the Monks over them. The MX500 also have a more narrower, closed sound in comparison.
Being mostly a can user (and that too, overear/circumaural ones), I must highlight that at this point, I end up comparing these to my EMU Ebony. In fact, I'd call these a smaller, portable version of my EMUs. This is crazy, it's HUGE..., and maybe some sort of blasphemy for some, this is what I think. Of course, EMU sub-bass and head massage is a much, much different matter, but for the rest of the sound signature, that's my closest comparison.
It wouldn't surprise me if someone calls them some sort of portable and smaller HD598s or stuff. I'd take the Monks over the ATH-M50x any time, and even over my Takstar Hi2050s (their mids sound a bit distant and are not forward), and many other on-ear and over-ear headphones if I have the option. They're an easy portable replacement for all my gear, and my GO-TO earphones/IEMs/buds.
CONCLUSION:
You’d be stupid to not have bought these. That’s my conclusion. Straight up, no bull. I hope they don’t mess with the price so that I keep buying them and become a regular customer
.
PS: The lower photos are of my VE Monks with the cable that I modded using the YMHFPJ MX500's cable.
Let me immediately get this out of the way now; Giant Killers?: Yes. End of Review.
Haha ok, ok. Let’s dig in a bit deeper. Ill elaborate for some of you who haven’t experienced the fun yet. I’m just gonna review these on the basis of my TEMPTATION to do so, despite there being already so many reviews rating these at almost 5 stars.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: I was recommended the monks by my friends in India. No, I got nothing for free from VE (but yeah, for $5 they are kind of free, anyhow). I am not associated with VE or any of their affiliates/partners/selling channels or any of their friends or family members. I do not benefit in any way from this review or by giving any kind of positive opinions, neither will I suffer any consequences from any negative points I make here. All the opinions in here are my own, under no influence, and I undertake that I’m providing my honest feedback, and in no way aim to influence the Monks’ popularity or sales other than their own legit merit of quality, performance and craftsmanship.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The VE Monks have now gained an almost cult status, and all for good reason. You get just the right, natural sound with that open sound-stage. At a 64 ohms rating, you still get effortless performance running off mobile devices with no need for an amp. The make is just the right quality for the money. But the sound quality you ask? It’s many times over the price… MANY… times… over.
I got these for $5+$3 for shipping. In mainland China, they'd still be $5. What do you get for five dollars in this big, wide world nowadays? Not this kind of stuff. Not at this price, anyhow. Yet here we are.
In my arsenal over the years I’ve had many Sony buds and in-ears, a pair of Edifier buds (that came with my Transcend MP3 player back in 2003 or something - that’s what these are built upon), A4Tech buds, V-Moda Bass Freq, Razer Hammerhead Pros, Philips buds, KZ ZN1s, Xioami Piston Hybrids, and several stock phone buds from LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson. I’ve even heard many high-ends like Westones, those 10-BA each side, $1000 Noble IEMs and much much more… I’d easily take these over all else. Yes, even the Nobles. Call me crazy, or maybe I’m some mental cheapo. BUT… it’s $5. I mean maybe there’s no fair comparison, but I remember I didn’t get sound-stage on the Nobles the way I did on these. But anyhow, let’s not put up $5 against a $1000. The nobles are made God-like, and probably that alone may be an over $300 range caveat at the least.
Back to these $5s: What’s there to just not give these a shot? Skipping a sandwich or a milkshake? Just assume you bought two this morning and order one pair of these. You’ll save yourself from some extra calories and end up having a quite exemplary piece of audio equipment in the process.
But hey! These are BUDS. I know. Been there. Done that. Just like 2 months ago when these were recommended to me, I was like… BUDs? That’s so early 2000s. I recalled my experience and was like… man, the bass must suck. What about the fit? Yeah, that’s gonna be terrible. Everything’s like ear canal these days. I saw them on Massdrop and said to myself… wow. These guys are sure digging up the past. They wanna step in the Sony Walkman era. Duh!
It’s now twice that I have stereotyped and underestimated things. The Koss Porta Pros were my first underestimation. These are my second.
What’s in the candy-like package:
1 Pair of VE Monks
3 pairs of colored foams (full, donut etc.)
SPECIFICATIONS (that I copied off another headfier's review):
Type: Open dynamic ear-bud
Driver: 15.4mm dynamic
Frequency Range: 8 Hz – 22 Khz (though I'd say, 30 Hz or so to 20KHz. I can't hear over 20KHz. Can you?)
Impedance: 64 ohm
Sensitivity: 112dB +/- 5dB (1mW)
Plug: 3.5mm gold plated, straight jack (Really? How do you afford 'GOLD' within five dollars of total cost? Beats me. Anyways, fine.)
Cable: 1.2m, TPE outer coat, 128 x 0.06 4n ofc copper
Weight: Approx 15g with single full foam covers
IEM Shell: Polycarbonate / hard plastic
DESIGN & BUILD:
At this point, you really have to look beyond all the bling bling. These aren’t those timeless looking, all metal buds that you’ll look supercool with on the street. Nope. It’s an old-school design. Everyone who looks at you wearing these will thing lowly of you. They’ll probably assume you couldn’t afford better gear and probably got them out of your last cereal box or with some real cheap Chinese phone you just bought online. The feel, though not that cheap, is still plasticy. No detachable cable. No new, eye-catching design. No luxurious build here. No sir.
It has a nice rubber cable. Doesn’t feel cheap or if it will break any time soon. Connector is nice. Don’t know if in this price it’s gold-plated, but who cares. Earbuds are plastic, dark transparent.
There is one thing that did happen to me though… maybe I manhandled my first pair, and it had rattling induced. The second pair I ordered, also seemed to have some rattling issue out of the box. What I did was replace the drivers from one pair to another, and now I have the right pair. Cost me $10 in total.
But this still doesn’t hold me back to praise them all the same. What’s another five dollars for this kind of sound? Nothing, really…
So, just to get it out there, there is that risk of receiving a pair that may have some faults. Again, just a chance; check what policy they have for QA, warranty or other issues.
HANDLING & DURABILITY:
They’re not your usual throw-away-and-just-chill buds. I think I damaged one side of my first pair (the driver began to rattle), so I would urge you to be careful. Once you realize how good they are, you begin to take care of them a bit more than you would of your metal body IEMs or stuff. So I would strongly recommend taking care of them here.
If treated right, they will last. But well, for the money they’re at, you can always buy another… and another… and another. So relax. This is the kind of luxury you won’t really get.
Power handling is nice. I run these off my Samsung Note 5, and no… I don’t need an amp, unless I prefer damaging my hearing as or risk over-powering these buds. On my PC I’m using them over a Creative E5 or the Xonar DX/XD or any other chain with my fiiO E07k.
FIT & COMFORT:
The fit can be a bit of a challenge. As some other earphones and IEMs I have, these always require some turns, some twists and I may take em out and put em back again and do that a few times to get the adjusted right. If you move your head too much, the fitting will get loose. As such, I do not recommend these for working out routines, or a morning run, or skate-boarding. Even on the street, each step may make this a bit looser, and they'll have the urge to fall out, so you have to use them accordingly.
I don’t recommend using them naked, unlike some have suggested. That doesn’t seal that well at all (cuz of buds, you may not get that proper canal-like seal anyhow), so you lose bass and decibels too. And then they’ll keep falling out even more. To me, it's pointless.
Changing foams from those complete ones to donut ones is ideal for me and adds all improvements I'm looking for, in sound and fit. They then give me just the right amount of bass, and surprisingly, tone down the mids and highs for me a bit, too, for higher volumes - not to say that the mids or highs are in any way discomforting otherwise. The donut foams are also a bit more dense than those full foams so, they fit better and keep the sound inside more.
Comfort is just fine with them. You do tend to forget they’re there. There’s no sweating, and though it may feel a bit intrusive after some hours, it’s generally just fine. It feels much better to me now compared to ear-canals. Over the years, I adapted to those. Now the ear canal IEMs just feel so intrusive to my comfort.
ISOLATION & LEAKAGE:
Semi-open nature will surely leak some sound. What can we expect? And yes, isolation/passive noise cancellation is just average at best. At high volumes though, it works fine.
PACKAGING VARIATIONS:
They come as VE Monks +, and there is also an EX Pack for $10 (in pictures) that contains a dozen of those foams, some plastic holders and stuff, though I didn’t find much use for them. Old-school foam is just fine, so may as well get the basic five dollar deal.
There’s also candy monks for $15 I think for those who want a better, colorful cable and metal connectors. That’s probably worth the money too.
Here's the EX package:
SOUND QUALITY:
Remember how I said these will look cheap, and you’ll probably be asking yourself a few times over why you even bought these. What’s to them really? Why? Just why? That is… until you plug them in and press play…
The sound... that, natural, OPEN sound… Soon you’ll realize these are just more than you’d expected from em. Much, much more.
After DIYing together the right pair (as highlighted earlier), I realized they sound awesome just out of the box and burn-in doesn’t matter. Why? Cuz my previous pair had been burning in, and I swapped one of the drivers from the out-of-the-box second pair. I don’t feel any difference, nor did I between my burned-in and the brand new pair. So they’re just right out of the box.
- SIGNATURE: The sound is natural, tending a bit towards a V signature. They’re near to neutral though. They’re fine, across the whole range. There’s nothing fatiguing. Nothing overdone. No sibilant sounds. No lack of bass, really… other than just some sub-bass. Honestly, if I need any more bass I just bring out my Fostex or JVC HA-SZ1000s. These come in 3[SUP]rd[/SUP]
- The sound-stage is open and binaural. Instrument separation is quite nice. Well not like top-notch Hifimen or Sennheisers. But again, that’ll be too far-fetched a comparison – Apples vs…. Almonds?
- MIDS/HIGHS: The mids and whatever is supposed to be forward, is forward. Vocals are great. Treble is just nice. Rolled up a bit.
- BASS: Now due to their nature, the bass will be lower than expected. But it’s just right. After some adjustment to EQ (via Poweramp on my phone, and crystalizing through my Creative E5 DAC) though, the bass improved a lot! Except for sub-bass, and stuff below 30Hz, we will have a hit or miss. But I can’t really complain anymore after EQ. Everything’s in place. I usually bring down the 140Hz to 500Hz block. In general, the sass on these is like a 10% compromise compared to other closed-back IEMs for so much better overall sound. Only bassheads may have some complaints. But then again, an open-back Sennheiser HD5XX or a Philips Fidelio isn’t basshead gear.
These, for me, are for any genre. I’m mainly an electronic music guy. But I love any genre of music out of em. Anything, goes. Classical, OST, Trance, Progressive, House, Dubstep, Chill-Step, Trap, Chill-Trap, Tribal Trap… anything.
COMPARISONS:
Better sound than all that I have. These are indeed my go to in-ear/earphones. They get 97% use, whenever I’m not using headphones. And sometimes, even on my PC I end up using them instead of my cans.
I have the YMHFPJ MX500 300 ohm buds. They sound a bit darker to me, though they’re the next best thing, and still better than all else I have. I still take the Monks over them. The MX500 also have a more narrower, closed sound in comparison.
Being mostly a can user (and that too, overear/circumaural ones), I must highlight that at this point, I end up comparing these to my EMU Ebony. In fact, I'd call these a smaller, portable version of my EMUs. This is crazy, it's HUGE..., and maybe some sort of blasphemy for some, this is what I think. Of course, EMU sub-bass and head massage is a much, much different matter, but for the rest of the sound signature, that's my closest comparison.
It wouldn't surprise me if someone calls them some sort of portable and smaller HD598s or stuff. I'd take the Monks over the ATH-M50x any time, and even over my Takstar Hi2050s (their mids sound a bit distant and are not forward), and many other on-ear and over-ear headphones if I have the option. They're an easy portable replacement for all my gear, and my GO-TO earphones/IEMs/buds.
CONCLUSION:
You’d be stupid to not have bought these. That’s my conclusion. Straight up, no bull. I hope they don’t mess with the price so that I keep buying them and become a regular customer
.PS: The lower photos are of my VE Monks with the cable that I modded using the YMHFPJ MX500's cable.
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