I've owned my Audio Technica AD2000s for almost a year now, and while I feel they are a darn good pair of headphones, they are probably one of the least known of the big open circumaural "flagships" like the AKG K701, Beyer DT880 and Sennheiser HD650. So here's a review that will come in three parts: a review on it's own, a comparison with it's closest rival, the AKG K701 and the responses from a loaner programme I had started in another forum, where four people tried the AD2000 for a week each and wrote about the experience. Without further ado, here's the first part, the standalone review.
Standalone review
Introduction
The AD2000s were one of the headphones I was considering to replace my AKG K240 Studios back in middle 2008. While they weren't bad by any means, I was looking for something with a bit more transparency, detail and soundstaging, so I shortlisted the AKG K701, Audio Technica AD2000, Beyer DT880 and Sennheiser HD650. The K701 was pretty nice, but a little too airy for my tastes when it comes to pop. Classical was utterly fantastic on them though. The Beyer was also nice, but I struggled to come up with one outstanding feature that made me want to buy them. The HD650 I dropped almost immediately, the low end was too strong for my liking. I was then left staring at the AD2000 box, wondering if this was the one for me. They weren't burnt in so I couldn't really auditioned them, but I took the gamble and returned home with them. And now after almost a year, can they compare to the "Great Three"?
Build
Wow, these are nice headphones. It has a sleek metal form with hex grilles and dark blue finish. You can see the wiring and drivers through the grilles, this really defines the "open" in open headphones. The double entry cable is thick, but not very flexible. It's terminated to a 1/8" plug with a 1/4" screw-in adaptor in silver trim. The fabric earpads are smooth to the touch and the "wings" that support the head add to the futuristic look. The cups are hinged at the top and can swivel in and out a little, although the joint feels a little loose. You wouldn't want to twist the cups too much! Looks-wise, these give the impression that "I'm going to enjoy my music".
Comfort
Uh-oh, what had I gotten myself into? The AD2000 out of the box has a vice-like clamping force and the fabric earpads are so thin that my eartips touch the drivers. What were Audio Technica thinking?! I had to bend the headband by quite a bit, so much so that both earpads no longer touch each other when I take them off. For the thin earpads, I had to buy an air hose from an aquarium and line the insides of the earpads with them to bulk them up and increase the separation, known as the phatpad mod in head-fi. Why wasn't this done at the factory? Next to come would be to bend the headband above the cups a little so that they are more parallel to my head, as the bottom part of the cups clamp harder than the top. Future owners will have to spend a while customising their AD2000s to fit their head perfectly, or else the clamping force and thin earpads will drive people crazy. Right now I can go for 5 hours without taking them off, which is an improvement. Another thing of note, these headphones should not be touched when worn or you'll be "treated" to a cacophony of scraping sounds due to the metal construction.
Sound
Setup: Foobar (Kernel streaming) -> Asus Xonar D2X (master clock 44.1 KHz) -> VDH Digicoupler -> Stello DA100 (upsample 192 KHz on) -> Valgrind interconnects -> Stello HP100 (low gain) -> AD2000 (with stretched headband and phatpad mod)
Bass: Bassheads look elsewhere. It's a polite bass which jabs at you instead of punching you in the gut with followthrough. It's not as anemic as a K701 on an iQube (I hate that combo), but it's on the lean, clean side. Bass hits low, but it does not have enough mid-bass to get you headbanging. It is not particularly impactful as well, but it is a very fast bass that is snappy and quick to decay for the next bass line. The bass is definitely inadequate for rock, rap and R&B, but it suits trance and techno very well when you have very fast drum beats. Bass can be improved somewhat by not stuffing the earpads with an air hose like what I did, but it's still not going to turn them to bass monsters.
Mids: This is where the AD2000 excels, and boy does it delight! This is a lush headphone, and the upper midrange where female vocals reside is particularly forward, giving the impression that female singers are singing right in front of you. The AD2000 is really a female vocals specialist; male vocals are crisp and clear, but the AD2000 has the uncanny ability to extract every single ounce of emotion from female singers and place them right in front of you. When Jane Monheit sings the last two lines of Over The Rainbow:
"If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
Oh why, oh why can't I?"
On any other headphone (even the Sennheiser HD800), you would just shrug off the lyrics. With the AD2000 however, your heart bleeds for her upon hearing her pleading to the heavens. And it's not just female vocals that the AD2000 renders with gusto; guitar riffs both acoustic and electric sound fantastically alive and engaging, as if the guitarist was playing his heart out, grinning crazily with a glint in his eye. In Hirano Aya's God Knows, the sharp, cutting sound of the Gibson SG Special screams for attention, and the guitar finale in The Eagle's Hotel California truly sounds like a masterpiece. This truly is one of the best, if not the best midrange I have ever heard, and it is the standard from which I judge other headphones and IEMs. Be warned though, once you get used to this kind of midrange, it would be very, very hard to find anything similar to it, which can spoil your search for better headphones. It sure spoilt me!
Treble: I'm not too fussy about treble; as long as it's not sibilant, it's good in my book. Even so, the treble on the AD2000 is just right, lot's of sparkle when needed and without a hint of sibilance, except on poor recordings and encodings. You can listen to the treble the whole day and not feel fatigued, unlike some Grados. It may not match the extension of the AKG K701, but cymbal crashes in classical sound realistic, and xylophones, glockenspiel and triangles have a certain "bite" that's quite pleasing after coming from IEMs and headphones with rolled-off treble.
Soundstage: The AD2000 has a very airy presentation about it, and the soundstage is wide but two-tiered - female vocals in front, everything else a little behind. The soundstage is very pleasing for mainstream music, but when the going gets congested in classical, the AD2000 starts struggling to place all instruments in their right place. For complex passages in pieces like Holst's Jupiter, it gets harder and harder to identify similar-sounding instruments and their locations, as if the stage has a limited area and squeezing in more instruments would lump some of them together. Even so, the soundstage performs pretty well for classical and is definitely sufficient for most genres.
Detail: To say the AD2000 is not detailed would be false, but when the soundstage gets congested when more instruments come into play and the weak bass makes it harder to pick out double basses and bass guitars, I can't help but wish for more details occassionally. It is still detailed enough to pick out musicians turning pages, the vocalist breathing in gasps and the person coughing at the back of the hall, but if I notice something new in a familiar song, more often that not it is my ES3X or K701 that reveals it first and not the AD2000. You're not going to use the AD2000 for monitoring or fault finding; it is more musical than analytical and most times that makes enjoying music easier.
Pace, Rhythm and Timing (PRAT): These headphones are very fast, especially in the attack. In Cyndi Lauper's My Baby Just Cares For Me, the drum beats hit very suddenly with surprising impact, and this is very noticeable when switching to slower headphones like the AKG K240 and even the AKG K701. Decay is very quick as well, perhaps to a fault as bass has no time to linger around and become bloated. The AD2000's speed makes it very suitable for techno and trance where the rising tempo can be clearly felt, and when paired with a fast amp like the Rudistor NX-03, you'll be in one heck of a ride with it's superb sense of rhythm and timing.
Amp Synergy: At 40 ohms, the AD2000 can be driven by anything. While it is not fussy over what amp it is paired with, it scale very well with better amps; on an iQube it sound very clean and detailed, paired with my Stello HP100 it becomes even more lush, and with the Yamamoto HA-02 it becomes very smooth in a dreamy manner. Considering it's light bass, musical amps seem better like the Larocco Diablo and Rudistor NX-03. However it did not like the RSA Raptor rolled with tubes meant for the Sennheiser HD650. I would like to try the AD2000 with the Rudistor RPX-33 and the Eddie Current Zana Deux, which is said to be a match made in heaven since the AD2000 is one of the headphones used when tuning the ZD.
Conclusion
These are a solid pair of headphones, although they are not for everyone. Bassheads need not apply, and the lean, clean sound characteristics make them unsuitable for certain genres. Flaw seekers who revel in the slightest details might not find them as revealing as cheaper options like the AKG K701. However, if you love female vocals, if you thrive on midrange or if you enjoy trance, techno and electronica, then come along and be entertained. Just remember to get them adjusted well to your head first. And if you become addicted to it's signature midrange, good luck finding something that betters it.
Pictures
Normal view:
Front view:
Pads with phatpad mod:
Meshed beauty:
Wiring close up:
Plug and 1/8" adaptor:
AD2000 vs K701
AD2000 vs K701, both are open circumaural flagships, both have similar sound signatures, and both are in my possession right now. The question is, which is the one that will spend more time on my head?
The setup is the same as the standalone review, and the K701 has over 500 hours on them.
Build
Score one for AKG. Yes, it's plastic and not magnesium alloy like the AD2000, but if I dropped my K701, I would just dust it off and put them back on. Not for the AD2000, I would frantically search for any scratches and scuff marks if it dropped. That's the thing about AKGs, they are built solid and look like they can take a beating, something my K240 Studios did. The K701's leather headband is also sturdy unlike the wings of the AD2000, which are attached to the frame by just two thin metal prongs. There's no need to put on gloves to handle the AD2000 or rest them on a silk cushion when you are done, but they definitely need more care as compared to the AKG.
Comfort
Eh, the jury is still out on this one. The AD2000 needed to have it's headband stretched, bent and contorted to get it right, and even then an airhose might still be needed to fatten the earpads. For the K701, the leather headband has to be seasoned or it'll be extremely uncomfortable. For the first few days, the middle bump on the headband was digging into my skull. Once that phase was over, I had to repeatedly bend the headband to season them or its stiffness will just pull the cups up my head slowly while listening. Even after about 80 hours of headtime, the headband is still not seasoned to my liking. It's going to be a long ride to get either of these headphones to fit perfectly if you get them.
Sound
Bass: If you don't like the K701's bass, then you wouldn't like the AD2000. Given the K701's bass-shy reputation, it is ironic that it has more bass quantity and punch than the AD2000. However, this is only true if the K701 were amped properly; on an iQube the AD2000 beat the K701, but the reverse is very obvious on a Stello HP100. The K701's bass goes lower, hits harder and has more midbass volume than the AD2000, but due to it's neutral monitoring nature, it's still not going to please a basshead.
Mids: If you had not heard the AD2000, then the K701's midrange sounds great. Female vocals have a very pleasing lush quality, instruments sound realistic, and when both come together like jazz with a female vocalist, the K701 can really entertain even with it's bass-light nature. However, it pales in comparison to the AD2000 which is even more lush, even more forward and even more soul-stirring. The K701 presents music as it is, the AD2000 injects emotion into music. The AD2000 may not have a realistic midrange, but it's ability to pour heart, mind and soul into music makes the K701's midrange sound recessed and sterile. The K701's midrange is not lacking; it still sounds good but the Japanese uta-hime still trumps the Austrian soprano in the end.
Treble: Both headphones are bright, no doubt about that. The K701's treble however is sparklier and reaches higher, effortless reaching the upper end better than the AD2000. When cymbals crash, the AD2000 sounds a little dull and muted compared to the K701 which renders the higher frequencies with aplomb. It was the AD2000 which showed me the importance of treble, but it is the K701 which expanded my horizon and brought me to greater heights. However, due to it's treble-oriented signature, the K701's treble can be fatiguing on poorly recorded tracks with sibilance. And when you have several cymbals at once, you can be assaulted by a "wall of treble" crashing onto you. The AD2000's treble still sounds natural without getting fatiguing, but the K701's treble is fantastic, if the recording is top notch.
Soundstage: Here, the AD2000 bows down to the King. The AD2000 sounds like a medium-sized open air stage, the K701 sounds like an opera hall with a hundred meter wide stage. The K701 puts instruments in their place with frightening precision without breaking into a sweat, even when the number of instruments grows quickly. Not so for the the AD2000 which starts to falter and blend instruments when the going gets congested. The sheer width of the K701 is great for classical symphonies and instrumental pieces, but it can be unrealistic for pop songs which are played on small stages. Here, the AD2000's soundstage sounds more realistic, but you're still aware of it's soundstaging limitations.
Detail: Someone once wrote that the K701s can "reveal a flea fart in a cathedral", and that's probably not far from the truth. They are much more ruthless than the AD2000 in detail retrieval; songs that I knew by heart played from the AD2000 seem to have been scrubbed clean to crystal clear perfection when played through the K701. The AD2000s are still detailed enough to reveal wind instrument players gasping for air, the audience coughing or the musicians turning the pages on the scores, but the K701 can reveal so much more with better instrument seperation. They really live up to their monitoring abilities unlike the AD2000 which sacrifices some detail for musicality.
Pace, Rhythm and Timing (PRAT): It's very hard to distinguish the two in this area, but the K701 is just slightly slower than the AD2000. Even so, both are still excellent choices for fast tempo music like techno and trance.
Amp Synergy: Forget about portable amps for the K701. The RSA Mustang drove it decently, but desktop amps really make a difference for the current-hungry AKG. The Stello HP100 and Heed Canamp that I've tried drive it very well, but straight from and iPod or with an iQube, they were sorely lacking in bass with uncontrolled treble. In contrast, the AD2000 is perfectly with almost anything, whether straight from an iPod, a Govibe Petite or an SPL Phonitor. Getting an AD2000 would not need a rig overhaul, but getting a K701 would require serious planning if your rig is not up to scratch.
Conclusion
The K701 is the superior headphone in technical terms. It gets many things right - quality bass, extended treble, expansive soundstage and fantastic detail retrieval, but it somehow comes off as cold, analytical and emotionless. The AD2000 on the other hand is the opposite; it delights with it's larger-than-life midrange, but falters in other technical areas. Considering their similar sound signatures, it is strange that these headphones can be opposites. But it is not fair to have a winner here as they both excel in different areas. The AD2000's gorgeous midrange and speed are excellent for female vocals and electronic music, while the K701's huge soundstage and flaw-seeker nature make them fantastic for classical and instrumentals. Both are great for jazz and trance, both do not fare well for rock, rap and R&B, and both are a mixed bag for pop. At the end of the day, what I chose depends on what I want, and both excel in giving me what I want. If there were to be a winner, it would be me for having these fantastic headphones to serve my musical needs.
Responses from Loaner Programme
I started a loaner programme in another forum as my K701 was being burnt in and the AD2000 was lying idle, so I decided to share the Audio Technica love. With the loaner's permission, I will post three of the responses here, the fourth is a member here and will post his impressions soon.
From "victaru":
From "crazyguy106":
And from "sgr1":
And until the fourth loaner posts his impressions here, that's the end of the review.
