Impressions of some Headphones (mini-review)

[erwin 0]

Here are my impressions of some headphones based on a brief audition at Stereo:

 

ATH-AD700

ATH-AD900

ATH-W1000

Grado SR80

Senheisser HD555

 

Existing: ATH-M40fs (studio monitor for recording work)

Intended Source: Computer - ¼†headphone jack in my X-Fi Platinum Pro.

Intended use: Casual music listening + gaming.

Music: Mainly light acoustic, vocal stuff. Not interested in bass.

 

 

Comfort

Hands down, I found the Audio-Technicas to be the most comfortable handphones of the lot. The AD900 is 30g lighter than the AD700 so a tiny bit more comfortable. I was also amazed the ATs were sa one-size fits all design and that you can’t extend the handphone strap, yet it fit so well. The Grados were also comfortable mainly because they were light, but their earpads were nowhere as comfortable as Audio Technicas. As for the HD555s, they were ok, but seemed to ‘clamp’ down on the head a bit too much for me.

 

Sound Quality

 

ATH-AD700: There was a bit of improvement over my ATH-M40fs but I am not so sure how much of it was merely due to the fact that open designs sound are inherently more ‘open sounding’ compared to closed back designs. Apart from sounding a bit more open, there could have been a tiny increase in resolution but frankly, hardly noticeable. Overall, it was a bit on the thin sounding side though fortunately not bright or over-sibilant and Emi Fujita and Suzanne Vega sounded fine. The thinness manifested itself more on male vocals like Dan Seals where the HD555 sounded richer and fuller. Footnote – nothing to do with sound quality but be warned that this can is purple colour.

 

HD555: Nice, rich warm sound. Compared to the ATH-AD700, vocals sounded more focused and fuller as a result. This tonality obscures nicely the fact that like the AD700, the resolution and details aren’t really there. I had not time to do more listening to figure out whether this sort of presentation leads to congestion in the midrange for some male vocalists.

 

ATH-AD900: Wow, there was a significant increase of resolution moving up to these cans which was surprising. The ATH-AD700 and HD555s were more than twice the price of my ATH-M40fs, yet the resolution increase was marginal at best. The sound opened up further, there was better treble extension which was nice and smooth (until I heard the W1000 ). I was hearing nuances in the vocalists’ singing that I had not heard before. There was no doubt that moving up a notch was fully worth it. The 900 shares the same tonality as the 700 which is on the thin side compared to the 555 (whether the 555 is artificially warm is another issue), but the AD900’s sound is smooth and not harsh at all.

 

ATH-W1000: Next up, the W1000 which is a closed back design because Aron suggested I listen to something more expensive. The resolution and treble extension increased a notch and furthermore, the detail was smoother and finer than the 900. Overall, the W1000 had more refinement, poise and finesse over the 900 However, I felt this was overkill for casual computer use and my wallet thanked me.

 

Grado SR80: Aron also suggested that I have a listen to the Grado to see whether I liked the house sound. Indeed, the Grados have a very interesting tone. I’m not sure how to describe it since this is the first time hearing it and my listening session was quite short, but the midrange presentation was pretty good. It tried to present a full and rich midrange and yet at the same time tried to give openness and treble extension. However, in the ultimate analysis, I felt that this was a case of asking a budget headphone to do too much resulting in the headphone not performing particularly well in any area. Basically, if you want to present an open and extended treble and upper mids, you must make sure that it is smooth. The SR80 was overly rough in this area for my taste and I even preferred my much cheaper ATH-M40fs to the SR80s.

 

Final decision and analysis.

Comfort was an important factor for me and ultimately, I got the ATH-AD900.

 

Endnote: Thanks to Aron of Stereo Electronics for his good service as well. For prices call or pm him.

 

[Stereo_Electronics 0]

Thanks for writing this review, I remember there were quite a number of people asking me about the different AT cans and how they sound in comparision from PMs and e-mails.

 

We really need more local head-fiers writing reviews like this to give others a rough impression of how they might sound and feel.

 

p.s. Sorry about the noise level that day, suddenly everyone wanted to test my karaoke and multimedia systems.

[erwin 0]

no worries about the noise level, half expected it to be busy since it was a public holiday.

 

So far, am happy with the heaphones as they are comfortable. Next step, will experiment with different sources.

 

Instead of my soundcard headphone jack, will experiment with my hardly used tube pre-amps headphone jack to see if the sound quality improves. The specs states it has a Headroom headphone processing circuit.. wonder if as effective as X-fi's CMSS-3D. After that, will try the Benchmark DAC-1's headphone output...

 

I should have listened to the ATH-AD1000/2000 also, but maybe i shouldn't, or my wallet would have been hurt some more

 

 

[Shiro MS08th 0]

After looking at your reviews.

 

I feel like also test A900 and the AD900, but not sure whether to get another open cans since I got a Grado SR80 already.

But heard open cans are better than the closed ones.

 

Will go down Stereo Electronics maybe next month to audition it too.

[Q00 0]

you might want to try a few numbers up the grado scale..they might fix that 'roughness' u were talking about... personally speaking, i quite like the sr225 and above...

[Stereo_Electronics 0]

I agree with QOO on the roughness signature of Grado, definitely no problem with that on the SR-225 and above.

 

I have a last set of A900 left for the month, next shipment available earliest , mid May.

 

[erwin 0]

I tried my headphones through the headphone jack in my sonic frontiers line-1 pre-amp (connected to X-Fi line out). Warmer signature compared to the X-Fi's headphone jack but details/soundstaging etc, the X-Fi was just as good.

 

The interconnect to pre-amp was a cheap stock 1/8" -> RCA cable. Pity the Plat pro does not have RCA outputs (it has RCA inputs) to allow me to try my better interconnects.

Edited April 20, 2006 by erwin