Quote:
Originally Posted by Headphile808
What are your thoughts/impressions on the SQ5s? How do they compare to a stock ESW9? Which do you prefer for portable use? Thanks.
Happy New Year 
Headphile808 |
I haven't heard the ESW9, and the ATH-SQ5 I heard were not stock but had Ken's SXC cable. I compared the ATH-SQ5 with SXC 22g cable to ATH-A900 with -=Germania=- silver plated copper cable and internal dampening vs Denon D2000 with APS V3 cable (no woodies at that time).
I thought the ALO SXC ATH-SQ5 were nice with good detail and speed and defined bass, but not quite as much bass as the A900 which could be murkier sounding and a little more sloppy than the SQ5. The D2000 have the most pounding bass, but still better defined than the A900 or SQ5.
The SQ5 soundstage was smaller like a Grado, and they actually reminded me of sounding like what I would expect from a closed Grado. The A900 soundstage is bigger and more open and spacious than SQ5, but in complex musical passages the A900 would get congested in the mids and the SQ5 were better detailed in the mids. As a reference, my modded A900 Art sound almost identical to a pair of A900 Limited that Plaidplatypus brought over once.
At the time I think the SQ5 would have been about $250 and $50-100 less than a modded A900, and $200 less than the APS re-cabled D2000. So, I thought they were a good value but not better enough than what I already had to justify buying them.