Way too small to call a review, and to be just a tad humble, I am honeslty not qualified, nor have the gear for outright reviewing equipment...but I did want to give a short organized description of what this headphone is up to.
Pictures not provided, there is plenty available in the main thread about the headphone.
My set of equipment to compare it rather acute - Stax SR-001mkII, modded Proline 2500, speakers. Source is Trekstor Vibez, which tends towards the warmer/darker side, my files are mostly in FLAC, save some 320 kbs mp3s. No amplification for headphones.
First to cross out some basic things off the 'to do' list:
- Soundstage is very small, and while there is some positioning going on (sweeps across channels and such) with good accuracy, there is not much to write home about. Soundstage is just about nomore than Grado SR series have to offer.
- The driver is fairly fast, detailed, impactful (40mm driver better be impactful).
- Volume is easy to achieve, Vibez outputs 11 mW per channel and I can easily deafen myself at max volume. How it will open up with an amp - no clue, don't ask.
Frequency Response:
I believe this should be the main concern with any headphone, a portable especially. With this headphone it is also the main subject.
- Bass response is pretty deep. It has been quoted to roll-off around 25 hz, and that sounds about right to my ears. Custom IEMs can do better than that, but this is the deepest any portable headphone can do. Bass is not weak, but not very strong either. The speed is pretty good, notes tend to ring very clearly in this range. After doing some comparisons I think it falls behind SR-001 in terms of clarity/speed (all dynamics do). Proline 2500 and ESW9 are on par in terms of bass clarity and speed.
- Midrange response breaks down into two areas. Lower/Upper. Lower midrange sounds a bit softened, while upper midrange sounds a bit strengthened. This results in vocals sometimes sounding a bit ethereal, as my hi-fi-inexperienced roommate described it - vocals sound higher-pitched than they should be (he listened to majority of the gear I had so far). This is not extremely noticable, but it seems to be typical of ATs. Guitars tend to stand out in the mix, and there is alot of emphasis on separation of different midrange instruments (while guitars are in the front, synthesizers are still very easy to listen to in the mix). Because of upper midrange boost the cymbals tend to have exceptional clarity and become audible regardless of what is going on. Sometimes cibilance in recordings (like vocalist raspiness or s/t sounds) comes out a bit excessively (consider Thom Yorke's singing). In less floaty terms - depending on the record/gear, this headphone may sound harsh.
- Nothing about treble stands out. It is there, it does not seem to roll off, but neither is it excessive or sharply colored. To place it somewhere relatively to something neutral - it sounds a tad bright, but behind the upper midrange boost it is definitely not bothersome.
General descriptors:
- Instruments do end up having plenty of body, which leads me to believe that the recession in the lower midrange is not substantial.
- Hisses of records tend to be audible (for the same reason as cymbals).
- None of my equipment hisses, so I can't tell you anything about that.
- This headphone tends to favor rock and electronica records, and sounds nice with jazz. My attempts to listen to Shostackovich's symphonies with it ended outright poorly - lots of violins + upper midrange boost is not my kind of fun.
For all those who talk about psychoacoustics and such...
Today the air seems to be really dry, and I have higher than usual sensitivity to higher frequencies. That may influence my evaluation of things. I also had no breakfast and too much caffeine so I could be a bit cranky.
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Thinkpad T61 14.1" -> {ATH-ESW9& Stax SRM-252A -> Stax SR-003} Team Dispel the Myth.
Regardless of missing breakfast, this is still very good review. Thanks.
Any thoughts about comfort, build quality? Any issues worth mentioning there? We all know they look gorgeous.
Once I financially recuperate from festive season spending, these would be my third woodies in collection.
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Home: Pioneer PD7700 :: Benchmark DAC1 :: Behringer TQ1951 Tube Equalizer :: Meier Corda Opera :: Ultrasone Edition 9 or woodied Denon AH-D2000 or Audio-Technica AD2000
Office: iRiver H140 :: Bada PH1 :: Denon AH-D1000
Portable: iRiver H140 :: iBasso D1:: Sleek Audio SA6:: KSC75 in Sportapro headband
Regardless of missing breakfast, this is still very good review. Thanks. Any thoughts about comfort, build quality? Any issues worth mentioning there? We all know they look gorgeous.
Once I financially recuperate from festive season spending, these would be my third woodies in collection.
As it looks now - build quality is good, but that is strictly visual evaluation. We will have much better of an idea in couple of months, especially if someone manages to break it any time soon (although ATs are fairly well known for being well built and not easily broken if treated decently).
Comfort is fine for 4-5 hours, assuming you don't get the right/left wrong (pads are directional) and your ears are not humongous. My ears actually end up inside the cups, sealed, pretty neat seeing how this thing is considered supra-aural. And if you use a portable headphone significantly longer than that daily, you should be considering custom IEMs...
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Thinkpad T61 14.1" -> {ATH-ESW9& Stax SRM-252A -> Stax SR-003} Team Dispel the Myth.
RE-Approach: ATH-ESW9
Linear Mode
