A.T.EVA01 Audio Technica Evangelion limited Edition headphone in the house

[nc8000]

I ordered this via PriceJapan in october as a christmas gift for my animé fanatic 15 year old son and they arrived today.





They come folded in a specially printed pleather pouch



and unfolds with swivel cups



and pictured for size next to my L3000



For the fan to goodies are included. One is a pendant on a chain picturing I don't know what but a fan probably does.
(My son just informed me that it is an entry plug to the Eva01 with wings or branches or something around it).



and a cd with tunes from the series



I have only been allowed to hold them/try them for a few minutes before my son bounced of with them. Build quality seems to be very good with a solid feel to them. The cable is left sided, half straight half spiral and terminates in a 1/8" plug with a screw on 1/4" adapter. The cups are barely circumaural and just sligthly larger than HD25-1 and almost fit round my ears. From memory I would say that the sound is also not far from a HD25-1 so not bad at all as they are at about the same price level once they have arrived in Denmark even though the bass seems a bit boomy. For my son however they are a big step up coming from HD201 and CX300. He will be using them with his laptop pc, iPod Shuffle 1st gen and NAD L53 dvd-receiver.

[KaMaji]

/drool

[Cid]

Damn it, those are hot. I wish I knew about those sooner, I'd of bought them in an instant. PriceJapan doesn't seem to have any left, as expected. Boo.

[003]

How can anybody call them hot?? They are fugly! Anyway, waiting on more detailed impressions.

[Cid]

Originally Posted by 003

How can anybody call them hot?? They are fugly! Anyway, waiting on more detailed impressions.

Hate to use an over used phrase, but Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[alphataru]

Originally Posted by 003

How can anybody call them hot?? They are fugly! Anyway, waiting on more detailed impressions.

I think he was referring to Rei with the headphones ;p

[WittyzTH]

From what you describe it might be the same as M50s.

[appophylite]

Originally Posted by Cid

Hate to use an over used phrase, but Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Personally, Unit 01 was a bad color pattern choice. Unit 00 or 02 would probably have been the theme I'd have chosen if they had offered different themes.

[MaZa]

Any comments on the CD? IIRC Evangelion had some good tunes (not counting the cheesy title track). Gotta watch that anime again someday, on marathon.

[nc8000]

I will give them a better run through tomorrow morning when my son is at school (I have a weeks holliday) and will also try the included cd to see what's on it. The phones could only be bought by pre order before 1st november 2007 and only in Japan. They were only produced in the number of pre orders. PriceJapan accepted the order provided I paid in full at the time of ordering. I actually think they look rather godd and they have deffinately got a quality feel to the build. Wheteher they are worth the price on purely sound quality is another matter (shipped and with danish import tax and and vat they have cost about $300) but this kind of object is not judged only on sound.

[carlineng]

...so ...ugly

[nc8000]

Originally Posted by WittyzTH

From what you describe it might be the same as M50s.

Just googled the M50 and I would say that it is a very plausible candidate to be the basis for the EVA01.

[nc8000]

Originally Posted by Cid

Damn it, those are hot. I wish I knew about those sooner, I'd of bought them in an instant. PriceJapan doesn't seem to have any left, as expected. Boo.

I thought it could only be pre ordered but it seems that it can be bought at amazon.jp (amongst others)

Amazon.co.jp�F �wƒ‘ƒ”ƒ@ƒ“ƒQƒŠƒ’ƒ“�@�VŒ€�ê”Å�xŒöŠJ‹L”OƒIƒtƒBƒVƒƒƒ‹ Šé‰æƒIƒŠƒWƒiƒ‹ƒwƒbƒhƒtƒHƒ“ ‚`.‚s. ‚d‚u‚`‚O‚P SCRH-00006: ƒGƒŒƒNƒgƒ�ƒjƒNƒX

but as I don't read japanese I don't know if there are any catches. However if it is available in the trade in japan PriceJapan should be able to get it for you.

[nc8000]

I have had a chance to listen a bit more to them today. They are actually pretty good, apart from the slightly boomy bass I quit like them. They don't come up all that short whenn you go straight in to listen to them. Where they show there lacks is when I then shift from them to my L3000. Everything jumps more into place and the bass i full and tight but then again this is hardly a fair comparison. Compared to the Koss A130 and A250 they are much more on even ground soundwise and I would say that they are somewhere in between these 2. The A250 is airier probably from being an open design but not as full in the bass. I would say that a price for the phones around $170 would probably be about right based on sound but then you get the fan/theme part of it which really cant be judged objectively.

As for the included cd it has 6 tracks. The intro and outtro from the series parts (although apparently not in the versions used in the series) and the outtro from the films. The last 3 tracks my son can't identify as having anything to do with the series or films. 2 tracks are with English lyrics and the other 4 have Japanese lyrics. SQ and production seems OK but nothing fantastic.

All in all a good buy for a fan of the series but just for a headphone you can get better value for money elsewhere.
At the next Danish head-fi meet in February we will be comparing it to the woody ATH-ESW9.