Audio Technica ATH-A700 Headphones

I had these and used these as my primary method of enjoying music, films and video games for 18 months until I replaced them with a more expensive model of a different brand. Before I owned these, my "greatest headphones" were $40 VOIP headsets. I won't even begin to claim I have golden ears or anything like that, but even a philistine like me could tell that these things were a million miles ahead of any game headset or stock Zune earbuds around. It was so much better than my previous equipment that I actually experienced the "I'm hearing things I never knew existed in my music" effect. This is to be expected from anyone's first pair of good headphones, though.   

They sit on my head extremely comfortably. I would notice that I was wearing headphones, of course, but it is the same sort of way that you might notice you are wearing a very familiar hat that you've worn every day for years - you know you're wearing these headphones; it is hard to forget that they are on - but they are not at all obtrusive or unpleasant to wear and you absolutely have no objection to wearing them for an entire day if you have the freedom to just sit down for an entire day. However, with excessive head movement, you can hear the slightly adjustable,swiveling parts of the headphones creaking just a tad, so it's not always a good idea to "rock out" when wearing these. This is the one flaw I can consider when thinking of these headphones - not that I'm sitting here headbanging or anything, but even slight head movements are enough to trip the little creaky noises.   

Again, they sound great. I listened to trance (Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, ATB, etc) other electronic (various Drum & Bass, ambient, Aphex Twin, etc), rock (Pink Floyd, The Cardigans, King Crimson), metal (King Diamond, Dismember, Emperor, Blind Guardian, Death), and a little bit of classical stuff (Mozart, Vivaldi). I am not experienced in a diverse array of headphones, so I don't know much about how other headphones might be more suited for specific genres, but I enjoyed all of this music and more on these headphones.  

They don't require much amplification. I say "much," because they sounded kinda "ghostly" when played directly through my first-gen Zune. Bass was very undefined, and things were quiet in strange ways. Plugging into an HT OMEGA PLUS+ sound card worked beautifully, though, and the headphone output of a variety of stereo and A/V receivers worked beautifully, too. A $200 home theater receiver has a good enough headphone jack to make these sound pretty good. I'm sure the cheap dedicated headphone amps you can get work well, too.   

These are very affordable at only around $110 or so today. For the price, they are absolutely great. However; they aren't perfect. Other headphones are even clearer, other headphones are even more comfortable, other headphones have crisper vocals and tighter bass. These aren't bad at all and I cannot point you to any obvious flaws in their sound or feel or construction. Just, there are obviously better headphones out there beyond these. I consider these an excellent gateway into audiophilia. 

I have had these headphones for four months now, and they are great.  They are relatively inexpensive (at around $120 on amazon), and have a very good balanced sound. 

The frequency response is pretty good, but they lack bass.  With amplification (I am using the fiio e7 e9 combo), the bass becomes more prominent and the sound is much fuller than unamplified.  While amps improve the sound, these headphones are easy to drive and still retain the soundstage, even while listening at low volumes. 

The biggest plus to these headphones is that the soundstage on these headphones is massive.  It sounds like the music is coming from the tip of the nose.  It really brings live performances and acoustic music alive.  These headphones lend themselves well to classical music, but they are also good for most music.  I also listened to some vinyl on them, and they sound great. 

They are also good monitoring headphones for recording music, as they are accurate. 

They are also very comfortable and do not clamp down at all, making listening to them for long periods of time enjoyable. 

The main con of these headphones is the lack of bass, but this lends itself well to music where having booming bass is not as important. 

Overall these are very good headphones, not incredible, but a very stable place to start with audiophile headphones. 

I had the opportunity to compare these headphones to the AKG 702s, and they actually sound quite similar.  The AKGs have more separation between instruments, but the Audio Technica ATH A700’s have a much larger soundstage.  The AKG’s also take much more power to drive them, and really need to be amped to get a good sound.  Unlike the Audio Technica’s, where sound just gets improved by the amp, and it is not required.

If you want to listen at low volumes, in the same room with other people, or in privacy this is a great option. The isolation from the ambient noise is excellent allowing you to save your ears with low volume. There is no heat problem and they are comfortable to wear for hours.

I love my AKG 702's, if I had bought these first, I would have stopped looking, to my loss.

I purchased these trying to find a pair of 'entry level' over-ear headphones that were closed so I could listen to music with other people around without annoying them with an open design or annoying myself with something that wasn't sealed. Comfort was also an extremely high priority for me, as many headphones give me tension headaches or migraines. I was pleased with my ATH-EW9's, so instead of taking a gamble on a brand I hadn't heard before, I went with AT again.

These headphones definitely took some burning in to get to a fuller sound, but hit a sweet spot fairly quickly without any equalizer fiddling. They filled the gap that my ATH-EW9's didn't cover - "prog" rock and pretty much any music with heavily distorted guitars. They handle music like The Mars Volta and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers beautifully, giving definition to each layer of production. Vocal acoustic sounds clear and warm. Where they're a bit lacking is hip-hop or hip-hop derived electro. More minimalist electro (think Bjork) sounds clear as a bell, but they get a little lost trying to navigate heavy bass lines.

If you're a bass addict, I wouldn't recommend these. I personally dislike the "bass blaster" sound common to brands like Sony and Bose, as I feel it compromises the rest of the music. 

Otherwise, they're wonderful headphones especially if you have comfort issues.