Well, i grabbed these yesterday afternoon at Compusa for $59.99 (they gave me 10 bucks off).

So far, I think they must need significant break in. Maybe because of the titanium coated diaphragms? They sound very tinny and distant, yet boomy. reminiscent of the UR20 (yikes!) I had them hooked up to my Sony receiver last night with a few cd's on shuffle to break em in a little bit (Our Lady Peace, Marilyn Manson, the Donnas, Veruca Salt, Joe Satriani). And then last night I left them plugged in to my powerbook shuffling through my whole collection (alot of Miles Davis). They sound pretty good on jazz stuff, at least to me. They're only 60 ohms, but seem very tinny even though they're not hard to drive. Perhaps an amp? I was really hoping for a moderately easy to drive set of cans to use with my EJ955. Heck, my Sportapros are the same ohms and only slightly more sensitive, and sound much better than the PRO3AAT's.

Any idea how long i should let these break-in before I make the dcision to take them back or not? They are a completely different beast from the 7506's I used to have. I still prefer my Sportapros for listening, even though they're not near as crisp as the PRO3AAT's.

They seem really well built and pretty light (about as light as the Sony 7506's) but don't fold up as small.

So should I give them a couple solid days of uninterrupted break-in, or should I return them and go for something familiar yet different, like the KSC-35's?

Given what I've read about the 4AATs, I would let them break in for another couple of days before I return them.

Would be curious to hear a comparison between them and the 7506's after they burn in a bit more.

appar111:

The sound you describe is very much like the 4AAT's I recently purchased. Give it at least 100hrs before passing judgement.

How did the PRO4AAT's change after the 100 hour mark? Did the tinny sound go away? Did they seem less distant, and did the midrange even out? I'm anxious to see how much these change, since I'm not too crazy about them at this point. I'm trying not to listen to them during the break-in period, so that way I've got a good idea of the "before and after" of the break in.

Yes, it was tiny and distant when I first got the 4AAT and I wasn't all that happy with sound, either. I think you should cook it for awhile and then see what it sounds like. You still may still not like the sound, but at least if won't be because it wasn't broken-in. And yes, it did smoothed out considerably. Whether or not that would be in the case of the 3AAT, is something you won't know until they are really broken-in.