The ATH-AD900 Appreciation Thread - Page 6

Well, you'd be buying it through pricejapan.com. You can think of them as a broker for obtaining anything that you can find online in Japan. There are a few famous shopping search engines. So if you find it, you email them the link you found it -- and yeah, they're mostly in Japanese, but the search results are easy to tell the price displaying in Yen. So pricejapan will buy that item for you, charge a 5% fee and shipping (they use DHL and EMS, I recommend EMS) and then send it to you.

I just went to the site now, and priced an AD900 shipped to France for 23,300 Yen incl. shipping which converts to 180 Euros roughly (and $240 USD which is I think about what I paid 3 years ago). You'd probably still have to deal with customs.

Yep eBay is definitely a good option. But usually its dependent on the seller going with your requesting them to declare a lower value Although, it's odd, sometimes I've been taxed and sometimes I haven't, guess it depends on customs if they feel that it's a taxable item or not. I know some items (at least here in Canada) don't get charged duty, prescription eyewear I believe.

Mhh yeah that's a bit cheaper than what i paid, but then as you said there is a tax.
My seller should send it as a gift so no value is declared, i think that's the best way, i also bought a D1001 from the US like that, the customs opened the package but didn't charge anything I guess the French customs are tolerant

This may seem odd but I hate it when my fingernails touch the grill of the AD900. It's like fingernails on a chalk board.

I Love these Headphones!
Just starting reading HP reviews and purchased Shure SE 530 based on alll the positive reviews they received. Bad idea, no bass, they do not sit right, and they make my ears tired, if that makes sense. I took a chance on the AD900..and OMG! Night and Day!
My .Flac rips of Tangerine Dream, LZ4, Herb Albert, and Hoslt...sound phenomenal! These headphones are the reason for me for investing in a PMP!

You are not alone. I get the same feeling!

As much as AD900's are great, it's blatantly obvious that you're not even getting close to a good fit with the SE530's. Them lacking bass? Unheard of. Make sure you can get a good fit out of them before dismissing them, although in the end, you may not find them comfortable in which case IEM's are just not for you.

I agree that's weird that you like the AD900 better for bass. Maybe you should try changing tips, get some Shure Olives for example.

So I'm curious...

Glad I discovered this thread. I've been in the market for new headphones. I'm currently using a pair of Victor IEM's (looove them) and have a pair of 280 pro's but don't like them. I'm in Japan, too and can get the AD900's for less than $200. I keep reading about how great they are and in this thread they were compaired to the HD600/650's...which are out of my price range here (over $400). I'm looking for a good all-around headphone and these sound good (in the $200 or less range). But I keep reading conflicting things about bass and the high's. I listen mainly to rock but have recently gotten into live concert DVD's (anybody know Tokyo Jihen or Shiina Ringo?). I also listen to a fair amount of classical (carmina burana, beethoven, etc) and am wondering if these phones are a good all around phone.

I'm not anywhere near a large city to try them out, so that's why I'm checking. I've read good things about the ATH-M50, but those are studio monitors and are a closed phone (still good I hear) and wonder how they compare sound wise. I've been reading for several weeks and am still at a loss as to what to get. Beyer's, Ultrasones, Grado's are expensive here. AKG, AT, Ssony are relatively cheap.

Also I'm wondering about what kind of source these sound best with. I assume since computer's have pretty bad sound out ports that maybe a DAC would be best to use (complete newbie) and wonder if AT's own Amp or DAC would be good to use. I've been going back and forth over whether or not to get a Mini3. My MP3 player of choice is a Sony NWZ_A728 (really like it, sounds good with the Victor's...hooooooorrible with the Sennheisers). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Since you're in Japan, you definitely have access to wide variety of headphones, some not available to us (for a good price). It's surprising AKG is cheap there but not the other brands, but someone posted an anime that had the K701's in them, so I guess they have a substantial/growing presence there.

For rock, Grado's (imo) are the way to go. However for classical, maybe something in the AKG stable would be good. The AD900 is fine for classical type music as well, but I prefer the slightly laid back pleasant 'tone' of the AKG K701/601 (both of which I've tried/owned). The AD's being lean on the bass dept. rock would not sound as good as it can, due to being slightly bass lean and not having the same impact. Mind you, it's been 2 years or so since I've listend to my AD900's, so someone that currently owns them can chime in.

Some other headphones you could check out: A2000X (someone acquired this recently and liked it with classical) it's closed back however. Denon D2000/5000/7000 are said to be good all-rounders.

I remember Headroom stated that the M50 is slightly better than the Denon D1000 which i owned for a period (i ended up trading it for the ES7). I shall receive my AD900 within a few days but i'm pretty sure the AD900 is an higher end can, it's often compared with DT880, K701, etc.

I remember trying the HD280 a few months ago in a shop, can you describe what you don't like about it? As for me i found it very muddy, i thought it totally lacked clarity and dynamic, it was all very flat (i tried it unamped though).

Concerning your material maybe Sony's DAPs are not so great to use with fullsize headphones, i had an E436 for a while, the output power was miserable for my Denon D1001. This might be an issue with the AD900, in this case you should either buy a portable amp or even trade it for a Cowon i guess. I tried my DT880 on an iaudio7 the other day it wasn't bad.

Can't wait to have mine when i read your comments!

They were compared because they are different not similar.

The AD900 sounds good out of most sources which is one reason I think they are a great all-around headphone. They are very good for both classical and rock.

I'd also like to say that since I've been using them with my Audio-gd Compass I've noticed a large increase in bass impact. It wasn't there with the Zero or LD MK III.

I've used my AD900 with a Sony Receiver, straight out of my laptop, straight out of my Archos gmini xs204 and out of my compass. They sounded great in any of those cases. It's quite a amp-independent phone. Easy to drive, too.

@coredump: what are the settings you use with the compass? I found earth + soft2 to be the best compromise between clarity and comfort -if that makes sense-, but maybe that's because I haven't 'burned in' the others properly (tbh: I find it kind of hard to believe, since there are no moving parts _at all_, so that's why I haven't gotten around to it).

lol @ donunus. You seem to like 'em really much eh? I dissagree with your grado statement though. I liked my ex-sr225 better for rock. Couldn't even finish a cd without fatigue and/or painful ears, but it sounded (marginally) better.