Best Unamped, Open Headphone - Page 4

OK I recieved my AD900 today and thought I would post my initial impressions and comparison to my AD700. I will say though these phones are not burned in yet so they will likely change in sound over the next while especially in bass response and treble.

Build wise they are very similar to ther AD700 but seem a bit tighter on my head which is good as I had to mod the AD700 to get them to fit better as they were to loose. The cable also seems to be different and while I don't know enough technically to say if it's a better cable or not, it FEELS cheaper to me.

If Allessandro MS1 put you in the 1st row of a concert and AD700 put's you at row 10-15 ther AD900 feels like row 4-5. The midrange is deifinitely more forward but not as much as the MS1. Treble seems more detailed and at this point almost twangy which I suspect will start to level out as I let these burn in. The bass right now is less than the AD700 and MS1 but I really do think this will change as they break in so I am not worried about it at all.

Detail wise these phones are definitely better than my AD700 and from what I can remember I believe they are better than the MS1.

Overall I am happy I made the jump as they already compare well to the AD700 for the most part and excel in most areas I am concerned about and they are not broken in yet.

I will say though that my initial feeling is they are a bit harder to drive than the AD700 but this may again simply be because the drivers are not broken in so they reveal weaker amplification more than they will when broken in properly.

If you are looking for the best clarity your budget will allow and don't want to potentially feel like you want to "upgrade" I think I would recommend the AD900 over the other 2 on your short list as I think they will give you the best of both those phones for about the cost of those phones combined. I also notice these rarely come up for sale in the FS forum here and when they do they sell FAST, usually for minimal mark down. So I think they will also be a safe bet if you end up not liking them and decide to sell or trade them for something else.

I will post more impressions as these burn in.

'The bass right now is less than the AD700 and MS1 but I really do think this will change as they break in so I am not worried about it at all.'

Very keen to hear how this goes - I have seen the AD900 bass compared to the bass impact of the RE0, both as a compliment and a criticism. After a couple of month of trying very hard to like the RE0s, I gave up last night - they are now in the bin at my apartment. FWIR, most accept the lean bass of the AD900 as a reasonable trade-off for the fantastic detail.

I also felt that they had less bass than my 1.5 year old AD700s out of the box. But yes, the bass does increase after burn in. I've owned them for more than a month now and I would rate their bass response to be equal to the AD700's. Their rather jaggedy treble response also were tamed. Just give them time to shine and you'll be well rewarded.

However I should note that they pair better with certain portable sources than others. With the X Walkman, the treble response is just right to my ears. With my 5.5G diyMod (47 uf Black Gate caps) and the Pico amp, they still sound a bit bright to my liking.

If the bass never gets better than the AD700 I would say the added detail I am hearing so far along with the more forward mids will definitely justify these phones for me. I do wonder if that happens if the issue will be that the bass is improved but seems subdued to the higher clarity and more forward mids though.

I will certainly post my impressions as these burn in though.