Audio Technica ATH-PRO700MK2 review - Take two subwoofers...straight to the head. - Page 55

Originally Posted by DiscoBurger 

Can I run these without an amp? I have pro900s that I need to amp and I'm looking for some sturdy bass heavy headphones that I don't need to amp...would these fit the bill? 

Originally Posted by shuman0101 

Hey guys sorry to bump this thread but I've made several threads about this but I haven't gotten a single reply so I am asking this again. I would really, really appreciate it if someone could respond and help me out !

 

Basically, I'm looking for the bassiest set of headphones for 170$ max while also having well defined highs and mids as well. I was dead set on buying these after reviews but after reading this thread I'm not sure. Over-ear is preferred.

Originally Posted by kalki11 

you looked into the sony xb 500?

Originally Posted by shuman0101 

 Yeah, they're a bit too bulky for me personally. I hear they have face melting bass though.

Either way, I already ordered the pro700mk2s. Lets see if I like em Thanks for the reply.

Originally Posted by Oregonian 


What's your verdict?

Originally Posted by a_recording 

 

Nice! They are great cans. Nice to see you are using the picture I took as your forum avatar XD

 

Now, in case anyone is interested, I took apart my Pro 700MK2 ANV's today to answer some questions / curiosities of mine. Here are pictures and my observations / notes:

 

 

With the earpads removed, revealed is the driver surrounded by a papery / felt ring material. Note that this ring covers a number of vents, which you can faintly see as circles. There is sticker on the left earpiece of my Pro700MK2ANV which reads 1144. While I'm not sure, I believe this could be the production number as I believe 2800 were built in total. If other owners of the ANV's could let me know that would be great!

 

Note the small plastic knob that cuts out a small notch in the felt ring. This is important to note if you want to take these apart yourself.

 

 

Once the 4 screws are undone, the baffle pops off. Nice and easy. What we see is a black capsule that holds the driver to the baffle, with a thick piece of yellow damping material behind it. The damping material appears to be composed of many layers of felt like material. If you are interested in opening this be careful, this damping material is fragile, as I discovered when over the course of my exploring the damping material actually peeled off a layer.

 

 

This is the interior of the earcup. It took me a while to realise the metal coil shape piece is actually to provide some resistance to the turning of the ear cup shaft. The entire cup is made of ABS plastic. This answers one question: On the ANV version, the aluminium accents really are just accents and do not go through all the way to the interior of the earcup. I do not think they play a functional role in the sound besides very possibly reducing backwave reflection from the back of the earcup. This seems unlikely to me though.

 

 

 Unscrewing the driver capsule from the baffle reveals a second surprise! The actual driver piece is not fixed to this capsule, or to the baffle. In fact it is secured simply by the force of the screws keeping the capsule together, and the capsule is more or less forms a secondary chamber within the whole earcup. Note the large number of vents behind the driver piece.

 

Also note the sticker, which reads 111ANV. This confirms to me that the ANV version does indeed use a different type of driver from the standard version, unless Audio Technica just likes to label part numbers with useless stickers to confuse their production line workers.

 

 

A closer look at the other side of the driver. Note the small white marking on the driver ring. When reassembling the headphone, this white marking should be on the OPPOSITE SIDE from the plastic notch on the baffle mentioned earlier.

 

The driver is surrounded by a ring of dense black plastic / metal. This is the ONLY contact surface the driver has with the baffle and the rear driver capsule. (The driver does not sit inside the capsule but rather, the ring on the capsule sits on both this black ring and also the baffle.) I would assume that the density of this black ring is to absorb vibrations from being transferred to the baffle / earcup. This could be a potential difference from the standard version of the Pro700 which to my ears had more plastic resonances, so if any standard version Pro700 owners could report back on this it would be awesome!

 

I tried putting a small ring of blutac around this driver and the baffle to further isolate the driver from the baffle but the tolerances are so tight that this is quite difficult. Honestly I did not think this would make much of a difference, but experimentation is always welcome.

 

 

A closer look at the rear driver capsule. Note that there is quite a substantial plastic ring that sits immediately behind the driver vents. Reflections from this plastic ring actually contributes quite a lot to the sound of the Pro700, as I tried applying a ring of damping material (an adhesive layer of butyl rubber / sound absorbing foam on top). This actually cut down on the the treble / mid amount, I'm assuming from removing stray reflections.

 

This did seem to improve high frequency transients a little but had the negative effect of robbing the entire headphone of much of its energy, removing that nice AT mid signature. I verified the effect of this mod by listening to one earcup with the change and one without, and after doing it I actually don't encourage users to try, though you are welcome to experiment yourself.

 

 

One last image, this time of the cable entry assembly. Pretty standard stuff but if you are curious, yes the internal volume of the left earcup is slightly different from the right.

 

Conclusions:

 

These seem like a very well designed set of headphones. There are no areas that I can really think of improving in their construction, unlike some headphones like the T50RP and the Sony SA3000 that seem to have issues like non-rigid baffles etc. The only mod I could potentially think of would be perhaps to put that ring of damping material behind the driver, and then using thicker velour earpads to distance the driver from the ear to tilt the signature back towards more mid/treble, improve the soundstage and wearing comfort. Unfortunately I don't have earpads on hand that would fit.

 

I hope there are some enterprising Pro700 owners who are willing to do the same thing for their pair just to compare if there are any differences in construction between the ANV and standard version. Hope this guide also inspires some potential mods! :)

Originally Posted by nikhil007 

Are Sony xb 700 better than these?