darkswordsman17
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2005
- Posts
- 798
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- 20
Missing the sound of my A900s, I decided that I should return, however, being swayed by reading people refer to them as mid-fi even compared to headphones that don't cost much more (and in some cases less money), I decided to go for the Ti's which happened to be nearing the end of their short run. I noticed that the A900Ti's had a more forward sound than I recall the A900s having, and also, the bass was reduced (and yet wasn't not necessarily better quality). While they sounded pretty good and did do a couple of things the regular 900s don't, I wasn't really satisfied with the sound for some reason.
Well, I moved on to a pair of W5000s which just blew me away. It was one of maybe 4 or 5 real wow moments I've had in audio. However, they were not perfect. The bass was lacking in impact, and the fit left something to be desired. The pads on them are kinda strange in my opinion.
Now I'm back to regular A900s, and to be quite honest, I'm enjoying them a lot. I certainly miss some of what makes the W5000s great (namely the speed and effortless detail), but they sound more right to me, and in fact I like them better than the Ti version. Being baffled by this I thought about some things.
What I've concluded, but am now unfortunately unable to try myself, is to put the regular A900 pads on the W5000. I know, this is borderline blasphemous, exchanging the lambskin (?) for the crappy pleather of the A900s pads, but the increased padding should help both with the bass and the fit, and might make all the difference for those that can see what makes the W5000s great but can't live with those two shortfalls (which seems to be most people, although Fitz helped quite a few of them).
A further thing to look into is the pads on the L3000, which seems to be perhaps the king of bass as far as dynamic headphones are concerned. I'm curious if the pads might be a big contribution to this. Ideally, maybe at some meet, we could have a variety of A-T pads and have people compare them to see if a consensus can be made, which would help quite a bit of people (I've seen several that have at least considered putting W5000 pads on their regular A900s, and so this could help for a variety of headphones as well). Maybe even confirm/refute what pads in fact do fit the various headphones (I have yet to see an absolute confirmation/refutation of the velour pads of the AD series fitting the A and W series and vice versa).
Cliffs:
1. Had A900s
2. Had A900Ti's (felt something was missing)
3. Had W5000s, experienced fit and bass issues
4. Went back to A900s, did some soul searching (
)
5. A900 pads on W5000? (SAY WHAT?!?!)
6. Maybe try various A-T pads with various other A-T phones at a meet?
Well, I moved on to a pair of W5000s which just blew me away. It was one of maybe 4 or 5 real wow moments I've had in audio. However, they were not perfect. The bass was lacking in impact, and the fit left something to be desired. The pads on them are kinda strange in my opinion.
Now I'm back to regular A900s, and to be quite honest, I'm enjoying them a lot. I certainly miss some of what makes the W5000s great (namely the speed and effortless detail), but they sound more right to me, and in fact I like them better than the Ti version. Being baffled by this I thought about some things.
What I've concluded, but am now unfortunately unable to try myself, is to put the regular A900 pads on the W5000. I know, this is borderline blasphemous, exchanging the lambskin (?) for the crappy pleather of the A900s pads, but the increased padding should help both with the bass and the fit, and might make all the difference for those that can see what makes the W5000s great but can't live with those two shortfalls (which seems to be most people, although Fitz helped quite a few of them).
A further thing to look into is the pads on the L3000, which seems to be perhaps the king of bass as far as dynamic headphones are concerned. I'm curious if the pads might be a big contribution to this. Ideally, maybe at some meet, we could have a variety of A-T pads and have people compare them to see if a consensus can be made, which would help quite a bit of people (I've seen several that have at least considered putting W5000 pads on their regular A900s, and so this could help for a variety of headphones as well). Maybe even confirm/refute what pads in fact do fit the various headphones (I have yet to see an absolute confirmation/refutation of the velour pads of the AD series fitting the A and W series and vice versa).
Cliffs:
1. Had A900s
2. Had A900Ti's (felt something was missing)
3. Had W5000s, experienced fit and bass issues
4. Went back to A900s, did some soul searching (
5. A900 pads on W5000? (SAY WHAT?!?!)
6. Maybe try various A-T pads with various other A-T phones at a meet?
