My first review on a pair of cans and also the very first pair that introduced me into the Audiophile family!
I haven't used a hell of a lot of closed cans. They mostly comprise of a few 'gaming headsets' and my last ever headset which these replaced, the G4ME ZERO from Sennheiser. The only other pair of cans I have used that were closed back were the DT770's at a local shop on demo. Unfortunately, the DT770's were not hooked up to a good audio source so I can't really use them for comparison... What I can say though, is going from generic gaming headsets to standalone headphones was the best decision I have made in regards to anything to do with audio. Along with getting my hands on the A900X, I also got the Soundblaster Z and the Blue Yeti microphone to complete my setup. Listening to music on the A900X is a dream compared to the G4ME ZERO. The bass is more present and the highs are just crisp enough for my taste. Playing games as well is more pleasant with the extra bass and highs the A900X gave me. Bullets whizzing past my head and explosions going off right in front of me had me more immersed than I thought possible with stereo cans. And using the SBX Surround software that comes with the Soundblaster Z made these cans even more amazing in game, giving them a much wider soundstage!
To the negatives... The wing design is a little bit of an oddball. At first I thought it was fantastic! Didn't have to adjust when someone else wanted to use them. Just put 'em on and away you go! Over 9 months of use, lots of use, the springs that are used for the 'wings' have slightly weakened, thus they don't have quite the same amount of support as they once did. So now the tops of the earcups tend to slide ever so slowly down to rest on the tops of my ears, which after hours of use tends to hurt and needs repositioning. This could be because I do have a fairly large head and they are stretching more than if I had a medium sized head, but every now and then I would have to re-adjust. Speaking of re-adjusting, going from the Sennheiser G4ME ZERO which has amazing comfort with wide, deep cans to something that has more clamping force and shallow pads, took my ears over 3 weeks to get used to! I would have to take them off after 2 hours to let my ears breathe and massage them. It probably doesn't help that I have large ears, but after a months use, my ears didn't hurt anymore! They didn't hurt, but were annoyed by the shallow earcups. Constant adjustments are needed now to keep them in a position where they are comfortable. If the 'wing' design had more tension, had some other method of head support or the cans were a little lighter, this wouldn't occur.
This isn't much of a review, I apologise for this, but if you are looking to move away from headsets and get a really decent pair of headphones, I would definitely recommend looking into the ATH-A900X.
I haven't used a hell of a lot of closed cans. They mostly comprise of a few 'gaming headsets' and my last ever headset which these replaced, the G4ME ZERO from Sennheiser. The only other pair of cans I have used that were closed back were the DT770's at a local shop on demo. Unfortunately, the DT770's were not hooked up to a good audio source so I can't really use them for comparison... What I can say though, is going from generic gaming headsets to standalone headphones was the best decision I have made in regards to anything to do with audio. Along with getting my hands on the A900X, I also got the Soundblaster Z and the Blue Yeti microphone to complete my setup. Listening to music on the A900X is a dream compared to the G4ME ZERO. The bass is more present and the highs are just crisp enough for my taste. Playing games as well is more pleasant with the extra bass and highs the A900X gave me. Bullets whizzing past my head and explosions going off right in front of me had me more immersed than I thought possible with stereo cans. And using the SBX Surround software that comes with the Soundblaster Z made these cans even more amazing in game, giving them a much wider soundstage!
To the negatives... The wing design is a little bit of an oddball. At first I thought it was fantastic! Didn't have to adjust when someone else wanted to use them. Just put 'em on and away you go! Over 9 months of use, lots of use, the springs that are used for the 'wings' have slightly weakened, thus they don't have quite the same amount of support as they once did. So now the tops of the earcups tend to slide ever so slowly down to rest on the tops of my ears, which after hours of use tends to hurt and needs repositioning. This could be because I do have a fairly large head and they are stretching more than if I had a medium sized head, but every now and then I would have to re-adjust. Speaking of re-adjusting, going from the Sennheiser G4ME ZERO which has amazing comfort with wide, deep cans to something that has more clamping force and shallow pads, took my ears over 3 weeks to get used to! I would have to take them off after 2 hours to let my ears breathe and massage them. It probably doesn't help that I have large ears, but after a months use, my ears didn't hurt anymore! They didn't hurt, but were annoyed by the shallow earcups. Constant adjustments are needed now to keep them in a position where they are comfortable. If the 'wing' design had more tension, had some other method of head support or the cans were a little lighter, this wouldn't occur.
This isn't much of a review, I apologise for this, but if you are looking to move away from headsets and get a really decent pair of headphones, I would definitely recommend looking into the ATH-A900X.