Hello all,
A little back story:
My very first step in to this crazy headphone world was the ATH AD700's, I purchased them at the start of the year and absolutely loved them! I had massive 'Wow Factor' when I first used them and now understand why some people say they are a gateway drug!
After a few months I still loved the AD700's but was ready to have another look around, looking at audio technica's range was daunting and scary. I loved the airy and openness sound signature of the ad700's but wasn't sure about going further up the chain.
I came across a few other brands and noticed the Fischer Audio brand, especially the FA -011. I was looking in to getting them but they were all but sold out locally down here in Australia. But there was a store that did stock the FA -003, so I begun researching into the 003.
Reading some very positive reviews I stumbled upon FA -003 'clones' selling at Jaycar. I went down to my local Jaycar after work and amazingly they had them in stock only the were named 'Digitech' Pro monitor headphones. I looked at the pictures on the box and they looked exactly like the Fischer Audio!
I grabbed the box and took it to the counter for a price check because they were priced at $80.00 but I swear I saw them on-line for only $50.00. The manager explained to me that I must have went on to the US website instead of the Australian one. Personally I thought for $50 I could give them a try and if they aren't to the standard of the AD700's I'll just sell them but $80 I wasn't so sure.
I thought 'anyhoo' and bought them and at the time I really felt like I was cheating on my AD700's and abit of guilty set in!
I took my new can's out of the box and had a good look at them.
Compared to the AD700's they didn't have much personality but that was alright. They do look decent without standing out and they felt sturdy and tough.
How do they sound:
After taking some photo's and setting them up, the digitech's were plugged into my Fiio E17 and she was ready to dance.
Fired up the first song (always in Flac) Whitney Houston "I have nothing" and at first I wasn't impressed!
I thought fresh out of the box they sounded muffled and veiled. Treble wasn't there and mids were hiding.
But something I heard that I never got from Ad700's which was now present with the digitech was this lovely low level bass response.
Still thou I was not impressed with the overall sound coming from these speakers.
I felt a bit nervous but I was willing to give these can's more time to burn in (which other user's expressed).
For the next few weeks before I'd go to work I would leave them on playing mainly music.
What I found was after the first day of burn-in they sounded quite different to when they were fresh!
The muffled tones were slowly melting away and the mids and highs started to come out!
The bass was getting deeper and tightening up quite nicely.
Now that I've had these for a good month I can honestly say they are my 'New' daily headphones!
I simple love the music that comes from these headphones.
They are beautifully balanced with sparkly highs that are not offensive to the ears, mid's that introduces a 'fun' factor to the music for all genres and lastly lows that are firm, bassy and goes amazingly deep with out distorting or overpowering the rest of the music.
The clarity is excellent with a very nice sound stage and for a 'closed' headphone they do sound quite open and spacious!
Isolation is fantastic especially listening to music or playing games at night.
They are a revealing headphone too, so if you are playing poor quality music then that is going to show quite easily.
Comfort is excellent and the 'killer' clamp grip slowly eases after regular use! I've listened to these all night and in to the early morning without wanting to take them off!
Coming from the Ad700's these headphones was what I needed! Wow...I still can't believe I paid $80 for these.
I personally feel they are 'balanced' and able to exploit the best out of all genre's of music with great success!
Lastly I just want to say I love these headphones and I feel very comfortable using these full time! They replaced my beloved Ad700's which are now in storage awaiting sentencing!
I'd say for price give them a go, I did and feel like I've hit the jackpot!
Thanks for reading and hope to hear from others regarding the Digitech's!
Here's some pic's...
A little back story:
My very first step in to this crazy headphone world was the ATH AD700's, I purchased them at the start of the year and absolutely loved them! I had massive 'Wow Factor' when I first used them and now understand why some people say they are a gateway drug!
After a few months I still loved the AD700's but was ready to have another look around, looking at audio technica's range was daunting and scary. I loved the airy and openness sound signature of the ad700's but wasn't sure about going further up the chain.
I came across a few other brands and noticed the Fischer Audio brand, especially the FA -011. I was looking in to getting them but they were all but sold out locally down here in Australia. But there was a store that did stock the FA -003, so I begun researching into the 003.
Reading some very positive reviews I stumbled upon FA -003 'clones' selling at Jaycar. I went down to my local Jaycar after work and amazingly they had them in stock only the were named 'Digitech' Pro monitor headphones. I looked at the pictures on the box and they looked exactly like the Fischer Audio!
I grabbed the box and took it to the counter for a price check because they were priced at $80.00 but I swear I saw them on-line for only $50.00. The manager explained to me that I must have went on to the US website instead of the Australian one. Personally I thought for $50 I could give them a try and if they aren't to the standard of the AD700's I'll just sell them but $80 I wasn't so sure.
I thought 'anyhoo' and bought them and at the time I really felt like I was cheating on my AD700's and abit of guilty set in!
I took my new can's out of the box and had a good look at them.
Compared to the AD700's they didn't have much personality but that was alright. They do look decent without standing out and they felt sturdy and tough.
How do they sound:
After taking some photo's and setting them up, the digitech's were plugged into my Fiio E17 and she was ready to dance.
Fired up the first song (always in Flac) Whitney Houston "I have nothing" and at first I wasn't impressed!
I thought fresh out of the box they sounded muffled and veiled. Treble wasn't there and mids were hiding.
But something I heard that I never got from Ad700's which was now present with the digitech was this lovely low level bass response.
Still thou I was not impressed with the overall sound coming from these speakers.
I felt a bit nervous but I was willing to give these can's more time to burn in (which other user's expressed).
For the next few weeks before I'd go to work I would leave them on playing mainly music.
What I found was after the first day of burn-in they sounded quite different to when they were fresh!
The muffled tones were slowly melting away and the mids and highs started to come out!
The bass was getting deeper and tightening up quite nicely.
Now that I've had these for a good month I can honestly say they are my 'New' daily headphones!
I simple love the music that comes from these headphones.
They are beautifully balanced with sparkly highs that are not offensive to the ears, mid's that introduces a 'fun' factor to the music for all genres and lastly lows that are firm, bassy and goes amazingly deep with out distorting or overpowering the rest of the music.
The clarity is excellent with a very nice sound stage and for a 'closed' headphone they do sound quite open and spacious!
Isolation is fantastic especially listening to music or playing games at night.
They are a revealing headphone too, so if you are playing poor quality music then that is going to show quite easily.
Comfort is excellent and the 'killer' clamp grip slowly eases after regular use! I've listened to these all night and in to the early morning without wanting to take them off!
Coming from the Ad700's these headphones was what I needed! Wow...I still can't believe I paid $80 for these.
I personally feel they are 'balanced' and able to exploit the best out of all genre's of music with great success!
Lastly I just want to say I love these headphones and I feel very comfortable using these full time! They replaced my beloved Ad700's which are now in storage awaiting sentencing!
I'd say for price give them a go, I did and feel like I've hit the jackpot!
Thanks for reading and hope to hear from others regarding the Digitech's!
Here's some pic's...
Phoenix - According to this thread, they are the same: http://www.head-fi.org/t/491632/review-fischer-audio-fa-003-a-neutral-champ/2535#post_8437627