AD700 First Impressions

[donunus]

so bass articulation on ad900s and ad700s are the same? That is about the only thing that could use some boost in quality for a little added enjoyment.

By the way, I just did a quick comparison with my tube dac setup against my laptops HP jack with the ad700s and they were brighter on the hp jack of the laptop but still very good. The cymbals get a more realistic sound with my dac. I just remember the drums playing at my friends home studio sounding like the highs on these

 

[nhat_thanh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevM2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif So would you say it is better to just save the $170 and go for the AD700s instead of 900s?

My post above only refers to the different in the midrange and treble.
But that is not only the different between AD700 and AD900, well I should have said more specific.

The soundstage is slightly wider on AD900, sometimes you can feel them more airy, depends on which songs.
The treble like I have said, more sparkle, but also a bit more harsh than AD700 to me.
The bass is a nice thing, AD900 have a touch more warm and impact in the bass, make you feel it more present than AD700, but again, just slightly. On the other hand, if you want big (erm... not quite big

) improvement for the AD700 bass, then AD2000 would do the right thing.

Overall I would say AD900 is the improvement of the AD700 in everything, more refined, more detail, more bright, better bass respond. These differences, improves are small, and when we consider the price, which is 170$ different, people think they are not worth it.

Many people who have the AD900 for 250-270$, are very happy with them, considering them are so unique, I also think it is the right price. But when they look at the AD700, they can get them for 100$, that is a real bargain, even it is only an entry-level cans. That is why not many people will eventually upgrade to AD900 when they already have AD700, like in my case

.

To decide which one to go for, if you just want to try them to see how they sound, then I suggest go for AD700.
If you plan to use them as your main cans and with better settup, then go for AD900

 

[donunus]

Kevm2,
I just did a comparo with the ad700 and the hd600/equinox with different music genres and the hd600s are overall more solid sounding and more dynamic but when you want vocal emotion and great sound for acoustic music or female vocals, the ad700 is the shyte... If the ad900 can solidify the ad700 sound to almost hd600 levels while retaining their tonality in the mids to highs, that would be amazing. My suggestion to you for a can to get first if you want something emotional and a complement to the hd600s at the same time is the ad700s before the sr80s. The sr80s will not be as refined as the hd600s and you might be shocked by that kind of step down. The value in grado cans at this price point is i believe in their solid sound(with flats or comfy pads) while being relatively uncolored compared to other inexpensive cans. They are not bright when not using bowls. If you do use bowls, you will get more extension on the highs but some things also get more colored in the mids. The bowls sort of add a little of that k701 coloration in the lower highs also. Now, the ad700s will lack the punch of the grados and hd600s but in return some magical upper mids with great highs to give you a refreshing new outlook on your music missing from both the grados and senns.

 

[fjrabon]

donunus, your crusade for AD700's very nearly made me buy a pair last night. The only thing that scares me off is the bass, and the fact that I really don't need another set of headphones right now.

 

[donunus]

The bass are about the same level as the k701s. They dont really annoy (sounding too thin) like that of the k701s though because no other frequencies masks its bass. These cans sound warm and full so far as the mids are concerned. They don't sound clinical in anyway and sound quite natural.

 

[fjrabon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif The bass are about the same level as the k701s. They dont really annoy (sounding too thin) like that of the k701s though because no other frequencies masks its bass. These cans sound warm and full so far as the mids are concerned. They don't sound clinical in anyway and sound quite natural.

To me, the K701 was like this stunningly hot chick I went on a date with, that all my friends said was gorgeous, but I wasn't attracted to her, thought she was a bad kisser and disliked her personality. But for some reason I keep thinking about going out with her again.

I think eventually I'm going to buy one nice pair of completely neutral headphones for mixing with, and then have a couple of colored pairs for home listening. I like slightly more bass than "neutral" phones allow and I like the Grado upper mids sizzle. I'm guessing that I'll eventually end up with RS-1's and DT990's. I don't think the AD700's are neutral enough for my mixing needs, and I don't know that they're the type of sound signature I would want for my home, non-critical, enjoyment listening.

 

[donunus]

have you heard them already? the upper mids on these are better than the lower grados by far

 

[fjrabon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif have you heard them already? the upper mids on these are better than the lower grados by far

nah, I haven't heard them, which is why I almost bought them last night (and by almost bought them, I mean I actually purchased them on amazon.com and then canceled my order after an hour of going back and forth, amazon gives you an hour and a half to cancel). Keep in mind though that I probably won't buy another Grado unless its the SR225i (which may have more bass than the SR225, waiting for reviews) or the RS-1. It's not like I'm going to upgrade to SR80's. And its not necessarily the "quality" of the upper mids that I like in Grados, it's their aggressiveness.

 

[donunus]

The 225i's have been reviewed by the way

 

[fjrabon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif The 225i's have been reviewed by the way

yeah, I saw that. I'm waiting for more reviews with more burn in time before I really decide anything on them. In my experience, Grados really change after about 75 hours of burn in time. If I read the reviews carefully, not many of them have gotten there. I'm also not in any hurry to buy another set of 'phones, and I'm still going back and forth on whether or not the next set will be DT990's or SR225i's. The SR225i's would be cheaper, and allow me to sell my SR60i's, but I think the DT990's might be more of what I am ultimately "after", at least until I invest in a really nice tube set-up.

edit: also, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

 

[moodyrn]

All of the hype about the ad700s, just encouraged me to buy a pair. Currently, I have a pair of hd580s and a pair of dt770/80. Can't wait to hear how the ad700s would compare to those.

 

[donunus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjrabon /img/forum/go_quote.gif yeah, I saw that. I'm waiting for more reviews with more burn in time before I really decide anything on them. In my experience, Grados really change after about 75 hours of burn in time. If I read the reviews carefully, not many of them have gotten there. I'm also not in any hurry to buy another set of 'phones, and I'm still going back and forth on whether or not the next set will be DT990's or SR225i's. The SR225i's would be cheaper, and allow me to sell my SR60i's, but I think the DT990's might be more of what I am ultimately "after", at least until I invest in a really nice tube set-up. edit: also, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

I was wondering what in the descriptions of people of the dt990s made you want to get them? Bass? I just want to tell you in advance that I've had 990s and they weren't really anything special overall. Bass was the most decent aspect they had but still nothing really that special. Mids were dry and recessed (unemotional), and the highs are fatiguing to the point of causing my ears to ring whenever i used them more than a few minutes. Just wanted to point that out. Who knows, it might help you in your decision or maybe you might agree with me when you get to hear them. I had the 32 ohm 2005 model by the way, which is supposedly almost the same sounding as the 250 ohm model according to Jan Meier when I asked him before making the purchase.

 

[donunus]

moodyrn,
If you expect bass that is close to your other cans, you will be dissapointed. Other wise they are great cans. Think of the ad700s as a minimonitor driven by a SET amp compared to your other cans being floorstanders driven by some big solid state power amps if they were all speakers.

 

[Rex81]

I shipped out my AD700s a couple days ago and I already kinda miss them...

 

[donunus]

looking at your sig I'm guessing the bassy cans spoiled you