[SV_huMMer]

I bought these back in 1996, during my trip to New York. At that time I thought this is the best sound from a headphone one can imagine

Now I know this is not quite the case, but at that time they've been very heavily used, and are damn well burned in!

As I moved to more serious cans, Aiwas were dismissed, and they've been sitting on a shelf for about three years, until I bumped into them during another "get-rid-of-all-these-boxes-and-crap" efforts. Having wiped out the dust (only to discover that those pleather earpads have been completely worn out hehe), I decided to give them a try - just for fun, to recall the sonic memories of those days. I plugged them into my Laconic tube amp, launched Oscar Benton's "Bensonhurst Blues"... Man, this was the BASS!!!

Funny enough, I did not find those 25$ cracking plastic cans as disgusting as I thought! Overall, the sound was very bright (as with most Aiwa's sound devices), with excessive lows and crispy highs, but not at all to a point of making me nausee. The soundstage was, of course, totally "inside-your-head", as they are fully closed-back circumaural beasts. But the sound was very dynamic, impactful and involving. I quickly switched to my Rumba collection - and again, it was colorful, with a lot of "drive", not too refined or detailed, but surprisingly pleasant.

Given their exceptional wearing comfort (the cans are soo deep, that my NOT SO SMALL (see the sig

) ears fitted perfectly in), I can now say that for US25$ those are hell of a "bang for the buck", and I really don't know if there are any modern cans in this price range, that could easily outperform X301!

BTW, I've never seen them for sale in Russia, and as I bought them in NY, I wonder if any of you had come across these on your way to the Senn/AKG/AT/Sony/Beyer olymp

 

[dwchin]

I don't have these particular headphones, but recently I had a similar rediscovery with some Aiwa earbuds. I know Aiwa doesn't always make the best sounding products (although I have a mini system that is surprisingly good) and I admit that the earphones they make these days are way subpar. These, however, were surprisingly good, and they can't have cost me more than $20 because back then, I didn't purchase any headphones costing more than that. They have that "dual pipe phone" technology, and comparing to my Sennheiser MX-500s, they sound quite a bit crisper and have better bass extension, with surprisingly good instrument separation, too. I was quite impressed with these, and the construction is rugged and excellent, as far as earbuds go. Unfortunately, I have no model number for these -- Aiwa seemed to think that printing the model on these earbuds was not particularly important. Considering how good these were, it's a shame that Aiwa now makes products that are, for lack of a better phrase, Sony's leftovers.