[Kaviar]

Intro:
Before I begin the “review” I would like to issue a few words of warning. I am a noob at this, so a pinch of salt is therefore required. English is not my native language, so my vocabulary is not very rich. This is a real danger when trying to describe something which is so hard to put words into. With this in mind, I will try to use as few words as possible. Third, I`ve never really owned a pair of deasent headphones before, unless you count Koss PortaPro or Sony MDR-EX71SL IEM`s. I also owned Koss - The Plug, but they went in the garbage bin after 2 minutes of testing. Same goes for the iPods stocked buds.

Comfort and design:
The A700 is very plushy, and very comfortable. They are a joy to wear. Fatigue is almost never an issue for me. The only problem i can find is they tend to get hot if i wear them for prolonged periods of time. But I guess every closed headphone will tend to prevent heat from escaping. Maybe open cans provide some thermal escape. They seem to be sturdy enough, but I would not travel anywhere with them. These cans are for home use only in my opinion. They look quite stylish, but be aware of the fact that these things are huge! My dog freaked out the first time she saw me with these babies on.

Sound:
I would say that the sound of Audio Technica A700 is easy to like. It`s pure, clean and very easy on the ear in general. Listening fatigue has never set in. The sound is neither laid back or up front, neither dark or bright. I found tonal balance to be good, without being clinical. The first thing i noticed was the spaciousness. The sound stage is very wide, but has some depth to it too. Both imaging and focus are very impressive. Guitars are crisp, have a nice attack, and are handled with delicacy. The stroke of a violin string seems to hang in the air. Highs are very nice, as are mids and lows. There is nothing sticking out of the ordinary, frequency wise. The bass is not boomy as some has claimed it to be. Its just there, equal to the rest of the frequency spectrum. Deep bass is impressive too, but I guess that goes for most headphones. I think they handle both acoustical and electronical very well.

After about 50 hours of burn in, the sound opened up a lot. In lack of better words, i would say it was almost like they liquefied, sounding richer, more transparent and more organic than before.

Conclusion:
The best thing about these cans are the fact that they manage to be very correct, but at the same time maintain quite a lot of fun factor. I doubt that there are many other cans out there that has the same price to performance ratio. I truly love their overall sound.

+ sound
+ comfort
+ design
+ value

- size may be an issue for some



I may or may not update this post in the future. Constructive criticism regarding the review itself is very much welcomed, as I may decide to write other reviews in the future. Thanks

 

[Kaviar]

I almost forgot. Here are some pics too.

Yeah really! Only 2 months late.

 

[Beagle]

Nice!

 

[audionewbie]

what's the isolation, leakage like. I have the crazy idea of using some circumaural headphones on the bus to work regardless of how stupid i look.

also, you say they are plushy, can i assume the material feels nice against you skin?

 

[StratCat]

Hi Kaviar -

Nice little review. Good to see the a AT 700 series getting some new reviews, too. Thank you for providing it.

As a former ATH-A700 owner, I agree with the bulk of your impressions for the most part, save, one or two.

I'm pretty much with you on comfort, and even tho the mechanical wing set up is pretty funky, they seemed resilient and sturdy, to the point I could just toss them around w/o any real concerns. Those wings could get irritating in a minor way for me during prolonged listening (hours), but given the price point and sonic quality, I felt it could be overlooked.

As for sonic qualities, the A700's, to me, have all the open, spacious, "airy" qualities you describe, and definitely are an enjoyable set of cans for their price-point in closed cans, IMO. I do feel the bass, tho, can be relatively inarticulate in the lower registers. Sort of a "muffled thump", rather than an organic timbre’d bass line, again, in the lower bass registers. Like you, tho, I too felt the bass energy was in fair proportion with the mids and highs. And the mids and highs do seem to be this phones forte', IMHO, along with the light airy qualities you described.

BTW, you mentioned strings in your review. Have you demo'd the AD700's? If you haven't, and:

1] Listen to a fair amount of classical or acoustic music,
2] Like the AT sound signature,
3] Can live with a more rolled off bass response,
4] Enjoy an open can sound,

then you may also really like the AD700's. No contest, really, for mids/highs and that airy and spacious AT sound. Sort of like A700 X2, but w/o the muffled bass. The AD700’s only real negative (for their price point), IMO, is they are a little too light in bass, which is why I'm upgrading, but will be spending significantly more for the upgrade (my upgrade thread’s link is in my sig).

C'ya’ ‘round.

 

[Kaviar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audionewbie /img/forum/go_quote.gif what's the isolation, leakage like. I have the crazy idea of using some circumaural headphones on the bus to work regardless of how stupid i look. also, you say they are plushy, can i assume the material feels nice against you skin?

Yes and yes. Isolation is superb, and they feel rather nice against your skin. But the pads are pleather, so if its really hot and you are sweating, the pads tend to stick to your skin. I guess velour would be a bit more comfortable, but velour probably should not isolate as well.

StratCat: Thank you! I dont think I`ve ever experienced an "organic timbre’d bass line" in a set of cans before. But I think I get what you are saying, and i agree. I found the bass quality of these cans to be rather hard to describe, as the bass is quite correct hi-fi wise, but at the same time it has a certain party - feel to it, hence the fun factor. But at the same time the quantity of the bass is not large enough to get the official "party approved stamp". When you say that the bass is thumpy, it really makes me want to check out higher range headphones with better bass qualities, because I was really impressed by the sound with retail price in mind. As a long time speaker geek I feel that you get so much more SQ with a set of cans than with a traditional stereo.

The AD700 sounds interesting, and i would love to check them out, especially when considering that the closed ATH-A700`s real strength IMO is soundstage and spaciousness. Too bad there are no Audio Technica retailers in scandinavia yet.

Again I have to remind anybody reading this that I am new to this, so please take my words with a grain of salt.

Cheers!

 

[audionewbie]

thanks for the info, i am trying to find opinions on comfort and they are relatively hard to come by, i am a newbie too so appreciate the opinion.

It is summer here so that might be a problem but i can always try my senn's and hope anyone next to me doesn't mind.

 

[gordolindsay]

Very nice write-up Kaviar!! I just want to say for English not being your native language, you type it exceptionally well.

 

[StratCat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaviar /img/forum/go_quote.gif [...] StratCat: Thank you! I dont think I`ve ever experienced an "organic timbre’d bass line" in a set of cans before. But I think I get what you are saying, and i agree. I found the bass quality of these cans to be rather hard to describe, as the bass is quite correct hi-fi wise, but at the same time it has a certain party - feel to it, hence the fun factor. But at the same time the quantity of the bass is not large enough to get the official "party approved stamp". When you say that the bass is thumpy, it really makes me want to check out higher range headphones with better bass qualities, because I was really impressed by the sound with retail price in mind. As a long time speaker geek I feel that you get so much more SQ with a set of cans than with a traditional stereo. The AD700 sounds interesting, and i would love to check them out, especially when considering that the closed ATH-A700`s real strength IMO is soundstage and spaciousness. Too bad there are no Audio Technica retailers in scandinavia yet. Again I have to remind anybody reading this that I am new to this, so please take my words with a grain of salt. Cheers!

Heh, I have no idea where I coined "organic timbre’d bass line" from, either! Must be the hazards of late Saturday night posting!

I'm new to headphones, too, my friend. Only been at this for maybe a month, but like you I had some experience with audio (speakers).

I think it's possible your experience may be similar to mine (and probably most people), in that the "wow" factor really catches us off guard when we get our first decent set of cans after coming from speakers only. A new, relatively inexpensive world of detail, intimacy, and spatial imaging emerges. I think the experience of headphones is just much different than speakers. Not better, but different, each with their own pros and cons.

But what I wanted to share with you was also my recent experience: I was simply amazed at the differences of sound quality between closed and open cans in some genres of music. I never had open cans before, and wasn't expecting such a large degree of difference. The differences really are striking at this price point, and I think the AD700/A700's display these differences well, and are a reasonably priced way to experience these differences. I'm finding I so much prefer open cans for classical, that I prefer my 100 USD AD700's over my 220 USD Denon D2000's for this genre! Wild, huh?

Anyway, thanks for your reply. And yes, like gordolindsay, I would never have guessed you don't speak English natively.

 

[tk3]

Hehe, lucky for you, the dog doesn't think the headphones are even worth a glance!

 

[Kaviar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tk3 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hehe, lucky for you, the dog doesn't think the headphones are even worth a glance!

Your comment inspired this loldog-picture. I guess maybe 2% of people will find it funny

 

[JMCIII]

The only problem with your picture is that if you really tried to put those headphones on that dog, he's need ears in his ass to listen.

Other than that I thought it kind of cute.

 

[Goit]

One thing I found out with Japanese products and Asian made products in general, is that the packaging always inflate our perception of the product. With many western brands, especially American, the packaging often diminishes the product's apparent value.

I praise the Western brands for that, and condemn the Asian brands for what they are doing.