jnewman
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2004
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Well, my ATH-EW9's arrived yesterday. I bought them at warehouse123.com, excellent service, $175. Oh, and they threw in three nice TDK minidisks. They are also available at audiocubes.com for $199 (I think) and Audio-Technica's Singapore site for something like $151 but with more expensive shipping and MUCH slower email-response. Sadly, my home rig (which contains a 1972ish Philips 212 Electronic turntable, a pretty decent Panasonic CDP, and a Carver C-11 preamp) is in storage in Connecticuit at the present, and I am in Houston, TX for most of the Summer. As a result, I don't have any really decent sources to listen to the phones - the best thing I could dig up is my ancient original Creative Nomad Jukebox, which I haven't used in three or four years but is, I understand, actually pretty good as far as portable sound quality goes. It certainly sounds better than either of my computers or my parents' compact 5.1 stereo thing. No headphone amp either; I have a MisterX maxed MINT coming in a few more days, I'll add to the thread with how they do with it. Let me also add as a disclaimer that I haven't had a WHOLE lot of hi-fi headphone experience to compare these to. I've had Sony V300's (I know, I know) and, a pretty good while back, some V400's, and I've done a fair amount of listening on the low-end Grados, but that's been a while, too. I do have a pretty good stereo speaker setup (all of the above plus a Hafler DH500 power amp and a pair of EPI-100 speakers), so I do know a bit about how things are supposed to sound.
First of all, let me just say that the cans are just as beautiful as their pictures. The build quality is EXCELLENT, the wood is beautiful, they come with a small neoprene carrying case with a separate compartment for each phone, and the clip hardware itself is both very nifty-looking and very comfortable.
I listened to the phones most of the day, and when I wasn't listening they were still playing. I will admit that at first, while they sounded pretty good, I was not terribly impressed; they had dominant mids and (as is to be expected in phones this small) very little, though very clear, bass response. They started to loosen up very quickly, gaining bass response to a very reasonable level for such a small can while retaining pretty good clarity (for example, the 1812 Overture actually sounded quite good), with the mids losing most of their dominance and the highs picking up to the point that they really sound pretty balanced. There is still a bit of a spike in the upper mids, but it's not huge and if things continue the way they have been it'll be gone completely fairly soon.
Going further into the detail of the sound at present: they make the poor quality (128kbps mp3 with poor encoding, mostly - I use 192kbps WMA now and may move higher up in mp3 or ogg at some point) of most of the files on the Nomad Jukebox VERY apparent, but the good files I have on it sound really quite good. The highs don't have quite the frequency extension I would like, and the phones obviously do not have thundering bass, but it has come into the sound to a remarkable extent and bass drums and instruments are clear and sound very real. The lows are clear and well defined, the mids are rich (if still a touch too loud), and the highs are very clear for most of the range, only getting a touch grainy at the very top end. I wouldn't say they have a WIDE soundstage, but it certainly isn't narrow, and is much wider than I would have expected for something this size - roughly what sounds appropriate. It is very easy to separate instruments from the mix and feel them well off to the side, and there's FAR more detail than with the V300's - I'm hearing voices and instruments in some of the tracks that I've never even heard before (heh. I know the V300s're terrible, don't rub it in). They are easily the best portable headphones I've ever heard (I haven't ever used Shure's or Ety's and got these because I didn't want all the isolation of canalphones for general portable listening). Genre-specific, they sound really and truly excellent for Classical music, excellent for Blues, and very good for oldies and classic rock (and a bit of newer rock). I don't have much metal or electronica, but the small bit I do have also sounds good. I can't think of much more to say at this point, but I will post more impressions in a few days after the phones've burned in a bit more and I've had more time to listen (and have put some better-quality files on the Nomad Jukebox). Finally, I will be getting some (more likely) Beyerdynamics, DT880's or 860's probably or (less likely) AKG501's in the next few weeks, and will post a few comparisons once I've had some time to listen to a pair of large cans a decent number of people have heard.
If anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. I've too much to do this weekend, but Sunday night or Monday night I will post a few pictures of them (hard to find pictures other than the official sales pic). Finally, anyone going to the Houston Meet on the 24th will likely be able to listen to them for themselves as I will probably be there and will certainly bring them if I do.
Woohoo! First impressions/review/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. And first decent phones, for that matter!
Note/Disclaimer: I can't STAND really bass-heavy speakers/headphones, so while the bass on these cans sounds excellent and balanced to ME, if you are a basshead it almost certainly will not make you happy - the drivers are just too small to really thump you.
First of all, let me just say that the cans are just as beautiful as their pictures. The build quality is EXCELLENT, the wood is beautiful, they come with a small neoprene carrying case with a separate compartment for each phone, and the clip hardware itself is both very nifty-looking and very comfortable.
I listened to the phones most of the day, and when I wasn't listening they were still playing. I will admit that at first, while they sounded pretty good, I was not terribly impressed; they had dominant mids and (as is to be expected in phones this small) very little, though very clear, bass response. They started to loosen up very quickly, gaining bass response to a very reasonable level for such a small can while retaining pretty good clarity (for example, the 1812 Overture actually sounded quite good), with the mids losing most of their dominance and the highs picking up to the point that they really sound pretty balanced. There is still a bit of a spike in the upper mids, but it's not huge and if things continue the way they have been it'll be gone completely fairly soon.
Going further into the detail of the sound at present: they make the poor quality (128kbps mp3 with poor encoding, mostly - I use 192kbps WMA now and may move higher up in mp3 or ogg at some point) of most of the files on the Nomad Jukebox VERY apparent, but the good files I have on it sound really quite good. The highs don't have quite the frequency extension I would like, and the phones obviously do not have thundering bass, but it has come into the sound to a remarkable extent and bass drums and instruments are clear and sound very real. The lows are clear and well defined, the mids are rich (if still a touch too loud), and the highs are very clear for most of the range, only getting a touch grainy at the very top end. I wouldn't say they have a WIDE soundstage, but it certainly isn't narrow, and is much wider than I would have expected for something this size - roughly what sounds appropriate. It is very easy to separate instruments from the mix and feel them well off to the side, and there's FAR more detail than with the V300's - I'm hearing voices and instruments in some of the tracks that I've never even heard before (heh. I know the V300s're terrible, don't rub it in). They are easily the best portable headphones I've ever heard (I haven't ever used Shure's or Ety's and got these because I didn't want all the isolation of canalphones for general portable listening). Genre-specific, they sound really and truly excellent for Classical music, excellent for Blues, and very good for oldies and classic rock (and a bit of newer rock). I don't have much metal or electronica, but the small bit I do have also sounds good. I can't think of much more to say at this point, but I will post more impressions in a few days after the phones've burned in a bit more and I've had more time to listen (and have put some better-quality files on the Nomad Jukebox). Finally, I will be getting some (more likely) Beyerdynamics, DT880's or 860's probably or (less likely) AKG501's in the next few weeks, and will post a few comparisons once I've had some time to listen to a pair of large cans a decent number of people have heard.
If anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. I've too much to do this weekend, but Sunday night or Monday night I will post a few pictures of them (hard to find pictures other than the official sales pic). Finally, anyone going to the Houston Meet on the 24th will likely be able to listen to them for themselves as I will probably be there and will certainly bring them if I do.
Woohoo! First impressions/review/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. And first decent phones, for that matter!
Note/Disclaimer: I can't STAND really bass-heavy speakers/headphones, so while the bass on these cans sounds excellent and balanced to ME, if you are a basshead it almost certainly will not make you happy - the drivers are just too small to really thump you.
