jnsaudiophile
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 7, 2010
- Posts
- 137
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- 113
There isn't really a good review of the ATH-T44 and I am hoping I can share my experience with the cans. This is my first headphone so please bear with me. I'll try the best I can into putting detail into the review of the sound.
A little background info about me first: I came from having studio monitor like speakers in my room powered by a subwoofer + built-in amp with 2.1 sattelite speakers so I have some experience in telling apart the sound but not very good at it.
Test conducted through laptop headphone jack (realtek hd, acl663); Mp3 format 192 kbps song. Headphone has > 40 hours+ burn in. Also tested with the iTouch and Nokia N95 cellphone. Sadly the jack doesn't really plug into the iPhone (not 3G) to my annoyance. T__T
ATH-T44
Build Quality: The headphone is made out of plastic, pleather earcups, self-adjusting (the whole headphone doesn't adjust, the area around the earcups so you could fit the headphone in an angle you want.) The headband is rigid and might break if you put it on in a 90 degree angle, you can put the headband at slight diagonal angle and adjust the earcups for better comfort. Y shape wires feels loosely connected to the headphone and is looooooong.
Sound: Before burning them in, the mids sounded flat, the lows repressed and the highs impossible to listen to. There is a good bit of detail with the treble but the bass is nonexistent. After the burn in, they sound far far better with the mids really shining and warm, the lows pick up their sound and the highs listenable. Treble is tremendous and the bass gains a kick in the low-mids but distort or feels broken in the highs (it can't handle loud thumping bass from rap very well ;__
For a close can, the ATH-T44 has a semblence of a soundstage but not very big. It's like being in the same room as the band as they do their thing.
List of Music sampled:
Artic Monkeys - Mardy Burn (Handles the guitar very impressively)
Beck - Soldier Jane (the thump from the bass mids here really shine with the ATH-T44)
Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (electronica somewhat ;p)
The Kooks - Stormy Weather (nice depiction of a sound stage)
The Raconteurs - Salute your Solution (The headphones are having trouble with the highs and lows here and when there's an excess from the highs and lows, it sounds murky or muddy as well as having a shrilly vocal)
Gym Class Heroes - New Friend Request (the bass here made me make sure to remove all my rap or heavy bass songs out of my playlist ;____
Other Thoughts: Isolation is great if you listen to your music loud. For closed cans, the music leaks but not far enough that the whole room will hear what you are listening, maybe if you're in class, your seatmates would but only if you listen really loud.
Overall, the ATH-T44 surprised me as a budget solution headphone that offers great sound. Good for entry level audiophiles (like me) and those on a tight budget.
A little background info about me first: I came from having studio monitor like speakers in my room powered by a subwoofer + built-in amp with 2.1 sattelite speakers so I have some experience in telling apart the sound but not very good at it.
Test conducted through laptop headphone jack (realtek hd, acl663); Mp3 format 192 kbps song. Headphone has > 40 hours+ burn in. Also tested with the iTouch and Nokia N95 cellphone. Sadly the jack doesn't really plug into the iPhone (not 3G) to my annoyance. T__T
ATH-T44
Build Quality: The headphone is made out of plastic, pleather earcups, self-adjusting (the whole headphone doesn't adjust, the area around the earcups so you could fit the headphone in an angle you want.) The headband is rigid and might break if you put it on in a 90 degree angle, you can put the headband at slight diagonal angle and adjust the earcups for better comfort. Y shape wires feels loosely connected to the headphone and is looooooong.
Sound: Before burning them in, the mids sounded flat, the lows repressed and the highs impossible to listen to. There is a good bit of detail with the treble but the bass is nonexistent. After the burn in, they sound far far better with the mids really shining and warm, the lows pick up their sound and the highs listenable. Treble is tremendous and the bass gains a kick in the low-mids but distort or feels broken in the highs (it can't handle loud thumping bass from rap very well ;__
For a close can, the ATH-T44 has a semblence of a soundstage but not very big. It's like being in the same room as the band as they do their thing.
List of Music sampled:
Artic Monkeys - Mardy Burn (Handles the guitar very impressively)
Beck - Soldier Jane (the thump from the bass mids here really shine with the ATH-T44)
Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (electronica somewhat ;p)
The Kooks - Stormy Weather (nice depiction of a sound stage)
The Raconteurs - Salute your Solution (The headphones are having trouble with the highs and lows here and when there's an excess from the highs and lows, it sounds murky or muddy as well as having a shrilly vocal)
Gym Class Heroes - New Friend Request (the bass here made me make sure to remove all my rap or heavy bass songs out of my playlist ;____
Other Thoughts: Isolation is great if you listen to your music loud. For closed cans, the music leaks but not far enough that the whole room will hear what you are listening, maybe if you're in class, your seatmates would but only if you listen really loud.
Overall, the ATH-T44 surprised me as a budget solution headphone that offers great sound. Good for entry level audiophiles (like me) and those on a tight budget.
