[swbf2cheater]

**Audio Technica ESW9**​

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A review and comparison thread​

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Specs​

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Type: Dynamic ​

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Driver Unit: 42mm 
Magnet: Neodymium 
Frequency response: 5-35,000 Hz 
Impedence: 42 Ohms 
Max. Input Power: 1000mW 
Sensitivity: 103dB 
Plug: Mini/Standard Gold plated 
Cord length: 1.2m (Single) (OFC) 
Net weight (without cord): 170g 
 

 
I consider the ESW9 "The Journey Ender" Having a great balance of everything and handling multiple genres of music exceedingly well compared to a lot of other portable sets.  This review may be a little late in the game, but I felt it at least somewhat worth it to test it out with the Fiio E7 and see how it performed.  I purchased this set the day it was released a while ago, it sat on my stand until October of 2010 when disaster struck and I lost almost all my gear.  I was never into portable sets, but I recently decided to rebuy them.  I am extremely happy I did. 
 
Comfort and Build Quality
 
The stock version of the ESW9 has enough clamp to make a lobster jealous, thankfully the innards of the headband are made of metal and can be easily bent to your liking without snapping, causing you to panic and roll around on the floor in a fit of sadness.  The set is easily one of the most comfortable sets I have ever worn after proper bending.  The clamp goes from hefty, to almost none while still retaining good isolation.  The Earpads are made of leather and I want to say they should have been padded a little more.  A simple cotton mod is in order to make them a little more comfortable, stuffing a ring of cotton on the underside of the pads to lift them up definitely helped a bit.  Im not a fan of on ear sets, but these are pretty good in terms of comfort and don't bother me at all.  They are incredibly light weight and low profile, meaning you dont look like a radar dish wearing them.  Build Quality is also very nice, mostly made of metal on the insides, but I was a bit let down by the wood cups feeling not so "quality".  They are a cheaper wood type and feel than I always expected them to be.    
 
 
 
As for the sound, well, personally I would consider them to be right smack in the middle of neutral and warm ( heavily colored ).  They have the beginnings of a true "Woodie" sound, but retain some good coloration...but not too much.  They try desperately to present a natural sound, but there is definitely noticeable coloration to a lot of my music.  Its definitely a middle ground set.  
 
The Bass
 
People boast about the midrange of this set, which is indeed fantastic but I would like to do a 180 degree turn on this and boast about the Bass.  In terms of quality, its top tier.  Only the Sennheiser HD25-ii could compare, and it is possible the Bowers P5 could as well but don't quote me on that, I didn't get to test it thoroughly.  The bass is forgiving and never boomy or overwhelming.  It is definitely not a bass heads set of headphones, it again has a middle ground effect to me, not too much bass, but not lacking.  To someone like me who is not a bass head and prefers quality over quantity, the ESW9 is kind of amazing.  The Phiaton MS400 has about 25% more bass thickness and a solid 50% more impact power, the Denon D1100 had about 75% more bass thickness and equal impact power.  Just to give an idea of how much bass the ESW9 has, its more about quality than quantity.  It is very soft and relaxing bass.  
 
Highs and Soundstage
 
Reviewers seem to focus on the midrange, I want to skip that since that information is so abundant and talk about the highs and the overall staging.  The highs are never sharp or tinny, compared to the new Denon D1100, the ESW9 is vastly superior.  The D1100 had seriously tinny and snappy highs, very harsh and very ugly.  Even with an EQ set up wiith moderately high Highs, the ESW9 never gets fatiguing and I've never once said to myself the highs are too harsh, ugly, or lacking.  They are very beautiful and on the low end of engaging.  To me, its just enough to keep my interest.
 
The Soundstage is definitely slightly above average in height and width, with very good depth.  However, here is where things got really fun for me.  I am a soundstage nut bar, I prefer soundstage to sound quality (ya i know, right?! )  I demoed the Naturespace Holographic sound amped via my computer using Foobar2000 and wasapi, as well as my Sansa Clip unamped, and again amped with the Fiio E7.  I just want to say, it outperformed almost all of the top portable sets I have ever owned or used recently.  
 
The realism and spacial accuracy is top tier and unrivaled in my opinion.  The Phiaton MS400, Denon D1100 and D1001 all failed to create as good of a realistic feel and presentation compared to the ESW9.  The only portable that came close was the HD25-ii.  However, I don't really think it is fair to compare the HD-25 to it because of its neutral flavor not really meant for musical enjoyment.  I mean, that type of sound just isnt my cup of tea and if i want monitors I would be looking at any number of other full size sets for DJ/Monitoring.  But to hear the ESW9 handling sound positioning so well is something I never expected.  
 
Overall, the set is blissful, relaxing and designed to reside in the middle ground area that plays everything nicely.  I am very impressed.  I am just a man with a passion for audio, who has been on a long journey the past few years reviewing and demoing as many sets as I could, passing along whatever I can to those who need it or ask for it.  I've owned everything in the portable world that is considered great except the Bowers P5 ( next on my list )...the bottom line is that this ESW9 buy is the first portable buy I have made for myself in almost 4 years.  I heard the ESW9 calling my name and came running back to it.  This is my favorite portable set by far, what the Phiaton Ms400 lacked, the Audio Techinca ESW9 has in abundance. 
 
9/10 set
 
Confirmed real, it matches all the true esw9 traits  

 

[ramennuudles]

how'd you lose you gear?

 

[superbored91]

Can you please  post pictures of how you adjusted the metal bands of your headphones? My pair starts to hurt around the 1-2 hour mark. Also, what do you think about germania's headphone mod for the Ath-esw9?

 

[swbf2cheater]

the user AFLAC would be the one to ask about the bending of the headband and how he did it, he did a really nice job at least for my head anyway haha, i bought mine from him.  If he was the one who bent my set, he did a perfect job.  I have not tried that mod before, never heard of it until you mentioned it but I dont see reason to mod mine.  I love it the way it is. 

 

[Rainbow Randy]

I find your thoughts on the soundstage very interesting. The thing I'm most impressed about my ES7 is its soundstage--it has no business sounding that big in such a small housing! Perhaps the ESW9 is even bigger-sounding?

 

[swbf2cheater]

Yes, its bigger but not by a lot, maybe 15% larger in width and height, but maybe 30% more depth

 

[Ikarios]

I don't think I ever tinkered with the headband much - when I got them they fit quite well on my head, basically no clamp. I have a pretty large head so this is a little surprising. If anything, you can carefully grasp the two ends of the headband and lightly bend in the direction you want - inwards (narrower) or outwards (wider). Inside the headband is only metal, IIRC, and is robust enough to handle a little bit of light bending. For me, this pair of ESW9s didn't really clamp much at all, which is one reason why I sold them - I'd only use them for walking on the street/to class, so the isolation isn't bad, but not quite enough to block everything out. The HD25s isolate much more in that regard, although they're nowhere near as comfortable.
 
For the most part, I agree wholeheartedly with swbf2cheater's review of the ESW9. Everything is very smooth and enjoyable to listen to. The bass was great in both quality and quantity, even if it was a little bit slow. The midrange was absolutely delicious, and the highs were nice and smooth, although lacking some of the upper-end detail that I look for in a headphone. They have the best soundstage I've heard from a portable headphone, as well - I didn't think they had the "closed" feel most portable headphones suffer from.

 

[superbored91]

great review. I just wish my ears were slightly smaller because the pads hurts the edges of my ear after extended use. Is there a dramatic difference in using an amplifier with this headphone? If so, I might considering buying a cheap amp like the Fiio E5. In addition, I agree with aflac about the lack of isolation on these headphone so they're not so great in noisy environments. I'm not so sure about the sound leakage as I haven't taken them outside on my commute yet.

 

[swbf2cheater]

My Fiio E7 doesn't do anything for it.  Unless you are using a nice full sized amp or something really nice in the portable amp world, I would say avoid the Fiio e5, it does nothing unless you are using a terrible mp3 player.  Direct out of my rockboxed sansa clip+, it sounds identical to using the Fiio E7.  I know its not really meant for AMPING and is supposed to be a dac, but the amp is more powerful on the e7 than the e5.  Either way, it sounds fantastic right out of the clip.  Get a few cotton balls, stretch them out and lay a ring of cotton underneath the earpads, stuff them as far back as you can and it will raise the pads up a bit and make them a little more comfortable.  
 
As for isolation, if you want or need isolation then you should definitely look to sets like the HD25ii which were designed for that, or IEMS.  The esw9 is not meant to isolate VERY WELL.  It does an okay job.  

 

[swbf2cheater]

edit

 

[Jerff]

I may be getting these over the M50s
Would that be a good choice?

 

[tengen]

Quote:

I may be getting these over the M50s
Would that be a good choice?

The M50s and the ESW9A are built differently and have a different sound signature, so price points aside, it really depends on how you want to wear them and what sort of sound signature you prefer.
 
First off, the builds:
 
The ESW9s are very delicately built and needs to be babied. I would go as far to say that they aren't truly portable, but transportable; their wooden cups could easily be scratched, and the swivel hinges, although solidly built, need to be taken care of. You can't just throw them in a bag and carry them around, they need a case. They're small and do fold flat, but could easily be damaged and crushed. The M50s, on the other hand, are rugged and build solid, made of plastic and very resistant to damage. They're larger than the ESW9, but they can pretty much take any abuse and still perform fine. Their cables are also thicker than the ESW9 and don't tangle or get caught as easily, so they're built for heavy-duty on-the-go work whereas the ESW9 is more sit-down-and-enjoy thing. In terms of isolation, the M50 does better.
 
Second, the sound:

I'd say the ESW9 is a very refined AD700. Both have a focus is on its sweet midrange, and the AD700 moreso on the low treble, making female vocals come to life. Like the AD700, it is light but very firm bass. Both sport an excellent soundstage compared to their competition (around the same price range / closed, or open type). Their sound signatures makes them best at classical or jazz where their airy mids makes listening very relaxing and enjoyable. The ESW9 is warmer than the AD700 though. If I had anything bad to say about the ESW9, it's a tad too forgiving and sometimes I feel that it's missing very specific sound textures, the sort of micro-detail in the strings of the violins, or guitar reverberations. But nothing majorly offensive.
 
On the other hand, the M50 is a all-around performer. There aren't any specific traits that would make the M50 bad compared to its competition. I'd say there are two major differences between the M50 and the ESW9: the midbass and its soundstage. The M50 has a much bassier, boomier sound more suited to, say, rock, RnB, hiphop, etc. There's a large quantity of bass but it's not detailed or as textured as the ESW9; it's "loose" - it's hard to pinpoint where the bass comes from, and there's not that much texture or clarity. Its low end contributes to its second weakness, its soundstaging. The M50's soundstage is claustrophobic. Part of this is because the looser bass detracts from the overall positioning of instruments, making it seem more clustered than it actually is, and it "bleeds" into the midranges and makes it seem muddier than it actually is, so the imaging suffers compared to the ESW9 (which is bass light in comparison). When you add the poorer imaging and louder bass to a closed headphone, you get a claustrophobic soundstage. In almost all aspects the ESW9 outshines its $100 cousin.
 
But the two headphones aren't designed to compete with each other. They sit at different price brackets, and are made for different uses; I might daresay the ESW9 is more of a fancy fashion statement but with very good sound! You get what you pay for, and I find the M50s a fantastic entry level can tailored more towards bassheads, while the ESW9 are more finessed and suited for midrange lovers.

 

[Jerff]

Wow, thanks for the reply, Tengen!
I've gone and got the ESW9s since I'm not a basshead at all although I would say the bass on this satisfies my taste, doesn't overpower the mids at all.
The mids are really crisp and as you say and the female vocals do really seem a lot livelier than my HD238s... Not much of a comparison but yeah..
Really loving the sound signature on this but really broke right now