[HouseFoxx]

http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/audio_technica_ath_anc25.jpg
[product] http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headphones/bbf632b4c1048404/index.html

     Well, I've ordered the ATH-ANC25 headphones, and I'm currently awaiting delivery, so I've a couple of anticipation-driven questions...

1. Does the impedance (20 ohms listed) change when you have the circuit off, and if so, does anyone know what it becomes?

2. How secure is the mechanism that holds the headband's length?  (i.e. Does it slip easily?)

3. Are there any recommended mods (or mods that haven't been done, but would help) to improve treble clarity?  I've read that it isn't the best..
4. Can anyone speculate into the possibility of upgrading the cable port in the future to one with a locking mechanism, or is it sufficient to handle a bit of tugging?

     It probably wasn't the best idea to purchase these without directly consulting a person or two (considering there are no reviews of this product anywhere, and certainly no reputable reviews by an audiophile), but I bought these for three reasons:  I got them extremely cheap (~$40, over half off MSRP), the impedance is low enough to be driven by almost any low-output device (in my case, the Zune HD, which was voiced @ 16 ohm load, and doesn't get too loud at that), and they seem portable enough for my needs (public transit is fun, yo).  
If anyone could answer my questions, it would be greatly appreciated, and I'll write a proper review once I'm holding the product; I just want to get a feel for the community's opinion first.  [img]http://files.head-fi.org/images/smilies/smile_phones.gif

 

[bubsdaddy]

The anc25 has a pretty tight grip. You may have to stretch the headband a bit. I posted an ear pad mod with a picture in my review at amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Technica-ATH-ANC25-Active-Noise-Cancelling-Headphones/dp/B003C0GTH8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357997539&sr=8-1&keywords=anc25

 

[bubsdaddy]

I don't have an answer on the impedance question. i have never had a problem with the cable getting pulled out. The earpad mod improves the treble and the comfort. One of the nice things about them is how flat and compact they are to carry. I am looking forward to hearing your impression.

 

[HouseFoxx]

Well, I'm now in possession of the headphone, but I'll hold off on posting the official review until I've tweaked out the cans to my liking and I've put a couple hundred hours of comparison/ burn-in/ road testing on them...

BUT!
I will post my first impressions in narrative form.

I got the box in the mail today (as of posting), and didn't even hesitate to carefully open the box.  I opened the box to be greeted with the back of the headphone box filling every square inch of the top half of the box, making it fairly hard to remove.  Once I freed the packaging from the shipping container, a non-blisterpack fairly standard box, which was nice.  I then proceeded to open the packaging and was greeted with another nice surprise; the included battery was not inside the device!  Anyone who has bought electronics like this has inevitably faced the situation where the battery was in the device to months prior to purchase, thereby draining said battery, and Audio Technica knows this.  My package contained 1 airline adapter, 1 m-m 3.5" gold-plated straight-angled cord with an inline volume control that was (for lack of an exact distance atm) short enough to not get in the way, but long enough to cover most portable instances of listening, 1 premium pleather-cloth carrying bag, and last, but not least, the ATH-ANC25s in all their good-looking presence!  I noted then that not only do these look great, but they're definitely smaller than I expected them to be, which is a good thing, considering I bought them to be portable headphones, not to replace my studio monitors.  The next step in the discovery, was figuring out how to install the battery, which was easier than I've read about for the similar ANC27s.  All you have to do is pull on a raised part on the side of the left can, and a compartment is revealed (with the lid attached with a flexible piece of rubber, and not freely removable, thankfully) where you can then install the battery.  When I put them on, there were 2 things I immediately noticed:  The frame feels extremely rigid and seems like it could be dropped from a moving car without significant damage, and the fact that the frame was indeed like putting a spring clamp on your head.  After adjusting the fit for a second, trying to adjust to the clamping (my head isn't that big at all, so it was remotely bearable for the moment) I then turned on the faucet (into a deep metal/ plexiglass kitchen sink), flipped the switch, and lo and behold, about 80% of the lower registers and 10% of the upper-mids were now inaudible, cool!  I then decided it was time to test my Zune HD against them, and see how they compared to my ATH-M30.  They are, in fact, much easier to drive than my monitors, which was to be expected and is now appreciated.  It is here that it should be noted that the in-line volume control is not of the highest possible quality, and most 3.5mm m-m cords won't fit into the input jack on the phones, which was quite disappointing, so be careful if you plan on replacing the cable in the future and get a compatible cord.  Several more tests were performed, such as switching the circuitry off during playback (which in my current experience with these phones just makes it quieter, but doesn't change the freq. response all too much) and testing all the joints on the headband (which all seem really sturdy as well; the collapsing joints even lock into place at both the fully extended positions and fully retracted positions, and the length adjustment doesn't seem like it would have a tendency to change on you, but it is not linearly adjustable, there are detents along the length, which is good enough).  Their sound signature, though, is not what I expected after being used to monitor-quality frequency response and it is exactly (before mods) what I would describe as dark, with gently sloping treble the higher the frequency goes, and with the low mids being forward, tested briefly with a wide array of music, from Telefon Tel Aviv's song TTV (noted for low bass and rather strange back-of-the-neck treble feelings on higher-fidelity cans, all the way to the Columbia Jazz Masterpiece's release of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (noted for commonly known typical horn-led smooth jazzy sound).

All in all, for the price I paid for them and for their intended use (walked down the street to confirm; I live on quite a busy byroad), I give them a solid 4.2/5, with points of for (correctable) fit issues and its out-of-box sound signature (only because it's listed on the ATH website as high-fidelity, and I have great expectations for any product that uses said buzzword).

For those reasons I would also rate it at about a 3.6/5 paying MSRP, but I would still recommend these to anyone looking for headphones with similar requirements (low-impedance, portable, removable cord, noise canceling, works-when-dead headphones that don't look too bad, either); of course I'd also tweak it for them if need be, ofc being the family audiophile.

 Also, I'm sorry for the wall of text...

 

[HouseFoxx]

I guess you could use Dragon or a similar program to hear my review, but I've posted the text so that's good enough, right? 

 

[bubsdaddy]

The clamping force is a bit excessive. I stretched mine over a Tivoli radio for about 3 days and that helped. The battery lasts a long time. I agree with you that the sound signature doesn't change dramatically with the N/C turned on or off.