[Mikeb]

I have a pair of AKG K1000, Beyer DT990 & Sen PX100, however none of these suit all my current requirements, a good sounding headphone with a spacious open sound, decent bass, lightweight, comfortable and sensitive enough to be driven by a pmp/mp3 player directly without any additional amplification. After reading about the Audio Technica range in particular the AD900 and the special price a local trader had these for (£79 in UK) I decided to do some more research. Following the comments on this forum that these headphones had an open spacious sound but lacked a little in the bass I decided to go fo the AD1000's which had a similar sound but with better and deeper bass. So I eventually decided to purchase a pair of AD1000's, these duly arrived yesterday from Japan (only took 4 days to arrive) on opening I was impressed by their excellent finish and construction and how comfortable they are to ware in particular the claw system used to support the headphones on the head. I connected them up to my Cowon Q5 pmp player and played back some flac tracks and snippets of movies, volume was more than adequate and the sound excellent (even though not yet run in), I particularly liked the open spacious sound and the better bass characteristics when compared to the other haedphones. I then played the opening track of the Stax Binaural disc that I have and was blown away with huge soundstage and realism of the voices and how they moved around the room, I would urge anyone who hasn't got this disc to try to find it as it is so fanstastic at demostrating what a decent headphone setup can sound like when the recording is done using a dummy head technique, absolutely stunning.

 

[Mikeb]

I made a mistake in the message regarding the £79 headphones these are the price for the AD700 not the AD900 as indicated, sorry for the confusion

 

[outbreak123]

You don't use them with an amp? IMO AD1000 and up doesn't sound near its full potential unamped.

Anyway, congrats man! may the force be with you! lol

 

[iancraig10]

Hi Mike,

I also have both the Ad700 which I think is an excellent headphone and the AD1000 which has me wondering about changes with burn in.

My initial impression of the AD1000 was the clarity and sense of space is enormous. Thin in the bass region though.

I stayed with them for a while but couldn't help noticing the 'clatter' effect in the treble region. At times, sounding very harsh in comparison to the AD700 which I prefer at the moment.

I am going to leave the ad1000 on a pink noise generator for a couple of weeks to see if they can be tamed.

I am curious how you find them once you get past the 'newness' of them. long term, I feel that they could be too harsh for me. It has kind of put me off the AD2000 idea since I have spoken to AT directly and they reckon that differences are minimal between the 1000 and 2000, with no plans to retail the 2000 in the UK.

Let us know .... I'm keen on AT's but hit a wall with 1000 for me!!

Ian