Just bought these and received these yesterday. Honestly, I don't feel like I have anything to add to the discussion; I wont be doing a long review. Long story short: if you're thinking about buying these, buy them. Now. Just splurge and do it. If you aren't thinking about buying these (and buying something else instead), buy these. You won't regret it.
This headphone has ended my headphone journey. They're that good. I honestly feel like there isn't room for improvement from a realistic standpoint. I have no desire to buy more headphones; these do everything I've ever wanted headphones to do, and surpass that expectation.
The "ideal" audio traducer in hi-fi, regardless of type (speaker/headphone/iem/ect.), has always had the goal of re-creating the original event and allow for the creation of an auditory illusion of a live performance. All headphones and speakers in my past experience have always sounded like headphones. All speakers in my past experience have always sounded like speakers. You can tell that it is a recording; not a live event; you're listening to headphones or speakers. The ATH-R70x on recordings without artificial instruments or sounds, sounds live. I don't know any other way to describe it. Its so good that it actually lead me to listen to music that I had no interest in listening to before, just because I was in awe on how they sounded like I was actually at a live concert. So far the best songs I've found to demonstrate this on the ATH-R70x is Pink Floyd- Mother and Pink Floyd- High Hopes.
I really don't know how they do it. Everything is just so natural. With other headphones the soundstage is always too large or too small; frequency response always has dips and peaks which aren't natural. With the ATH-R70x everything just sounds like it "should". Its weird because there isn't another way to put it. The soundstage isnt "large" or "small" or "congested" or "artificially large", it's just natural- just like how things would sound in real life. The same thing could be written about the frequency response.
So now I have to figure out what to do with all my previous headphones- DT990 600Ohm, AKG K7xx, KSC75, V-Moda XS'. I think I'll give them all alway except the K7xx, and I'm only keeping them as a collectors item.
My headphone search is done. My wallet is finally happy.