[TheDreamthinker]

My first post in literally years, so I might be a bit rusty.
Finally received my very own ATH-R70x. It is a headphone I have been eyeing for so long I do not even remember whether I have ever heard it before (I might or might not have heard it years ago at Audio-Technica's old showroom in Paris). Purchased it used for slightly below €200 (in near-mint condition). A decent price, if you ask me.

Will likely need a couple of days to get a feel for my new friend. That being said, one hour of use has left me with some initial impressions:

• Light and fairly comfortable (I knew beforehand that AT's 3D Wing System worked on my head)
• Flat and rather inoffensive sound
• Nice soundstage and good imaging
• Disappointing layering and (less so) detail retrieval (I had read about this going in)

So far, I am happy with my purchase and I am fairly confident that it will fulfill its purpose as a desktop/work headphone well.

That being said, the layering performance of the R70x did catch me more off-guard than I would have expected. Listing to more busy, multi-instrumental music it does seem to get quite easy confused and doesn't allow me to pick out individual instruments well.
I am now wondering how it compares to other headphones in this price bracket, especially the HD600.

​

Would buying an HD600 (or something else in this price bracket be worth it)?​

What would be a possible upgrade path from the R70x, especially with regards to layering performance?​

 

[yifuhood]

I don't think so, outside of measurements.
I have bought so many headphones that I didn't like, but were Highly regarded by seasoned veterans. I have asked myself many times, How can so and so love these headphones and I either hate them (very rare), or just find them nothing special at all (most of my purchases).

We all hear SO differently. I bet that if you asked 100 people for a top ten list of favourite headphones, you might get a single duplicate or maybe none at all. We are all so different and subjective.

Most of the people are influenced by other people opinion. And different people have different priorities in terms of sound of a headphone. Most people naturally like more bass, other hi-fi people prioritise treble. But if you really go to a concert hall or a jazz club, or any other acoustic place for Music. There isn't that much bass or treble. And much more cross field hearing between left and right ear(example --- grado). It's all depends what you want from a headphone. Do you want to hear more? Do you want to hear better and clear? Do you want an alternative option to your speakers sometimes? Or do you want realistic natural sound from headphones? r70x it's a balanced and compromised product that headphone could be. I like R70x very much.

 

[TheDreamthinker]

Is there a broad consensus on whether the HD600 (or Sundara) are worthwhile side grades or one should rather use the money towards a proper upgrade toward the next tier of headphones?

A review on headphones.com states that
[...] all three headphones are very good for the price. Though I may rate one headphone higher than another in some aspect, it’s really a matter of degrees rather than improvements of leaps and bounds.
This review seems to imply that a side grade to either headphone might only provide a change in flavour rather than an increase in overall performance.
Any opinions on this?

 

[yifuhood]

Is there a broad consensus on whether the HD600 (or Sundara) are worthwhile side grades or one should rather use the money towards a proper upgrade toward the next tier of headphones?

A review on headphones.com states that
[...] all three headphones are very good for the price. Though I may rate one headphone higher than another in some aspect, it’s really a matter of degrees rather than improvements of leaps and bounds.
This review seems to imply that a side grade to either headphone might only provide a change in flavour rather than an increase in overall performance.
Any opinions on this?

HD600 has the most natural tonality of almost all headphones. I mean tonality. R70x has the best sound stage, I like to call it natural sound . Huffman is most impressive as headphone of the 3. The article has spoke well.
It doesn’t mean r70x is bad at tonality, or technically not clear or imperative. When you heard so many headphones. This Hi-Fi thing really has to chill. You are good with any of them. I like r70x, I like soft high on my desk , because I use it for longer listening. It’s also easy to the ear for spoken words

 

[yifuhood]

by the way, anyone found ear pads the has the same form and shape as the original, maybe with micro fabric material. I have tried leather and velvet don't like it. I listened my friend s r70x, I thought it sounded better than my. Very so slightly brilliant. Then I realised his ear pads are so dirty, almost slightly shiny, field with his oily sweat

 

[llysender]

R70X imo is one of the best open back bassy headphones out there. Its so addicting just listening on for hours on end. The detail is so good.

The only thing I would knock points off would be the upper treble. While it ceterenly have more upper treble presence then say the HD600(to be fair the HD600 also has that issue but it being dipped there hides it better) that extension shows that its only soso in that area and the smearing can get annoying esp for music that have quite abit of 10k to 12k infomation.

I still find it annoying that after R70X the next true upgrade are kilobuck stuff. For whatever reason DD tech trickles down so slowly. Maybe Focal Elegia but discontinued. Personally found the ATH-AWKT still my endgame and only ture upgrade for my taste in music. But then the higher up you go the more specialised the sound gets. Maybe the Aetaur classic since it deveates quite abit from the OG Aetaur and is significantly thiner and less wooly While still keeping warm and fast transients.

Also not sure why headfi didnt notify me when new people joined the R70X cult.

 

[povidlo]

by the way, anyone found ear pads the has the same form and shape as the original, maybe with micro fabric material. I have tried leather and velvet don't like it. I listened my friend s r70x, I thought it sounded better than my. Very so slightly brilliant. Then I realised his ear pads are so dirty, almost slightly shiny, field with his oily sweat

I bought my r70x used and they came padless. First, I was using m1570c stock velour pads. Nowadays, I'm using Dekoni elite velour pads (fostex th/denon ah model). Dekonis are more dense, giving a more focused and slightly mid-bassier sound.

 

[Slim1970]

R70X imo is one of the best open back bassy headphones out there. Its so addicting just listening on for hours on end. The detail is so good.

The only thing I would knock points off would be the upper treble. While it ceterenly have more upper treble presence then say the HD600(to be fair the HD600 also has that issue but it being dipped there hides it better) that extension shows that its only soso in that area and the smearing can get annoying esp for music that have quite abit of 10k to 12k infomation.

I still find it annoying that after R70X the next true upgrade are kilobuck stuff. For whatever reason DD tech trickles down so slowly. Maybe Focal Elegia but discontinued. Personally found the ATH-AWKT still my endgame and only ture upgrade for my taste in music. But then the higher up you go the more specialised the sound gets. Maybe the Aetaur classic since it deveates quite abit from the OG Aetaur and is significantly thiner and less wooly While still keeping warm and fast transients.

Also not sure why headfi didnt notify me when new people joined the R70X cult.

Agreed, the R70x's has some of the best bass of any Audio Technica headphone, which is odd. It's also a very musical headphone with excellent overall balance and tonality. To improve the treble response, I equipped my set with an all silver cable.

 

[llysender]

Agreed, the R70x's has some of the best bass of any Audio Technica headphone, which is odd. It's also a very musical headphone with excellent overall balance and tonality. To improve the treble response, I equipped my set with an all silver cable.

I wouldnt go as far as any AT headphone mostly because their ToTL stuff is quite something(for better and worse because they cant stick to a winning formula guessing its multiple teams making their version of the best and sees which ones stick), esp the L5000 but limited and a pain to pair since its very easy to make them sound sibilant.

 

[TheDreamthinker]

HD600 has the most natural tonality of almost all headphones. I mean tonality. R70x has the best sound stage, I like to call it natural sound . Huffman is most impressive as headphone of the 3. The article has spoke well.
It doesn’t mean r70x is bad at tonality, or technically not clear or imperative. When you heard so many headphones. This Hi-Fi thing really has to chill. You are good with any of them. I like r70x, I like soft high on my desk , because I use it for longer listening. It’s also easy to the ear for spoken words

I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to try the HD600 myself. I was hesitant about Sundara due to bad experiences with Hifiman QC.
I also got the ATH-R70x for longer sessions and desktop use. For that it's lack of technical chops might actually be an upside.

That being said, do you think that side-grading between those three is worth it?

by the way, anyone found ear pads the has the same form and shape as the original, maybe with micro fabric material. I have tried leather and velvet don't like it. I listened my friend s r70x, I thought it sounded better than my. Very so slightly brilliant. Then I realised his ear pads are so dirty, almost slightly shiny, field with his oily sweat

I am not quite sure what type of material you mean exactly. But I can attest that there quite a few options available on Aliexpress.

I myself just got this pair of velour pads in order to preserve the original ones (apparently not your preferred material). But many more materials are available on Aliexpress for a pittance and you can thus probably replace and try out different materials as you see fit.

 

[yifuhood]

I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to try the HD600 myself. I was hesitant about Sundara due to bad experiences with Hifiman QC.
I also got the ATH-R70x for longer sessions and desktop use. For that it's lack of technical chops might actually be an upside.

That being said, do you think that side-grading between those three is worth it?


I am not quite sure what type of material you mean exactly. But I can attest that there quite a few options available on Aliexpress.

I myself just got this pair of velour pads in order to preserve the original ones (apparently not your preferred material). But many more materials are available on Aliexpress for a pittance and you can thus probably replace and try out different materials as you see fit.

Thank you for the link for the pads. I don’t think it’s worth to buy other 2 . But you can try Hi-Fi man see if you like . But hd6 are too similar, and not really meaningful better or worse . I think people who bought the r70x could think of a big bass v shape headphones.mdr-z7 kinds ? That’s really meaningful side grade .

 

[Shane D]

There is a pair of R70X for sale near me, but how would I test them? I doubt my phone would drive them.

I do have a DAP, the Sony NW-ZX300. But at 3.5mm it is only going to put out 50mW per channel. In balanced it puts out 200mW per channel, but I don't have a 4.4mm cable with 2.5 connectors.

 

[Corti]

There is a pair of R70X for sale near me, but how would I test them? I doubt my phone would drive them.

I do have a DAP, the Sony NW-ZX300. But at 3.5mm it is only going to put out 50mW per channel. In balanced it puts out 200mW per channel, but I don't have a 4.4mm cable with 2.5 connectors.

50mW @ 32Ohm is not gonna be enough for decent volume levels with the R70x.
My BTR5 puts out 80mW on the unbalanced port and that doesnt get them loud enough most of the time. The balanced port (2.5mm) with 220 mW does work quite well, I am usually around 40-50/60 volume steps.

But since you don’t have a balanced cable maybe you can take that Liquid Spark with you for testing?

I have the R70x for 1.5 years now and it has become my main listening headphone for most genres. I prefer it over my Sundaras and 6XX's most of the time.

 

[Shane D]

50mW @ 32Ohm is not gonna be enough for decent volume levels with the R70x.
My BTR5 puts out 80mW on the unbalanced port and that doesnt get them loud enough most of the time. The balanced port (2.5mm) with 220 mW does work quite well, I am usually around 40-50/60 volume steps.

But since you don’t have a balanced cable maybe you can take that Liquid Spark with you for testing?

I have the R70x for 1.5 years now and it has become my main listening headphone for most genres. I prefer it over my Sundaras and 6XX's most of the time.

Thanks for the reply. I am debating between these a used of these and a new set of Thieaudio Ghosts.

Mmmm.

 

[llysender]

Hmmm @Shane D Your phone and dap should be able to get them loud enough since its 99dB/(god knows what unit since AT forgot to put in the specs but I can run them off my Xiaomi phone 3.5mm loud enough), might be a tad too bassy though since underpowered the subbass tends to distort giving more body to the sound.

Hmmm Im very against ghost since it sounded quite lowfi and grainy everything Ive heard it but apperently if you spend more money(or just use hifiman's sergical tube cable as a temp cable) on a new cable apperently it becomes quite ok for the price.