[Ahriman4891]

I see, thanks!

I already have the A900LTD, and I was just trying to estimate how much I lose by not getting the 950

Seems I'm not losing that much. I definitely would not want less treble than what I already have. Thank you!

 

[Alucard]

Same here, I'm actually a bit relieved that it doesn't sound better in general than the A900ltd.
My wallet wouldn't like that.

 

[ralphmoe]

I tired to buy these from bluetin.
I could not believe that shipping and paypal fees were almost $80....
Nevermind..

 

[jarnauga]

My ATH-A950LTD arrived in mint condition two hours ago from bluetin.

And the last hour and a half I performed several tests with my favorite music, CD and songs...

They sound wonderfully. I expect a big different signature from my currently Senn HD595 but I obtained a smooth sound (overall very similar), almost the same soundstage (little, very little), very accurate timbre in human voices, more and bigger bass without bloated anything, better treble, very controlled, not bright at all, and a little more detail. What I have now is not a very different signature from Senns but better sound quality. The middle spectrum is here, with a presence that Senn don't show. These AT are more involved but, IMO, not very far from the "boring" HD595. So, at the moment, it is a step in the right direction. My wallet needs to rest so I will remain with them for a long time.

FYI, "test tracks" were Gregorian chants, Linkin Park, Dean Brown, Shivaree, Audioslave, Monster Magnet, Hedningarna, Capercaillie, Radiohead, Dire Straits, Metallica, and some BSOs (on originals CDs neither a copy nor MP3s).

I want to thank all of you people for sharing your thoughts and experience.

 

[plainsong]

Oh please say they're better than the hd595. I didn't find tonal quality of any voice/instrument very good at.all. Everything sounded hyperreal - as in, take a cello sound, and make it a synth. That bad. The A500 didn't suffer this. Please, please, please let the a950 not follow the hd595/ '03 dt880 trend.

/Mine are stuck at customs and have been since Thursday. It takes 2 days to get here, and a week to get from Helsinki to Helsinki.

 

[jarnauga]

Ok, they are better than HD595. Period.

Two points: they are more comfortable by far than the HD595, clamp force and that stuff. And the HD595 chassis vibration issue. When you play loud, and not very loud, some sound frequencies produce a vibration over cups that pads transmit to your skull skin. That can be distracting and annoying. The ATs haven't this issue at all. They are solid (rigid) as a rock (but not heavy).

I'm not a very experienced person in sound signature diversity. So, maybe, it's a mistake that I talk about tonal timbre. I don't experienced Beyers either (and, until yesterday, AT brand too). I played several Tan Dun's works. And the cello performed by Yo Yo Ma sounds good to me.

After few hours (about five) when U2 "Rattle and Hum" was played and enjoyed I notice the VERY warm sounds that these cans deliver. I was surprised. The bass is there with a "thoomb" and decay (Akira BSO, AC/DC Big Gun). With HD595 the bass is a "tok" and suddenly disappears. With my ears the treble ever hurts me. Even HD595, sometimes, not very often, do that behavior. But treble in AT are "more controlled" to my brain. If this "feature" means treble roll-off because I am very sensible, I don't know. Over midrange, well, choral chants are very similar, only Senns lack quality on upper midrange (maybe some kind of distortion) when the music are complex and they are busy. The ATs don't show that handicap at the moment. Intimacy, delicacy and transparency are three qualities of their sound sig. They are transparent and sweet at the same time, very sweet. I expected a problem with detail if they were very sweet but, my biggest surprise, they deliver both. Detail isn't analyticity, with these cans at least. There are sound qualities that Senns haven't, like involving. I haven't knowledge to explain if that matter is reached by mitigated several frequencies over other ones. But musical information is presented in full soundscape (regarding tonal timbre) as it is showed while playing Rimsky-Korsakov's complex orchestrations (Scheherezade). It's a pity that soundstage is the same, compared to HD595, very, very tiny. So big orchestras don't show layers of instruments positions or space among them.

Of course they have only few hours. I believe in "burn-in" but I prefer enjoy during process.

I hope these paraghraps help you.

 

[Cyrilix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toe /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well personally, my interest in buying an A950LTD has dropped quite a bit. But that's mainly because I just won an eBay auction for an A900LTD @ $215 shipped! And given what you're saying about the A950LTD and if it's true that you'd be hard-pressed to hear the difference between that and the A900LTD, I think I'm going to be happy with my purchase. Impact is a must for me. Angel will probably be one of the first tracks I play through them. Though I must agree with slwiser, once they're fully burned-in, I'd be really interested if you modded your 950s & hearing your thoughts on them.

The A900 LTD are a wonderful headphone to listen to. I don't know how much better it gets than that....but like many closed headphones, don't expect a really wide soundstage.

I'm still itching to hear the W5000 someday and compare it vs. the A900 LTD.

 

[Elephas]

I think there are some songs where the A950LTD is at least equal in terms of listening enjoyment to the W5000 and L3000.

The A950LTD's midrange is great with intimate female vocals backed by acoustic instruments. With this type of music, its small soundstage and forward midrange is not necessarily a disadvantage. I often prefer to use the AT's instead of the K701, despite the K701's midrange excellence, or other headphones such as the RS-1, HD650 and SA5000. The K701 can be somewhat bland, less involving and too clinical in comparison to the AT's. Does this mean the A950LTD and the other AT's have a colored midrange? I'm not sure, but I think so and consider that a good thing.

This type of slower-paced, female vocals is one of my favorite types of music. Some examples:

Carmen Cuesta-Loeb
Chen Guo 陳果 (Chinese)
Emi Fujita
Eva Cassidy
Inger Marie Gundersen
Jacintha
Katie Melua
Lily Chen 陳潔麗 (Chinese)
Mika Nakashima
Patricia Barber
Sammy Shi 施艾敏 (Chinese)
Sophie Zelmani
Susan Wong
Tok Tok Tok

If other A950LTD owners listen to these artists, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

 

[jarnauga]

I have 3 CDs of Tok Tok Tok and... I haven't heard them yet!

Soon, I suppose this night. I am hearing many music and several genres that don't "fit" with Senn very well and now it's different.

(You would like to see my minor brother and sister faces when they pull on the ATs and they hear few seconds of their favorites themes of Linkin Park "Meteora" -and a gift had done before to her, months ago, in the form of Senn PX100-)

 

[sky34]

Has anyone done the Fitz mod on the a950ltd yet?

 

[plainsong]

I can't wait until these burn in a bit. As with most new gear (that you like), you hear passages where the character of the headphone really comes through and shines, and then other moments where it's "ouch!" Right now the highs can get a tad screechy and the bass is very baaaaaassssss, and it overlaps some of what could go to the mids, but they're still nice and you still keep listening to them.

I can't wait until these settle down because I can hear the play-by-play of the rollercoaster ride the drivers are doing trying to settle down.

I'd also like to point out the complete lack of synergy (out of the box at least) of these with my main setup. I had read before that Corda and AT didn't always get along though, and these headphones are not doing duty in my main rig anyway.

But, they do benefit from the Hornet plugged directly into the macbook. With that in mind, I was looking for a dac, but that headphone/optical out is noisy enough for me that I'd prefer to just plug into usb. If I'm going to do that, and I want something small and fun, then it's gotta be the Total Bithead.

 

[plainsong]

To update, I've been using them for night owl tv-watching, and they're fine out of crap sources like a Sony vega tv. When I say fine, I mean you get detail without the fatigue.

Oh they're still huge in the bass region, but it's not unfun to listen to, and the sound is really fleshed out once you amp it a little (only tested with Hornet in terms of portable amps, but this was plugged into a macbook, so it wasn't helped by a stellar source). But I don't think it needs a lot of power. It's more of a personal preference for adding some authoritah to the mids and firming up the bass.

So yeah, these seem to keep that a900 fabled magic with lower power sources. They have plenty of settling down to do, but you can hear it's not-too-much-of-anything character coming through the big bass.

 

[Superpredator]

I need more updates on the 950 please. I have a hankerin' for some more AT. I want wood, but I also want limited edition. I am torn between two worlds.

Maybe I will just try the new Denon 5000. There's a chance they'll be really awesome but still end up discontinued, in which case both of the worlds I'm after will be mostly satisfied.

 

[elvis_presley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarnauga /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ok, they are better than HD595. Period. Two points: they are more comfortable by far than the HD595, clamp force and that stuff. And the HD595 chassis vibration issue. When you play loud, and not very loud, some sound frequencies produce a vibration over cups that pads transmit to your skull skin. That can be distracting and annoying. The ATs haven't this issue at all. They are solid (rigid) as a rock (but not heavy). I'm not a very experienced person in sound signature diversity. So, maybe, it's a mistake that I talk about tonal timbre. I don't experienced Beyers either (and, until yesterday, AT brand too). I played several Tan Dun's works. And the cello performed by Yo Yo Ma sounds good to me. After few hours (about five) when U2 "Rattle and Hum" was played and enjoyed I notice the VERY warm sounds that these cans deliver. I was surprised. The bass is there with a "thoomb" and decay (Akira BSO, AC/DC Big Gun). With HD595 the bass is a "tok" and suddenly disappears. With my ears the treble ever hurts me. Even HD595, sometimes, not very often, do that behavior. But treble in AT are "more controlled" to my brain. If this "feature" means treble roll-off because I am very sensible, I don't know. Over midrange, well, choral chants are very similar, only Senns lack quality on upper midrange (maybe some kind of distortion) when the music are complex and they are busy. The ATs don't show that handicap at the moment. Intimacy, delicacy and transparency are three qualities of their sound sig. They are transparent and sweet at the same time, very sweet. I expected a problem with detail if they were very sweet but, my biggest surprise, they deliver both. Detail isn't analyticity, with these cans at least. There are sound qualities that Senns haven't, like involving. I haven't knowledge to explain if that matter is reached by mitigated several frequencies over other ones. But musical information is presented in full soundscape (regarding tonal timbre) as it is showed while playing Rimsky-Korsakov's complex orchestrations (Scheherezade). It's a pity that soundstage is the same, compared to HD595, very, very tiny. So big orchestras don't show layers of instruments positions or space among them. Of course they have only few hours. I believe in "burn-in" but I prefer enjoy during process. I hope these paraghraps help you.

Might I ask what you are driving your HD595's with? Amped?

 

[jarnauga]

Quote:

Might I ask what you are driving your HD595's with? Amped?

No, I haven't got any dedicated headphone amp. I was using either a PowerMac G5, directly, or an integrated amp from later 80s, european and low budget. This one is attached to a LD player from Pioneer, at the moment my main source. My ears are big and touched the inner foam and the inside of the pads and were very close to the speakers and made "tickling". I don't try to make a universal statement, of course. It's only my situation with "vibration issues". Certain frequencies at not very loud volume cause the pads transmit some vibration to my head through skin, that's all.

HD595 are very revealing so I believe some subtle lacks of qualities in the sound were caused by my source. The ATs sound better -no regarding detail, except bass, but in sound "character", in "behavior"- (fluid, sweet, liquid) to my ears and detail isn't hidden (I very afraid to that matter). So the ATs are much more forgiving, I suppose, but the fun, the enjoy, isn't in contradiction with serious listening. The timbre isn't "weird" to me and complex sounds render very well, so I'm very happy. Not much time ago I believed that accuracy, neutrality and this kind of qualities were the best for enjoying. Now I prefer to feel the music differently.

BTW: After a week I've "thrown" the ATs into a shoes box with books and some clothes. Burn-in