infiskik
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
- Posts
- 558
- Likes
- 10
Being a some what recent addition to the head-fi community, this is my first "formal" review. Also i want to say sorry now, if i start to babble anywhere, tangents are a bad habit i have.
I came to the boards looking for my first pair of "nice" headphones, well, i read and asked questions, and got alot of community support, specifically "commando". While i didnt have the hottest sources i wanted a nice pair of headphones for mostly music, some games, and for a movie hear and there. I didnt have gobbs of money to spend but i also didnt want to cheap myself out, and after 3 days of reading hundreds of posts, i came to the ATH Art series , which i never heard of before here, or Senn hd280's, which my friend owns and i liked the sound and fit. Then there was the 13 dollar pair of koss UR-20's i had, which were killing me.(was only considering closed cans)
So after long debate and more reading i decided to try the ATH's but that left me with "which ones" still. You have the 500's, 700's, and the 900's (in my price range). I would read things like "the 500's are 80-90% of the 900's at almost half the price", "Just get the 500's if your not an audiphile.", "The 500's are nothing to the 900's, if got the money dont skimp for the 500's.". Basically you find both sides of the coin. While both are nice and helpfull, they also make dropping cash on a set cans not easy. If you find "Model X headphone is the best" as the only response, the choice is easy. I didnt have unlimited funds so i spent alot of time on the 100 to 200 dollar debate, but i figured 200 was my max, so why not just step up.
I went with the 900's for a few reasons :
1. I could afford the 200.
2. most people agreed the 900s, were better then the 500s.
3. I didnt want to put myself is a position or getting 500's and wanting more, or the "i wonder what if..." mentality.
4. simple mathematics. Sound Quality (divided "/") by Price (equal "=") long term satisfaction and joy. (see. Q / P = J )
So, now that the long part is out of the way, just had to order them. Well audiocubes carried them so bam. $211.00 dollars and 10 days later, i got me a pair of nice headphones. (I Currently am in a boycott with USPS, and this package only added to my anger, but thats another post on another forum, can actually explain if anyone interested.)
So the big day came, and big white bag(hard to explain unless you've gotten something from them im sure). I opened it like a kid on xmas, lusting to listen to my first pair of good cans. Pull them out slap them on start listening.
First Day - impressions.
Sound - Great sounding, right out of the box they sounded fantastic to me. Honestly the first thing i noticed to be just outstanding was the soundstage. Just huge and just so detailed. The lows were coming clean, and tight, and sounded as they should there but not over powering. The bass was very clean, so not bloated and over-bearing. The Highs were clear and concise, maybe a little forced at times but not bad at all.(this changes). Then There are the mids. From my reading these were said to be the weakest area for these cans, well i can agree, but only because its pitted agasint very nice low's and good high's. They were recessed and sluggish at times, but i wouldnt label them bad, just not as good as the rest. Every chain has a weaker link though right.
Comfort/Looks - Ill start with the looks, when people said that they were "HUGE", its not a joke. I Thought that my cheap UR-20's were big (since they are), but these are bigger. The Koss have a 4.25" diameter and 1.5" deep cup, the 900's have a healthy 4.5" dia. and 2.25" deep cup. They are just Big, but are every bit of comfortable. The "3D-Wing" system which i was sketchy on, is great. Very soft padding and a nice spring load keeps them lifted and removes the dead weight feeling. They are light to begin with , but a very light feeling comes with. The drawn back is they dont clamp really, so they give an impression of they will fall off, but they dont. While i dont head bang, i tend to get into some music and they never fell off, maybe slide a tiny tiny bit.
Features - While im a fan of velour pads, the pleather pad are nice as to be expected. The cable has a nice length, and is wrapped in what someone else called slik but seem to me is cotton or nylon. This adds nice sense of prestige if you will, but creates microfonics. Easily fixed with the loose loop another member mentioned. Terminated in a nice Metal mini plug, gold plated.
So after my first day i can say i was very happy with the choice i made.
So on to my final impressions and and thoughts after ive listen/burned them in. I used them as normal during day time, and would burn them in at night with a bass attack, sine wave, and classical mix. Ive got roughly 100 hours in them, and figure thats enough time for them to be most significantly changed by burn-in. maybe a they can change a tiny bit more, i pose that to the rest of the owners.
Sound - Must say even better.
High's - Still very clean and concise, but the forced feeling seems to be gone. They keep up with some very fast J-pop, and dont fade from fatigue on the long notes in other music. They dont stumble through each other and just simply very clean and pleasant.
Mid's - Still prolly the weak link, they are helped out with time. They are not really sluggish anymore(cant think of better wording, sorry), but still are a bit ressed. but are definetly better then brand new.
Low's - Still great and even better. they got cleaned up from my initial impressions a decent amount. Very quick, nice impact, but not bloated. They are no Subs but handle the low lows very well, i just cant complain.
SoundStage - did it get bigger? no prolly not. but with the rest of the sound being cleaned up, this is just such an enjoyable aspect of the headphones. Personally i didnt realize the small scales of soundstages ive head before, until these.
Detail - Fantastic. I was listening to a 320kbs Dave Matthews Band live rip. and you can make out the strings vibrating between his fingers and the pickups, and his fingers slide on the strings on fast chord changes. The little things come out with these cans.
Comfort Same as above basically, ive grown to love the wings and cant say how nice they are. I pose this question to other owners, can they be bent to give a little clamping action to stop the minor leakage out? because if i apply a tiny amount of pressure to the cups towards my head it cuts the leakage out to zero. i wear them for hours at a time(think 6 was prolly the longest), and you forget they are there. zero head/neck fatigue, and virtually no sound/listening fatigue, i usually only get it from listening for hour straight and being up till 4-5 am.
Overall The best sounding headphones ive owned or heard. While i dont have the audtioning background of alot of people, niether have alot of people. I have only ever listend to Senn hd280, 555, 570, and hd 595's, Sony MDR-cd10's, MDR-250's and the model thats just like it forget, bose triports, Shure e2c's, koss ur-20, and bunch of other low end crap.
Im not a pro, i only can tell you what I hear. Others may agree with me, or think im deaf for how i hear these. but as for my opinion, these are fantastic headphones that are the worth the 200 bucks. I also feel that they are aided by an amp, from my friends classic cmoy to my super mini moy, and im sure even better amps would do a tiny bit more.
Edit *
here are 2 so called wall papers i made from pics of my cans, i wont bother to host these for too long.
http://www.finalnode.com/infiskik/a900bg.jpg
http://www.finalnode.com/infiskik/a900bg2.jpg
I came to the boards looking for my first pair of "nice" headphones, well, i read and asked questions, and got alot of community support, specifically "commando". While i didnt have the hottest sources i wanted a nice pair of headphones for mostly music, some games, and for a movie hear and there. I didnt have gobbs of money to spend but i also didnt want to cheap myself out, and after 3 days of reading hundreds of posts, i came to the ATH Art series , which i never heard of before here, or Senn hd280's, which my friend owns and i liked the sound and fit. Then there was the 13 dollar pair of koss UR-20's i had, which were killing me.(was only considering closed cans)
So after long debate and more reading i decided to try the ATH's but that left me with "which ones" still. You have the 500's, 700's, and the 900's (in my price range). I would read things like "the 500's are 80-90% of the 900's at almost half the price", "Just get the 500's if your not an audiphile.", "The 500's are nothing to the 900's, if got the money dont skimp for the 500's.". Basically you find both sides of the coin. While both are nice and helpfull, they also make dropping cash on a set cans not easy. If you find "Model X headphone is the best" as the only response, the choice is easy. I didnt have unlimited funds so i spent alot of time on the 100 to 200 dollar debate, but i figured 200 was my max, so why not just step up.
I went with the 900's for a few reasons :
1. I could afford the 200.
2. most people agreed the 900s, were better then the 500s.
3. I didnt want to put myself is a position or getting 500's and wanting more, or the "i wonder what if..." mentality.
4. simple mathematics. Sound Quality (divided "/") by Price (equal "=") long term satisfaction and joy. (see. Q / P = J )
So, now that the long part is out of the way, just had to order them. Well audiocubes carried them so bam. $211.00 dollars and 10 days later, i got me a pair of nice headphones. (I Currently am in a boycott with USPS, and this package only added to my anger, but thats another post on another forum, can actually explain if anyone interested.)
So the big day came, and big white bag(hard to explain unless you've gotten something from them im sure). I opened it like a kid on xmas, lusting to listen to my first pair of good cans. Pull them out slap them on start listening.
First Day - impressions.
Sound - Great sounding, right out of the box they sounded fantastic to me. Honestly the first thing i noticed to be just outstanding was the soundstage. Just huge and just so detailed. The lows were coming clean, and tight, and sounded as they should there but not over powering. The bass was very clean, so not bloated and over-bearing. The Highs were clear and concise, maybe a little forced at times but not bad at all.(this changes). Then There are the mids. From my reading these were said to be the weakest area for these cans, well i can agree, but only because its pitted agasint very nice low's and good high's. They were recessed and sluggish at times, but i wouldnt label them bad, just not as good as the rest. Every chain has a weaker link though right.
Comfort/Looks - Ill start with the looks, when people said that they were "HUGE", its not a joke. I Thought that my cheap UR-20's were big (since they are), but these are bigger. The Koss have a 4.25" diameter and 1.5" deep cup, the 900's have a healthy 4.5" dia. and 2.25" deep cup. They are just Big, but are every bit of comfortable. The "3D-Wing" system which i was sketchy on, is great. Very soft padding and a nice spring load keeps them lifted and removes the dead weight feeling. They are light to begin with , but a very light feeling comes with. The drawn back is they dont clamp really, so they give an impression of they will fall off, but they dont. While i dont head bang, i tend to get into some music and they never fell off, maybe slide a tiny tiny bit.
Features - While im a fan of velour pads, the pleather pad are nice as to be expected. The cable has a nice length, and is wrapped in what someone else called slik but seem to me is cotton or nylon. This adds nice sense of prestige if you will, but creates microfonics. Easily fixed with the loose loop another member mentioned. Terminated in a nice Metal mini plug, gold plated.
So after my first day i can say i was very happy with the choice i made.
So on to my final impressions and and thoughts after ive listen/burned them in. I used them as normal during day time, and would burn them in at night with a bass attack, sine wave, and classical mix. Ive got roughly 100 hours in them, and figure thats enough time for them to be most significantly changed by burn-in. maybe a they can change a tiny bit more, i pose that to the rest of the owners.
Sound - Must say even better.
High's - Still very clean and concise, but the forced feeling seems to be gone. They keep up with some very fast J-pop, and dont fade from fatigue on the long notes in other music. They dont stumble through each other and just simply very clean and pleasant.
Mid's - Still prolly the weak link, they are helped out with time. They are not really sluggish anymore(cant think of better wording, sorry), but still are a bit ressed. but are definetly better then brand new.
Low's - Still great and even better. they got cleaned up from my initial impressions a decent amount. Very quick, nice impact, but not bloated. They are no Subs but handle the low lows very well, i just cant complain.
SoundStage - did it get bigger? no prolly not. but with the rest of the sound being cleaned up, this is just such an enjoyable aspect of the headphones. Personally i didnt realize the small scales of soundstages ive head before, until these.
Detail - Fantastic. I was listening to a 320kbs Dave Matthews Band live rip. and you can make out the strings vibrating between his fingers and the pickups, and his fingers slide on the strings on fast chord changes. The little things come out with these cans.
Comfort Same as above basically, ive grown to love the wings and cant say how nice they are. I pose this question to other owners, can they be bent to give a little clamping action to stop the minor leakage out? because if i apply a tiny amount of pressure to the cups towards my head it cuts the leakage out to zero. i wear them for hours at a time(think 6 was prolly the longest), and you forget they are there. zero head/neck fatigue, and virtually no sound/listening fatigue, i usually only get it from listening for hour straight and being up till 4-5 am.
Overall The best sounding headphones ive owned or heard. While i dont have the audtioning background of alot of people, niether have alot of people. I have only ever listend to Senn hd280, 555, 570, and hd 595's, Sony MDR-cd10's, MDR-250's and the model thats just like it forget, bose triports, Shure e2c's, koss ur-20, and bunch of other low end crap.
Im not a pro, i only can tell you what I hear. Others may agree with me, or think im deaf for how i hear these. but as for my opinion, these are fantastic headphones that are the worth the 200 bucks. I also feel that they are aided by an amp, from my friends classic cmoy to my super mini moy, and im sure even better amps would do a tiny bit more.
Edit *
here are 2 so called wall papers i made from pics of my cans, i wont bother to host these for too long.
http://www.finalnode.com/infiskik/a900bg.jpg
http://www.finalnode.com/infiskik/a900bg2.jpg
