Every time I headed into the city with my Corda Move and iPod to try out some headphones, most of what I could try out was in the Audio Technica line. Every time I'd try a model, I thought the sound was god-awful, sounding simply cheap and nasty. As the demo cans were not in great condition, I thought I'd wait until I could try a pair in good condition before I gave judgement.
That happened on the weekend as I met up with another head-fi'er who lives not just in the same obscure part of the world that I do, but also just about around the corner from my apartment. He had the new ESW10JPNs as well as the W10VTGs. The ESW10s, compared to their similar sized offerings were much better, but for the price, utter rubbish, totally out-performed by anything full-sized at half the price, even powered by a desktop amp.
Next up were the W10VTGs. Whilst they didn't sound bad, I felt like the sound, as I had with the demo ATs in the stores, was coming in directly from one point outside my ears. I felt truly like I was listening to the drivers, not listening to music. That lack of spaciousness in their sound I could solve somewhat by holding them slightly off my ears, as if the pads were thicker. Admittedly they were being compared at the time to Zu-recabled HD650s and MD5000s (which after listening to, just about anything else sounds boring), but for the price, I was hoping to be a bit more impressed.
So, I don't like Audio Technicas.
That happened on the weekend as I met up with another head-fi'er who lives not just in the same obscure part of the world that I do, but also just about around the corner from my apartment. He had the new ESW10JPNs as well as the W10VTGs. The ESW10s, compared to their similar sized offerings were much better, but for the price, utter rubbish, totally out-performed by anything full-sized at half the price, even powered by a desktop amp.
Next up were the W10VTGs. Whilst they didn't sound bad, I felt like the sound, as I had with the demo ATs in the stores, was coming in directly from one point outside my ears. I felt truly like I was listening to the drivers, not listening to music. That lack of spaciousness in their sound I could solve somewhat by holding them slightly off my ears, as if the pads were thicker. Admittedly they were being compared at the time to Zu-recabled HD650s and MD5000s (which after listening to, just about anything else sounds boring), but for the price, I was hoping to be a bit more impressed.
So, I don't like Audio Technicas.
