I'm not very impressed by my new AD700s

[TheYonderGod]

I just upgraded from my JVC RX700s to AD700s, and I'm not very impressed. They do sound different, but not necessarily better.... maybe a little bit but not really noticeable. I'm not gaining any better positional audio in Bf3. I heard in reviews that there was a HUGE difference and it was almost like wall hacks for your ears, that is not the case for me.

I got them refurbished from http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/ATH-AD700
They were $60 when I bought them or obviously I would have gotten them new for the price they are there now.
I assume since they're refurbished they've been used and are burned in, plus I've used them for a couple days already so I'm pretty sure they are.

I have an ASUS Xonar DS
My game is Bf3 on both Home Cinema and War Tapes settings
My music is .flac format

I'm using the Unified Xonar Drivers w/ the C-media Panel with these settings:
 

 

 
(I don't really know what I'm doing with the EQ, I just used the 'Bass' preset and moved some of them a little bit back towards the middle, and it sounds better than default to me)


So am I doing something wrong, or do my ears just suck, or do I need a better sound card and/or an amp?
Or is it possible the headphones themselves are defective? Since they're refurbished I'm thinking this could be it, but I don't know.

 

[AyeVeeN]

If your hearing preferences are anything like mine, I personally also hated them. Asides from the comfort issues for me, they just sounded outright bad, even using it just for gaming. Might not be for you like how it wasn't for me. For positional audio, are you in an isolated environment? As sound does leak in, I would assume it'd hamper your ability to hear positional ques due to just too much noise going on unless you listen to it at a high volume, but I'd assume that'd kill your ears as it did mine . Headache within 5 min regardless.

 

[TheYonderGod]

Quote:

If your hearing preferences are anything like mine, I personally also hated them. Asides from the comfort issues for me, they just sounded outright bad, even using it just for gaming. Might not be for you like how it wasn't for me. For positional audio, are you in an isolated environment? As sound does leak in, I would assume it'd hamper your ability to hear positional ques due to just too much noise going on unless you listen to it at a high volume, but I'd assume that'd kill your ears as it did mine . Headache within 5 min regardless.

There is a bit of noise in my environment but I don't really notice it most of the time.
 
Also when watching movies/TV shows with these it's hard to understand people talking sometimes, and quiet parts are too quiet while loud parts are too loud. I'm not sure if it was just the movie/tv show I was watching but I don't think so.

 

[PFULMTL]

Well at least you didn't pay full price.  Nothing wrong with refurbished headhones.  For that price range, I would have gone with Shure SRH440+SRH840 pads.
People who say AD700's are amazing were coming from junk headsets, so slightly better than that is like Jesus came in the room.

 

[KetchupNinja]

Wasn't a huge fan of these either.  They were good for competitive shooters but I like having boomy explosions and etc in my games/movies.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

I just upgraded from my JVC RX700s to AD700s, and I'm not very impressed. They do sound different, but not necessarily better.... maybe a little bit but not really noticeable. I'm not gaining any better positional audio in Bf3. I heard in reviews that there was a HUGE difference and it was almost like wall hacks for your ears, that is not the case for me.

I got them refurbished from http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/ATH-AD700
They were $60 when I bought them or obviously I would have gotten them new for the price they are there now.
I assume since they're refurbished they've been used and are burned in, plus I've used them for a couple days already so I'm pretty sure they are.

I have an ASUS Xonar DS
My game is Bf3 on both Home Cinema and War Tapes settings
My music is .flac format

I'm using the Unified Xonar Drivers w/ the C-media Panel with these settings:
 
(I don't really know what I'm doing with the EQ, I just used the 'Bass' preset and moved some of them a little bit back towards the middle, and it sounds better than default to me)

So am I doing something wrong, or do my ears just suck, or do I need a better sound card and/or an amp?
Or is it possible the headphones themselves are defective? Since they're refurbished I'm thinking this could be it, but I don't know.

 
Heya,
 
Unfortunately you've bought a headphone that doesn't meet your criteria for sound, based on the overwhelming amount of unjustified hype that these headphones receive. It's gut wrenching how every thread on the internet that has gaming and headphones together always has someone trying to say that the AD700 is the gaming headphone and that it's like the best thing ever and positional audio on them is insane and all that. Well, those people either (A) never heard the AD700 in a gaming setup at all in the first place and are just copy & paste spammers; or (B) have the AD700 and want to justify their purchase and be in the cool-kid-that-has-them-camp but actually hasn't even bothered testing them against anything else, so they don't even know better, but they want to tell you all about how their scores went up because of this headphone. It's all just little bits of text and prose.
 
The AD700 doesn't have superior imaging over every other headphone. It has a nice sound stage, but it's not "incredible." So it's not the best gaming headphone out there. It's pretty "meh" as far as I'm concerned.
 
Also, as you noticed, it's not a competent headphone, it cannot perform all the frequencies it's asked of without you boosting it, and even then, it's still weak. You're bumping up the bass quite a bit, because as you noticed, the AD700 lacks mid-bass and is void of sub-bass something fierce. It drops off after 100hz like someone forgot it at the manufacturing plant. This is an incompetent incomplete headphone as far as I'm concerned because it can't do the basic frequency range in all categories well, but they ask you for $100. Granted you got it for less, but a lot of people buy it new. Price is totally blow out of proportion here.
 
As for making your gaming experience better; if you're using Dolby Headphone enabled on your Xonar, that's all you have to do. From there, any headphone will do what you're looking for. Even a closed headphone with a cramped sound stage will provide good enough imaging in a game for positional cue. I would suggest if you're throwing money at a headphone, look for something comfortable, with a full competent array of frequency range, and with the sound signature that you want based on your descriptions and preferences.

Return the AD700; or sell it.
 
You most certainly do not need a new sound card, or heaven forbid an amplifier, to make that headphone do anything different.
 
Very best,

 

[pp312]

As usual you've hit the nail square on the head, MalVeaux. Here we have yet another subject of the "gathering hype" as I call it: a very mediocre phone that somehow picks up praise like a snowball rolling down a hill, until it arrives at the bottom five times its original size. How does this happen? I blame owners of the phones who don't have any suitable yardstick to compare them to. This is a problem throughout the forum: people going into paroxysms of hyperbole about phones that, compared to better (and not necessarily dearer) offerings, are middling to poor. And the AD700 is by no means the only phone to be sporting an inflated reputation. I could start a new thread by naming some of the others, but unfortunately it would soon be shut down due to overheated debate.

 

[TheYonderGod]

Damn, where were you guys when I posted in the headphone recommendation thread
Quote:

As usual you've hit the nail square on the head, MalVeaux. Here we have yet another subject of the "gathering hype" as I call it: a very mediocre phone that somehow picks up praise like a snowball rolling down a hill, until it arrives at the bottom five times its original size. How does this happen? I blame owners of the phones who don't have any suitable yardstick to compare them to. This is a problem throughout the forum: people going into paroxysms of hyperbole about phones that, compared to better (and not necessarily dearer) offerings, are middling to poor. And the AD700 is by no means the only phone to be sporting an inflated reputation. I could start a new thread by naming some of the others, but unfortunately it would soon be shut down due to overheated debate.

Quote:

Well at least you didn't pay full price.  Nothing wrong with refurbished headhones.  For that price range, I would have gone with Shure SRH440+SRH840 pads.
People who say AD700's are amazing were coming from junk headsets, so slightly better than that is like Jesus came in the room.

Quote:

Wasn't a huge fan of these either.  They were good for competitive shooters but I like having boomy explosions and etc in my games/movies.

The thing is I did buy them mostly for competitive Bf3 and I'm still disappointed.
 
Quote:

 
Heya,
 
Unfortunately you've bought a headphone that doesn't meet your criteria for sound, based on the overwhelming amount of unjustified hype that these headphones receive. It's gut wrenching how every thread on the internet that has gaming and headphones together always has someone trying to say that the AD700 is the gaming headphone and that it's like the best thing ever and positional audio on them is insane and all that. Well, those people either (A) never heard the AD700 in a gaming setup at all in the first place and are just copy & paste spammers; or (B) have the AD700 and want to justify their purchase and be in the cool-kid-that-has-them-camp but actually hasn't even bothered testing them against anything else, so they don't even know better, but they want to tell you all about how their scores went up because of this headphone. It's all just little bits of text and prose.
 
The AD700 doesn't have superior imaging over every other headphone. It has a nice sound stage, but it's not "incredible." So it's not the best gaming headphone out there. It's pretty "meh" as far as I'm concerned.
 
Also, as you noticed, it's not a competent headphone, it cannot perform all the frequencies it's asked of without you boosting it, and even then, it's still weak. You're bumping up the bass quite a bit, because as you noticed, the AD700 lacks mid-bass and is void of sub-bass something fierce. It drops off after 100hz like someone forgot it at the manufacturing plant. This is an incompetent incomplete headphone as far as I'm concerned because it can't do the basic frequency range in all categories well, but they ask you for $100. Granted you got it for less, but a lot of people buy it new. Price is totally blow out of proportion here.
 
As for making your gaming experience better; if you're using Dolby Headphone enabled on your Xonar, that's all you have to do. From there, any headphone will do what you're looking for. Even a closed headphone with a cramped sound stage will provide good enough imaging in a game for positional cue. I would suggest if you're throwing money at a headphone, look for something comfortable, with a full competent array of frequency range, and with the sound signature that you want based on your descriptions and preferences.

Return the AD700; or sell it.
 
You most certainly do not need a new sound card, or heaven forbid an amplifier, to make that headphone do anything different.
 
Very best,

:/ Thanks for the reply.
I don't think the DS has Dolby Headphone, I haven't seen it in the options and I don't see it listed on the Asus product page. What is EX Xear 3D? I think I read it's for older games and doesn't do anything for newer ones, is that true? 7.1 virtual speaker shifter is just for "moving" the virtual speakers around right?
I think I should have gotten the DG instead, but that was a long time ago.
 
I can't return them because it would cost almost as much in shipping and restocking fees as I bought them for. Plus I don't want to go a couple more weeks without headphones. I can't afford to buy more headphones but I am curious what you would recommend for me? Not sure if I already mentioned, but mostly for competitive Bf3 and Metal music (Metallica, Maiden, Pantera, etc)
 
In addition to the volume fluctuations I was talking about on a movie I was watching, I've noticed shorter fluctuations when listening to music, and I also have to turn it allll the way up for it to be loud enough. Would a (not too expensive) amp help this? Or maybe I should sell my DS and get a DG(X?) so I get a built in amp plus Dolby Headphone?
 
Also is there any method or way to set my EQ up properly other than just listening and seeing what sounds best to me? I mean obviously it should sound good to me but to my untrained ear a small difference might not seem like it changes to me, but could have an affect I don't realize... or something.
 
Clearly I don't really know what I'm talking about but any advice at all is appreciated, thanks guys.
 

 

[davidsh]

You have changed the settings to headphone in bf3, right? Try disable all effects in your sound card and enable the headphone setting in bf3. Is it better or worse?

 

[DefQon]

Malveux has definitely got a bullseye of an answer. That said, the AD700, M50 are two that receive the unjustified hype. The best I've heard from a few posters is that the AD700 has very tight bass (no bass at all) and the M50 has a completely neutral sound signature (more like V shaped emphasis on the bass).

 

[TheYonderGod]

I wanted to bump this thread because I didn't get answers to a few questions in my last post, and I want to get opinions on if I should or shouldn't do this - I want to get a cheap audio receiver/amp that I can use for both my headphones and speakers.
 
My speakers aren't good at all, they're just 2 cheap Samsungs I took when my parents upgrade the surround sound in the living room (from http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HT-Q80-Five-Disc-Changer-Theater/dp/B000F7684U/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) and a pretty bad (but better than nothing) sub from a cheap 2.1 set (http://www.amazon.com/Altec-Lansing-XA2021-Powered-Speaker/dp/B0002XITJO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) I just occasionally use them for music only when I don't feel like wearing my headphones allllllllll day. I'm currently using a horribly ghetto rigged receiver made from part of one of those "gaming chairs", it's pretty horribly funny, I can explain/show it if anyone wants, lol.
 
So the receiver/amp would be for those and my AD-700s (I know they don't NEED an amp but I would like more volume and volume consistency at high volumes if I am correct about an amp helping that) and for upgrading both in the future.
 
My budget is really low, maybe like $40 if I have to go that high, is it even worth getting one for that price?
Quote:

You have changed the settings to headphone in bf3, right? Try disable all effects in your sound card and enable the headphone setting in bf3. Is it better or worse?

Yes I have tried all different settings. I'm trying to get a surround-like experience. The headphone option is for 2.0(and from what I've read and experienced myself, the Bf3 sound position for 2.0 is not good at all), War Tapes and Home Cinema are for 5.1 or 7.1. I did find out that 7.1 isn't fully supported in Bf3 and 5.1 is slightly better, still not nearly as good as I was expecting though.

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

I just upgraded from my JVC RX700s to AD700s, and I'm not very impressed. They do sound different, but not necessarily better.... maybe a little bit but not really noticeable. I'm not gaining any better positional audio in Bf3. I heard in reviews that there was a HUGE difference and it was almost like wall hacks for your ears, that is not the case for me.
 
 

 
I 'upgraded' to the JVC HARX700 from the Denon D2000s, ignore price they are excellent headphones.
 
Also for gaming something with detailed bass works really well, a lot of movement is at the lower end.
 
For what it's worth the audio positioning in BF3 isn't very good, it's a little disorienting and I think that's the whole idea. Black Ops 2 on the other hand, with awareness, it's like having a sixth sense.

 

[davidsh]

Also, note that dolby headphones does not necessarily work well for everyone, but that is a longer explanation.

 

[Luic]

Quote:

I wanted to bump this thread because I didn't get answers to a few questions in my last post, and I want to get opinions on if I should or shouldn't do this - I want to get a cheap audio receiver/amp that I can use for both my headphones and speakers.
 
My speakers aren't good at all, they're just 2 cheap Samsungs I took when my parents upgrade the surround sound in the living room (from http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HT-Q80-Five-Disc-Changer-Theater/dp/B000F7684U/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) and a pretty bad (but better than nothing) sub from a cheap 2.1 set (http://www.amazon.com/Altec-Lansing-XA2021-Powered-Speaker/dp/B0002XITJO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) I just occasionally use them for music only when I don't feel like wearing my headphones allllllllll day. I'm currently using a horribly ghetto rigged receiver made from part of one of those "gaming chairs", it's pretty horribly funny, I can explain/show it if anyone wants, lol.
 
So the receiver/amp would be for those and my AD-700s (I know they don't NEED an amp but I would like more volume and volume consistency at high volumes if I am correct about an amp helping that) and for upgrading both in the future.
 
My budget is really low, maybe like $40 if I have to go that high, is it even worth getting one for that price?
Yes I have tried all different settings. I'm trying to get a surround-like experience. The headphone option is for 2.0(and from what I've read and experienced myself, the Bf3 sound position for 2.0 is not good at all), War Tapes and Home Cinema are for 5.1 or 7.1. I did find out that 7.1 isn't fully supported in Bf3 and 5.1 is slightly better, still not nearly as good as I was expecting though.

 
I'm not aware of any audio receivers that are $40 or less, maybe your best bet would be to look on Craigslist at that point, or save up.