[sonitus mirus]

I never really consider soundstage as a major factor in my listening enjoyment with headphones, though, this word is used in every single final thought in each of the reviews.  It is almost as if you began with a premise of your interpretation of soundstage and how important this was to you, and then proceeded to write your review based on this one, single theme.  Because of the lack of importance to me, it is like reading a car comparison review where the author hates red cars and one of the cars that runs circles around the others just happens to be red, and this is brought up over and over again.  The 0-60 time was the quickest of the bunch, which is not bad for a red car.  In the slalom, it was well balanced and despite being red, proved to have the best results on either a dry or wet track.  While the red color was annoying, it did get the best fuel economy in our cross-country trip.
 
Don't take me too seriously, I'm always joking around.  The review was one of the better that I have read on the Alphas lately, and certainly not biased toward the hype.  I'm just not much of a soundstage person, I suppose, unless the performance is absolutely dreadful.

 

[Jd007]

  I never really consider soundstage as a major factor in my listening enjoyment with headphones, though, this word is used in every single final thought in each of the reviews.  It is almost as if you began with a premise of your interpretation of soundstage and how important this was to you, and then proceeded to write your review based on this one, single theme.  Because of the lack of importance to me, it is like reading a car comparison review where the author hates red cars and one of the cars that runs circles around the others just happens to be red, and this is brought up over and over again.  The 0-60 time was the quickest of the bunch, which is not bad for a red car.  In the slalom, it was well balanced and despite being red, proved to have the best results on either a dry or wet track.  While the red color was annoying, it did get the best fuel economy in our cross-country trip.
 
Don't take me too seriously, I'm always joking around.  The review was one of the better that I have read on the Alphas lately, and certainly not biased toward the hype.  I'm just not much of a soundstage person, I suppose, unless the performance is absolutely dreadful.

in the context of this review i think the emphasis on soundstage is justified. closed headphones in general suffer from lack of spaciousness and soundstage when compared to open ones, and the AD is a pair of closed headphones that is supposed to be specially designed to combat that disadvantage. to see whether it lived up to that goal is pretty important in this case i think.
 
in general tho, how important soundstage is to you depends heavily on personal preference and genres of music being listened to. for stuff like pop, edm, electronic etc, soundstage is not as important. but for chamber music and live recordings soundstage (along with imaging) becomes very important imo.

 

[goldenSHK]

  I never really consider soundstage as a major factor in my listening enjoyment with headphones, though, this word is used in every single final thought in each of the reviews.  It is almost as if you began with a premise of your interpretation of soundstage and how important this was to you, and then proceeded to write your review based on this one, single theme.  Because of the lack of importance to me, it is like reading a car comparison review where the author hates red cars and one of the cars that runs circles around the others just happens to be red, and this is brought up over and over again.  The 0-60 time was the quickest of the bunch, which is not bad for a red car.  In the slalom, it was well balanced and despite being red, proved to have the best results on either a dry or wet track.  While the red color was annoying, it did get the best fuel economy in our cross-country trip.
 
Don't take me too seriously, I'm always joking around.  The review was one of the better that I have read on the Alphas lately, and certainly not biased toward the hype.  I'm just not much of a soundstage person, I suppose, unless the performance is absolutely dreadful.

I've never seen anyone dismiss the importance of soundstage and compare it to the importance of redness in a car. Wow. The reason it's always brought up in this review and in pretty much any respectable review on any headphone is because it is one of the most important aspects of a headphone's sound quality. If you happen to be in the super-minority that doesn't find soundstage of any importance then great, more power to you, but expect it to be commented on in just about every review of a headphone you read on head fi. To equate it back to your own analogy, it's as if you don't find the MPG of a car worth knowing and keep asking why every review of a car mentions the engine's efficiency and how it annoys you. It's because you're in the 1% that doesn't care. Reviews cater to the 99%. 

 

[sonitus mirus]

Fair enough, I was expecting a bit of backlash from my comments.  If only the soundstage of headphones was not as subjective as the MPG ratings of a vehicle.

 

[Dixter]

I'm glad that Zowki decided to chose the ODAC and the O2 setup as this combination doesn't seem to color the music prior to it getting into the phones... so the phones is what got reviewed.... thanks Zowki for the review
 
I'd like to add that considering the neutrality traits of the Alpha Dogs for this review and the equipment chosen, the Alpha Dogs will change character with different amplification...    they do scale up very well if given the chance with different amps...  
I can say they sound fantastic with the Woo WA6
 
I'm also hoping to get the AD setup for a balanced try out as soon as I pick the Amp for this... could be very nice

 

[nicholars]

He is comparing them to 2 open headphones with very good soundstage though, so for a closed headphone it looks like it has a good soundstage.

 

[V-Duh]

zowki,
I am greatly looking forward to receiving my AD and recreating a good part of your experience with my HD600 & K702 and about half of the same recordings.
Now I have to research the ODAC/O2 to get a sense of its sound signature.
Thanks much for the work!

 

[goldenSHK]

  Fair enough, I was expecting a bit of backlash from my comments.  If only the soundstage of headphones was not as subjective as the MPG ratings of a vehicle.

Didn't mean to be harsh. I just meant that soundstage is very important for the majority. Well yes, I wish headphone reviews were more objective than subjective, but nothing about sound quality reviews of anything are objective unfortunately. Probably the reason why there are so many love-hate relationships on certain cans. 

 

[ethan7000]

I have not tried those..... Ill give you a list of headphones I have owned..... have you tried any of them?...

HIFIMAN HE-400

Fidelio X1

D2000

HD650

Momentum

SRH840

D600

UE6000

M-100

M-50

CAL

Fidelio L1

Q40

HTF-600

IE8

Eph-100

Shure Se215

Atrio MG7

You're looking for that thick planar bass and it won't disappoint. No 400 sibilance issues, no need to EQ, wonderful balance. But it doesn't have that open hifiman sound that you've come to love. In which case I still think you'd enjoy the 500 a bit more.

 

[azteca x]

  He is comparing them to 2 open headphones with very good soundstage though, so for a closed headphone it looks like it has a good soundstage.

Exactly.  If it has the soundstage of a mediocre open 'phone, that's a success.

 

[Lorspeaker]

what a review, love the format too. Great job Zowki !!
 
would the "openess" feature be as excitedly claimed if a comparison of sorts had been done earlier..?
Another set of gears would vary much from this review? i doubt it...hmmm.
 
And i think these 2 mid-tier open cans at half the price, are suitable comparisons...
the AD should have matched/killed these 2 cans in soundstage at $600 
But if it achieve say 80 % of the soundstage, i am contented.
 
 
ok, if sound stage is not a big deal breaker for u, then the AD looks a winner in many other aspects.
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Hey Zowki, for my sake, can u make a comparison of the DEPTH of the soundstage..? which can goes DEEPER? i am a depthfreak ..lol.

 

[zowki]

Originally Posted by Lorspeaker /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
would the "openess" feature be as excitedly claimed if a comparison of sorts had been done earlier..?
Another set of gears would vary much from this review? i doubt it...hmmm.

Sorry, I don't understand your question. Could you please rephrase it?
 

Originally Posted by Lorspeaker /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
ok, if sound stage is not a big deal breaker for u, then the AD looks a winner in many other aspects.

I still yearn for open soundstage whenever I listen to the ADs though. I'm very used to listening to open headphones so going back to closed will take some time for me to adjust.
 

Originally Posted by Lorspeaker /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
can u make a comparison of the DEPTH of the soundstage..?

The HD600 and K701 beat the Alpha Dogs in depth. In high quality recordings with instruments placed at different distances from the microphone, the HD600 and K701 can render the depth more accurately (further sounds sound far and nearer sounds sound near). Unfortunately the Alpha Dogs don't sound as 3 dimensional and sort of mushes the depth together.
 
This is very evident in the song "If I Could Sing Your Blues" by Sara K from The Ultimate Demonstration Disc by Chesky Records.
 
Since you are depth freak, I would NOT recommend the Alpha Dogs to you. You'll just end up disappointed.
 
Thanks for asking for this useful piece of information. I have added it to the original review in the "Additional Observations" section.

 

[Lorspeaker]

  Sorry, I don't understand your question. Could you please rephrase it?
 

 
its not a question...its not a question for u too.

 

[wink]

Good to see you using the Chesky Ultimate Demonstration Disc.
 
It's the first one I reach for when testing a headphone. Especially Spanish Harlem by Rebecca Pidgeon.

 

[miceblue]

 

  Makes me want to try the AD out now.
 
Do you have any bass quantity comparisons with other headphones? The HD600 and K701 do not have much bass.

The AD has neutral bass, no more and no less than what is contained in the recording.
 
What headphone would you like me to compare with?

First of all, very nice comparison! I was curious to see how the Alpha Dog compares to the K 701, but I kind of knew from the start that they would be very different overall. I can't say anything too definite about the HD600 though since it's been a while since I last heard one.
 
Secondly, I know Head-Fiers use this a lot, so it's not just you, but how exactly do you know how much bass a recording should or should not have? I mean it's not like you were one of the original sound engineers with their respective equipment or anything to actually say the bass is spot-on.