[cky8]

Hey?! That looks exactly like my setup haha !!
 
How come you have two of those?
 

 

 

[Jon-LF]

Hey?! That looks exactly like my setup haha !!

How come you have two of those?

 

Another headfier came buy with his modified 11s

The Svetlana is one heck of an amp.

 

[fengwei007]

Got one pair of these on impulse (found a good price on second hand market), loving it when matched w/ both HM901 and AK120. I think the ED8 is gonna have much less head time now. 

 

[fengwei007]

Pretty quiet here, probably the love of these beauties has faded away? 
 
Anyway, I've seen cable upgrade for most if not all mid to high end headphones here at headfi, but I'm surprised that I haven't come across any one here who did cable upgrade on these ESW11LTD, which happens to have the thinnest and most fragile cable among all the headphones I've tried, and I think most IEMs I've had have better or at least more robust cables than these. 
 
I'm not looking at sound improvement by changing cables, but I probably will change the cable to a slightly thicker one, at least not as tangling as the stock one. 

 

[ExpatinJapan]

I think the love of these beauties hasnt faded away.

The thing with the ATH-ESW11 is that owners of them dont seem to sell them, so there are no new owners joining the thread to gush about them. Also there arent any complaints which also thins out posts.

Happy campers all.

 

[fengwei007]

Yeah. I guess I understand what you mean. Really love these, even w many high end headphones and IEMs. The look, the sound, the size and the fit, just nice. The only thing I can complain about is the tangling cable.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

I put them in the carry bag, and take them out the same way everytime. No tangles.

I did have prior experience with my ATH-ESW9 though could never tell if 'if the cable was looped over or not- drove me crazy.

 

[dallan]

I was ready to buy one of the ones left on line a month and a half back but found a used SigPro for the same amount so got that. Wish i could have afforded both. Problem is they are limited and i don't know if any will be left when i can get them.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

I have been thinking of selling mine off and converting to just IEMS (i have DITA the truth) for the easy convenience of the daily commute, but then i fear the possible post sell regrets.

 

[JHern]

  ...cable upgrade...I'm surprised that I haven't come across any one here who did cable upgrade on these ESW11LTD, which happens to have the thinnest and most fragile cable among all the headphones I've tried...

 
I disagree...
 
Thinnest, most definitely!
 
Most fragile? Definitely not! They are ridiculously strong and robust, it still suprises me to this day.
 
The only way that anyone can know exactly how fragile something is, is to break it under a destructive prescribed load. I've had crazy strong tugs and tangles with these cords (that literally ripped them off my head, or tugged my body to a stop while running), with exactly zero damage. I've seen these wires go through some of the worst torment, and never suffered permanent damage or any change in audio quality…also even if the wires get twisted (easy to avoid if you wrap the cord properly before stowing), the tangles work themselves out in a short time period (provided you untwist it)…and afterward you'd never even be able to tell that they had a twist to begin!

 

[Bill-P]

So I think this information will be useful to ESW11 owners...
 
I previously had access to both the ESW11 and ESW9 ear pads for my modded ES10. And I preferred the ESW9 ear pads pretty much exclusively. Because I thought they sounded "cleaner".
 
And then the ESW9 ear pads were ruined in a bad experiment, so I purchased a new pair from Audio Technica. While waiting for the new ones to come in, I had to use the ESW11 ear pads. Urg... the loss of clarity. Plus they are quite a bit stiffer than the ESW9 ear pads as well. Not good...
 
So I put the ear pads in between two books and pressed on them as hard as possible.
 
And then the unthinkable happened... the ESW11 ear pads softened after being flattened like that, so they became more comfortable. Far more. But the biggest change was with the sound!
 
Suddenly everything clears up and becomes a lot more clear. There is still some loss of air, but the overall sound is definitely not as congested as before. And bass is much less bloated. It's like I have an entirely different pair of ear pads now.
 
Perhaps Audio Technica designed them so that they would get better with use... who knows. But now I can believe that this change in the ear pads would probably be very favorable for the ESW11.
 
I got the ESW9 ear pads in a while ago, and after a quick bout of listening, I could confirm this... ESW11 ear pads simply sound cleaner after the flattening. I tried flattening the ESW9 ear pads as well, but it just doesn't give the same effect.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

yeah, I screwed and scrunched my ESW11 earpads , it did a world of good.
 
I also tried ESW9 pads, and ES10 pads, and the thinner replacement ESW11 pads.
 
After all that I found the original to the best, imho.

 

[Bill-P]

Well, I think I crushed the thinner ESW11 pads... now that I saw your comment.

They were indeed a bit too bassy, and a bit too congested. After crushing, everything is just right. Except the treble is still not up to par.

I tried crushing the ESW9 pads even more, and I think I'm getting a wee bit more clarity.

What's with Audio Technica and pad crushing??

The same thing happened to my W1000 as well. The old ear pads make the W1000 sound like it has an open back. I bought some replacement, and the replacement sounds... full, warm and congested.

 

[fengwei007]

I disagree...

Thinnest, most definitely!

Most fragile? Definitely not! They are ridiculously strong and robust, it still suprises me to this day.

The only way that anyone can know exactly how fragile something is, is to break it under a destructive prescribed load. I've had crazy strong tugs and tangles with these cords (that literally ripped them off my head, or tugged my body to a stop while running), with exactly zero damage. I've seen these wires go through some of the worst torment, and never suffered permanent damage or any change in audio quality…also even if the wires get twisted (easy to avoid if you wrap the cord properly before stowing), the tangles work themselves out in a short time period (provided you untwist it)…and afterward you'd never even be able to tell that they had a twist to begin!

Well, I haven't had them for long, can't say how well the cable can hold up. It's good to know that the cable can stand some torment . But the thin cable definitely feels a bit fragile. I won't abuse it as the ED8 that's for sure.

Although I have some other not too bad headphones, These have taken most of the head time lately. Really love the sweet vocals from these.

 

[Maxx134]

So I think this information will be useful to ESW11 owners...

I previously had access to both the ESW11 and ESW9 ear pads for my modded ES10. And I preferred the ESW9 ear pads pretty much exclusively. Because I thought they sounded "cleaner".

And then the ESW9 ear pads were ruined in a bad experiment, so I purchased a new pair from Audio Technica. While waiting for the new ones to come in, I had to use the ESW11 ear pads. Urg... the loss of clarity. Plus they are quite a bit stiffer than the ESW9 ear pads as well. Not good...

So I put the ear pads in between two books and pressed on them as hard as possible.

And then the unthinkable happened... the ESW11 ear pads softened after being flattened like that, so they became more comfortable. Far more. But the biggest change was with the sound!

Suddenly everything clears up and becomes a lot more clear. There is still some loss of air, but the overall sound is definitely not as congested as before. And bass is much less bloated. It's like I have an entirely different pair of ear pads now.

Perhaps Audio Technica designed them so that they would get better with use... who knows. But now I can believe that this change in the ear pads would probably be very favorable for the ESW11.

I got the ESW9 ear pads in a while ago, and after a quick bout of listening, I could confirm this... ESW11 ear pads simply sound cleaner after the flattening. I tried flattening the ESW9 ear pads as well, but it just doesn't give the same effect.

I wonder if this is a reason why I didn't prefer the stock pads at first and came around to them later.. hmmm