Dixie Flatline
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2004
- Posts
- 433
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- 10
All right, I'm starting to be seriously tempted by the A-T A900. Almost everyone who's posted about it lately seems to really like them (thanks especially to dj_mocok for his review, and lindrone for all his various commentary), and they seem very well-suited to my needs. However, before I take the plunge, I want to know -- has anyone out there tried the A900 and couldn't stand them? Why?
A little background on where I am now: very much a newbie at this stuff. I've got the Shure E2's and like them a lot, but I use them for commuting only -- they're not comfortable enough for long-term wear to be my full-time phone. They're also sensitive enough to pick up rather a lot of hiss from imperfect sources, which I've got a lot of. I'm looking for a good closed phone for general home use -- closed because my home is noisy enough that I want to have at least some isolation, and I don't want to leak too much sound into the environment and annoy my wife.
I've tried the Senn HD280's, and I love everything about them -- except the sound. Very flat and dead-sounding, combined with some very uncomfortable grainy harshness on the highs, even after around 500 hours of burn-in. After getting a pair of Sony 7506's (aka V6) to compare, I very quickly gave up on the HD280's and returned them to the store. (Funny thing is, a co-worker of mine told me he was interested in buying the 280's off me for the price I paid, if I decided I didn't want to keep them. I let him listen to them again, beside the 7506's, and he immediately changed his mind about buying the 280's.)
The 7506's I like a lot better -- much livelier sound, better bass, and smoother highs, although still somewhat grating. I'm less thrilled with the comfort and build quality compared to the Sennheisers, though. I've got about 2.5 weeks left to return these, if I'm going to.
After reading some of the enthusiastic commentary on the A900's around here lately, I'm pondering whether to take the leap, return the 7506's, and order them from Audiocubes. I started out looking in the $100 range, so I thought about the A500's after reading lindrone's review, but I figure if I like those, then I'm probably going to wind up with the A900's later on anyway. Might as well take the plunge now.
The things that appeal to me about the description of the A900's:
1) Well-balanced and more fluid/musical than the V6.
2) Sounds great unamped -- I'll probably wind up with a portable amp at some point, mostly so I can get crossfeed, but if I can put that off, so much the better.
3) Forgiving of dubious sources -- my best source at this point is probably a Rio Karma portable, with a mixture of high-bitrate Ogg Vorbis and FLAC. Otherwise, I'll be doing some gaming and some music-listening out of a SB Live soundcard and an elderly, mid-range JVC CDP and receiver. I'm sure there will be source upgrades in my future at some point, but if the A900 makes what I've got now sound better than the 7506 does, I'll be very happy.
What I'm hoping for is a really good pair of all-around phones that handles most musical genres pretty well, doesn't need to be amped to sound good, is comfortable for reasonably long periods, and doesn't point up the inadequacies of my current sources too badly. I'm not serious enough about head-fi (yet) to invest in a "stable" of different headphones for different purposes, which is why I'd like something that handles everything reasonably well.
So that's why I think the A900's might be worth committing to (since I can't return them if I buy them from Audiocubes). Before I decide to order them, though, I'd like to hear from anyone out there who hasn't liked them or felt disillusioned after they got them.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
A little background on where I am now: very much a newbie at this stuff. I've got the Shure E2's and like them a lot, but I use them for commuting only -- they're not comfortable enough for long-term wear to be my full-time phone. They're also sensitive enough to pick up rather a lot of hiss from imperfect sources, which I've got a lot of. I'm looking for a good closed phone for general home use -- closed because my home is noisy enough that I want to have at least some isolation, and I don't want to leak too much sound into the environment and annoy my wife.
I've tried the Senn HD280's, and I love everything about them -- except the sound. Very flat and dead-sounding, combined with some very uncomfortable grainy harshness on the highs, even after around 500 hours of burn-in. After getting a pair of Sony 7506's (aka V6) to compare, I very quickly gave up on the HD280's and returned them to the store. (Funny thing is, a co-worker of mine told me he was interested in buying the 280's off me for the price I paid, if I decided I didn't want to keep them. I let him listen to them again, beside the 7506's, and he immediately changed his mind about buying the 280's.)
The 7506's I like a lot better -- much livelier sound, better bass, and smoother highs, although still somewhat grating. I'm less thrilled with the comfort and build quality compared to the Sennheisers, though. I've got about 2.5 weeks left to return these, if I'm going to.
After reading some of the enthusiastic commentary on the A900's around here lately, I'm pondering whether to take the leap, return the 7506's, and order them from Audiocubes. I started out looking in the $100 range, so I thought about the A500's after reading lindrone's review, but I figure if I like those, then I'm probably going to wind up with the A900's later on anyway. Might as well take the plunge now.
The things that appeal to me about the description of the A900's:
1) Well-balanced and more fluid/musical than the V6.
2) Sounds great unamped -- I'll probably wind up with a portable amp at some point, mostly so I can get crossfeed, but if I can put that off, so much the better.
3) Forgiving of dubious sources -- my best source at this point is probably a Rio Karma portable, with a mixture of high-bitrate Ogg Vorbis and FLAC. Otherwise, I'll be doing some gaming and some music-listening out of a SB Live soundcard and an elderly, mid-range JVC CDP and receiver. I'm sure there will be source upgrades in my future at some point, but if the A900 makes what I've got now sound better than the 7506 does, I'll be very happy.
What I'm hoping for is a really good pair of all-around phones that handles most musical genres pretty well, doesn't need to be amped to sound good, is comfortable for reasonably long periods, and doesn't point up the inadequacies of my current sources too badly. I'm not serious enough about head-fi (yet) to invest in a "stable" of different headphones for different purposes, which is why I'd like something that handles everything reasonably well.
So that's why I think the A900's might be worth committing to (since I can't return them if I buy them from Audiocubes). Before I decide to order them, though, I'd like to hear from anyone out there who hasn't liked them or felt disillusioned after they got them.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
).
