After being a user of Grado, Sennheiser, Allesandro and HifiMAN headphones for the past few years, I found a pair of ATH-AD900s for sale locally. I picked the headphones up just before this past weekend. The seem as though they were minimally used. The guy selling them also sold me his pair of Sennheiser HD-580s because he was looking for closed headphones to allow him to listen without his music disturbing others.
Being that this is my first pair of Audio Technica headphones, I had seen some of the various models at headphone meets, but never had a chance to try them out. I guess I've been a bit intrugued by the AD900s with larger drivers. Some people have referred to the sound as a bit "bright" and others contend that there wasn't enough bass for their likes. So, with what I had read, I was a bit hesitant to make the purchase. But, I went forward with it and felt that if they didn't offer what I was looking for in sound, I could easily sell them here on the forum. However, I am very happy to report that the ATH-AD900s more than exceeded my expectations after I spent some time with them getting them appropriately adjusted and performing a few slight modifications on the headphones themselves.
The work that I ended up performing was a bit time-consuming. About 4 hours total, were involved in the process because I wanted to change some things that I didn't like from a comfort and asthetics standpoint. My changes are as follows:
- Cable length. I personally didn't need the default 10' length of cable. If I need further reach when using headphones I have sufficient extensions for the purpose. So, I took the cable length down to a bit more than 5' and terminated it with a brand new Neutrik 1/4" TRS plug which eliminates any need for me to use the screw-on 3.5mm to 1/4" adapter.
- Headband Hoops. Ugh! Why such large hoops? I can understand that some users have larger heads due to more brain mass, but I don't fall into that category and have a head size that is average. This meant two large hoops would be above my head like a martian. So, I removed the ear cups / drivers from both sides and shortened the rods by 1/2" on each end, for a total of a 1" decrease in the size of the hoops. There is still plenty of available head space available if these were to move onto a user with a larger head. The titanium rods were a bit hard to work with. Marking the rod and making the cuts was relative simple with a heavy-duty wire side-cutter. However, applying that final 1/4" 90-Degree bend where the rods connect into the plastic mounting block that connects to the ear cups was a bit more challenging. I had to use a larger pliers to accomlish this bend to ensure it was as sharp on the corner as it could be. If the corner was too rounded, then the rods would not properly fit into the plastic grooves and it made re-assembly of the plastic connectors between the rods and the headphone cups a bit more complicated. But, with patience and a few attempts, I pushed through. Some re-working of the wire that passes through one of the covers of the rods from one side of the headphones to the other was also needed, so some solder, the iron, a few pieces of shrink tube and spare wire, had me back in business with the necessary cable re-work.
- Finally, I had read where some users over time have noted that the pads flatten and their ears, at times seem to touch the driver. To circumvent an issue of this in the future, I had some foam insulation tape. It is 1/4" thick and 3/8" wide. I cut a strip long enough so that I could apply it under the ear cusion foam between the pad and the black cloth that protected the driver. This mean that the pads were somewhat refreshed by extending their distance to make up for any foam that had been compmressed through previous use of the headphones.
The result? Well, the changing of the hoop size mad me feel a bit more comfortable when wearing the headphones as I was able to tighten the gap between the cups by adjusting the titanium rods. The headphones now have a tighter grip for somewhat better isolation from outside noises and a better fit of the ear pads over my ears. Additionally, the foam seems to have slightly enhanced the bass by pushing the pads out a bit from the driver.
These headphones are very, very comfortable. The sound-stage is excellent. The detail of these headphones is really quite good and I was able to pick out percussion that wasn't as apparent in some songs with other headphones. The instrument separation really could be noticed in how the drivers responded to articulate the music. I was also getting bass from songs that I didn't feel would have been quite as strong with other headphones. For example, "Barton Hollow" by "The Civil Wars" has some great sub-bass that can be heard with the AD900s that gets missed by other headphones. However, the ATH-AD900s really handled the bass well with a great level of quality and not mushy quantity.
I am very pleased with this purchase. Whether one choosed to find a pair of these headphones new through on-line sources that offer discounts (the MSRP is $299), or if they can find a pair used on the forum here, I feel these headphones are a tremendous "bang for the buck" based on the quality of music return for the money spent. There are many headphones that I could point out that the ATH-AD900 easily passes over and those headphones run about twice the cost of the Audio Technica headphones. I will not mention those headphone brands or models, as I don't want to create a stir here in the thread about "this being better than that". However, for anyone considering buying a pair of these headphones and they desire sound quality, a good amount of bass along with an excellent sound-stange, this is really a headphone that delivers and at a cost that will not kill your wallet.
Enjoy !!
Wonder how the AD900X will match up to its predecessor!
just in case my perception of them remains valid. Still a worthwhile experiment - easy and fun and I still think these are superb cans...
