Today I had an opportunity to listen to the new AT flagship line at Scheherezade in Seoul.
All listening was done from a Hugo Chord TT2 they had.
Genres: female singer-songwriters, technical brutal death, bluegrass, gyaru pop, classical, EDM, atmospheric black, yuki kajiura, gothic/death doom, tribal ambient, folk rock.
ADX5000 >> AWAS >> AWKT >>>>> AP2000Ti >>>>> WP900
Without further ado,
ADX5000
These are a proper high-end model. I'd even say they can put up a fair fight with the venerable HD800s when it comes to their technical ability. The size of the soundstage is not HD800s-big, but imaging is comparable, i.e. world class. Probably nobody knows for sure how psychoacoustics of soundstage work, but HD800s ends up presenting itself demanding immediate attention to how enormously over-competent its soundstage is, which in my case tends to detract from the immersion of listening. ADX5000 are simply said very precise in their handling of soundstage in that they give you all the accuracy that's needed to portray music, but stop at that exact threshold where more becomes less.
Transient response for these is excellent, they handle complex, layered music and challenging passages without making the listener think it could have been better.
Now these are really, really bright. Upper mids are not as underlined as usual for AT but they still are the centrepiece. I'm a fan of the AT in-house sound, so I have no complaints about that. But these also have lots of treble. I'd say overall it's more treble than say DT1990 but it's smoothed over a wider range so it doesn't end up as annoying.If I were asked to describe, I'd say 'unnecessarily prominent'. I get it that treble is needed for the illusion of clarity (a crutch ADX5000 doesn't need), sparkle (which is useful for select few genres really) and air. ADX5000 are incredibly airy, the violins have both body and air and sound frankly amazing, but it's still an overshoot in my opinion.
The bass is pretty good extension-wise, but there's not much of it. In general I divide bass into the visceral, the rubber and the boom. I'd say the rubber is a hair more prominent but overall it's very balanced. Quantity-wise, these lie somewhere in-between R70x and AD1000x. At around HD800s level, maybe a wee bit less.
In the end, a warm amp or EQing is needed, and classical, acoustic and vocals take precedence over other genres even though nothing really sounds ugly from these.
These retail for $2000 which I think is pretty fair comparing to other flagship models.
AWAS
Remember ESW10? AWAS sounds like an attempt to make a full-sized ESW10. These are very euphoric, with
those mids. I haven't ever listened to W5000, but AWAS is nothing like W3000. W1000x might be closer, except those were kinda bad in multiple aspects, and AWAS doesn't have any objectively glaring issues. Technical ability of this pair is at around the level of DT1990 I'd say. Good mid-fi, but mid-fi nonetheless.
Bass is worse than the Beyers, in amount and in quality, but mids are better. I don't mean better = forward, by the way even though AWAS is a mid-centric pair. DT1990 isn't a headphone with very good mids, people just tend to not notice the fact for some reason.
Treble is again a bit of a miss. Usually, mid-centric ATs have a treble roll-off which actually does help to make them not too fatiguing, but with AWAS they went the ADX5000 route and added a whole bunch of it. I don't know what their thinking was because that treble fails at 'creating air' (not enough resolution) but still is annoying to listen to on some tracks.
I didn't think to pay attention to the soundstage, because in my mind you don't buy euphoric wooden ATs for the soundstage, but it was small-ish with adequate imaging coming from memory.
If you're a sucker for the fun-tastic, euphoric wooden AT sound, get these and just as with ADX5000, run them off a warm amp or EQ. ESW10 with better technical ability and wonkier FR.
These retail for $1400 which is way overpriced. I expect these to drop to $600-700 for used in about 3 years in Japan. Their true value is around $550, roughly the same as DT 1990, just the FR caters to a different taste.
AWKT
These are a disappointment. These have atypically recessed mids and even more treble than ADX5000 and AWAS.
On ADX5000 the violin has body and air around them. On AWAS the violin is very anime-esque, euphoric, but no air. On AWKT it just kinda rings in an ugly sort of manner while still having less body than on ADX5000.
tl;dr: everything that these do right ADX5000 does better, and everything these don't do right ADX5000 does more or less right except the treble. AWKT's treble is horrible however, and ADX5000's is just annoying.
Given that these retail for $1900 I don't see any reason for them to exist when ADX5000 is around.
AP2000Ti
It sounds like an attempt to make roughly what A2000x/z did well and blend it into a neutral-ish FR and a semi-portable form-factor. The fact is there that it's kinda rich to ride the subway with these on in 2020 but I digress.
The FR is pretty neutral (my standard is R70x). Imaging is adequate for mid-fi, soundstage is small, smaller than AWAS, on par with ESW10.
The thing that kills this pair is that something is terribly wrong with transients. For as long as the music is calm enough, you hear nothing criminally bad, but at the first notice of dense, layered passages these just fail miserably somehow. The music becomes an incoherent mess of decays running over subsequent attacks.
Bad, weird issues with transients, don't buy unless you can get away with paying literally not more than $350 for these. Mind you, these are still better than MSR7b. I feel like ES10 had less issues even though the sound tasted like metal on the tongue.
WP900
A wooden AT with a V-shaped FR. I don't feel like continuing.
Conclusion(s)
А. ADX5000 is a proper flagship.
B. ADX5000 treble is troublesome at times.
C. Use a warm amp with ADX5000.
D. ADX5000 is fairly priced in comparison to other flagships.
E. AWAS is made for those who miss that sweet euphoric AT sound.
F. AWAS treble is more troublesome than ADX5000.
G. Use a warm amp or EQ with AWAS.
H. AWAS true value is the same as DT1990. Waiting a couple of years is probably a smart idea.
I. AWKT is redundant because of its own issues and ADX5000.
J. AP2000Ti is very problematic. Better forget it exists.
K. WP900 is literally a meme.
Have a nice day!
Precisely, the comfort is the aspect of the Denon's that worries me more. Try to adjust the headband one point more to don't have issues and please comment how you notice the pads (heat, sweat...). Thanks and enjoy.