[AudioDuck]

I don't actually find the Radiance to be bassy either and I have a suspicion that it's the upper mids' fault which are pretty forward. I also found it to become less dynamic on my desktop setups, not sure why, maybe bad synergy

As a former Radiance (and Elear & Stellia) owner, I would tend to wonder if the lack of bass in a Radiance was due to poor synergy. Same really goes for lacking dynamics, as that’s a hallmark of Focal headphones in a well-matched system.

Or perhaps you’re just a serious bass fan.

 

[AudioDuck]

It has been a long time since I A-B'd some closed backs.
My two favourite amps allow you to run two headphones at once.


I used the Cascades recently and don't recall them being super bassy, although I am sure I am in the minority on that.
But compared to the Radiance's, they are Really bassy.

The Radiance's are more articulate and clear though. That kind of surprised me as I find them very inferior to my favourite open backs.

I’ve always wondered about the Cascades (I live in the PNW and have a soft spot for locally-made stuff), and am curious if they would be TOO bassy for me, but it would probably be a use case where I’d almost always use them with my DAP… and it has tone controls/adjustments I could use.

But the Radiance is a lovely headphone too- it just wasn’t right with my main setup
at the time, and isn’t a good OTL match.

 

[Shane D]

I’ve always wondered about the Cascades (I live in the PNW and have a soft spot for locally-made stuff), and am curious if they would be TOO bassy for me, but it would probably be a use case where I’d almost always use them with my DAP… and it has tone controls/adjustments I could use.

But the Radiance is a lovely headphone too- it just wasn’t right with my main setup
at the time, and isn’t a good OTL match.

I almost never find the Cascades too bassy. If I start and finish with the Cascades, I love them.

When I compare them to the Radiance's, Clear's, HE6se V2's and of course the Grado GH2's, they seem crazy bassy, but on their own, just a fun headphone that I can enjoy for days.

Not sure I'll ever move them along. I have had them for a few years. I pull them out every couple of months and just get lost in the bass for a week.

 

[gofishus]

As a former Radiance (and Elear & Stellia) owner, I would tend to wonder if the lack of bass in a Radiance was due to poor synergy. Same really goes for lacking dynamics, as that’s a hallmark of Focal headphones in a well-matched system.

Or perhaps you’re just a serious bass fan.

Not sure what headphones you guys are listening to. I think Radiance has quite a lot of bass. More in quantity than my Denon D7200s actually. Radiance has actually the most bass out of any Focals I've listened to (Elear, Elex, Clear, Elegia)

 

[AudioDuck]

Not sure what headphones you guys are listening to. I think Radiance has quite a lot of bass. More in quantity than my Denon D7200s actually. Radiance has actually the most bass out of any Focals I've listened to (Elear, Elex, Clear, Elegia)

Agreed. I didn’t word my statement particularly well- my point was “if you’re not getting a lot of bass from the Radiance, it’s poorly matched with the rest of the system.”

I definitely consider the Radiance a warm, bassy headphone in the systems I’ve heard it in.

 

[Shane D]

Not sure what headphones you guys are listening to. I think Radiance has quite a lot of bass. More in quantity than my Denon D7200s actually. Radiance has actually the most bass out of any Focals I've listened to (Elear, Elex, Clear, Elegia)

The Elex's and Clear's really impressed me with the amount of bass they have, for open backs.

I find the Radiance's have more than adequate bass, but I don't find them Real bassy. The Violectric made them bassier, but also thicker which really didn't work for me. They are a pretty balanced headphone, IMO.

 

[AudioDuck]

The Elex's and Clear's really impressed me with the amount of bass they have, for open backs.

I find the Radiance's have more than adequate bass, but I don't find them Real bassy. The Violectric made them bassier, but also thicker which really didn't work for me. They are a pretty balanced headphone, IMO.

As a side note to this (closed-back) thread: I still consider the Elears one of the greatest bargains in head-fi. While Focal has had some driver QC issues, it’s a phenomenal headphone for the money.

 

[bluenight]

I bought and have used the Audio Technica AWAS for some hours.

This is my first impressions.
Its a smooth sounding mid focused HP and i find it quite musical and enyoying but with some flaws.

At both ends its a bit lacking subb bass dont reach that deep and the upper frequencies is a bit dull not much air and sparkle with cymbal crashes(Correct me if i am wrong if these not use the highest frequencies)it could use a a little bit more.

The star of the show is the mids and vocals that i find have much detail, resoulotion, weight and body in voices, much more then any previous HP i owned(all in my signature). Also smoothest mids I've heard in any HP, still bad recordings can fling some SSSS sounds at you like with all HP.

The dynamics and bass slam is not that great, here Akg K371 is much better also on the subb bass.

AWAS mid bass is better with some nice texture and detail.

I liked how acoustic guitar and how piano have sounded. I like the timbre.

More albums sound more perfect recorded then with my other HPs. Smoother with less glare around the edges.

Soundstage i think is not huge or anything but appropriate imo. The sounds is quite big and weighty.

The comfort is not that great. The headband could use a bit more padding. After some hours it starts to hurt a little bit but readjusting helps. I think i still could use it all day with some breaks in between? The angled driver seems to touch my left ear making it feel sore and painful after a while and the ear gets a little red. Re seating it a little further forward on the left ear seem to help. Sometimes i wonder if some HP makers are amateurs and dont test there own products before selling, all though they been around for ages. Obvious miss to me.

Sound leakeage i find good. i used a DB meter on my smartphone and put it 10 - 20 cm from earcups and played as loud as i can listen to and it was around 40 DB and max at 45DB. Good in my book.

Now i hope this will be a HP when not critical listening(as you do when its a new HP)you forget about the flaws and just enjoy the music. That and if it improves with burn in i have to get back to.

With long term use score can change.
Subb bass 3/5
Mid bass/upper bass 4/5
Mids 4,5/5
Highs 3,5/5
Soundstage 4/5
Timbre 4,5/5
Musicality enjoyment 4,5/5
Overall sound 4,2/5
Comfort 3/5
Price/Performance Value 3,5/5

 

[bluenight]

Now playing Ambrose Akinmusire - Mr Riley with Ath AWAS and it got all the cymbal crashes as I would want so it might depend on the recording also.

 

[Shungite Trillionaire]

Not sure what headphones you guys are listening to. I think Radiance has quite a lot of bass. More in quantity than my Denon D7200s actually. Radiance has actually the most bass out of any Focals I've listened to (Elear, Elex, Clear, Elegia)

The Denon 7200 has quite forward midrange as well, not more forward than the bass, but drowning out other frequencies, maybe i'm just more sensitive to it, I'd consider the NDH20, GH50 JM 2, Meze 99 more or less bassy. I also wouldn't consider the SRH1540 bassy (despite what graphs show), I'd actually call it a mix of HD600+650, a mixture of mid bass, upper mids and well balanced, present treble (and maybe a touch higher technicalities from memory). Maybe I should buy new pads soon, I noticed that one pair seems to make the sound less bassy, despite having been washed.

 

[gofishus]

I bought and have used the Audio Technica AWAS for some hours.

This is my first impressions.
Its a smooth sounding mid focused HP and i find it quite musical and enyoying but with some flaws.

At both ends its a bit lacking subb bass dont reach that deep and the upper frequencies is a bit dull not much air and sparkle with cymbal crashes(Correct me if i am wrong if these not use the highest frequencies)it could use a a little bit more.

The star of the show is the mids and vocals that i find have much detail, resoulotion, weight and body in voices, much more then any previous HP i owned(all in my signature). Also smoothest mids I've heard in any HP, still bad recordings can fling some SSSS sounds at you like with all HP.

The dynamics and bass slam is not that great, here Akg K371 is much better also on the subb bass.

AWAS mid bass is better with some nice texture and detail.

I liked how acoustic guitar and how piano have sounded. I like the timbre.

More albums sound more perfect recorded then with my other HPs. Smoother with less glare around the edges.

Soundstage i think is not huge or anything but appropriate imo. The sounds is quite big and weighty.

The comfort is not that great. The headband could use a bit more padding. After some hours it starts to hurt a little bit but readjusting helps. I think i still could use it all day with some breaks in between?. Something in the earcups or on the Earpads also can be felt after a while and start to hurt. Sometimes i wonder if some HP makers are amateurs and dont test there own products before selling, all though they been around for ages. Obvious miss to me.

Sound leakeage i find good. i used a DB meter on my smartphone and put it 10 - 20 cm from earcups and played as loud as i can listen to and it was around 40 DB and max at 45DB. Good in my book.

Now i hope this will be a HP when not critical listening(as you do when its a new HP)you forget about the flaws and just enjoy the music. That and if it improves with burn in i have to get back to.

With long term use score can change.
Subb bass 3/5
Mid bass/upper bass 4/5
Mids 4,5/5
Highs 3,5/5
Soundstage 4/5
Timbre 4,5/5
Musicality enjoyment 4,5/5
Overall sound 4,2/5
Comfort 3/5
Price/Performance Value 3,5/5

Looks like it's quite similar to the Fostex TH610s then? nice detailed mid forward headphone without much to show in the other frequencies?

 

[Waddiewadkins]

Yes, the 1540s are tuned to be less reference and more 'consumer' friendly i.e closer to Harman target but the 1540s have decent detail for $500. I think they are actually fairly close to HD600s in detail (or perhaps similar to HD599s which are a step below the 600s in detail). The 1840s on the other hand are basically just the HD650s with slightly better detail. However the 940s beat both of them in detail (despite being a 'lower' end model)

I can get 1840s off the shelf from a shop here for ok price. I think maybe after all research for a year should just go for them and be happy for a couple of years instead of not buying anything at all for 1k plus..

 

[bluenight]

Looks like it's quite similar to the Fostex TH610s then? nice detailed mid forward headphone without much to show in the other frequencies?

Don't know maybe. Bass guitars and such sounds nice. I guess its just at the last ends on both sides. Subb bass and upper highs where it don't extend all that much.

The biggest problem i have with them is not the sound. Its the comfort. On longer use it starts to hurt more on the left side on the ear and i see it gets a little red and sore. I hope i can manage it in the longrun for the sake of the sound. Could be a potential deal breaker.

Reseating it further forward on the ear seem to help some. Also lower the headband setting one step can be tried but seems to not sound as great.

I mailed Dekoni Audio to see if they can make a custom made deeper thicker pad. That would be nice, could work for AWKT as well as they seem to have same size?

 

[grant0317]

Agreed that the technical performance doesn't match the price, however I think I've tried enough headphones across all price ranges to say that there's quite a few expensive headphones that have underwhelming technical performance. In general, Focal / Hifiman / Sennheiser seem to be quite good at their technicals across all their headphones. On the other hand, Meze prefers to focus on musicality and tonality rather than technicals. Denon / Beyerdynamic / Audio-Technica / Fostex / Dan Clark seem to depend on the model but they have quite a few that are underwhelming technically too.

The best bang for the buck headphones technically? Surprisingly, it's Shure.

You can find the SRH940s for under $200 street price and these absolutely will blow away the vast majority of headphones under $1000 technically. They may not be the most comfortable or well built or have a large soundstage but they are a reference level detail monster. These pretty much destroyed my AKG K712 Pros in technicality in an A/B comparison.

Actually I'd say the best bang for buck was the sony mdr 7506 when it was only $75 haha.

 

[SolarCetacean]

I bought and have used the Audio Technica AWAS for some hours.

This is my first impressions.
Its a smooth sounding mid focused HP and i find it quite musical and enyoying but with some flaws.

At both ends its a bit lacking subb bass dont reach that deep and the upper frequencies is a bit dull not much air and sparkle with cymbal crashes(Correct me if i am wrong if these not use the highest frequencies)it could use a a little bit more.

The star of the show is the mids and vocals that i find have much detail, resoulotion, weight and body in voices, much more then any previous HP i owned(all in my signature). Also smoothest mids I've heard in any HP, still bad recordings can fling some SSSS sounds at you like with all HP.

The dynamics and bass slam is not that great, here Akg K371 is much better also on the subb bass.

AWAS mid bass is better with some nice texture and detail.

I liked how acoustic guitar and how piano have sounded. I like the timbre.

More albums sound more perfect recorded then with my other HPs. Smoother with less glare around the edges.

Soundstage i think is not huge or anything but appropriate imo. The sounds is quite big and weighty.

The comfort is not that great. The headband could use a bit more padding. After some hours it starts to hurt a little bit but readjusting helps. I think i still could use it all day with some breaks in between? The angled driver seems to touch my left ear making it feel sore and painful after a while and the ear gets a little red. Re seating it a little further back on the left ear seem to help. Sometimes i wonder if some HP makers are amateurs and dont test there own products before selling, all though they been around for ages. Obvious miss to me.

Sound leakeage i find good. i used a DB meter on my smartphone and put it 10 - 20 cm from earcups and played as loud as i can listen to and it was around 40 DB and max at 45DB. Good in my book.

Now i hope this will be a HP when not critical listening(as you do when its a new HP)you forget about the flaws and just enjoy the music. That and if it improves with burn in i have to get back to.

With long term use score can change.
Subb bass 3/5
Mid bass/upper bass 4/5
Mids 4,5/5
Highs 3,5/5
Soundstage 4/5
Timbre 4,5/5
Musicality enjoyment 4,5/5
Overall sound 4,2/5
Comfort 3/5
Price/Performance Value 3,5/5

Thanks for the impressions! I also recently acquired the AWAS and I concur with much of your review. I agree that comfort isn't the best, but it gets better after a while in my opinion. I've had it for about 3 weeks, and I felt the comfort got worse after the first two days, but then after 2 weeks I guess my head got used to the shape and it's not as uncomfortable now. One thing is that it's important that both bands be touching your head. For me, it's pretty easy for the headband to be angled such that one band is carrying most of the weight which leads to discomfort fatigue faster. I wish the earpads were thicker as well, but I guess my big ears are used to being squashed to some degree.

On the sound, I actually think that cymbals are very apparent on most of the music that I've listened to, on the verge of being too emphasized. The AT closed-backs that I've heard have this quality of emphasizing cymbals and hi-hats, so it might be a curious track where cymbals aren't emphasized on the AWAS. Other than that, I agree that the sound is mid-focused, not the best sub-bass extension, but somehow music just sounds very enjoyable on these. I happen to like the emphasis on cymbals, so music sounds nice and sparkly.

One more thing I've found is that the Sony Walkman's Vinyl Emulation DSP setting works really well with the AWAS. The bass is a bit firmer and hits a bit harder while the treble ever so slightly less sparkly, so the result is more warmth and weight to the sound, which works well with the AWAS IMO.