[joomongj]

This will be my 1st post here. I'm a pretty hardcore competitive FPS gamer (Crysis Wars mainly) and even though I don't play games for a living, I'm confident enough to say my skills are at least on par w/ some of the pro players around in the community. Anywayz I've been digging in this forum for a while in search of a decent headphone for the past 2 weeks or so, which I will drive it w/ my Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Pro Series soundcard. I had originally considered alongside HD555, HD595, HD600, HD650 and narrowed it down to HD595 but AD900 came up a few times and read a lot of reviews saying it's better for gaming. So I'd like to ask your opinions on the choice of AD900 w/ the Creative soundcard. I am not sure if this combo will be a waste of money. Do I need a better soundcard to fully utilize the headset? Buying a dedicated amp is out of my budget for the time being, so I'd appreciate if you can deflect feedback in that direction. I will be upgrading from Steelseries 5H V2 headset. It cost me 140 CAD and from what I see AD900 costs around 300 +/- 20 USD after shipping, so this will be a fairly significant step-up. The primary usage will be for FPS gaming and while that won't be the only purpose, I do listen to/watch occasional music/movies like many others.

Also I can hardly find any thread on where to purchase these mid/high-end audio products. Ebay is the obvious one but I prefer not to. I'd greatly appreciate if you can list some sites that ship internationally. I did come across audiocubes, audiocubes2.com but the reviews are pretty mixed w/ most of the negative reviews noting they take forever to process the order (even up to 3 weeks).

So sum up, 2 questions basically:

1. What do you think of AD900 + Creative SC? Will it be a waste? Will I notice better sound qualities?
2. Sites that sell & ship AD900 overseas (my location: Canada) w/ good reviews that I can trust since I will be dropping a fair amount of cash on this purchase anyway.

Thanks a lot.

 

[jageur272]

Buying used here is generally a good way to go. Generally, buying from a member with good feedback is a good way to go. Of course, there are always that 1% that ruin it, but the risk here tends to be less than the risk elsewhere (and the prices are great!).

 

[Beric]

I was reading in other threads that the AD900 was not much of an upgrade at all over the AD700, which is supposed to be excellent for gaming. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

 

[jjinh]

@ beric

from what i've read the ad900 is significantly better than the ad700

 

[jjinh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by joomongj /img/forum/go_quote.gif 2. Sites that sell & ship AD900 overseas (my location: Canada) w/ good reviews that I can trust since I will be dropping a fair amount of cash on this purchase anyway.

Shops outside the US besides audiocube that ship over the world, maybe you could check out bluetin. They have a singapore and japan site. AD900 costs 273USD. Not sure about post to canada

 

[joomongj]

Thx for replies. I did a quick googling on bluetin and the reviews are generally bad. One guy claiming he was scammed badly. I guess I have no choice but to go ebay this time around.

 

[jjinh]

ebay? lots of fakes. Really I'd go some shop from the states or audiocubes

 

[my.self]

hold it right there! i recently just bought a pair of ad900's from

Audio-Technica ATH-AD900 Air Dynamic Headphones (Black)

they do ship to canada with a flat rate of 14.99 USD

since i got an email saying that i bought the last one, they are temporarily out of stock. just send the guy an email about when they will have them in stock, hes responsive, easy to talk to and communicates well.

the site is a legit site because i did my own googling research, just type in accessoryjack reviews or something, and i didnt get scammed or anything when i bought my stuff.

 

[joomongj]

I don't know. I was looking at this page moments earlier:

Audiio Technic Dynamic Headphone ATH-AD900 Import Japan - eBay (item 290356507677 end time Nov-03-09 17:09:05 PST)

The seller has decent reviews. I don't know if you'd call that fake but the feedback he's built seem pretty legit.

 

[my.self]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beric /img/forum/go_quote.gif I was reading in other threads that the AD900 was not much of an upgrade at all over the AD700, which is supposed to be excellent for gaming. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

i only own the ad900's, but they are not burned in yet, they have like less than 5 hours on them.

from what ive read tho, the ad700 is a much better VALUE. the ad900's are better than the ad700, but not as good of a value. ur paying more than double the price of the ad700 for better sound, but the ad700 are a better quality to price ratio. u see what im saying?

 

[jjinh]

Sorry, I didnt mean all ebay stuff is fake. I meant you need to do your research on the seller - seen heaps of fake esw9s.

ad900 cost double the price of the ad700 in the US? oh. Here (Australia) they only cost 50% more. In your case it appears the ad700 look more attractive.

 

[my.self]

yea ad700's in US are about 90 to 100 usd. the ad900's are about 280 usd. so technically its more than double and almost triple the price of ad700's.

 

[joomongj]

Thx for the input, I will email accessoryjack.com and wait for them to restock and hope that I won't have to resort to ebaying.

 

[wol-va-rine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by my.self /img/forum/go_quote.gif yea ad700's in US are about 90 to 100 usd. the ad900's are about 280 usd. so technically its more than double and almost triple the price of ad700's.

it'd be like buying a video card that would increase your FPS by 10 but is double the price of another card, would that extra 10 FPS be worth it...? not if you're talking 70 FPS compared to 80 FPS because you really couldn't possibly notice the difference, I'm thinking seriously about getting the AD700 myself mainly because of the performance at that specific price point...

 

[dweaver]

I can second AccessoryJack as a great option for Canadian's especially with the Canadian dollar being on almost par with the US. They shipped mine within 10 business days, were extremely repsonsive and I am 99% sure these are not fake.

Having said that I own both the AD700 and 900 and have to say the AD900 while better is not necessarily 3 times the price better.

The AD700 is looser fitting on the head than the AD900 so if your like me and have a smaller head the AD900 won't slip around on you noggin as easily. But both are very comfortable.

Sound wise the AD700 is about 85% the sound quality of the AD900 but this is mostly in musical detail in the mids and treble, bass wise they are similar and right now my AD900 has less bass than the AD700 but this may change as these continue to break in (right now they have about 100 hours of burnin and 10-15 hours of on head use.

I think if your main use is gaming the AD700 may be a great fit as it does games well and will save you alot of money, it will then be good for music as well. I find the AD700 is also more forgiving of lower bitrate musical files and average sources like Ipod's and standard sound cards. The AD900 reveals defects alot more sharply and consequently needs better sources to do it justice. Personally I am not willing to sell or trade my AD700 yet which shows how much I think of them.

For your sound card I would recommend getting an Auzentech Forte 7.1 card, it has a good higher quality high impedance capable headphone amp, is Sound Blaster EAX authorized and will give you both great gaming experience plus musical enjoyment and can be had in Canada for around $125-135 dollars.

If you go with the Forte and the AD700 you could get both for around $200 and change and I think you would find it to be a kick butt rig. BTW I have tried the Senn HD555/595 HP's and I believe bothe AD700 and 900 kick their butts thouroughly. The HD650 is in another bracket altogether but it also really needs a good Amp to shine.

One last thing, if you go AD700 and decide to upgrade to something else later if you keep your packaging they are generally really easy to resell in the FS forum here. Oh and if your wanting to save some dough I did see an AD900 and 1 or 2 AD700's for sale there.