Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have had the luxury of listening to lots of top level headphones. I have the Audio-Technica ATH-A700 and ATH-AD700, ATH-A900, ATH-AD900, ATH-AD 1000, ATH-AD2000, and ATH-5000; AKG 271, 240, K601, and K701; the Beyerdynamic 770, 880 and 990; Sennheiser 280, 600 and 650; Grado GS-80, GS325i, RS-2, GS-1000; Sony 7505, 7509 and 5000, Denon 2000 and 5000. With the exception of the AKG 240 and 271, all of those headphones are excellent. It becomes a matter of taste and whether you can use them with an Ipod without a separate amplifier.
I think that I most often use the Audio Technica ATH-AD900. They are open back phones. I don't often listen to rock. If that was my primary source for music, I might rely on the Grado's more often. They are fabulous for rock.
The ATH-AD900 have wonderful treble and midrange. The bass is certainly there, but it is not prominent. These have good bass, but it is not the primary feature. By way of comparison, the Bose tri-port and earbuds are very bassy sounding to the point where the bass sounds muddy to me. For the price of the Bose tri-port, you could have the Sennheiser 280 or the Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 or ATH-A700. To me any of these choices would be far better than the Bose tri-port which also appears to be more cheaply made. The separation and detail on the instruments is wonderful. I mostly listen to instrumental music.
The sound stage is large. They sound like you are close to the source of the music, but there is a very small sense of space. The headphones ae comfortable. The headphones earpieces are covered with velour pads. My entire ear (big ears) fits in the enclosure, so they do not rest on my ear.
Since my music collection is just too large to have immediate access to a large selection of titles, I have put portions of my collection on the computer and use an Ipod. These phones can be driven very well with an Ipod and no additional amplification. The Sennheisers really must have independent ammplification to not sound muddy. On acoustic music, the AKG K701 headphones do well without amplification. The Denon headphones are fabulous, but really fare much better with amplification--especially on bass. The Sony does pretty well without amplification, but sound more colored to me than the ATH-AD900 which sound very nuetral to me. You need to be careful when ordering the ATH-AD900 because Audio Technica also has an ATH-A900. These are closed backed headphones rather than open backed. Audio Technica has a number of models where the numbers are the same that are either open backed or closed backed. You need to be careful to get what you want. To my ear, the open backed models generally sound more natural.
Lastly, the Audio Technica line is reasonably priced. You can almost always find a vendor on Amazon Market Place or one of Amazon's fulfillment partners that sell for a price vastly under the MSRP on this brand and many others. All of the headphones mentioned herein were purchased from Amazon or Amazon Marketplace with the exception of Grado. Grado is a fair trade price product. There are no "deals" on Amazon on Grado headphones, but I must say that I am satisfied with the Grados at the prices Grado charges. A store called Audio Cubes often has the lowest bid on the Audio Technica headphones on the Amazon Marketplace website (amazingly enough, your Audio-Technica headphones are actually shipped directly to you from Audio Cube's supplier in Japan). To date, I have received at least three pair of headphones from them in a timely manner and the merchandise to date has all worked just fine. I still have a few more items on the way from Audio Cubes. Hopefully, the rest of the shipments will arrive as quickly and uneventfully as the previous ones have.
If budget is really an issue, the Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 and the Senheisser 280's are a very good buy. The AKG 240 and 271 are quite reasonably priced, but they just don't seem to hold up next to the competition sound wise. To me, they sound kind of clinical and boring. The AKG 701 is fabulous and worth every penny. Also, the Grado GS-80 is unbeatable for the price at about $90.00. The Grado is not my every day headphone, but when I listen to the Grado's, each and every time it is pure joy!!! If you get the Grado, spend $15.00 extra and get the "comfort rings." It makes the headphones so much more comfortable. It also gives you just a little more space between the transducers and your ears. If you can spring into the middle to upper $200.00's, the Denon 2000 (closed back) is a wonderful sounding pair of headphones with mostly metal fittings and gimble like design--quite a reasonable value. It looks and feels like high quality.
If you can spare the money, the Audio-Technica 5000, the Denon 5000, the Beyerdynamic 990, AKG 701, and the Grado GS-325i and RS-2 are all top of the line in the $350.00-$475.00 range. The Sennheiser 600 and 650 are good sounding phones, but you will need to figure at least $100-$200.00 for a headphone amplifier and they are not that comfortable if you have a large head. They grasp the head a little to firmly for my taste.
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