Peddler
1000+ Head-Fier
I have been an avid headphone user for quite some time now - One of the first pairs of headphones I ever owned was the excellent Sennheiser HD400’s - to be honest I can’t even remember what I plugged them into. Early on I discovered the joys of in ear monitors (iem's) and have been the happy owner of the excellent Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10's (along with many others over the years). I love the intimacy of the sound and the fact that they effectively filter out external sound and keep what you're listening to to yourself.
I decided to get some over-ear headphones because I wanted something that I could quickly put on without having to mess around getting the fit just right (like I always have to do with all IEM's). I also wanted a headphone that could match as closely as possible the sound characteristics of the Triple Fi's. In this respect the Audio Technica's tick all the right boxes.
I won't bother going into a long description of the headphones themselves because there's plenty of information out there regarding their physical aspects along with more than enough YouTube videos out there. Needless to say they are very solidly built and should last a very long time. Instead I will try to describe my experiences with them and hopefully this will give people an idea as to whether they are suitable for them.
It’s fair to say that these headphones are not completely flat in their frequency response. Whilst being detailed, they are also mellow and warm sounding. I definitely prefer that to the somewhat analytical sound from, say the Etymotic ER4P for example.
Many years ago I had a rather nice sound system consisting of the wonderful Logik DM-101 turntable, Pioneer PD-8700 CD player running through a range of amplifiers from Nytech, Musical Fidelity, NAD and even Naim for a short while to speakers that included Mission 70’s,Heybrook HB-1, and B&W. One thing they all had in common was they had a mellow yet dynamic sound - something that the ATH M50x’s share in common. Connected either directly to my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or via the rather nice Topping NX2 Amp/DAC combo they play well and scale up nicely. You would definitely be able to tell even quite subtle differences in the sound quality as your equipment improves. Whilst they are fairly easy to drive, they definitely will benefit from additional amplification.
The sound quality out of these is truly excellent. They offer a very similar sound characteristic to the triple Fi's - they don't tend to have a very wide soundstage - the sound tends to be more in your head. I personally like this style of sound because it's more intimate and you can pick out the details without having to mentally process an artificial sound stage. The pleather pads do an excellent job in keeping the sound in (and out) and help add additional presence to the sound. Whilst I do find them comfortable they can feel a little tight and yet still fall off your head if you move around too much. I suspect that over time they will become less tight. Initially I found them to be a little tight fitting. It took several listening sessions before they started to get comfortable enough for me to effectively forget that I have them on. Now though I feel that I could wear them for several hours at a time without any problems. (The nice thing about over-ear headphones is that you can very quickly take them off for a few seconds to let your ears 'cool down' a bit).
All in all, heartily recommended. Their price is affordable, they will almost definitely last you a very long time and are an excellent introduction to the higher end of headphone listening.
I decided to get some over-ear headphones because I wanted something that I could quickly put on without having to mess around getting the fit just right (like I always have to do with all IEM's). I also wanted a headphone that could match as closely as possible the sound characteristics of the Triple Fi's. In this respect the Audio Technica's tick all the right boxes.
I won't bother going into a long description of the headphones themselves because there's plenty of information out there regarding their physical aspects along with more than enough YouTube videos out there. Needless to say they are very solidly built and should last a very long time. Instead I will try to describe my experiences with them and hopefully this will give people an idea as to whether they are suitable for them.
It’s fair to say that these headphones are not completely flat in their frequency response. Whilst being detailed, they are also mellow and warm sounding. I definitely prefer that to the somewhat analytical sound from, say the Etymotic ER4P for example.
Many years ago I had a rather nice sound system consisting of the wonderful Logik DM-101 turntable, Pioneer PD-8700 CD player running through a range of amplifiers from Nytech, Musical Fidelity, NAD and even Naim for a short while to speakers that included Mission 70’s,Heybrook HB-1, and B&W. One thing they all had in common was they had a mellow yet dynamic sound - something that the ATH M50x’s share in common. Connected either directly to my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or via the rather nice Topping NX2 Amp/DAC combo they play well and scale up nicely. You would definitely be able to tell even quite subtle differences in the sound quality as your equipment improves. Whilst they are fairly easy to drive, they definitely will benefit from additional amplification.
The sound quality out of these is truly excellent. They offer a very similar sound characteristic to the triple Fi's - they don't tend to have a very wide soundstage - the sound tends to be more in your head. I personally like this style of sound because it's more intimate and you can pick out the details without having to mentally process an artificial sound stage. The pleather pads do an excellent job in keeping the sound in (and out) and help add additional presence to the sound. Whilst I do find them comfortable they can feel a little tight and yet still fall off your head if you move around too much. I suspect that over time they will become less tight. Initially I found them to be a little tight fitting. It took several listening sessions before they started to get comfortable enough for me to effectively forget that I have them on. Now though I feel that I could wear them for several hours at a time without any problems. (The nice thing about over-ear headphones is that you can very quickly take them off for a few seconds to let your ears 'cool down' a bit).
All in all, heartily recommended. Their price is affordable, they will almost definitely last you a very long time and are an excellent introduction to the higher end of headphone listening.
