First Listen: Audio-Technica ATH-W5000 "Raffinato" Headphones
The 5000s also have excellent instrumental separation. You hear each instrument clearly, and bands with many instruments don’t devolve into a muddled wall of sound. Just as important, most instruments themselves sound natural—something that highly regarded headphones like the Sennheiser HD800 can’t always pull off.
A few areas of the 5000’s performance are question marks for me at this stage of testing. The most obvious of these is the A-T’s bass definition. Bass is there in ample quantities, but there may be some peaks, dips or resonances that make plucked bass instruments less clear than they are in reality. This is with the PS Audio GCHA amp. With the Grace m902, the sense of upper bass definition issues is significantly mitigated. Bass sounds pretty tight, though at times a little lightweight (you may wish to read my blog about amps and headphones for clarification of this). The latter may be because, with both amps, the low bass never seems as extended as it does on the Sennheiser HD800s (or the bass champ Denon 5000s).
I also sense that the mid treble isn’t as extended as it is with some other headphones (and real music). You notice this the most on cymbals, where a headphone like the Sennheiser HD800 has better definition and a more natural amount of energy. Fortunately, this is a subtractive error on the part of the 5000s, and so it doesn’t really annoy or grate.
Finally, I get the sense that the A-T’s have some kind of dynamic distortion. On loud passages, they simply sound like they have a little harmonic distortion somewhere in the upper frequencies. It could simply be that they are revealing things I hadn't heard before. Right now it seems to correlate with the upper-midrange strength I comment on above. I've noticed it most on female vocals and the right side of the piano keyboard. And in comparison with the AKG 702's the upper-mid/lower treble range doesn't seem quite as smooth. In further testing I want to check to be sure this isn’t an amplifier mis-match (as well as testing for amplifier sensitivity in general), but right now it is something to look at.
When a reviewer gets analytical about a product the reader can often come away with the sense of “damning with faint praise”. That certainly wouldn’t be the right summary of my feelings thus far about the Audio-Technica 5000s. These are very good headphones. In some important ways they show up underappreciated limitations of other headphones. Like every headphone we’ve tried, they have weaknesses, but I think a lot of people would come away from a comparison session choosing the A-Ts as their favorite all-around headphone.
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Comments
Tom,
do the A-T's offer the option of balanced connects like the Sennheiser?
Why on earth would anyone need that?? They're transducers, they don't care which end is grounded, if either! Chop off the end and replace it with XLR's if you want, or make an adapter.
The main issue would be, are they compatible with 1 mW into 600 ohms. Some are, some aren't. If they were nominally 8 ohms you could have problems.
By "balance" I assume the reviewer meant tonal balance.
Well, to my understanding, if you mean the Sennheiser HD 800, Sennheiser does not offer a balanced connection. There are aftermarket products (I've used the Cardas) that provide a balanced configuration.
I am not aware of such an offering for the Audio Technicas, though I suppose in principle any headphone can be re-wired. The connectors on the A-Ts are not obviously easily removed (we don't make a habit of destroying review samples, so I'm reluctant to pull too hard).
CEO and Editorial Director, Nextscreen LLC
I'm totally awed by these headphones, To me they deleiever the most euphonic sound reproduction i've heared anywhere.
I must disagree on your description of thier tonal balnace however, to the point when i wonder if we're using the same headphone :) They're nowhere balanced top to bottom. The Sound character is very much on the cold and bright, Yet incredibly smoooth, They emphasize the upper mids and treble to make them extend the most i've heared (more than K701, D5000, Ultrasone Pro900, Beyer Dt880, Grado RS-1, All of which i've owned) and the bass is the tightest and most detailed i've heared but noticeably
lacking in body. My current rig is Stello 100 series with a sqeezebox3, And i've heared them with a Woo6 tube amp and a Meier Corda Opera SS amp- The result was much the same with all of them and always simply stunning!
Cheers.
As i own these headphones i must say that they sound very good and naturall. No aerth shaking bass and no shrill sounding trebles. Just as music is supposed to sound like,in my humble opinion. I do go to listen to live music in very good sounding concerthalls here in Holland. We have one of the best sounding concert halls here in Amsterdam. So that's my reference for good sound.
I bought them a month ago for $750 . I bought them after i heard the ATH-1000. And in a comparison with the Senheiser HD 800 on a yamamoto headphone amp at a friend, i liked the AT 1000 more then the Sen's. That;s the reason why i bought the AT 5000. And for the money it's a steal. You wont for example, find the Sen's for this price!! Or any other phones sounding like this for that matter.
With musical greetings.
With closed back designs tonal balance can be an ear-dependent thing, unfortunately.
I balanced my W5000 (Moon Audio Black Dragon Wiring), and it totally fixed the low end thinnes that I felt they had. These are much more energized with a good balanced wiring and amplifier. Balancing these headphones requires expertise, as there are no "plugs" nor modular cords like the Senns have.
Overall though the HD800 is still more balanced, and easier to listen to.
Distorted, maybe faulty then? Would it be even legal to sell HP's that distort at this price?
Just to clarify: on some tracks I hear what sounds like distortion. As I said, this could be the headphones revealing distortion in the recording or it could be the amp or headphones.
I would add that all audio equipment exhibits distortion. Transducers have particularly high levels of distortion. Almost everything we are describing in reviews that is a deviation from the absolute sound is a distortion somewhere in the system. While that may seem obvious when stated like that, I hope it helps clarify that of course products that distort are sold legally.
By using the term distortion here, I was referring to the sense of noticeable high frequency harmonic distortion (many distortions are enharmonic -- these are generally more noticeable, so much so that we don't often describe them using the word distortion, a term we reserve for low level, musically related distortion).
CEO and Editorial Director, Nextscreen LLC
Folks: thanks for the comments. In regard to frequency balance, it may help to read my blog on impedance issues:
http://www.avguide.com/blog/headphone-frequency-response-and-impedance-i...
I don't know that amplifier - headphone impedance interaction is responsible for some of the differences we're hearing, but it is worth considering. I just got the Grace m902 (low output impedance) so I'll be able to comment in a few days on how that impacts things.
It is also worth mentioning that my comparisons are based on direct A/B comparison with the headphones described, not from memory.
CEO and Editorial Director, Nextscreen LLC
The local AT rep turned me on to these late last year & they have become the de-facto set of cans we use for critical tracking & monitoring. To me they have an almost neutral tonal balance that perfectly mimics our older Genelec S30C monitors throughout the entire range from around 250Hz up to well over 12KHz. In particular the vocal range does seem slightly forward in the sound field but it helps in revealing overly sibilant passages & allows us to compress or re-EQ when necessary. I've only used them to listen to "finished" (pre-recorded, 2 channel CD material) 2-3 times & found them to be very laid back in their overall presentation & definitely non-fatiguing.