Audio Technica Appreciation Thread

[sidrpm]

haha thx waiting for you to get my vorzuge amp :X

LOL, no thanks. Right now I am amped OUT.
AM sure you will be able to sell it soon. Pity I missed out on your Teac though.

 

[shsh91]

*acts blur* Where got stir? I go koon and dream abt ATH liaos. Who knows next sat if I tio 4D, perhaps I can buy ya a used ESW10jpn/W2002 back from JP wor.


Anywhere update me agn when u collecting yr ALO preorder. Might need to head back soon cause didn't get to hear alot of ALO stuffs tday, spent some serious time tday with some external poison instead from Fitear and the Tube Amp TA-1.

wah i thought you buy hpa3 for randius to try one?

haha ok can. you always so late. how to try all?

LOL, no thanks. Right now I am amped OUT.
AM sure you will be able to sell it soon. Pity I missed out on your Teac though.

haha thanks, no prob. Hope you can find one Teac soon

 

[Randius]

wah i thought you buy hpa3 for randius to try one?

I thought is HP-A8?

 

[Haonan]

I thought is HP-A8?

Wut...mai poke fun at me lehs. I'm obviously not 米帝 unlike someone in here leh, moi whr got so satki can anyhow hoot HP-A8 just for you.

Spoiler

 

[Haonan]

I think it's prob not necessary for me to update abt this piece of news on my own CK100PRO review thread, will just post it here.

For those who may be concerned abt Audio-Technica's next upcoming flagship product in terms of their BA iems since for this yr there were quite abit of new product been introduced from each respective foreign makers such as Shures/Westone, I think I can share from my own reliable sources right now that as of last week, I got wind from a reputable japanese retailer that Audio-Technica have just discontinued all their BA line-up iems under their CK family, and according to Randius' friend who currently works at ATH S.E.A, it seems that they are prepping some new product announcements pretty soon that will succeed as replacements for the CK90PRO MKII, and CK100PRO BA flagship as well. (though it's still unclear at this moment, whether the upcoming unannounced product replacements will bear the same signature as their existing CKxx PRO series, or deviate towards a new kind of sig)

You guys may check the picture below as well as the link I provided, I highlighted the kanji words in red which means in japanese this product have been discontinued. According to usual traditional stance from ATH, they should be making some new IEM announcements again somewhere in late-Oct, so stay tuned for more updates regarding this.

ATH-CK100PRO product page: ATH-CK100PRO | ????? | ???? | ?????????

 

[FatalethaL]

something better than CK100pro? hmmmmmm~

 

[LongBigBronzeElephantFish]

Spoiler

From my personal listening experience all these yrs, my own words is that if you're not well acquainted with the W-series sound, W3000ANV can still sound quite coloured to you with a relatively sweet, lushed sound/tonality to it. However when you start comparing their previous earlier W-series lineups, such as the W10LTD/VTG, W100 and W2002/W11JPN (these 2 i have no personal experience with, but are generally raved and concured by many fellow ATH owners to be the mother of female vocals, at least for Asian vocal rendition wise) against the W3K, there is no questions asked that W3000ANV doesn't even sound that euphonic or lushed at all, in terms of the tonal signature and is just another pair of ATH wooden cans that has a relatively good bass weight (when compared to other foreign TOTL makers), nice midrange presence and a well-controlled and refined treble quality.

W3000ANV doesn't sound very coloured to me at all, in fact the colouration when compared to some of the previous older W-series are already consideredly pretty mild in pure comparison. W3K personally to me is more focused on the lower-mids, has very good well-rounded bass texture/definition and does very well in terms of PRaT, at least when compared to W5000. Full-sized headphones like A2000X in comparison to W3K sounds relatively dry and harsh with no tonal color at all, but in a relatively much more neutral and colder tone in terms of the overall sound so I can definitely understand where you are coming frm when you mentioned that you seemed to adore the sound sig of the A2000X Art monitors, yet you found the overall sound of the W3000ANV to be coloured in a way.

And I would just like to share in my own words, from my brief demo listening experiences of both AD2000/AD2000X, compared to my own AD1KPRM there is one area that the former series loses quite apparently to the PRMs according to my ears. Female vocals rendition. No fight at all.

I supposed some of the things that some Taiwanese fans said back then were quite true, usually in terms of ATH's limited edition stuff they do have something special abt them when it comes down to tonal color/signature, compared to their mass-produced models.

At least according to the reviews/impressions I have read over at Mobile01 from Azureimf's and Kasanagi0702's mouth, I have my beliefs that in terms of female vocals strictly, at the moment the AD1000PRM reigns over AD2000X for sure. (and it also helps to boost my ego by several fold, to know that I managed to acquire my own pair for only less than 600sgd only, compared to what a AD2000KX costs currently)

Very long wall of texts to quote

I'm not really acquainted with AT's W-series. The only cans from W-series that I've heard before are the W1000X and W3000ANV. Maybe cause I was born a little later. Would love to try the older W-series gear one day. Just hope I don't get tempted to grab a pair

Only became serious about audio when I got my ES10 back in November 2012.

Spoiler

I think it's prob not necessary for me to update abt this piece of news on my own CK100PRO review thread, will just post it here.

For those who may be concerned abt Audio-Technica's next upcoming flagship product in terms of their BA iems since for this yr there were quite abit of new product been introduced from each respective foreign makers such as Shures/Westone, I think I can share from my own reliable sources right now that as of last week, I got wind from a reputable japanese retailer that Audio-Technica have just discontinued all their BA line-up iems under their CK family, and according to Randius' friend who currently works at ATH S.E.A, it seems that they are prepping some new product announcements pretty soon that will succeed as replacements for the CK90PRO MKII, and CK100PRO BA flagship as well. (though it's still unclear at this moment, whether the upcoming unannounced product replacements will bear the same signature as their existing CKxx PRO series, or deviate towards a new kind of sig)

You guys may check the picture below as well as the link I provided, I highlighted the kanji words in red which means in japanese this product have been discontinued. According to usual traditional stance from ATH, they should be making some new IEM announcements again somewhere in late-Oct, so stay tuned for more updates regarding this.

ATH-CK100PRO product page: ATH-CK100PRO | ????? | ???? | ?????????

Their CK series like update quite frequently??
Was hoping for an update to the ES10 but I don't think it'll be anytime soon

 

[Haonan]

I'm not really acquainted with AT's W-series. The only cans from W-series that I've heard before are the W1000X and W3000ANV. Maybe cause I was born a little later. Would love to try the older W-series gear one day. Just hope I don't get tempted to grab a pair

I'm sorry dude, I'm just a typical Gen-Y guy with an enthusiastic flair for ATH products, not someone born in 60s/70s era or like that so don't make me sound like I'm that old please. If you are judging me based on my forum membership join date, let's just say I have the luck to get in touch with computers very very early since I was a kid, thus I like to engage and join in discussion forums when I was just young boy.

And you don't have to be of a matured age in order to get well-acquainted with the ATH W-series at all, I have met with a couple bros here and they aren't even that old themselves. I have only just started getting into their full-sized cans just sometime last yr, as confessed previously on this thread, my first full-sized can by them that I own is the AD1000PRM limited, then followed by the produced in 1999 ATH-W100 vintage which was purchased through second-hand means from JP.

Before all these, I just had some listening/hands-on experience with some of the earlier W-series from my previous travels thats all. If you are enthusiastic enough with a fat enough wallet, within a short amt of time you can also be a W-series owner of several of their models, just like Randius here.

As for their CK family iems line-up, as far as CK10/CK100 goes, the former model came out initially in Winter 2007 and the latter in 2008, so there wasn't a very huge gap in between their releases. However according to the japanese community/regular ATH enthusiasts, it's been shared before that the CK100 wasn't exactly a true successor model meant for replacing the CK10, think of it as a side-product under the same tier, but with a different signature/category. This is especially true because both the CK10/CK100 bears a diff sound sig from one another, others who have heard both before would agree with me here.

When CK100Pro was introduced back in late 2011, I would say this is the true spiritual successor to the CK10 in terms of sig, but with many technicalities/areas been improved. Most notably, the CK100Pro has more realistic-sounding tonality, with a much fuller-sounding body/timbre compared to the seemingly leaner-sounding CK10 (when comparing with other foreign makers' IEM standards, such as those frm Westone/Shures).

Bass quality wise is not offensive to me yet sounds extremely punchy and fun. Treble quality provides enough sparkle/shimmer for my taste with great extension (compared to my previously owned IEMs so far) but some pple may still find the CK100Pro's offensively bright/sibilant, as usual YMMV.

The latest IM series have just been announced earlier today to replace the current CK family, but I'm not feeling for these latest IEM line-up at all. In fact, quite abit disappointed here honestly spking.

 

[LongBigBronzeElephantFish]

Spoiler

I'm sorry dude, I'm just a typical Gen-Y guy with an enthusiastic flair for ATH products, not someone born in 60s/70s era or like that so don't make me sound like I'm that old please. If you are judging me based on my forum membership join date, let's just say I have the luck to get in touch with computers very very early since I was a kid, thus I like to engage and join in discussion forums when I was just young boy.

And you don't have to be of a matured age in order to get well-acquainted with the ATH W-series at all, I have met with a couple bros here and they aren't even that old themselves. I have only just started getting into their full-sized cans just sometime last yr, as confessed previously on this thread, my first full-sized can by them that I own is the AD1000PRM limited, then followed by the produced in 1999 ATH-W100 vintage which was purchased through second-hand means from JP.

Before all these, I just had some listening/hands-on experience with some of the earlier W-series from my previous travels thats all. If you are enthusiastic enough with a fat enough wallet, within a short amt of time you can also be a W-series owner of several of their models, just like Randius here.

As for their CK family iems line-up, as far as CK10/CK100 goes, the former model came out initially in Winter 2007 and the latter in 2008, so there wasn't a very huge gap in between their releases. However according to the japanese community/regular ATH enthusiasts, it's been shared before that the CK100 wasn't exactly a true successor model meant for replacing the CK10, think of it as a side-product under the same tier, but with a different signature/category. This is especially true because both the CK10/CK100 bears a diff sound sig from one another, others who have heard both before would agree with me here.

When CK100Pro was introduced back in late 2011, I would say this is the true spiritual successor to the CK10 in terms of sig, but with many technicalities/areas been improved. Most notably, the CK100Pro has more realistic-sounding tonality, with a much fuller-sounding body/timbre compared to the seemingly leaner-sounding CK10 (when comparing with other foreign makers' IEM standards, such as those frm Westone/Shures).

Bass quality wise is not offensive to me yet sounds extremely punchy and fun. Treble quality provides enough sparkle/shimmer for my taste with great extension (compared to my previously owned IEMs so far) but some pple may still find the CK100Pro's offensively bright/sibilant, as usual YMMV.

The latest IM series have just been announced earlier today to replace the current CK family, but I'm not feeling for these latest IEM line-up at all. In fact, quite abit disappointed here honestly spking.

Sorry if I made you sound that old. :X

I'm born in mid 90s. Currently wallet not fat enough to play around too much, which explains my small inventory of gear only. But definitely one day I'd go into the full size cans and maybe the woodies too

I did try the CK100PRO a while back and I really loved it.

 

[tm.chen]

just wondering if anyone is getting the A900Xltd?

 

[bangdoll]

I'm curious if Stereo is bringing in the A900X LTD, the wine red looks spiffy

 

[Haonan]

just wondering if anyone is getting the A900Xltd?

I'm curious if Stereo is bringing in the A900X LTD, the wine red looks spiffy

A900XLTD will be on sale in JP from November 15th onwards at the above preorder pricing, judging frm this pricing there may be a good chance it will be retailing for abt SGD 500+ locally provided ATH S.E.A division is gonna approve bringing this model in.

If approved, I'm quite sure Stereo will be making their necessary arrangements with the SG distributor to bring this in for u guys, there shouldn't be any issues with retailing this model here despite theres the LTD annotation under the model naming. (because as far as I understand from the japanese coverages I read, ATH did not exactly make it clear under their official press announcement that the A900XLTD was limited to a certain amt of quantity only)

I do have to warn you guys that according to previous reviews so far, among the previous A900 Art Monitor series line-up released thus far, the A900Ti (Titanium ver) is the only 1 that is tuned more towards a flatter/reference sounding sig, with the others such as the A900LTD/A950LTD been slightly more screwed in terms of tonality, meaning they are much heavily-colored. While that is not necessarily a bad thing, it could mean that in terms of genre bandwidth it may not be a good all rounder or general-sounding pair of cans that are suitable for many genres.

I would say generally from my own experience, this is quite true in a way. W5000/W3000ANV while they have a slight tonal color added to it in terms of midrange response, they are still considered relatively balanced-sounding headphones by quite a far margin. OTOH, some of ATH's well-known existing stuffs such as ESW9, AD1000PRM and CK100 which are well-known for their colored signature, are not exactly considered good all-rounder cans and I would tend to agree with the general consensus out there, as I do own all the above-mentioned 3 models myself, including the A900Ti which I had managed to acquire a second-hand pair recently.

Still, it may be too early to judge the sound of the A900XLTD considering they aren't even out yet in JP. Who knows ATH may tune these to be much more reference-sounding? What I do know is that the A900Ti original earpads do share the same material as the ones found on A2000X Art Monitor flagship, based on Kuraray's Clarino synthetic leather material.

I personally quite like the earpads feel on the A2000X myself, which was I bited and tried looking out for a pair of A900Ti's, since other than my Sony CD900ST I don't exactly have a pair of decent closed headphones at hm. In the past I have also heard many raving praises on various taiwanese forums that the A900TI are quite gd headphones for modern pop as well with its excellent bass impact/rumble details so decided to find one just for this purpose. According to my 4-5 days of listening I would say it definitely lives up my expectations well, though there's no denial right at this moment I still preferred the mids presentation from my AD1KPRMs/W5000 by quite a fair bit.

 

[Haonan]

Some latest ATH poison taken directly from Fujiya-Avic's Autumn Headphone Festival in JP, held recently on the 26th, 27th over in Tokyo. I take no credits over these photos, these were originally contributed/shared by one of the taiwanese audiophile Azureimf whom I usually follow quite closely, I believe Randius would know him online personally too. I haven't asked for his permission personally yet but will be dropping him a PM msg soon, but since I giving the exacts credits for these photos I don't think he would mind me sharing it here.

Some short impressions from the man himself.

A900XLTD + AT-HA22TUBE是怪物組合,新世代女毒就靠它了
A900XLTD單看耳機的話,整體表現遠勝於A900LTD,亦勝於A900TI
有女毒,沒有籠罩的問題,高頻稍微有一點點刺但還好.人聲距離比A900X來的近而且有韻味
A900XLTD聲音與W3000ANV類似,有W3000ANV可以省略
但新世代鐵三角密閉式女毒我會推薦A900XLTD, 只有兩千隻大家想要的快買.

硬要說聲音和推得好的W3000ANV有相似度,以你列出的耳機中比較沒有相似的
扣除音場表現的話,人聲的表現類似A900LTD. 可以說是ESW9的超級全面進化版吧
不過以女毒等級區分應該還是略遜於AD2000X就是.
A900XLTD不一定要配HA22TUBE,良好的播放器或是耳擴即可出好聲.

Basically in short via translation, Azureimf大大 finds that this pair of A900XLTD is an overall upgraded full-sized version of ESW9, with some of the SQ traits also reminscent of the W3000ANV to a certain extent as well. Seems to share a great synergy with the latest HA22TUBE valve amp, is a noticeable improvement on all fronts when compared to the previous A900LTD, but only slightly better than A900Ti. Based on these impressions most likely I won't be getting it, I'm usually a sucker for red-colored products but somehow not feeling too much for this A900XLTD myself, despite this release being limited to 2000 pairs only.

In terms of overall female vocals rendition in his own preference, however he still feels that the 女毒level is still below par the AD2000X. From my personal demo listens of the AD2000X from Stereo, I personally find the female vocals rendition performance of the AD2000X are still inferior when compared to my own AD1000PRM, so it's obvious that this pair of closed cans is not for me.

 

[Haonan]

Continuing on to the AT-HA22TUBE Valve amp.

Short impressions:
AT-HA22TUBE今天測試的結果,果然就是非限定版的HA2002的感受
音響性好,沒有雜訊(用CK100PRO也聽不到)
但很奇怪的用自己的音樂聆聽後卻覺得跟在圓山飯店TAA音響展時所聽到的不太一樣
先說一下配合性
W1000 : 不是很配
A900XLTD : 絕配
W3000ANV : 非常配
W5000 : 算是適合,人聲較近與HA2002印象相似
CK100PRO : 刺到報

Translations wise, there's nothing much to translation except in terms of noise floor/background hiss there's none audible even with sensitive IEMs such as the CK100Pro (the CK100Pro is considerably quite a sensitive IEM tho still lower in sensitivity when compared to my prev Heir 4A's or FAD FI-BA-SS/Piano Forte IX's, it can easily pick up background hiss from my TTVJ Slim portable amp or Walkman Z when on maxed out vol w/o any songs playing)

In terms of synergy lvl wise with ATH's own cans, it pairs very very well with the A900XLTD. Pairs pretty well with the W3000ANV, pairs decently with the W5000 Raffinatos as well, but does not pair well with either the W1000 or CK100Pro's at all. The lack of synergy with the CK100Pro is quite easy to understand for me, cos as an owner of the CK100Pro's myself I do know these pair of IEMs does react quite negatively with high Z output impedance on DACs/amps, and its true by norm usually true valve-tube amps do not have low output impedance specs on their headphone output by default, so this issue is quite understandable.

Based on some of the previous information I had read up before, it may be true as I did came across some user impressions in the past that W3000ANV pairs relatively well with the AT-HA2002 limited ed amp, if this is true then perhaps the HA22TUBE may be a very gd replacement and is a good buy for the W3000ANV cans. I might be interested in getting this as well to pair with my W5000 as well.

 

[Randius]

walao eh, now need to buy both HA5050 and HA22Tube?!

 

[kenz]

this hobby is getting too scary expensive ....

 

[sidrpm]

Thanks Haonan bro. Interesting to read - made possible for me due to your translation. c ya soon

 

[Haonan]

walao eh, now need to buy both HA5050 and HA22Tube?!

Lols, I don't know whether to console you or to laugh and suan you. Now that Azureimf has given his verdict, the poison is certainly there. He even managed to poison me sia in regards to the HA22Tube, when initially I was still on the look-out, prolly waiting for more news in regards to that Fostex HP-V1 Valve amp as well.


No prob for you lah, at the most don't buy and collect those vintage W-series can liao loh. Do it in true HWZ style, hoot first think later!

Thanks Haonan bro. Interesting to read - made possible for me due to your translation. c ya soon

No worries there Sid, I didn't do much anyway and since I'm chinese myself it was a relatively easy thing for me to do. Do understand that there are a couple bros here who are not so proficient in chinese lang or are from other race, so I think at times like this it's prob a good idea to be considerate and translate these impressions in other languages, for the sake of the rest of the forumers in here.

Yeah see ya ard.

 

[Randius]

Lols, I don't know whether to console you or to laugh and suan you. Now that Azureimf has given his verdict, the poison is certainly there. He even managed to poison me sia in regards to the HA22Tube, when initially I was still on the look-out, prolly waiting for more news in regards to that Fostex HP-V1 Valve amp as well.


No prob for you lah, at the most don't buy and collect those vintage W-series can liao loh. Do it in true HWZ style, hoot first think later!

I know you wanna do the latter since I suan you on the W5000 + HP-A8

Yah, sell off W1000 and W1000X then get the amps and W5000

 

[Haonan]

I know you wanna do the latter since I suan you on the W5000 + HP-A8

Yah, sell off W1000 and W1000X then get the amps and W5000

Last time before hooting the pair of W5000's and my Fostex HP-A8, admittedly I did not read up alot of reviews/comparisons found on Head-fi, only came across those from Mobile01 or japanese side. Recently came across this W5000 english review found on HF that I personally find it very true and interesting, would highly suggest anyone to go read the conclusion part especially if you are srsly interested in buying the W5000's.

In my very own words, I found out through my own experience that through my own headphones that I have owned so far, the W5000 reacts the most to the slightest changes (improvements) for stuffs running in yr back-end such as amplifier/power cables/USB interconnects under yr own chain of equipment. Based on this exp, I guess hooting the HA5000組合 and maybe aiming for a better power cables is inevitable for me now.

Based on DACs frontend so far, the ones I have came across from chinese reviews that sounds and matches well with the ATH-W5000, more or less are the Fostex HP-A8, North Star Design DAC32, Luxman DA-200 series. Will continue to chip in my own findings if I discover anything that benefits the W5000.