Audio-Technica ATH-AD900 Open Air Headphones

I bought these for computer gaming, but these these headphones are great all around. I used to own sennheisers, but these headphones blow them out of the water. I dug out some clasical music, marches, and music with lots of bass, and these cans are all that and a bag of chips!

>> Sound: The ATH-AD900 highlights trebles and mids. The bass stays politely in the background. The clearness of sound and the amount of details it reproduces even with very small volume is remarkable !! Its true that you can listen an immense amount of details with the volume low from the other side of the room. This is definitely a headphone for analog instrumental music. Any violin, guitar, flute etc will sound great on it. The part where its "sucks" is the bass. While the bass is clear you would wish that its more prominent. So if you are listening to an Opera from Pavarotti or Vivaldis Four Seasons it is like the headphone transformes an wolf into a lamb. The whole "dramatic" of the scenario is transformed into a "kind of cute" and light scene. That was a real deal breaker for me. In addition non analog music is not really that great on this headphone. So if you are thinking about Reaggy, Salsa, Merengue, Dancefloor, HipHop etc. - anything with bass in it ... Read more

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 ... Read more

The AD900 were my first set of real cans. Frankly, I think they sound great. They are the most detailed pair of cans I own (also the most expensive, so people reading for truly high hi-falutin' audiophool reviews should go elsewhere, I'm all mid-fi). Truly they do nothing wrong; every aspect of the spectrum is fairly dry. The bass is lean, but well defined -- bass heads should apply elsewhere... maybe Beyer-Dynamic? The coloration on these cans is on the bright side. In fact, they don't sound too much unlike my roommate's Grado SR-125, though they generally go down much smoother and aren't all 'in your face'. They're very open and have some good sound stage in my opinion. The velour (ish?) pads and weird wing support system make them very comfortable and un-sweat inducing. They feel very open, too. I would say there aren't too many genres these cans can't do right. I find orchestral stuff a little boring through the AD900, but I think it shines with most rock, acousticky stu... Read more

These headphones are awesome! I have spent a while looking for a set of cans that would sound great without an expensive amp, and these are the best I've ever heard. If you are looking for an audiophile open headphone that is easy to drive and puts comparably priced sennheiser's (i.e. HD 555/595) to shame look no further! For a slightly cheaper set go for the ATH-AD700.