[O/C]Sliding down that slope - A review of the Audio technica ATH-W5000

Overclockers.com · Mar 18, 2010

Well here I am, with a pair of headphones on my head that, new, would cost two thirds of my car...

That slippery slope has struck again, but at least it should be pretty much an end-game pair of headphones...

The ATH-W5000 are Audio Technica's (AT) flagship headphones and are regarded by some as the very best dynamic headphones money can buy. Lets find out if they live up to their name.

Packaging

Not many headphones command a section devoted to the packaging, but the W5000 is one of them.

The headphones come in a very nice plastic hard case with the Audio Technica logo on the fro... Return to Article

I.M.O.G. · Mar 18, 2010

I have a pair of MDR-XD400's on my head right now... The sound quality is poor (better than any junky headphones, but they are $100 cans and they aren't spectacular), but the comfort is not terrible for long term use. I like the look of these however - the design is similar to the Sony MDR_XD400's with the headbands and support on top of the head.

However...

My Sony headphones have a soft rubbery plastic instead of these padded 3D wings in this review. They are slightly uncomfortable after a while, and I keep my head shaved clean so with extended wear they leave well defined red imprints on my head. I envy the pads on these headphones.

It looks funny when I take them off.

Now I feel like I need to buy a pair. Gonna try and ignore that.

Thanks for the great review!

jhanby · Mar 18, 2010

I.M.O.G. said:
I have a pair of MDR-XD400's on my head right now... The sound quality is poor (better than any junky headphones, but they are $100 cans and they aren't spectacular), but the comfort is not terrible for long term use. I like the look of these however - the design is similar to the Sony MDR_XD400's with the headbands and support on top of the head.

However...

My Sony headphones have a soft rubbery plastic instead of these padded 3D wings in this review. They are slightly uncomfortable after a while, and I keep my head shaved clean so with extended wear they leave well defined red imprints on my head. I envy the pads on these headphones.

It looks funny when I take them off.

Now I feel like I need to buy a pair. Gonna try and ignore that. Thanks for the great review!

They look quite nice actually.

However, you should look at the smaller brothers of this headphone. They are the AT ATH-AD700 and the AT ATH-AD900, which can be had for $100 and $200 respectively.

Both are very similar to the W500, except they are open and not made of wood.

I have the AD700's and they are almost as comfortable as the W5000's.

I.M.O.G. · Mar 18, 2010

Thanks for the tip, I'll take that under consideration. Good reason not to avoid them, being much cheaper.

I read Aynjell's review of the ad700's:
http://www.overclockers.com/review-audio-technica-athad700/

They are just so ugly I don't think I could stand them, hate the purple. Superficial, I know.

Anyways tho, thanks again - if the itch gets too strong I'll go for the AD900's. They look every bit as comfortable, and I'd trust your judgement. :thup:

D33PJackal · Mar 18, 2010

I really need to find that picture I had of the list of headphones.

MadMan007 · Mar 18, 2010

Just FYI regarding the gain setting on an amp like the Compass - it's really meant to be used for different impedance headphones, low for low impedance and high for high impedance. There's no strict line to define those categories but most phones fall in to either <100 ohm or high impedance like 600 ohm. Part of the reason low impedance phones sound 'more full' on high gain seems obvious but it's simply because they will be louder at a given volume setting.

The downside to high gain setting, especially with low impedance high sensitivity phones like these, is that there will be more background noise coming from the headphone. This is noise that's inherent in the source component which gets amplified more at the amp input stage with high gain setting. Another downside is that volume adjustment has less range so you can't finetune the volume as well and related to that is in a device with a potentiometer for volume control like the Compass you will be using a potentiometer (volume dial) setting nearer the low end of the pot where the pot is less well calibrated and may cause channel imbalance.

If you really like high gain, great, but I suggest you try low gain setting and turning up the volume to your desired listening level. It's well known that volume can directly affect sound quality perception so you might be being fooled by the high volume that follows from the high gain setting.

jhanby · Mar 18, 2010

MadMan007 said:
Just FYI regarding the gain setting on an amp like the Compass - it's really meant to be used for different imedance headphones, low for low impedance and high for high impedance. There's no strict line to define those categories but most phones fall in to either <100 ohm or high impedance like 600 ohm. Part of the reason low impedance phones sound 'more full' on high gain seems obvious but it's simply because they will be louder at a given volume setting.

The downside to high gain setting, especially with low impedance high sensitivity phones like these, is that there will be more background noise coming from the headphone. This is noise that's inherent in the source component which gets amplified more at the amp input stage with high gain setting. Another downside is that volume adjustment has less range so you can't finetune the volume as well and related to that is in a device with a potentiometer for volume control like the Compass you will be using a potentiometer (volume dial) setting nearer the low end of the pot where the pot is less well calibrated and may cause channel imbalance.

If you really like high gain, great, but I suggest you try low gain setting and turning up the volume to your desired listening level. It's well known that voume can directly affect sound quality perception so you might be being fooled by the high volume that follows from the high gain setting.

Hmmm, I've just tested this out on the same songs which I used in the review and I have to say that low gain does turned up does sound like high gain turned down. Should have realised that really. Just got it into my head that High sounded better :shrug:

Thank you.

I.M.O.G. · Mar 18, 2010

And that my friends, is why you can read audio reviews like this on an Overclocking site... This community knows its stuff in much more than just making CPU's go faster.

MIAHALLEN · Mar 18, 2010

Very nice review...thanks for sharing :thup:

Albaholic · Mar 30, 2010

Nice review.. I'll probably never own these.

[O/C]Sliding down that slope - A review of the Audio technica ATH-W5000

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