Alright, I have a slew of draft posts all in varying stages of completion just waiting to be published, but since they all contain varying degrees of unconventional analogies and a healthy dose of my style of opinions (Read: dry humour mostly), I’ll opt for a perfectly good reason to kick a post up: my latest acquisition, in the form of Audio Technica’s ATH-M35 (278 at Jaben), the younger sibling of Head-Fi’s more popular headphone choices, the ATH-M50 (668 at Jaben). Images follow, so follow the break.
It started out with a relatively harmless step-up: a set of ATH-T200s at a discount, I snapped one well over a year back and they’ve opened me up to a world of clear audio. Not audiophile-grade, but a clear step-up from the cheap yet not-so-cheerful AVF, A4Tech, SonicGear headsets I had been using prior to this.
Some two months ago (Make that October) I got my hands on a set of John C. Koss’ legendary ‘phones, the Koss PortaPro.
For real beginner/entry-level audiophile phones, they’re dead-on. Only issue I had with the new generation PPs was the thin cable, I had to replace the jack on mine.
Today, after roughly a month’s worth of opinion comparison and subjective reviews (by other audiophiles and non-audiophiles), I settled on the M35 as my second veritable step into the audiophile world. I had the chance to audition these at Jaben (source: iPod, no amp) :
- AKG K420 : Portable, supra-aural ‘phones. Decent, but didn’t audition them for long. For some reason didn’t catch my fancy, at all.
- Audio Technica AD300 : Maybe I’m just not used to velour pads or these kind of open headphones but they sounded rather ‘meh’ to me. Do note that I have only, ever, used closed ‘phones for as far as I can remember (except the PortaPros), so this is really a biased viewpoint, and does not do proper justice to what would otherwise be a very well-loved set of ‘phones. While Celine Dion is not my idea of a proper sound-test track, I must say that the soundstage on these are impressive, definitely beats all the other ‘phones I auditioned. Bass…well I didn’t bring my bassy tracks with me so I really can’t say. I will say this though: they sound like mini-speakers on your ears, so your musical preferences WILL be made known to anyone within earshot, and they do NOT isolate. At all. Even the general murmur at Jaben leaked into the music. Could be a side effect of the fact that these do not clamp to your ears at all, they just sort of sit there, lightly resting against your head (Hence the ‘Air Dynamic’ name, I guess)
- Audio Technica Pro5Mk2 : Very, very interesting sound. I’d have gone for these in an instant had it not been for the positive impressions of the M35 I obtained prior. Given that these were posited as ‘DJ’ ‘phones, I had a feeling they’d be skewed to one side of the frequency spectrum and it appears to be so. Doesn’t stop ‘em from being totally fun to listen to though.
- Beyerdynamic DT231 : Decent sound, rather balanced to my ears, but seems to fit like supra-aural rather than circumaural (sits on my ears instead of around them). Didn’t test them for long for that reason. The plastic construction seems questionable to me, but was assured that they were very durable (yuheng of Jaben demonstrated a simple bend and stretch on the plastic band of a pair of six-year-old ‘phones, very impressive how the plastic survives. Really had no idea.)
- Denon AH-D501 : Close on the heels of the Pro5Mk2, but otherwise nothing that made itself stand out. No brand familiarity with Denon, and a personal preference for Audio Technica in general made it unfair for this decent entry. They’re comfortable though, quite.
- Shure SRH440 : Another one that I didn’t get to listen to for a long time, but they sounded rather forward and clear, focused on the trebles, but the bass made itself heard (though not really felt). Somewhat iffy comfort, as they clamp rather strongly (Which is actually a good thing, IMO, since part of the value of closed ‘phones is their isolation. More on that with the M35), but they articulate (‘fit’ to your ears) rather well.
I ended up auditioning the M35 and Pro5Mk2 yesterday evening (after a rush through the traffic), side-by-side, with a FiiO E6 (my next audiophile purchase, for sure), from my Nokia 5800, this time with bassy tracks and mids/highs tracks that I have listened to for well over half a year. I settled on the M35, as I was pretty much dead-set on them, unless I heard better at the similar price point.
I will say this up front: the E6 does improve the overall sound on the M35, and the EQ settings helped make the Pro5Mk2 more fun to listen to (M35 benefits from it too).
On-to the first impressions of the M35 :
- Build: damn thing is sturdy. Headphone band is thickly padded, and the internal frame is metal (steel? aluminum?), so there’s little chance of it breaking in normal use.
- Isolation: oddly enough, it doesn’t isolate as well as the ATH-M50, but I put it down to a slightly smaller cup size (minds out of the gutter, please). I could hear my loud whirring PC case fan in an otherwise silent room (door shut, windows shut, fans off). Still, with any amount of sound on, you’ll hear the clarity pretty quick, unless the outside sound is rock-concert level loud.
- Comfort: to be honest, quite a bit less than my ATH-T200 and definitely nowhere near the M50. But then again, to get proper isolation, you’d need a large pair of enclosures or stronger clamping force, ideally both. The M35, with 40mm drivers, don’t really need large enclosures, so they clamp rather strongly. Beyer’s DT231 definitely wears better than this, despite being supra, but my ears fit inside these, not the DT231. Shure’s SRH440 sort of feels like this but less clamp-like. That being said, I’m fine with the clamping force, and can foresee where the clamping force will come in handy in the future.
- Soundstage: not really as wide as the M50, and nothing on the AD300. I’m not too sure how it compares to the Pro5Mk2, yet.
- Sound quality: Definite leap forward from everything I own thus far. It’s been frequently described as neutral, and so far, I’m finding it a bit bassy, but then again, it could just be the natural step-up in audio clarity. Many of my audio tracks tend to be mid/bass oriented anyway (Source material: H.A.W.X. 2 OST, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter OST, Halo 1/2/3/Wars OSTs, all 320Kbps MP3). Instrumentals are fine here, with mids and highs not piercing or glass-shattering (Source material: The Lord of The Rings – The Complete Recordings, 320Kbps MP3)
- Drivability: It sounds fine coming out of my mobile phone with no amp. Sound becomes more engaging with an E6, and sounds perfectly fine on my notebook and desktop.
- Portability: It’s meant to be portable. It folds up neatly, comes with a comfy-looking oversize pouch.
- Overall first impressions: It’s definitely not for those favouring head-thumping bass or ultra-clear highs. You’ll want these for neutral/flat monitoring, or if you’ve got a variety of uses for one single set of ‘phones (like I do: audio mix monitoring, home audio editing, general gaming and music), and aren’t willing to drop over a thousand or more on separate sets. The bass is there for most people, the clarity of mids and highs are there too, but don’t expect these to beat the industry veterans.
Not too convinced on the value of burn-in, so I won’t subject these to overnight pink/white noise burns, but will use them daily and see if the sound improves by the end of December. So far it sounds fine, but hey, who knows?