Hey everyone, I went on a visit to Minidisc recently to have a play around with the new
Audio Technica ATH-R70X open backed monitoring headphones.
Here are my first impressions.
I think Audio Technica set out to make a reference grade open back monitoring headphone and they
nailed it. Whether that sets anyone’s heart on fire is another thing.
Let's talk about the design first of all. The R70X is a departure from the usual design
they use for the ADx series headphones like the AD900x or the AD1000x. It’s smaller,
more compact and more utilitarian in design. Like the M70X, finishing and build quality
actually seem a little rough around the edges. But they are also extremely lightweight. At
210g they are almost as lightweight as the featherweight Sony MDR-MA900, which is one
of my most beloved headphones in terms of wearing comfort. And just like the MA900 they
are so lightweight that they almost feel flimsy. It’s a case where the materials and construction
used seem perfectly sturdy, but they feel so light in the hand that they can seem insubstantial.
For comparison, the AD900X weighs 265g and the 20% weight reduction is very noticeable.
The light weight made me very excited to actually try this headphone - because I care *that*
much about wearing comfort. Now the earpads are smaller in diameter than those of the
ADx series, but seem just about as deep.
So if your ears touch the baffle of an AD series headphone you’ll probably get the
same thing here. The earpads are also gently angled. The headband is more ovoid in shape,
like an egg, rather than the circular shape of the ADx series, meaning that clamping force
is stronger. I think they feel a bit more secure on the head than the other ADx series
headphones - the smaller diameter earpads, super light weight and stronger clamp means
that they will probably work with more head shapes than the ADx series unless your ears
are particularly large.
A word about amplification; the R70x is rated for 470 ohms of impedance. Which I thought
was a misprint, because I've never heard of an Audio Technica with such a high impedance.
It's also not very sensitive so you're almost certainly going to require an amplifier for
this headphone. I found I had to use a higher gain setting on the Objective 2 just to get
a good listening volume. Just for fun I tried running it directly out of my NWZ-A15 and
I found that I could get a listenable volume at around 22/30 volume steps.
So I demoed the R70x twice on two separate days with each demo taking around 20 minutes.
So these are very first impressions.
I don’t think I have heard a more flavourless Audio Technica headphone. And I don’t mean
that in a bad way - like the M70x, the R70x just seems super clean, competent, and balanced
on a knife edge. It’s also not treble forward in the same way the M70X is. It’s just a
polite headphone, maybe just a tiny bit on the warm side, but well balanced and inoffensive.
The most standout thing on the R70x is the overall clarity of the sound and the precision
of the soundstage.
Compared to the AKG K712 I find the R70x a little more polite in the treble and a little
more restrained in the mids. So overall it tilts a little bit more towards the bass.
It's not a huge difference.
It doesn’t seem like the kind of headphone that will make people wax superlatives about
any particular aspect of the sound, but I suppose the biggest 'pro' of the sound was
that the soundstage seemed very clean and imaging was very detailed and articulate,
and the biggest con was that the bass, like most open backed headphones except orthodynamics
and maybe some Beyers and Philips headphones - the bass didn’t have that last word in
visceral slam and impact.
I'm always a little nervous when giving first impressions of very new gear so I was happy
to get some second opinions from friends of mine.
"Thomas, Thomas: you've tried the R70x now. What do you think of them?" "I think I might
buy some. That's a problem." "Why is that a problem?" "Cause I planned to buy a pair
of CD900ST's instead." "And these would... you think that these are substitutes or...
they would be...?" "Um, no I mean I'd be getting them differently anyway, but I wasn't..."
"So what do you, what do you like about them?" "They sound right." "Okay, for reference,
what are some of your favourite, favourite... what's some of the gear that you own that
you like?" "So I've got a pair of Fitear MH334s, and a pair of K701's. Before the Fitears I
was using CK100 Pros, Audio Technicas, and the Etymotic ER-4... specifically the ER-4S."
"When I Iistened to those I didn't think they sounded like... there wasn't anything in them
that stood out to me in particular. Like I really like them and I think they sound really
clean." "That's what I like." "But I can't put my finger on how else they... really sound...
like they just sound so..." "I don't want it coloured! I want clean!" "Yeah they sound
really clean and balanced." "That is bang on what I want." "And just to put a grain
of salt on it how long have you had to listen to these?" "Uhh... I've gone through maybe
10 different tracks? So far. So it's still very new to it." "Cool." "But I was actually
pretty taken by them from the very, from the moment I tried them." "Josh, you've just tried
the R70x." "I have indeed." "What do you think of them?" "Um, I... I like them! They are
very flat... well, relatively flat sounding. I think the biggest characteristic of them
that really stood out for me, was that you never feel as if the music is ever trying
to jump down your throat. Everything is just, perfectly spaced and in perspective. And the
instrument separation is really great. You can hear... always hear what's going on at
any time in most songs." "Yeah. They're super clean." "Yeah, exactly. Exactly." "But they're
not... aggressive." "Yeah and that was the one thing I suppose if there were a downside
to these headphones, I found that they were a little soft on the low end. So especially
with EDM, synth music, that sort of thing, I think it did suffer a little bit there.
It didn't have that sort of aggressiveness and detail in the lower end." Long story short
I did buy a pair of these and I'll be listening to them more closely over the next few days
so if you have any questions just drop a line in the comments. As always you can talk to me
on Facebook at Facebook.com/lachlanlikesathing or on Twitter @lachlikesathing. And happy
listening! "How much footage do you need? Dude! Come on!" "No... I don't... oh what...
I assumed you're just listening!" "You're just filming!" "I just assumed you're just
listening to it!" "I've made it in to the bloody end roll." "Alright. Okay."