Audio-Technica ATHESW9A Portable Wooden Headphones

I tested this headset alongside some of the best headsets in my collection at this price range. Note, there may be better sounding headsets for your mp3 player at higher price ranges especially ones in the Grado line which can be powered by your mp3 player quite nicely even without an amp.Denon AHD2000 - this is a great headset with a large sound stage. The ESW9 has a much more immediate sound stage. While sound clarity is good in both headsets, the ESW9 wins with less bass. The D2000 has almost too much bass but this works much better with pop/hip hop music. The D2000 is also too big and the cable is too long for portability.Grado SR60 - cable is too long and is open-back design so there is no privacy. Sound stage is expansive and one of signatures of Grado sound. The sound quality is ok but not as good as the ESW9.AKG K271 - requires an amp. MP3 player will not be able to power this bad boy. But this is one of the most neutral sounding headset you can get.B&W P5 - this used to be the clear winner, but the sound quality of the ESW9 blows the P5 out of the water. The P5 is more neutral sounding but its somewhat muffled sound quality loses some of the points here. At an astounding $300 sticker price, it is a no-brainer which headset is better.The ESW9 is also the most comfortable headset out of the above mentioned ones. It is also very light and therefore makes it even more comfortable than the hefty D2000. The build quality is very good and quite elegant. The cups are made of a special wood which gives it a unique sound quality. This is the first headset that actually spells out "Left" and "Right", printed beautifully in a script font. At $200, it is probably the most affordable audiophile headset you can get that does not require an amp.Unfortunately, it does fall short in the portability department and is similar to the P5 in that it is not foldable. I was almost ready to use this as a replacement for my current portable listening headset, the AKG K81DJ but for now, the K81DJ is still the best portable headset because it can be folded.

At this price point, the buyer expects more than just sound quality. The 9As cover the sound bases well enough (with a few weaknesses) but the design and materials used (other than the wooden resonance chambers) are awful, and would be out of place on a headphone half the price.The 9As have a smooth mellow sound focused on moderately emphasized bass and mids. Treble is unexceptional, but not too badly rolled off. The soundstage is forward, but not very wide. PRAT is mediocre, so these are not good phones for faster paced music like metal or rock. Ideal music match is jazz and / or midtempo vocals. Classical does not sound too awful, but is not a standout either. I would call these roughly comparable in sound to the B&W P5s though with better mids and treble.Speaking of the P5s, they illustrate the main weakness of the 9As. For not that much money more, the P5s feel as sturdy as a tank and have impeccable build quality and materials. Even ATHs own M50, which sells for half the price of the 9As feels like it costs more than the 9As. The cheap flimsy metal frame on the headband feels dodgy when expanded out, and the forks used to hold the cups also appear to be cheap and non-durable. The cord is thin, stringy, connected to both cups, and non-detachable. If you own these phones for two years, either the cup will break off the fork, the cheap frame will break, or the wire will get brittle and tangly --- or maybe all three things will happen! I've owned dozens, maybe hundreds of headphones, and I know all the signs of cheap build quality.It looks like ATH spent all the design budget on the padauk wood cups. These look nice, but they don't exactly shout out their wooden assets to the world the way that $1,000 wooden cup phones do - the vaunted padauk wood looks a bit like plastic and most casual observers will see the cheap frame and assume the wood is fake, so these will not be impressing too many folks at the cafe. As mentioned above, the wood gives a good enough sound but hardly an exceptional or unique one.Speaking of that cafe, good luck hearing your music there! The ESWs are fairly comfy, as they are light and press lightly on the ears (supra-aural for all non Elven wearers) but this means wretched isolation even given the closed back design. External sound gets in really easily, and even a moderately noisy environment will overpower the sort of smooth mellow tunes that the 9As seem to be made for. Foregt using these on a plane or subway.In essence, we have a decent headphone here that is simply not worth its price point. The padauk wood used does not create exceptional sound or exceptional aesthetics, and the cheap 1985 style metal band and cabling create long term durability concerns. Even if you baby your headphones, I doubt any user will get more than 2 years of use out of these cans, and if you chuck them in a backpack with a laptop or textbooks, I see bad things happening quickly.If you insist on buying these, make sure that you check the ATH site to ensure your chosen vendor is an authorized online retailer, as ATH may not choose to honor warranty on these if they do bust. Alternatives at this price level abound, and ATHs own M50 destroy these in build quality and sound as good or better for the 9As "preferred" genres and devastate the 9As in things like metal or electronic. And the M50s as mentioned also isolate better and cost less than half the price. Yes, the M50s look rather generic, but as mentioned, the aesthetic appeal of the ESW9As is skin deep anyway, and when the frame cracks, even that subjective factor goes away.These are the Fiat 500 of headphones. You have been warned...