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AD2000: Crap or not


Ben Gramain

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These really do seem to be some of the most controversial headphones, even among ATs. I look forward to possibly glancing at one over the course of the 2.5 days I'm at CJ and then regretting not spending the time to listen to them afterward.

That is what I did last canjam, then ended up buying them around 6 months later, then hated them and sold them within a few weeks.

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For the sake of argument, isn't the Dynalo designed for low-Z cans? I'm open to the possibility that the AD2000 might sound better in other setups, but I think it might just be a case here of 'different strokes for different folks'.

Most likely the latter. I think Dynalo + AD2000 is one of the best amp/phone combos around; as a combo, it's like unbeatable for the price ime. Maybe it's a source thing? Not sure whether your Adcom is modded or what you use for transport, but if you can try it with a fancier source, you might change your mind. For instance, the bass on mine never got really visceral until I got an RME card as transport, which really surprised me.

But whatever. I say if you don't like it, then no need to bother trying to figure out why others like it.

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atothex listens to a lot of metal BTW, which IME is the one genre these cans really excel with.

Tool - Jambi was the best I've ever heard it.

I was disappointed to find that I didn't like them with the electronica I listen to... psytrance/breaks, psydub/downtempo

But maybe switching to an RME card would help (I had a Juli@ at the time)

It tired them with a G-Lite and a SOHA II andmy impression was that they only worked really well when paired with tubes and couldn't afford a Zana (SOHA II had hum and also a peaky treble - maybe because it's a hybrid)

In the end I also preferred the W5000, W11JPN over them. The 900ti I really liked a lot too because it has more bass quantity than the other ones, but is technically far behind. (so I'm prbly in the minority there)

The ES7 is an AD2000 without the air, without the convex fish eye lense over the midrange, and a less extended frequency response to boot. Also a closed can.

Similar to the Sennheiser HD25-1 and HD650 that way, although with the 650 the midrange lense is much less fish-eyed and they're also generally not as airy. (they're more veiled instead)

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They weren't the best for gaming. Playing first person anything, I could pinpoint where sounds were coming from very well so it had good imaging, but the distance from which they were coming from was off. IIRC, sounds from the left and right were abnormally close compared to sound coming from in front of you.

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They weren't the best for gaming. Playing first person anything, I could pinpoint where sounds were coming from very well so it had good imaging, but the distance from which they were coming from was off. IIRC, sounds from the left and right were abnormally close compared to sound coming from in front of you.

That's a good point, but when it happens in every single FPS (anything from Valve, Epic Games, the makers of Battlefield, etc) I play, I think it's a good chance it's the phone's problem. The 007Mk1 and Lambda Pros portray more realistic distances, but the AD2000 has an edge in sounds coming from above and below. Sold my AD2000 a few months ago, so this is from memory. The left/right thing bugged the crap out of me, though. It was their main problem for me.

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I still have my AD2000s, and I agree with the left/right issue. Soundstaging on my HD580s feels more natural, but I do like the AD2000s for vocals and rock. May be getting my hands on some latex tubing to stuff under the pads for some cushioning, so we'll see if that alleviates some of the issue.

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I still have my AD2000s, and I agree with the left/right issue. Soundstaging on my HD580s feels more natural, but I do like the AD2000s for vocals and rock. May be getting my hands on some latex tubing to stuff under the pads for some cushioning, so we'll see if that alleviates some of the issue.

This post reminds me of those ghetto cups that Craig (Eddie Current) brought to the last NorCal meet. Basically, they're just these big honkin plastic things stuffed loosely with cotton; they close off the outside of the AD2000s and stick into that seam part around the mesh. I didn't get to play with them too much, but maybe someone else here did. I do like Craig's setup everytime I listen to it, so I'm gonna just take the leap of faith and assume the cups really help with whatever is weird about AD2000s. Maybe some of y'all AD2000 owners with a DIY bent could mess around with that. I'm not super picky about soundstaging/imaging so it's not something I'm particularly interested in "fixing"...

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