Rocking New Cans

Years ago, I bought my first big headphones.  At least during that time, the phones themselves were expensive.  Why would one bother to go with headphones that costs so much?  That’s a trivial matter.  For some, it is to hear every detail out of the audio that they listen to.  To others, it is to hear the extra detail instead of the poor audio quality that comes with cheap headphones.  This is especially true when one tries to use the headphones that came with your music player.  But if your hearing is poor, then perhaps any old headphones will do.

Why go through the extra lengths to hear more?  The pair that I have, while still functional, is showing a lot of signs of being worn out.  Electronically, it still works.  But once you see how it appears, I doubt anyone would want to try it now.

Today I put on the Audio Technica ATH-A900 headphones.  I broke down and gave it a test run.  And the audio difference is noticeable but not drastic.  Granted, it takes time for new phones to produce its best audio, a process known as burn-in.  What such a process require is numerous hours of audio.  But not all at one time, though.  The A900 headphones feels immensely different from the old Sony MDR-7506.  The design is so different that it takes getting used to how it sits on my head.  But one thing I am starting to feel is comfort.  Some headphones have heavier materials, and thus the support is mostly on the top headband that sits right on you.  This can cause some discomfort in long sessions.

So far, the A900 rests comfortably on my head and I do not feel any signs of discomfort that the Sony headphones produce.  This is good news for the time being.  The true test is how well it’ll do in the long run.

Well, for now, using the headphones like this will have to do, as I have additional components coming in soon.  They are specifically replacement ear pads for the ATH-W11JPN headphones but from what this video showed, they are compatible and can be done.  Surprisingly, this is an amazing piece of work, as it means that the headphones now have a complete lifespan that will enable people to use it until the day it literally dies.  For as long as Audio Technica designs their headphones around this idea, it will become a possible purchasing factor for me.