Journey to Japan - Headphone testing
I recently went to Japan for a 2 week vacation. Among all the other weird and wonderful treasures over there was the Laox audio store in Akihabara. The basement had a full selection of almost every high-end headphone currently sold in Japan. The only omission I could see was the Stax SR-007 MKII (Stax Omega 2, I believe) and the Denon AH-D7000, but I don’t think any commercial store can justify having either of those on public display. Aside from that, it was amazing to be able to test everything with the same reference disc on the same amplifier (I didn’t record it in the video but the amplifier was a 5 port Audio Technica model, I didn’t see the equipment they used to split the signal 10 ways though). The reference disc was a classical recording of some sort. I didn’t check the disc so I have no idea about which composer or orchestra. As a retailer, it truly saddens me that I neither have the sales nor the customer base to make a display like this feasible. I would enjoy nothing more than have people try out a range as extensive, and finding something they liked and enjoyed.
In terms of some impressions, it’s amazing what a complete lack of buyer’s remorse will do. Number one on the list of big disappointments were most of the cherry-wood headphones. Starting with the Victor DX700, I was amazed at just how murky these big wooden headphones sounded. It felt like everything was echoing inside the massive chamber on the way to my ear, and it was in no way pleasant or revealing. It was like sticking a speaker in a seashell. Much the same were the Audio Technica W1000s and W5000s. I don’t think that cherry wood or any lumber for that matter makes for a good headphone material, and these headphones just sacrificed too much in the name of looks to be worth considering, at any price. At least, with the Audio Technicas in comparison to the DX700s, the engineers seem to have identified the shortcomings of using wood, and tried to compensate for the boominess that the material brings. However, the end result sounded thin and unpleasant.
In fact, the only good wood headphone was the Denon D5000. I always struggle to write these lengthy reviews about good headphones, because a good headphone shouldn’t sound like anything. It should sound just like the music does, without any obvious accent or characteristic, apart from clarity. Yet, although the D5000s still felt slightly muffled from the closed construction, they sounded amazingly rich, for want of a better word. The symphony had this full-ness to it that I hadn’t heard in any headphones to that point, and it was incredibly pleasant. I haven’t heard this same rich-ness or full spectrum harmony, I guess you’d call it, in any other headphone to date, and now coming back to my open pairs, I now feel that this is something that they lack.
Yet there’s still the issue of wood construction, and the ridiculous price excise that it brings. Luckily, the the D2000s were just as astonishing. It took me many many tries to determine my favorite between the D2000 and D5000, attempting to disregard price as a factor. Surprisingly though, from the basis of an all plastic construction, I found the D2000s to be actually slightly better sounding than the D5000s. The characteristic of the sound for both pairs was almost identical. The difference lay in the soundstage. The D5000 is much more generously spaced than the D2000, with a sound that seems to echo from the depths of the headphone. The D2000 seems to have a much more immediate sense of space, with a sound that seems to originate much closer to your ear. Normally I advocate a wide soundstage, because I find high-end detail to sometimes be fatiguing. The high-end open Audio Technicas are a perfect case of this. Above the AD700, detail increases and the soundstage shrinks, and I’ve never been able to forget that I’m wearing them, and unconsciously find myself removing the headphones. However, because of the rich nature of the sound in the Denons, I actually found myself craving a more immediate soundstage, to hear an even fuller, more detailed sound from them, and the D2000s eventually became my preference.
Trying these Denons, closed headphones have suddenly become a legitimate choice by themselves in my eyes, as to this point I’ve always considered closed headphones to be borne of the constraints of ambient noise, as opposed to having a sound that’s actually desirable. The D2000s, in particular, are an amazing headphone, and one that represents real value for money at the high-end. I’m desperately going to try and get stock of them, because these are just too good not to sell.
Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Akihabara, check out the basement of Laox, and try out some headphones. I’d love to hear of it.