Recording - September 2015 - 27

Interestingly, the cable is designed so that it
does not have specific "left" and "right" connections to the phones; no matter which side
plugs into which earcup, stereo delivery will
be correct. A protective pouch completes the
package.
Open the ears
I burned in the ATH-R70x with about
36 hours of moderate-level audio, and
then settled into critical listening. I listened
to my usual test audio files, in genres
ranging from hard rock and alternative to
pop, jazz, Americana, classical, and
electronic (both dancy and trancy).
My first impression of the ATH-R70x was,
as I described above, that it barely felt like I
was wearing headphones at all. I'm always
a little suspicious of new headphone suspension designs; they may look cute, but often
they're uncomfortable, insecure against the
head, or both. Audio-Technica has really
nailed it this time, though; the phones felt
great even after hours of listening. Very
impressive!
In terms of sound, the ATH-R70x is very
much an open-back phone. With closed
designs, one often gets the impression of a
very strong and forward low end that's
being reined in by acoustical tweaks or electronics. With good open-back designs, bass
is merely there in your ears along with the
rest of the frequency spectrum, and that, in

a nutshell, describes the low end of the ATHR70x. The overall feeling is that the bass is
present and extended but not overly hyped
or pushed forward to make it exciting. It
merely exists as part of a wider frequency
spectrum, extending the listener's reach to
below the subsonic limits of hearing without
distortion or breakup.
Listening to rock mixes, the ATH-R70x
handles the all-important mids by presenting them in balance with what comes
above and below. This is in contrast to
some phones that are forward in the mids,
often deliberately so in order to accentuate
detail in lead vocals, guitars, and the like.
(Audio-Technica's own ATH-M30x does this
beautifully.) If you're not used to this sort of
balanced delivery, the ATH-R70x can
sound slightly scooped in the mids, leading
you to mix mid-forward, but I found my
mixes translated very well to monitors, car
stereos, and portable devices once I
learned the sound of the phones.
And then we get to the highs. The ATHR70x is a poster child for the belief that
really bright and sparkly highs do not
necessarily equate to good audio. It has
a delightful treble response that is stratospheric without being overaccentuated or
shrieky. This is where the difference
between even high-bit-rate MP3 files, CD
WAV files, and 24-bit/96 kHz high-resolution WAV files is truly evident... there's

space, air, and dimension in the highest
highs, rather than hiss and artifacts.
Stereo soundstaging is marvelous, with
really good localization in the soundfield. The
interplay of instruments' frequency spectra is
easy to hear and work with; while we always
warn against using only phones to mix, I
could easily learn to mix on these and check
my work on monitors later. And if you're into
microscopic detail when doing edits and final
mix checks, these phones will give it to you;
my trusty collection of early mixes from the
1990s, mistakes and all, were exposed
uncompromisingly by the ATH-R70x.
Open the possibilities
Open-back phones aren't for everyone,
as I explained above. You can't use them
near open mics or in places where
silence is vital, and they can't isolate you
from less-than-ideal acoustic situations.
However, if those aren't your primary
considerations and you desire a comfortable, non-fatiguing listening experience
with clarity and balance that many closed
phones lack, letting you mix and edit with
confidence, then the ATH-R70x comes
with my highest recommendation.
Price: $349 (estimated street price)
More from: Audio-Technica,
www.audio-technica.com
http://www.audio-technica.com http://www.cras.edu http://www.cras.edu http://www.audiorecordingschool.com/consumer.html
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2015
