Establishing themselves as a mainstay of the modern studio, producers, engineers and mixers alike have become all too familiar with Audio-Technica headphones.
For one, the Audio-Technica and their M series have come to dominate the studio landscape in more recent times with both veteran and newcomers adopting this well designed line, not to mention these becoming a go to monitoring reference for many a live engineer. Providing not only a well balanced and honest representation of program material, the M series offers supreme comfort and isolation – integral features of any studio headphone wanting to keep up with demands of lengthy studio sessions.
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Whilst this is all fantastic for those who require the features of a closed back headphone, what of the open back headphone? Sometimes overshadowed by its closed back sibling, open back reference headphones offer features more specific to mixing, mastering and post production engineers. Inherent by allowing sound to bleed in and out of the headphone, open backs present a more realistic soundstage and three dimensional perception of how we as human beings perceive sound in an open acoustic environment. This in turn allows for not only greater accuracy of elements placed within the stereo field but far deeper detail of the “atmosphere” around these elements, a la reverb tails, delay lines, modulation flutter and harmonics, with all of these associated artifacts triggering our natural psychoacoustic cues.
In order to realistically represent these phenomena, a reference studio headphone requires an incredibly responsive and sensitive driver capable of producing full frequency bandwidth without distortion as well as a complementary physical frame, void of resonances and associated acoustic anomalies that can hinder overall performance and a users perception of playback material. A mouthful that is no small feat by any stretch!
Released back in 2015, the ATH-R70x were Audio-Technica’s first open back reference headphone, praised for their neutrality and detailed soundstage representation. They quickly became a mid-tier favorite for many audio professionals and audiophiles alike, with their lightweight design and “3D wing” headband making for a particularly comfortable wear.
ATH-R70xa
As technology has developed over the past decade, as well as the needs of users continues to change it was only a matter of time before an updated model was announced, which brings me to the subject at hand, the ATH-R70xa.
Meticulously handcrafted in Japan with in-house components, the ATH-R70xa weigh in at a meager 199g— making this new model even lighter than its predecessor. A sleek modern design with a more traditional headband that sits snugly across the whole top of the head for a secure fit, they not only feel great but the combination of both XY adjustment of the cans allows for refined adjustments for all different head shapes and sizes. This overall design refinement makes for an incredibly comfortable and unobtrusive headphone.
The carbon composite resin of the new design helps improve the headphones structural rigidity which in turn provides a detailed transient response, each component works in harmony with the other producing a truly open-back listening experience void of resonances and anomalies.
Open-back headphones
Unboxing the ATH-R70xa’s was pretty stock standard, dare I say what you’d expect from unboxing headphones, with no fluff, filler or flash— though an indication of good things to come. On first impression the ATH-R70xa felt incredibly lightweight, easily the lightest pro audio headphones I’ve personally handled. The dual-sided 3.0m detachable locking cable felt like good quality cable with a sense of professional edge and style.
With some familiar reference material cued I was immediately struck by the focused centre image, with a sense of depth and space around vocals which I hadn’t really noticed before. This air (not brightness) and atmosphere around brighter sound sources, left seemingly endless room for kick and bass elements which were well reproduced, not at all hyped, but rather tight and defined.
Paying closer attention to the stereo field I noticed a sense of width and dimension that was both immersive and clear. I felt drawn in by this new found sense of space I hadn’t experienced with these reference tracks before, nor with other open back headphones.
Being Audio-Technica, I’d known these headphones would present a relatively flat and neutral response and indeed the ATH-R70xa did just that. They presented material honestly with the impressive frequency response of 5Hz – 40,000Hz being taken full advantage of. The bandwidth felt endless with no audible distortion, feeling just incredibly defined, deep and detailed.
I was incredibly impressed by this sense of “3D-ness” and how revealing they felt and sounded, exactly what one requires from a pair of reference headphones.
Often the most difficult frequency area to get right is the mid range and this felt wonderfully represented and if anything a little forward leaning but not at the expense of lows and highs. Playing some rough mixes I’d been working on, low mid issues were nicely illuminated as well as problematic harsh upper mids content. Enter “New Mix_” etc etc, wish I’d had these a week prior.
Throughout my testing I continually felt uninhibited by the Audio-Technica ATH-R70xa in the sense that they were effortlessly working away in the background at incredible efficiency and no matter what volume I listened at, their frequency response felt consistent and the overall presentation remained so.
The ATH-R70xa truly come to life when used with a decent headphone amplifier taking full advantage of their 470-Ohm impedance rating. It seemed no matter how hard I pushed them they just kept on giving. A very exciting release from one of the most consistent and reliable names in pro audio.
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