I wonder if wood gives you better sound distribution than plastic/metal does?

@daftrok: Yes. That's why good speakers are made from wood, and not plastic or metal.

I'm down with AT in general. I like their noise cancelling. If they sound better than my Grado's (which also gives me wood) then I just might try these.

I'm curious if they are tuned "flat" with low bass, which I've noticed is common in Japanese designed headphones, including the AT noise cancelling I travel with.

And man, those are some serious big ear cups.

Ok so I just had to post this somewhere because it's been pissing me off for a while. Is it just me or does anyone else have to hit the back button about 3 times before it goes back to the main page?

@Ashkar406: Me thinks its you, works fine with me.

Wood knot.

If you work with audio all day, your get attached to a good set of headphones. By attached I mean, "WTF are you doing wearing my headset".

Quite frankly, if somebody tells me that wooden end caps distribute sound better than plastic I wouldn't believe them until I had a test run. I have coworkers that put tissue over the reference monitors tweeters and others that don't. Some of it's affectation, and some of it's real. In the end, if one works with audio, it's about what works well for the person who is using them.

Audio Technica makes good gear. I've had several of their higher end headsets survive 3-5 years of abuse by "talent".

If you really want to do wood well, Grado has two nice open air wooden headsets. They are better on the ears, but not on the pocketbook. I love my ATH-CM7Ti AT Titanium earbuds. They beat wearing heavy stifling headsets in a quite studio.

The ATH-ESW9 Sovereign Wood Headphones (what a mouthful) from Audio Technica ditches fine grade plastic in favor of Japanese Hokkaido cherry tree wood, featuring 42mm neodymium magnet drivers encased in fiberglass, and comes complete with a gold plated mini plug as well as a sensitivity level of...

What really disappoints me about this technology is that unless its wireless and has virtual surround sound. It probably hasn't changed much for over 30 years. Including the wood. And now, just like 30 years ago, the impressiveness of the headphones is directly based on it's price tag and has nothing to do with ingenuity. Its a shame, 5$ parts, again including wood, a nice package, and a big price tag make them desirable.

A second on the Grado recommendation...I've used various models, starting with the SR 80s and including some time in studio with the RS1000s, and they're easily the best studio/home theater headphones at any of their price levels. If you can deal with ambient bleed-through (in and out, due to the design), they really deliver with an in-the-middle-of-it quality to the sound (on stage or in the movie) and tweaked bass and treble that tends to mean clarity at high volumes and presence even turned down low.

Not exactly designed to be paired with your iPod for the ride to work, but if you don't mind hauling these beautiful cans wherever your input is, you're guaranteed an experience like no other. If nothing else, swing by your local uber-expensive hifi shop and give these things a listen. It might just change your life.

I wonder if wood gives you better sound distribution than plastic/metal does?

not only that... but wood makes massive acoustic improvements when simply used in incredibly minor roles in high-end audiophile equipment.

hence :

$500 Volume Knob

"...minute vibrations through the knob axle will cause micro vibrations that affect the sound."

hahahhahahaha

@x23: IF anyone thinks that's hokey, don't forget to check out machinadynamica.com

Yet another vote for Grados. WAY better than anything Audio Technica makes. And they are a great company to boot...i've always gotten amazing customer service from Grado.

@Neil.Will: The requirement to move transducers to make sound waves that reach your two ears will never change. So why do you want radical technology?

The impressiveness of Sennheiser and Grado headphones is largely a function of their sound because they are a dull decades-old product. It's easy for customers to compare headphones, so there's little snake oil going on, so more expensive headphones usually sound better.

There's nothing magic about wood. It resonates less than metal but so do MDF and plastic. Material costs are irrelevant (except to reassure the buyer that he didn't waste money), only the results matters.

@Lamont: as a huge headphone nut for many years and have owned many Grados and ATs, I can agree that Grados have fantastic and very unique sound, but saying "Grados make WAY better than anything Audio-Technica" is just ignorant, most (if not all) high-end A-T phones are not available outside of Japan.

In the audio/headphone community, there is not one brand that is better than the other, "better sound" is subjective and varies from person to person, models to models. Both Grado and Audio-Technica headphones are highly praised and respected. Most of their signature models comes with truly astonishing price tags.

I have to say that my last DJ headphones were AT - the funky looking ones with the camo pattern - and they were absolute rubbish. They sounded alright and the sound cancelling was spot on, but they disintegrated within six months of moderate use.

Those wooden cups look fresh, though.

It's like looking at Monica Bellucci in an evening gown, slowly going over the stunning face and seductive curves, until getting to the feet, wearing dirty sneakers.

Everything about these headphones seemed amazing, until I got to the price tag.

with this device, ear and sex pleasure are inversely proportional.

As the owner of many pairs of high end headphones, and the gear to push them, I gotta tell you, these are CHEAP. I'm somewhat of an Audio Technica fanboy, I own 4 pairs of AT's. The absolute best are ATH-L3000's. The cups are Connolly leather, and were a very limited edition of 1,500 pairs. I paid $1,300 for them, they are now worth right at $3,000. My favorites are my ATH-W2002's, the "Japan", they were a mere $1,100. But understand, we are talking about absolute performance on par with $40,000 speakers. As far as non wood AT's, I highly recomend the ATH-A900's for around $150.
But that's nothing. I own a pair of Sony MDR-R10 headphones, widely regarded as the best dynamic headphones ever made, that are currently worth more than $5,000. I'm afraid to use 'em!
BTW, I love Grado too... I have 3 pairs of them. RS-1000 is close to my favorite headphones