There's a lot of ways to describe mids, some headphones are more forward sounding than others, some seem to have two levels where the highs are bright and the lows tend to roll off steadily towards neutral. For example, the Grados have incredibly bright, articulate mids.
I'm still unsure about the ES7s, since they have really forward and less articulate mids compared to one of my other headphones (which I haven't reviewed here yet), but they have sparkling (?) treble and a powerful bass presence. They're the exact opposite of the Shure SE310 IEMs which tend to deviate everything (bass and highs) towards the middle range. It's not like they have a bad midrange, it's just that the midrange is very narrow. Impressed by the sound staging and how they almost sound like open backed cans though.
They're probably my most "FUN" sounding and mass consumption headphones, but for technical listening I'd probably use something else with a darker sound signature. The Grados are a little too bright for me sometimes too, thought I do like the way they reproduce sound almost all the time.
Gave my small collection of headphones a side by side comparison tonight. If asked to divide best set of cans by genre:
ATH-ESW9 for classical, jazz, acoustic, country, folk
ATH-ES7 for Hip-hop, Electronica, Trance, Dubstep (people should seriously give these a listen after about a hundred hours burn-in)
Grado SR-80 for most pop songs, rock
Shure SE310 for bringing around everyday
I think the key difference between the two ES series phones is the wood back on the ESW9. All The other headphones are just a bit worse in every aspect.
I'm still unsure about the ES7s, since they have really forward and less articulate mids compared to one of my other headphones (which I haven't reviewed here yet), but they have sparkling (?) treble and a powerful bass presence. They're the exact opposite of the Shure SE310 IEMs which tend to deviate everything (bass and highs) towards the middle range. It's not like they have a bad midrange, it's just that the midrange is very narrow. Impressed by the sound staging and how they almost sound like open backed cans though.
They're probably my most "FUN" sounding and mass consumption headphones, but for technical listening I'd probably use something else with a darker sound signature. The Grados are a little too bright for me sometimes too, thought I do like the way they reproduce sound almost all the time.
Gave my small collection of headphones a side by side comparison tonight. If asked to divide best set of cans by genre:
ATH-ESW9 for classical, jazz, acoustic, country, folk
ATH-ES7 for Hip-hop, Electronica, Trance, Dubstep (people should seriously give these a listen after about a hundred hours burn-in)
Grado SR-80 for most pop songs, rock
Shure SE310 for bringing around everyday
I think the key difference between the two ES series phones is the wood back on the ESW9. All The other headphones are just a bit worse in every aspect.
