Finding your groove: getting into vinyl with Audio-Technica
I’d like to think that I could’ve been friends with the late Hideo Matsushita, founder of Japanese Hi-Fi powerhouse Audio-Technica. If I could, I’d travel back in time to 1960’s Tokyo, where a young Matsushita curated “vinyl listening sessions” at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts, exposing visitors to the sounds and possibilities of high end audio and the warmth of vinyl records. I imagine sitting with him in a mod coffee shop, listening to the stories of what he witnessed in those sessions, the conversations he had with visitors, and what ultimately motivated him to head back to his small apartment above a ramen restaurant and start an audio company of his own. In the histories I’ve read regarding AT’s humble beginnings, Matsushita’s motives seem clear. Produce high end audio at affordable prices, bringing audio excellence into spaces and to customers that simply didn’t have access to it before. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3 phono cartridges did exactly that, and...
Dec 6, 2023
Unboxing: elegant and functional. Nothing over the top. Very easy to unbox. No fussing with unnecessary wrappers or zip ties.
Contents: gorgeous carrying case, headphones, unbalanced cable and adapter.
Aesthetics: they look fantastic and just as pictured in marketing material.
Comfort: so far they fit me very well (and I have a large noggin and ears). No discomfort to speak of.
Earcups: there's confusion out there what material are the earcups made out of. I'm going to say they are a polymer, not metal. If you flick it gently the sound is that of a hard polymer, not the 'ting' or resonance metals have.
Sound: I test new headphones w/o any EQ or sound modification of any type and with the same playlist of lossless songs downloaded via Deezer. I'll be A/B testing with AQ NIghtOwl which as of this writing are my BFF cans.
1 hour mark: sound stage and dynamic range are amazing. They are fast w/o being aggressive. They are not a clinical, flat sound, but they are truthful. I don't sense any part of FR being pumped or recessed.