Postby gt4tified » November 3rd, 2011, 11:22 pm
Ok so I'm still burning in the Audio Technica buds but I thought I'd give a review on the experience so far.
As far as the packaging and design are concerned....the ATH-CKM50A comes in a nice little box! lol Seriously though, it comes with a neat leather (yes real leather!) pouch, the three pairs of interchangeable ear pieces and an extension for the original cord which is only about 2' long. The extension is long....really long, 3.3' long to be exact. My choice of colour was white, which I guess in any brand is easy to get dirty but the cord is of the tangle-free construction type, always a plus.
The specs are as follows:
Weight: 7 grams (without cord)
Impedance: 16Ohms
Frequency: 5-24,000Hz
Driver diameter: 12.5mm
Sensitivity (@1Khz): 104dB/mW
Connector type: 3.5mm gold plated
Iphone compatible: Yes
Quality and feel: Nice solid build quality despite the weight. I've worn them for approximately 1.5hrs at a time and there is no uncomfortable feeling. I don't like the design of the silicone earpiece though, as far as sound isolation goes...I prefer as much external noise reduction as possible and this is just about average. My W580i buds do a much better job of sound isolation.
Sound quality: Audio Technica definitely lives up to its name of studio quality, hi definition sound with these buds, and although I have not listened to other many other buds, I know that when it comes to bang for buck, AT really can't be beat. The highs are crisp and clean, the bass tight but not too heavy...a note about this for the bassheads, from what others say about the monster turbines et al, I don't think these may be that heavy but honestly, I'd rather have a little less and be able to EQ in more than have too much all the time. The response is quite flat, not as flat as my ATH-M40fs but those were built for that purpose....the buds were made for general listening pleasure I assume. Btw, I make my deductions from only circa 4 to 5 hours of listening so far, and have listened to dancehall, dance, hip hop, r&b, soca, latin pop and reggaeton thus far...oh and a couple John Williams soundtracks for SQ reference for tonality.
As far as cord noise, there is some at very low volume levels, but at a SPL of anything around 50dB and above, its almost non-existent.
