Audio Technica ATH-ADX5000, close to paradise

Let me start with an anecdote. I connect the ATH-ADX5000 to the DAC to get used to them in my ears and I receive a YouTube link with this madness: Cecilia Bartolli winning over the audience. I had been wearing them for 5 minutes and tears were streaming down my face. Damn it. And the video is really bad; if it were high quality I would slit my wrists (just a little bit, let's not exaggerate) and write this in pen.

And now we get more academic. The product comes in a travel case with a neo-vintage aesthetic. The lines of its finish are precise and really attractive for my taste. It has an air of a 1960s airplane case that you fall in love with. Only the plastic closures give you a hint of modernity. Inside we find the protagonists of this review perfectly encased in velvet.

Carrying case.

They feel light in the hand. Very light, surprisingly light, creating an initial impression of fragility that does not correspond at all to reality. Because their tight headband, with no play in the sliding part, allows for a perfect fit on the head. The rigidity of the structure is such that you can pick up a single earpiece and hold it in the air and it will practically maintain its shape. If I do the same with my AKG K-701s they are completely deformed to the point that one earpiece almost fits under the other. It is these small details that show the durability and attention to detail of the manufacturer.

Note the heavy-duty honeycomb structure.

Another noteworthy aspect of these headphones is the ease with which the supplied connection cable can be changed, as it is not soldered to the unit but connected via A2DC.

The ATH-ADX5000 are open headphones. Protected with a rigid honeycomb mesh on the outside and quite thin in the transducer motor part. To achieve greater internal sound pressure, remember that they are open, they have taken great care to "close" the ear as much as possible, encapsulating it, thus avoiding unwanted pressure losses and giving the sound a greater presence that could easily be spoiled without this well-thought-out detail. And all this without crushing the ears at all, allowing for long listening sessions without fatigue due to excess pressure on the lobes. And, in my case, combining work with pleasure means that I'm not always sitting still while wearing them. Lifting and lowering your head looking for something and returning to the starting point and realizing that you are not wearing headphones but rather that they are welded to your head. Very, very good. Magic? No, sirs, you remember the beginning where I emphasized their rigidity, well it serves this purpose, among other things.

And now pay attention, these "friends" have an impedance of 420 ohms, that is to say, they need a headphone amplifier to be able to function at their maximum level. In my case, a tuned Little Dot MK IV. A tube amplifier with some of its components modified internally to improve its performance.

And another significant figure, from 5 to 50,000 Hz in frequency response provided by the ATH-ADX5000. Low frequencies are the Achilles heel of open devices. 5Hz opens the door to the most radical subwoofers on the market. We'll see how my ears have experienced it.

Music speaks the truth

I started with a success that its author was unable to enjoy. Georges Bizet's opera Carmen was a failure at its premiere. This, together with his premature death at the age of 36, deprived him of the sweet taste of triumph. The roles of Carmen and Don José have historically been contested by the most prestigious voices of the moment and this was to be no exception, Kozena-Kaufmann.

The interval (First to Second) opens the doors to the Lilas Pastias tavern, a place I visit much more than the bar near my house. The balance of the recording with the sound, giving the necessary weight to each element of the stage cast transports you to that unreal Seville. The orchestra takes control of everything and spills its sound across the wide auditory spectrum, treating you to moments of glory, one after another. Not to mention the absolute control of the voice that Kozena gives us in his "La-la-la-la" and the dialogue between the castanets and the winds. Without leaving the tavern, Kaufmann treats us to "La fleur que tu m'avais jetee". Apart from his sublime interpretation, I want to highlight the "journeys" to the underworld of the double basses that are very present in this piece. The presence of such marked basses that are at the same time light enough not to blur the rest of the components is remarkable, because playing in certain frequencies can lead to misery if you don't have the ability to control the energies that are produced. And how can you control the energies of the basses in any structure? By unloading them en masse. And with headphones? Since they are rigid and "welded to the head", since they are transmitted to the body.

This is a verse from a great Bon Jovi song, dedicated to the forgotten of the Vietnam War. The losers never get glory. Jon Bon Jovi is, together with Bruce Springsteen, the musical voice of the Democrats in the United States. With songs critical of the actions of local politicians with their army and their military power. They give a voice to the forgotten soldiers (although at the same time they forget about the "forgotten" on the other side). Well, getting back to the song, "Something to Believe in" begins with some bass drums in the foreground reminiscent of a martial rhythm, which later lose focus to maintain a smooth rhythm to the main theme. The broken rhythm makes it impossible to follow with your feet, providing an important contrast to a piece with so much percussion. Only at the end of the song, with the singer's rage, do we begin to feel the uncontrolled emotion, joined by the guitar and the second voice in counterpoint. Listening to this well and with good sound and execution is vital to feel everything that this song gives off, and so it was. Satisfaction does not only consist of feeling happy with something, it is also about feeling bad, very bad. This set of human vibrations is only achieved when you disconnect from everything and live in the moment. To achieve this, it is better to do it with something that will not leave you stranded, and the ATH-ADX5000 have proven to be faithful adventure companions.

Final conclusions

How easy it is to forget you're wearing them. Their perfect fit, light weight and grip on the head make them "invisible" after a short while. Only the three-meter cable reminds you that the limit of your freedom ends at a certain distance, and if you want to move more, you lose the intense happiness of their sound. The robustness of their finish means that they are expected to last a long time and to work well for many years. A thoroughly recommended product with guaranteed satisfaction.

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