Audio-Technica ATH-ADX7000 Review: Bass + Space = AT's Best Open-Back

I’ve previously had a tumultuous relationship with Audio-Technica’s headphones. Whether it be the exceedingly popular ATH-M50x—my first “audiophile” over-ear closed-back headphone—or their prior flagship ATH-ADX5000, Audio-Technica’s mass-production headphones always came across a bit too intense in the wrong ways for me to enjoy them. However, their new $3500 flagship open-back ATH-ADX7000 is the first Audio-Technica headphone I can say I genuinely enjoy.

ATH-ADX7000 comes hot off the heels of Audio-Technica’s release of one of my favorite headphones, the $9000 ATH-W2022. ATH-W2022 is a headphone I’ll never be able to own, but it’s one that I admire as a dramatic leap forward for Audio-Technica’s brand & sonic direction. Largely thanks to the artistic and engineering direction of the brilliant Shiwaku Nonomi, Audio-Technica seems to be going in a direction that better understands that audiophiles actually do like bass.

Shiwaku-san is a rising star in Audio-Technica’s current headphone design division, responsible for the extremely popular rework of the ATH-R series headphones, as well as the ATH-W2022, and now, the ATH-ADX7000. Due to her involvement, I’m not surprised that the ATH-ADX7000 is my favorite Audio-Technica open back to date.

So let’s talk about what she and Audio-Technica did here to make this headphone good enough that I’m excited about their future as a player in the audiophile headphone space.

Build, Design, Comfort, and Accessories

Starting with accessories, the ATH-ADX7000 comes in a metal-tinged travel “suitcase” lined with custom-cut foam inserts for the headphone, an extra set of earpads, and a leather pouch containing the two 3m cables. Buyers receive a balanced cable with 4-pin XLRM connector, and an unbalanced cable with a 6.3mm TRS stereo plug. Both cables terminate in Audio-Technica’s A2DC connector on the headphone side.

Touching on the cables first… they’re pretty bad. In terms of ergonomics, they’re incredibly stiff, memory prone, and the nylon-wrapping is a bit rough to the touch. But the bigger issue is the microphonics above the Y-split, which may genuinely be the worst I’ve experienced in an open-back over-ear headphone. For clarity’s sake I should say, the 4pin XLR cable is slightly less microphonic than the ¼” stereo cable, but both are still very loud cables to handle.

Thankfully, Capra Audio has a solution that significantly reduced the microphonics above the Y-split and allowed me to test the ATH-ADX7000 with much less annoyance, but Audio-Technica should simply include better feeling, less microphonic cables with their $3500 headphone. Flagship headphones should have accessories that scream “luxury”, and while the case and presentation of the package is sufficiently premium, the cables are not.

That said, even if I don’t enjoy cables longer than 6ft, I’m totally fine with the length of the cable being a little longer than my preference—flagship headphones often need to be plugged into a big, complex stack located further away than I keep my laptop—so a long stock cable makes sense. Additionally, some people have issues with the A2DC connectors, but honestly they strike me as a more stable, easy-to-use version of the MMCX connector, and I’ve heard from an Audio-Technica employee that they actually have a vanishingly small failure rate.

In terms of other accessories, the main important accessory of note is the extra set of earpads. This headphone is a demo/review unit and came pre-installed from the last reviewer with the high-density Velvet earpads, but it also comes with a set of Alcantara pads. The Alcantara pads deliver a package more typical of Audio-Technica’s past, both in terms of feel and sound profile. I did not prefer the sound with the Alcantara pads, as it was less coherent in the midrange and more aggressive in the treble, so the following review will be done using the Velvet earpads.

Moving onto the build and design of the headphone, the ATH-ADX7000 shares much in common with its predecessor ATH-ADX5000 in terms of its overall chassis design, though there are small differences like the yoke arms on ATH-ADX7000 being shaved down a bit. The internal acoustic structure is also markedly different as far as the driver elements are concerned.

Just as a note, I do quite like how the ATH-ADX7000 looks. It’s not battering me over the head with “luxury” touches like ostentatious gold finishings or wood, but I tend to find such things gaudy and usually there to compensate for the actual build not being streamlined enough to feel premium.

Thankfully, ATH-ADX7000 takes a more utilitarian approach and, in my opinion at least, looks much better for it. I like the color choices, the openness of the grill, and the overall low-profile fit of the headphone when on the head. The main aspect of build here to be praised is the weight: 270 grams is exceptionally lightweight compared to other flagship headphones, which often (seemingly intentionally) add weight to make the headphones feel more “premium.”

Maybe it’s just me, but this is something I wish more brands would take seriously when it comes to making a headphone as comfortable and immersive as possible. While yes, heavier headphones often feel “more premium” in the hand, headphones are made to be worn, and heavy headphones are almost always less comfortable. They’re also typically less immersive, because it’s harder to forget you’re wearing a headphone when it’s heavier. By contrast, ATH-ADX7000’s incredibly light weight works in its favor and makes it a marginally less obtrusive product to use.

Which brings us to comfort, where unfortunately despite its incredibly modest weight, the ATH-ADX7000 has a few issues that bother me.

For one, the velvet earpads are soft, plush, and sufficiently deep for my ears, but the “perfectly circular” shape means that the top and bottom of my ear are making significant contact with the earpad,making it very hard to forget the headphone is on my head. I don’t find this aspect nearly as uncomfortable as the headband (which we’ll get to), but I do wish Audio-Technica found a way to implement earpads with more “ear-shaped” openings.

This brings us to the headband, which is not typically one of Audio-Technica’s strengths, and unfortunately the ATH-ADX7000 doesn’t buck any trends here. The headband surface consists of two rods with scant padding making contact with the head at two small points, and this arrangement gets uncomfortable quite quickly. When it comes to headbands, the ideal is wide contact points distributing as much weight around as large an area as possible, but instead we get extremely narrow contact points that don’t distribute much weight at all, so hotspots are a question of when, not if.

That said, one unique aspect of this headband is that it can be bent by the end-user to fit a variety of head shapes & widths. So if for some reason there is too much weight at the direct apex of the skull, users can bend the headband to have a little bit of a “cone” shape to it, such that redistributes that weight away from the center and towards the sloped sides of the head. This also has an effect on the clamp, and this brings us to how the sound of this headphone responds to clamp pressure.

Early in my testing with this headphone I found it to be a bit brighter than I initially expected given others’ impressions. I quickly learned that this was due to the person who heard this unit before me having a significantly larger/wider head than I do. For that reason, I revisited my initial measurements, this time adding clamp by bending the headband, and got a significantly warmer/darker result than my initial measurements.

This means people should be aware that when it comes to this headphone, not only do head dimensions matter, but how you alter the headband matters as well. If you find the sound to be too bright, you can bend it inward to increase the clamp and reduce treble/add low-midrange. If you find it too dark, you can try bending the band outward to increase the treble/reduce low-midrange. Personally I found the ideal to be right in the middle, both sonically and for comfort, so that’s how I’ll be evaluating the sound of the headphone for this review.

Overall the build is pretty nice, the design is great-looking but leaves more than a bit to be desired in terms of comfort, and the accessories are flagship-level upon first glance, but the cable’s subpar performance really puts a damper on the user experience, and makes it much less fun to use than it would’ve been with a nicer (or even just a simpler) cable.

As far as a flagship experience, I wish I had better things to say than “it’s quite like other flagships out there.” Many may see this statement as praise, but because most flagships simply do not put enough effort into their industrial design for the prices asked, ATH-ADX7000 ends up being similarly unexceptional in these aspects to me. The light weight is a big bonus, but you rarely get to enjoy it because of how uncomfortable the headband is.

So ATH-ADX7000 isn’t a mold breaker when it comes to the non-sound aspects, but what about the sound quality?

Sound

Right away, the bass we get on the ATH-ADX7000 is one of the most unique bass presentations you’ll find in flagship headphones. First off, unlike the bass of planar magnetic designs from Audeze, HIFIMAN, or Meze, the ATH-ADX7000’s bass is firmly mid-bass/upper-bass centric, with gentle rolloff below 50 Hz. While this does mean people who care most about skull-rattling sub-bass might not find ATH-ADX7000 to be their cup of tea, I think this tuning choice gives ATH-ADX7000 straight up better bass than any of the aforementioned companies’ flagship headphones.

Unlike the LCD-5, there is palpable warmth and fullness to the presentation. This means that ATH-ADX7000’s kick drums have a better approximation of large quantities of air moving, instead of sounding super small due to being entirely defined by their “snap” in the midrange like LCD-5. Unlike the Susvara, ATH-ADX7000 has a forwardness to the upper bass harmonics that means bowed cello and plucked upright bass have a sense of unique richness to them. But thankfully, this mid-bass and upper-bass forwardness doesn’t go quite as far as the Meze Empyrean or Elite, never over-warming the signature or occluding midrange clarity.

Snare drums in particular benefit from the upper-bass coloration here, sounding full and thuddy in a way that’s especially appealing to me, who tends to like big, thick sounding snare drums. Vocals might end up being a bit woolly to some depending on range; female vocals sound pretty excellent on the ATH-ADX7000, but I found a few low-tenor/baritone male voices to sound a bit too enriched and bloomy, almost as if they had a bit of extra decay to the fundamentals.

However, what’s especially interesting about this upper-bass forwardness is how it plays with one of the most important aspects of ATH-ADX7000’s acoustic design: the incredibly open chassis. Even though there’s a generous amount of bass here, because the sound as produced by the headphones is placed against such a transparently open-feeling background condition, the extra bass and warmth doesn’t feel quite as slow or plodding as I think other headphones with this tuning may sound. Even when the bass is a bit too much, I don’t find myself to mind it because it never sounds congested.

Now, the ATH-ADX7000 does still have a lot of bass. This makes it able to commit some punch when it’s called for, but there were also times when I found the exact opposite to be true; I found the perceived sustain/decay of certain recordings to overwhelm attack slightly, and this means that it’s hard for me to say the ATH-ADX7000 is going to be heard as unilaterally punchy to everyone, even if there were definitely some recordings where it presented with truly satisfying wallop.

The sort of bass coloration it opts for here reminds me of an in-between of the Focal signature and the Meze one, a mix of textured snappiness and relaxed richness, and for that reason one could certainly see it as a good compromise that gives you hints of both, but I’m sure some people will prefer one strongly over the other.

As we move into the midrange we get a, frankly, uncharacteristically normal-sounding midrange tuning from Audio-Technica. For those unaware, the ATH-ADX series usually trends very W-shaped, having an upper-bass and treble emphasis paired with a rise somewhere around 1 kHz. While this sort of signature does make the ATH-ADX5000 very “technical” to certain listeners, to others it can come across as needlessly hyped and aggressive, compromising timbre too much.

With the ATH-ADX7000 we don’t see nearly as dramatic a rise in the 1 kHz region, and instead we see something more akin to the Audeze or HIFIMAN presentation above 1 kHz, where ATH-ADX7000 gradually relaxes as it eases into the 2 kHz region. This feature compounds with the coziness imparted by the extra bass, placing the lower two-thirds of ATH-ADX7000’s tonal profile firmly in the “warm” camp.

What this means is that, while I wouldn’t really call this a “neutral” midrange, it’s one that tilts ATH-ADX7000 towards the kind of colorations I find enjoyable when it comes to headphone reproduction. For example, I find ATH-ADX7000’s midrange to portray pianos with requisite clarity but maybe a bit of extra woodiness and decay that wouldn’t be present in an otherwise “perfectly neutral” headphone.

And here again, the openness of the ATH-ADX7000’s chassis serves as a positive balancing force against potential slowness that this tuning could’ve imparted. While a headphone with this much bass and this warm of a midrange tilt could definitely sound sludgy, soupy, or overly-damped, because it’s so open and minimally-damped, the ATH-ADX7000 has this character of being simultaneously thick but also quite nimble.

Consider the difference between AirPods Pro 2 in ANC and transparency modes (if you’ve heard it). Even though AirPods Pro 2 is very warm tuned, the perception of the sound in ANC mode becomes much more clarity-focused and unencumbered when placed in transparency mode, even though both modes share the same frequency response.

For that reason, I just don’t get the sense of midrange overtones being overwhelmed by warmth. In fact, I would say ATH-ADX7000 has a nice sense of bass texturing and speed, but I think if it were a less open headphone, it would not sound quite as balanced between warmth and texture.

Despite the relaxation in the 2-3 kHz region, I didn’t perceive guitars to be super muffled either. There’s a slight blurring to the pick attack, but because the low treble picks up fairly quickly (and correctly) around 4 kHz, the top end of guitars’ attack is still well-represented and clear sounding.

That brings us to the treble, which is where the ATH-ADX7000 is going to be a “Your mileage may vary” sort of headphone. As discussed, the clamp has significant effects on the shape of the treble, as well as how it balances against the rest of the response, but I would say the ATH-ADX7000 is very much a “flagship” headphone. What I mean is that its treble is not what I’d call “normal sounding” by any stretch, and it seems more focused on eliciting certain impressions based on its colorations than presenting everything perfectly naturally.

As the measurements show, the treble response is very “up and down,” which is relevant to my experience; I hear quite a few narrow band peaks and dips in the response, but interestingly with this headphone I’m finding it to be mostly okay until after 7 kHz, where the dip around 8 kHz is very noticeable on my head, which leads to a bit of a stunted, incomplete quality to the upper range of many instruments and vocals.

The bigger issue here is that ATH-ADX7000 has a 10 kHz peak that bugs me quite a bit on brighter recordings. This peak is exacerbated by the dip right below it, and this combination causes the timbre of the ATH-ADX7000 to be a bit on the papery and wispy side, even if it still has a good deal of warmth and midrange presence to balance it out.

The problem makes itself most apparent on hi-hats and vocals, the former coming across as a bit too splashy (even when the hi-hat itself is closed), and the latter just having a bit too much sharpness on “T” sounds specifically. That said, I found the treble here to be way more polite than most flagship planar headphones from HIFIMAN or Meze, both of whom’s offerings often go absolutely crazy above 7 kHz on my head.

One thing I attribute to the rocky treble response here—as well as the significant openness —is that the sense of space of the ATH-ADX7000 is easily flagship-level. I get a very immersive, enveloping sense of the sounds orbiting my head being quite large, while also having air and distance behind them such that nothing ever sounds anywhere near oppressively close or claustrophobic. I’m not one to gush about spaciousness in headphones—frankly it’s the least important quality to me—but I do think it’s one aspect that ATH-ADX7000 absolutely nails, and it’s probably the aspect that most screams “flagship” to me about the sound profile here.

Additionally, I would say the ATH-ADX7000’s presentation of “dynamics” is pretty damn competent, especially compared to the other headphones in its price class. It’s a quality I don’t find the HIFIMAN Susvara/HE1000 or Meze Empyrean/Elite lineups to do well at all, and I even find the 2022 revision of the Focal Utopia to underperform in this quality relative to the ATH-ADX7000.

This is likely due to a few differences in their frequency response—the planars are too bright and mid-scooped to accurately convey attack, the Utopia has the opposite problem being too mid-forward and bass/treble recessed—but even though ATH-ADX7000 isn’t playing in the same realm as the original HE6, original Utopia, original Clear, Elex, or Philphone in terms of dynamic punch, I think it’s probably still one of the more punchy sounding open-back dynamic driver headphones you’re going to find. It wouldn’t be my pick for maximizing that particular quality, but I think it performs competently while also having exceptional spaciousness.

Overall, the sound profile of the ATH-ADX7000 is what I’d call “flagship warm,” which is to say it’s warm overall, with solid midrange and bass tuning, but with treble colorations that are going to be hit and miss across different listeners. For me, the treble is the obvious weak point relative to what I prioritize (tonal accuracy and ease of enjoyment), but I think it’s just normal enough for me to enjoy while also being just weird enough to elicit all of the interesting “audiophile” qualities like spaciousness and “detail” that people shopping in this range are going to be looking for.

The balance it strikes between competent accuracy in the areas that are likely to be fairly consistent across listeners (bass and midrange), as well as excitement where people are going to be looking for it (treble), means ATH-ADX7000 is probably one of the most reasonably-tuned flagship open-back headphones I’ve come across. It’s not perfect for me, but as a headphone that costs $3500 and carries with that price certain expectations, it’s one of the very few headphones I’ve come across that costs this much, but has a sound that actually makes sense for that price.

Vs. HEDDphone TWO GT

This is the comparison I was most keen on making because the ATH-ADX7000 in some ways actually reminds me of the HEDDphone TWO GT. Unlike most flagship headphones they have a palpably thick, heavy bass response and also have a natural sounding midrange. They also share some wonkiness in the treble, which raised the question: which handles this sort of approach better?

They both have pretty obvious comfort downsides, but I would say they have different sorts of compromises. While ATH-ADX7000 has the incredibly hard and uncomfortable dual-rod headband, it is also incredibly lightweight, which may mean for some people the lack of headband padding isn’t too bad an issue. While HEDDphone TWO GT has a similarly stiff and uncomfortable headpad, and is way heavier, it has better earpads (both in terms of shape and comfort), while also having a way better stock cable.

In terms of sound, HEDDphone TWO GT has a heavier, meatier bass presentation that also comes across as slightly more textured and vivid than that of the ATH-ADX7000. It also has a slightly more natural presentation for vocals to my ear, coming across a bit less warm and more “down-the-middle,” so to speak. However, it definitely has a rougher treble response than the Audio-Technica; in back-to-back testing, the 9-11 kHz area on the HEDDphone TWO GT was much more intense and rough sounding. Even if on certain recordings it did make it sound more detailed, on all recordings, the ATH-ADX7000 was much more pleasant to listen to.

That said, I think when it comes right down to it, the ATH-ADX7000 is a better sounding headphone, as it does the things HEDDphone TWO GT does well, almost as well, while improving a bit in the treble and improving a lot when it comes to the sense of spaciousness. HEDDphone TWO GT has a fun trick when it comes to lateral spacing of hard-panned elements, but otherwise it can sound rather closed-in. ATH-ADX7000 doesn’t have this problem, considering it’s one of the most spacious dynamic driver headphones I’ve heard, and it also has a more listenable—if still imperfect—treble response.

Obviously the Audio-Technica is almost $1500 more than HEDDphone TWO GT, but I do think it’s probably the better all around headphone. The lighter weight and the more spacious presentation while not compromising too hard on the things TWO GT does well means it’s almost akin to a linear upgrade. I just wish it had a better cable and comfort profile.

Conclusion

It’s rare I come away from evaluating a flagship headphone with much positive to say (Resolve often says I’m “price biased, but in reverse”) but I can’t lie: ATH-ADX7000 impressed me with how it balanced sounding normal with sounding colorful enough to fit as an entry into the flagship space.

While it’s not a headphone I feel a particular pull to own—the cabling, comfort, and treble issues are enough to put it firmly out of the running for my ownership—it’s a headphone I enjoyed spending time with. When comparing it to my favorite headphones, it didn’t sound nearly as out of place as most uber-expensive headphones do.

I find that for a product priced like this, customers expect a certain level of “spice” in the headphone’s tuning; they want their expensive headphone to elicit fun reactions when listening to music, normalcy be damned. ATH-ADX7000 balances the esoteric aspects of its tuning with such a normal and enjoyable midrange and bass profile that I find it really hard to think of any dealbreaking flaws for the kind of customer this headphone is targeting.

For that reason, as well as its unique combination of spaciousness and bassiness/warmth, I’m happy to recommend the ATH-ADX7000 as one of the very, very few flagship headphones I genuinely enjoy listening to music with. I would just recommend that users experiment with bending the headband to get the amount of clamp that works best for them—both in terms of comfort as well as the balance between treble and the rest of the sound profile—and maybe grab a Capra Strap if the top-of-head comfort is too much of an issue.

Lastly, I want to give one more special shout out to Shiwaku Nonomi, who is responsible for—in my opinion—leading Audio-Technica in a much, much better direction. To me, it seems fair she gets some extra credit for helping turn what was one of my least favorite headphone brands… into arguably the most interesting brand making flagship headphones right now.