Ackk. This thread is killing me. I passed on the AWKT and ordered the AWAS because of some reviews I read and the AWAS sound signature seemed much more to my tastes. The damned things have been on back-order since late July when I ordered them and I’m itching to get my hands on them now. Dang backorder status…
Ya I was going to get the AWAS but went for the AWKT. Who you order your AWAS from?
I had many points and credit with Adorama and ordered mine from them the week they became available but they were a special order item anyway it seems.
I could not get credit with them but I did with American Musical. I like I can buy stuff and pay it off with 0% interest. 
1 Like
Just arrived today. Those are beautiful headphones. Cabel sucks tough. A bit bass shy from beginning but the more I listen the better they sound.
3 Likes
Show me your wood
Will take a picture as soon as I take them off my head. It might be a while lol
1 Like
@M0N did you have a chance to try awkt? Just asking if you had some preferences about chains. I am still trying them on what I currently have. From short session I like them more on mlp than on burson.
So what do you like on the mlp more than the burson? I can kinda see that being the case since the mlp is more relaxed and would better fill them out, with a bit more expansive stage (is my guess), where I bet the burson would push too forward at times and not add nearly enough body compared to the mlp
Burson was kind of too much in my face. They seem to have a lot of details and with Burson i had to put the volume down.
Mlp as you said just calms them down. Not loosing much of a detial. I also run mlp now from my rpi4 + allo boss dac so I guees maybe bifrost would relaxed them a bit more.
Will give them try also on echo 2 just to see how that sounds.
Makes sense
Yeah the bf2 would help for sure, and give more detail/technical performance
Will be curious to see how that goes, that should be nice
Yeah I will move it back to my desk setup shortly I just rotate what I have on the streamer in the living room, mainly asgard sits there.
Also mlp gave a bit more bass energy to awkt. They are for sure most differently sounding hp in my collection.
Btw do they scale with higher end gear?
I think they do yeah, not as much as the adx5000, but they scale a decent bit for being aimed at more portable
Not that I’ve personal experiences with both but from what I read (Altho probably from a different hifi audience) whilst the high impedance ADX5000 scales well in a more conventional sense, the low impedance stuff like AWKT isn’t exactly aimed for portable use and is in some way more picky and scales better, but you with amps that are designed for them. I’m sure there are others but I think a classic pairing for flagship Audio-Technica woodies would be Luxman P750U. A minimum would be the Audio-Technica BHA100. From my experiences I sometimes feel low impedance flagships are quite tricky to find pairings (TH900, Grado flagships, Denon D9200, Sony Z1R to name a few)
Oh it’s absolutely still picky, I only consider it more portable minded when you compare it to like the adx5k, if you compare something like a stellia to an awkt, the stellia is much much more forgiving of lesser source gear or bad pairings where the awkt won’t be. The more true portable option was the AWAS, which was much more forgiving in source gear and source material, with a more warmer fun tuning that wasn’t as technical (but also not as stand out as the awkt, also the wp900 also exists)
That’s a pretty solid choice overall, wish that amp was more attainable in the us (it’s decently overpriced and much more reasonable either inside jp or eu from what I see)
I would agree around that range. I don’t think I’d call that the bare minimum as I do think in a pinch something like the plat can get it done to a decent degree, but that 1-2k used range amp wise I think is the sweet spot for it, but you can continue to go higher from there. Personally I thought some very nice matches (limiting to around 2-3k used) were a pass hpa-1, cavalli liquid gold (og, not monoprice) or crimson, the aformentioned luxman, and also perhaps a bryston bha-1 or violectric v281 on the lower end. For tube, I think something like a cayin ha300, cary cad-300sei, ear hp4, and perhaps a manley absolute headphone amp were pretty enjoyable combos
Things I like to personally prioritize in pairings for the awkt would be something to improve width and not negatively impact depth or stage coherency, add body and warmth without reducing tightness and speed and making sure there isn’t bleed, and also tame the treble and make it a bit more sweet overall. And of course I don’t really want to hamper detail personally
I would agree for the first 3, but for the z1r to me it feels pretty simple since honestly I’ve found that I enjoy them the most with the sony amps, so if you are dedicated to the z1r you might as well just get a sony amp to go along with it imo lol
1 Like
Agree, AWAS, AP2000TI and WP900 would be better suited for portable use. I was just thinking that low impedance only means easy to get the volume, not easy to drive well, even stuff like WP900 is still quite picky for source in my experience.
I think the day when Audio-Technica becomes as popular as Sennheiser the Luxman will be much more accessible, but one can only wish lol
Those sound like some good options, noted. Sometimes if AT releases a limited edition woodie they tend to release a matching headphone amp as well (like W2002 and HA2002).
That was my thinking too, how Z1R kinda sounds a bit off with anything other than Sony amps, so in a sense it’s a bit tricky, like if you get it you have to get the whole package. (To some extent the ATs as well, one example would be W5000 and HA5000)
1 Like
Thanks guys reading your posts caused just some anxiety that my setup is not sufficient lol
Wouldn’t call it sufficient, just that any flagship headphones require quite a bit of effort to find a setup that pairs with them, and that setup won’t necessarily pair well with another flagship. I mean at least that’s my philosophy (also why I don’t touch flagships so hey what am I even talking about)
I got the ATH AWAS headphones a few weeks ago and burned them in and was kind of sad to hear the stock headphones with the pads. I am running the headphones with the Singxer SA-1 amp and the VMV D1se Dac. I am use to hearing music with my Meze Liric headphones. I got two new pads hopeing it would make the awas come alive. Dear god the new pads woke up the headphones and the the diff is night and day. The stock pads have your ears way to close to the drivers and the new pads push them away just enough. That little change made all the difference. The two pads I got. 
Wow, those are cheap! Much different than Dekoni. 