Here’s my first review in a very very long time. I consider myself an analytic listener and have been for years, but I haven’t heard most gear, so I can’t compare these directly with similar options like the elegia, emu teaks, fostex or denon, but the people on head-fi have already done that. This comes from the perspective of someone who is starting to climb the mid-fi ladder.
The wp900 is the little, portable brother of the Audio Technica woodies AWAS and AWKT. Compared to those, the wp900 is known to be more energetic, in your face, slightly v-shaped, with less resolution. I was lucky to get 500 for a brand new pair with shipping and taxes included, thats what I call a steal.
SOURCE
I mostly run these balanced with a (GE JAN) tube buffered schiit magnius, it gives them a rich fullness in the sound that my other sources can’t, so this is source dependent.
Sounds very underwhelming straight from my xiaomi phone; it sounds very good from my ifi zen dac amp, the thing is the (tubed) magnius gives it a tighter bass and fills the soundstage way better.
FIT & COMFORT
These fit me extremely comfortably, theres a ton of room in the earpads, more than say the meze calssics or the msr7, big ears are no concern. The clamp came too soft out of the box, I had a problem with the seal because I wear glasses, but It was completely fixed by bending the top of the headband inwards, so its clampier now. Also, when im laying down on bed the headphones get pushed against the pillow in a way that gives the sound extra warmth, these are my sleeping cans now, I find that warmth very soothing.
BUILD
Just gorgeus, but the build quality feels flimsy, I wouldn’t throw these around without a hard case and I don’t wanna scratch em, the noise isolation is the least I’ve heard in a closed back, it also leaks of sound a bit outside; the materials used in this headphone are not very reflective by design. The included cables are good enough for 1.2m needs.
SOUND
The mid bass is strong, theres more focus on the mid bass punch rather than on the sub-bass rumble, drum kicks fall on this sweet spot. I’d describe the bass as fast, tight and clean, closer to neutral than the other v-shaped headphones i’ve tried.
The wp900 is more revealing than the hifiman sundaras, bad recordings can get very annoying, badly compressed songs will sound terrible. The level of detail retrieval is competitive with the sundara (I consider this an amazing feat), with the wp900 you get actual bass punch and the treble is somehow more detailed and airier, but the mids don’t feel as accurate, and obviously the sound is not as open. They are both very fast in delivery, effortless sounding.
The sound overall is quite coloured, the v-shaping is very smooth but there are some peaks, it feels more like an m shape to me, there aren’t any reliable frequency response charts that I could find, my take on the frequency response tuning is that its meant to give an analog, yet natural feeling to the sound.
With a very substantial drop on the lower mids, the wp900 gives dat power instead to the higher mids, male singers with acute voice and most female singers sound very clear and natural, the downside is some specific voice timbres get either recessed or sharp.
The treble is the reason why these are keepers, its just that good, I can feel it pierce my brain as much as I like without any sibilance.
Even with their slightly boosted bass and treble I can listen for hours without fatigue (I’m treble sensitive), the non-clampy, soft pads help out with that.
The soundstage and imaging are superb, the soundscape size is probably average for the price, but I think the presentation is quite special, this one I perceive it as a 3d sphere, music feels as if it was a picture taken by a fisheye lens. The imaging is extremely precise within that sphere, which makes these very good for gaming.
The dynamics are very energetic, electric guitars downright crunch, sparkly and airy sounds are great, you really do feel the power of both the kick drums and the cymbals/crashes, the wp900 has a live, immediate feeling to the sound.
FINAL TOUGHTS
The wp900 is a powerhouse, but in a subtle way, that power may be aggressive but never excesive. This is a closed back that has a bit of color and is detailed at the same time. It’s great with a lot of records, but not an all-rounder.
For the metal genre these are insane, the wp900 does electric guitars best, it feels like my brain is the amplifier and the guitar is connected to it, megadeth and pantera are personal favorites on the wp900, the drums are also highlighted. With something more “calm” like Dire Straits it’s the same, just great guitars.
I didn’t like these for EDM, hip-hop and some specific singers. These do better with jazz, rock, indie, R&B. For me the WP900 really shines with either very sweet vocals and instruments- or the opposite, very rough and distorted; They are always a joy when the songs are very skillfully mixed/mastered, specially with warmer mixes.
The other genre I’ll highlight is pop, specially jpop, as it combines high energy with cute voices I become sugoi’d, Japanese voices sound astonishing, Kyary Pyamu Pyamu transported me straight to another dimension, the layering of her songs is extremely detailed and her voice is moe af. Asian records in general sound really good on the wp900.
That’s it, I hope more people get to try these, they have brought a lot of joy to my audiophile journey.