ATH-ES7 All Over Again

So after about a year plus of owning this headphone, I have sort of banished it to the side of the my table where it did not see the sun for months. In part because I had some scratches (heart pain). Since the very sleek and fashionable mirror cups are prone to smudges and scratches, it wasn't that portable afterall (well I am a very careless user). Also coupled with other problems: it got very uncomfortable after long wear because it was too clampy on the head (with my glasses) and looked goofy (both of which became slightly better after I tried to bend it out a little.)

Then recently, I got into researching Denon AH-D2000 that cost a whopping $349 on Amazon. It took me to going back and listening to ATH-ES7 again in an attempt to stop myself from lusting after another pair of crazily expensive headphones...

After reading almost every audiophile forum for AH-D2000, I found this wonderful piece of software, Breakaway Audio Enhancer. Installed it on the computer, downloaded some lossless music (Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix) and started listening music with ATH-ES7.

Guess what, I fell in love with the headphone all over again. Previously I found that with the headphone, some of my music (e.g. Late Night Alumni @256kbps) sounded a bit too bright to me. After using Breakaway Audio Enhancer, ATH-ES7 is a charmer. This successfully curbed my materialistic lust over AH-D2000, although I still longed to test listen to this piece of 'best headphone' within a 'reasonable price range'.

I have to say though, there's been so much rave about AH-D2000 since the first time it came out that I felt so intrigued by it. Then I also found out that the price of AH-D2000 dropped to somewhere in the $200 range for a while and suddenly jumped to the ridiculous $349 on Amazon.

As a comparison, I looked up Amazon for the price of ATH-ES7 now and to my great delight, this headphone is now selling at $199.95! This price totally justified my purchase at $88. Psychologically, it did make me think this headphone was much better~! I know I know, I totally fell for the marketing strategy of tagging something at a much higher price to create the illusion of 'brand and class'... But what can I say, I'm a vain person when it comes to headphones!

All in all, I'm re-using ATH-ES7 now and its probably a good idea to bring it out for a walk during the winter as a way to warm my ears. Also a good alternative to earbuds that sends static shocks to my ears!