Audio-Technica ATH-R70x

The nearest thing to consensus in the record: a neutral, reference-style balance with a gentle warm tilt — Crinacle files it 'Warm neutral' with an A+ tone grade, RTINGS calls it a warm profile that is 'great for neutral sound', and Head-Fi's earfonia puts it halfway between the HD 800's brightness and the HD 650's warmth. The minority hears the same curve as scooped or slightly dark: Sound On Sound's 'glint-in-the-eye curve', Hark01's 'dark tilt', and the 4–5 kHz dip that makes vocals a touch 'undefined' for Headphones.com.

“Excellent imaging. Mostly neutral/flat tuning with an ever-so-slight tilt towards warmth.”

Crinacle, Headphone Ranking List

“As we can see from the graph, the ATH-R70x has quite a neutral-reference style tuning.”

Fc-Construct, Headphones.com

Sources split on a low end every rig measures the same way — a shelf that starts falling at 60 Hz and sits 8–11 dB under Harman at 20 Hz, essentially the HD 600's. The larger camp (Sound On Sound, Tape Op, RTINGS, Fiorucci, most owners who came from an HD 600/650) hears it as deep, even and slightly forward for an open back, with more impact than the Sennheisers; the other (ASR, Headphones.com, NA Blur, Tofub00b, the metal listeners) hears a roll-off with no mid-bass punch to compensate — 'wooly' is the word — and ASR found the driver distorts if you EQ the missing octave back in.

Mostly praised — Resolve scores the midrange 8/10 and calls it exceptional, MusicRadar says it is 'all about the mids' for mixing, and owners describe natural, unforced vocals with no shout. The caveat comes from the 4–5 kHz dip: Sound On Sound hears the midrange as 'slightly recessed and soft', AudioTechnology wanted more low-mid definition in dense mixes, and HD 600 owners (Fahryst, some_person_guy, BurntFemboyWater) hear the Sennheiser's vocals as clearer and more present.

“Exceptional midrange, just slightly unrefined and non-incisive treble presence. Very spacious sounding though.”

Resolve, headphones.com ranking list

“The mid–range, meanwhile, seems pure and uncoloured, albeit slightly recessed and soft.”

Sam Inglis, Sound On Sound

Sources split on the same two features: a recessed 4–7 kHz region and a small 7–9 kHz lift. The larger camp hears smooth, airy and non-fatiguing — Sound On Sound's 'soft, airy, understated presence', Tape Op's gently tamed extreme highs, owners who can listen for hours. The other hears the weak link: Resolve's 'non-incisive treble', RTINGS preferring the HD 600's treble accuracy, Fiorucci's 'a little dark', and a grain-or-peak minority — canaan's 7 kHz spike, davek's 'grainy in the highs', RiversideCafe's 'hurt me a bit somewhere'. Which you hear tracks how much upper-treble energy you want and, owners say, the pads.

Sources split, and unusually sharply. The majority — RTINGS, Headphones.com, Tape Op, Sound On Sound, Resolve, most Head-Fi and Reddit owners — calls the stage open, immersive and wider than an HD 600's, the headline reason to buy it. A real minority hears the opposite: Head-Fi's Asr (six months, two units) found it 'projected virtually no stage at all', canaan called it the most closed-in open-back he had tried, AudioTechnology and NA Blur heard a smaller-than-expected stage, and ASR's amirm heard highs that 'collapse spatial effects' until EQ'd. Immersive-not-wide is the phrase that reconciles most of them.

The strongest technical claim in the record and close to unanimous: precise, coherent placement with a centred image and no dead zones — Crinacle leads his one-line verdict with it, Headphones.com calls the stereo accuracy outstanding, Tofub00b, Giru, canaan and the gamers on ASR and Reddit repeat it. The lone dissent is Audio46's retail comparison, which hears layers 'congealed' next to the R70xa.

“For instruments not strictly centered in the mix, the stereo accuracy is outstanding.”

Fc-Construct, Headphones.com

“Imaging is precise, with a strong phantom center surrounded by a wide soundstage.”

Andy Hong, Tape Op

Sources split. One camp — Tape Op, MusicRadar, twister6, Giru, canaan, rkt31 — hears honest, clean detail that is enough for mixing and 'slightly better than the HD 650'. The other hears a soft-edged presentation that blunts it: Headphones.com's 'soft note definition', Asr's 'severe lack of clarity', thpo's planars comparison, Hark01's 'not on the detailed side', and the owners who returned it as 'a less detailed HD 650'. Several in the second camp say that softness is exactly why they can wear it for hours.

Sources split almost evenly. Tape Op hears good transients and quick settling, MusicRadar a response 'in no way soft', and owners who came from the HD 6XX or Sundara (Hooster, Peternz, iTzKiTTeH) hear more punch than either. Headphones.com hears 'a little flat and lacking impact', Asr a moderate lack of dynamics and blunted percussion, Average Frequency 'more polite, somewhat softer and a bit slower', and the metal listeners on Reddit find kick drums lack impact. Amplifier voltage is the variable both camps cite.

Sources split along head shape. For three quarters of the weight it is the lightest, most comfortable full-size headphone they have worn — 210 g, no headband on the crown, breathable pads: MusicRadar's 'most comfortable we've tried by any manufacturer', Tape Op, Headphones.com and a dozen owners. For the rest the same design fails: ASR's amirm found the paddle 'digging a hole in my head' and the cup rubbing his ear, RTINGS and Fiorucci warn about the small cups, keanex found the pads too thin for the clamp, Average Frequency bent the headband to loosen it, and silent-circuit sold his because the pads made them 'effectively… on-ears'. No vertical cup swivel, either.

Sources split three ways. Reviewers mostly call it light but sturdy — a well-engineered mix of plastic and metal that does not feel cheap. A second group's complaints are about the accessories: a single 3 m straight cable with a proprietary twist-lock connector, no shorter cable, no case, no external L/R marking. The third group is the long-term owners who broke it: the plastic swivel joint between yoke and cup cracks (pauldoni, DecentLevi, SammiiJae's cup 'snapped off', 2roK's two RMAs), the hinge loosens with use (cpu235), the wing-pad foam falls off (NeonChoom) and the sticker peels. Hold it by the headband, they say.

Open-back by design: it blocks nothing and leaks both ways. Sound On Sound calls the leakage 'a fair bit' but 'far from being the worst offenders', AudioTechnology rules it out for tracking, and InnerFidelity measured 4 dB of broadband attenuation. A quiet-room headphone.

“As you’d expect of open–back ‘phones, there is a fair bit of leakage, but they are far from being the worst offenders in this area.”

Sam Inglis, Sound On Sound

“And as you’d expect, the unsealed drivers do terminally bleed audio so you wouldn’t use them for tracking duties.”

Preshan John, AudioTechnology

Sources split, and the price moved under them. At the $349 list, Sound On Sound, MusicRadar, Tape Op, Headphones.com, Fiorucci and most Head-Fi reviewers called it a genuine HD 600 alternative worth auditioning; ASR left it off the recommended list, RTINGS rates the HD 560S better, Asr thought it worth $250 at most, canaan 'only… if it's massively on sale', and Max Settings could 'see why' nobody talks about it. Since discontinuation the second camp has thinned: at $70–150 used, even ambivalent owners call it a steal, and ASR's own thread now hosts a 2026 defence of it.