hey, this just quick impression i have for the SA5000. i was very interested in them and was trying to find way to audition them and so forth. got them from a loan from very kind person.

anyways, not much of review type person or not great with wording,but i'll try. just simple music lover so i have no professional background or experience i like to mention. just very simple person. if curious i always use my computer main source with mp3 to wav depending how well recorded the music is. stuff i have my computer hooked up i'm using:

Echo Audiofire 2 audio interface(balanced, professional +4db/4v gain mode).

1985 Yamaha R-9 Class A Receiver(only receiver made to use a true class A power amp section. Based off the famous M-80 power amp).

DIY plain 1/4'' TRS to speaker output box for driving/testing headphones off speaker outputs(no resistors. just straight wire)

now that's out of the way. lets see how i think of the SA5000.

first listen i noticed right away the clarity these things produce. i personally love clarity and was very use to the clarity of my modded fostex and 240DF so these are a treat in this department. very low distortion,every detail is presented with great precise clarity.has a nice ''black background'' people call it(i'm not sure how to say it honestly). soundstage is surprise to me. very dynamic and nice and open when you take a first listen. great separation. best thing i like about these is they are nicely very revealing of the source and tells you ''how it is''. it does it's job well in this department. Also love the speed of them in the top-end. they're little focused on type ''airy'' sound but present it very nicely in my opinion. does something special with acoustic music and some forms of electronic music.

i find the bass perfect for me. remind me of the 240DF bass in a way. nice decay,and lets you ''hear'' the impact the way it was meant. no accentuation at all. extension though is pretty good. seem to dig down to about 30-35hz without straining the drivers or dropping off. around 35-40 hz it will start to roll off good amount but will still reach down to 30hz pretty well.hard to explain. no big deal to me though since most modern music is accentuated bass to mid-bass frequencies to give that artificial impact/thump to make up for bad dynamics.

treble to the air range it has nice extension i personally feel and it's probably the extension that gives it very good separation,clarity and ''airy'' sound. i really like it even though lot of songs it can sound i say sharp. it's sharp sounding to the point of annoyance but not very ear piercing unless listen at high volumes(i don't listen at extreme volumes since i care bout my hearing).i find them very smooth as well to me with great decay personally.


to be honest only gripe i have with them is the sharp top-end sometimes happens on poorly recorded modern music. it's very bad with most electronic music of today. strong points is their way to present ''airness'' and has actually very impressive and enjoyable imaging and wonderful separation.very revealing and detailed. overall i really enjoy these a lot. such joy to listen to.

well that's it and how i feel of them. i know it's quick but doesn't really take me much time to pick up what sounds i like and don't really. most of time i hear stuff right away but being bit busy i needed just little more time to analyze them or so to say. i really like them.

here's quick pic:


used with my phone. it's horrible at picking up light so i apologize.

EDIT: i originally wanted to audition these see how they are compared to my k601 with it's foam disc removed and off my set-up since i been using the k601 lot after i sent my previous fostex and 240DF off. i have to say i really like the SA5000 over the k601 personally. much better headphone to me in my opinion.