Like the V-700s, the ear cups on the V-900s are reversible, and the arms fold up into the headband, which for me is a requirement to make headphones of this size practical enough to carry around on a daily basis. The arms do not turn sideways as on the V-700s, but after having owned the ‘700s for about a year and a half, I can tell you that feature is kind of gimmicky and pointless. Single-ear monitoring is easily possible with one ear cup simply flipped backward.
Though the drive units are of identical size and the specs are all the same, the sound of the Amorphous Diamond Evaporated drivers is very different from that of the V-700's PET drivers. Without the use of an EQ, the V-700s have a fairly strong bottom end, a warm if somewhat recessed midrange, and highs that are laid back and sweet, though lacking in some detail; typical characteristics of a silk-dome tweeter. Bass heads may want to nudge the 40hz region up a bit, and they benefit from a bump in the 500hz region to bring the midrange into sharper focus, but otherwise the ‘700s do not require much in terms of EQing.
When I took the ‘900s out of the box and put them on, I knew I was never going to be able to wear the ‘700s again. The ‘900s are incredibly light and amazingly comfortable; they are up there with the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever tried, easily besting my old MDR-CD1700s (and without the goofy looks) and the big Sennheiser HD-600s. They may not have the fancy leather or velvet of the MDR-CD3000s or Beyer DT880s, but in terms of sheer comfort they rank with the best of the best.
When I plugged them into my new iRiver iFP-999 flash player and fired them up with some tracks on Black Label Society’s Mafia, my excitement faded. With no EQ, the V-900s are very lean in bass response (that “5hz” rating is an outright lie) and the highs, while certainly more detailed than the V-700s, are extremely forward and dominating, (aluminum tweeter all the way) leaving you scrambling for the volume knob, or in this case, stick. Not exactly impressive. I suspect that most of the people that have bashed the V-900s in user reviews stopped here and sent them back. Indeed, out of the box, they sound like cheap, crappy headphones. I was not quite ready to throw them back in the box myself just yet, (sooo comfy!) so I decided to see if the iRiver’s EQ could make a difference.
A +6db boost at 40hz brought the bass from MIA to front and center, though there still isn’t much of anything below 30hz. +3db boosts in several mid frequencies completely changed the character of the midrange. It falls more towards neutral than the ‘700s warm character, but there’s a lot more transparency and detail than the ‘700s can muster. I knew I was definitely on to something, but the highs were still too aggressive. A -3db cut at 14khz completely solved that problem. With the highs finally under proper control, I was free to really crank the ‘900s, which changed their character again from good to phenomenal.
At low levels (with a lot of EQ) the ‘900s sound is decent, but the soundstage is somewhat compressed, leaving the sound a little flat and lifeless. I suspect that my old portable CD player that couldn’t give the CD1700s proper power would also not be able to drive the ‘900s. Fortunately my new iRiver can dish out 18mW @ 16ohms, so even with the volume at just a little more than half, the ‘900s come alive with a deep and wide soundstage, terrific imaging, and superb detail, beating the V-700s across the entire frequency range. The ‘700s have a bit more bass and can go a bit deeper, but the ‘900s have much more control down low and sound much more musical.
