ETA Ada Headphone Review: Don't Worry, Be Happy

As an ETA cheerleader that hasn't had any ear time with Ada, how does it compare to the Minis?

 

I agree completely. Tommy, Ev, and Tom allowed me to demo these at the recent HiFiCon in San Jose, and I was really impressed.

 

Would love to hear some impressions of Ada's speed / resolving capabilities compared to something like the RS2x. I've been looking for a set of supra-aurals to use as a portable pair of headphones around the house when I don't want to be tied to my desktop setup or just want a different presentation. I'll probably get something very simple and small like the new FiiO KA11 dongle to pair with my phone for maximum convenience, so I'm looking for a pair of headphones that can be driven fairly well by something like that.

So far I'm considering the RS2x, SR325x, and the Ada. I have no personal experience with Grado or ETA headphones but have read up on all their threads here. I guess ETA won't have the characteristic crunch of the Grados, but would they also be a good fit for electric guitar-focused music? Mostly looking for something that will also be a sonic departure from my Atticus and Verite.

Looking forward to reading more about these!

 

Sounds incredible. HD25 is tuned somewhat different to HD600/650, the bass emphasis is upper bass more than midbass and it has a Ford Escort XR3i rather than a Bentley Continental vibe. It sounds like this might be along the HD25 lines but a bit more neutral in the bass?

 

I've forgotten Marv - have you heard the O2 from ETA? They are my 'bio-dynamic grado king' at the moment

 

I wonder if harmonic distortion will be able to "explain" part of the subjective bass punch. I mean, in the way that the slam of the HD650s seems to be exacerbated by second and third-order distortion.

 

A loaner would be great, sign me up

 

I have a really big head, like I can’t fit into focal or beyer headphones big. How accommodating are these? Thanks!

 

I don’t have the Adas but I have the O2 which uses same headband (which is also the same as a Sony MDR-7506). You can bend the metal part of the headband to adjust for size and comfort. There was this recent post on head-fi where doing so made it comfortable for someone else with a larger head.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/eta-ada-grados-competitor.971750/post-18008683

 

hello,
please let me be in on the loaner.
i love my HD25's!
cheers!

 

I know I am not the most talkative of sound, and maybe thats fine, but I very much enjoy my Ada's!

I have been listening to them constantly ever since Ev suggested a fit afjustment to the headband its been a night and day difference. Comfy, cool looking and sound amazing.

I really am glad I snagged a pair early on, theyre now my go to headphones.

 

Hah! Well that certainly looks a damned sight better than some other, more expensive recentish releases! I tend to think that biodynas benefit from being voiced dark on account of those snappier transients, but yeah something like the Nighthawk was an overcompensation on that front with the Klipsch HP-3 perhaps not managing to tame things enough despite it already presenting restrained macro and microdynamics (to be fair, took a few years and getting ears on a properly-amped HD600 before that REALLY started bugging me).

On that note, don't suppose you can get hands on an HP-3 now by the way, Marv? Really rather curious how that'd measure with the modern visualisations (i.e. distortion surface and burst response). Would just send you mine but it's long since found a new home a few time zones ahead of me. Not the most popular headphone for reasons obvious, granted, but it was really peculiar in how it handled microdynamics so I'm rather curious how that'd present in measurements.

Back on topic, Fostex and Sennheiser really do need to step their game up nowadays.

 

Since there's no Ada impression thread, I'm guessing we're going to include impressions here. If the Mods want to keep our impressions separate, feel free to move to a new thread.

Many thanks as always to the organizers of this tour, and ETA as well. The ability to to borrow audio equipment is a privilege I am truly thankful for. I have enjoyed every ETA headphone I've heard, some more than others, and the Ada is no exception. Evan is very good at eking the most out of every driver ETA decides to work with in my opinion, and the Ada is something special.

I had the Ada on hand for a while, but didn't get to hear them near as long as would have wanted. Because, life. In light of this I'll be giving this more of an overview than the in depth review it really does deserve.

My chain for music playback originates from my HP EliteDesk playing mostly FLAC files from JRiver fed into my Gustard U12. From there the Gustard switches the signal to coaxial into my Bifrost 2 (M/B not NOS) which feeds either my ifi Pro iCAN (1st gen) or ZMF Pendant (also 1st gen).

Comfort wise, I found Ada to be good, not great.I don't get along well with many on ears for the most part, and I found Ada to be a little too tight around the ears as is. I do own the ETA Mini-O (also an on ear) and I've been able to bend the metal sliders to sufficiently reduce pressure, enabling longer listening sessions with greater comfort. Obviously since this is a loaner, I wouldn't alter it in any way and left the headband in stock form. The forward tilted cable jacks were a welcome design for me too.

After Ada was already sent on down the line, I received a package from ETA with an add on strap for my headphones. I've only begun using them, but they do seem to make the Mini-O even more comfortable overall. I imagine this might have helped a bit with the Ada as well. YMMV ofc.

Touching on sound, unsurprisingly I thought Marv nailed it saying that Ada is mostly neutral with a slight midrange emphasis.

The bass is full and taught. No resounding midbass, no subbass pounding here. Midbass is there when it's called for, and the roll off doesn't sound quite as extreme as the graphs might suggest, but it's not a basshead's delight by any stretch of the imagination. Far from one note, bass had texture & depth IMO. Upright bass is a delight on Ada.

The mids are (mostly) magic. The Ada followed a similar trend to my experience with the ETA O2 loaner I had: The mids struck me as being just too hot for my tastes when used with the ifi Pro iCAN. At the end of the O2 loaner I plugged it in to my ZMF Pendant on a whim, and despite being a 32ohm headphone the O2 sounded glorious. I had the same experience with the (edit) 16ohm Ada.

This tells me there's probably a lack of synergy with the Bifrost 2/ifi combo with certain headphones that I'll have to address at some point. Endgame is an elusive minx.

Once that niggle was sorted out, the mids were captivating in my main system, wholly engaging and attention grabbing in the best possible way. Excepting maybe EDM and the like I didn't find a genre that wasn't well served by Ada. Acoustic guitar and female vocals in particular were a favorite here.

My treble perception is spotty as hell, but I didn't hear anything out of place here at all. No audible jagged nasties, no major holes or blunted cymbals distracting me. Neither did anything seem over emphasized in any way. For my tastes Ada has the treble in the Goldilocks zone.

It'd be a disservice to ETA if I didn't touch on the portable nature of these headphones. I was able to get Ada to sound fantastic in my main listening setup, but this headphone is also quite dongle friendly. From a Fiio M6 to the Shanling Up4 Ada was still a headphone I didn't want to put down.

There is an obvious tradeoff with detail when using Bluetooth, but it wasn't off-putting and was to be expected from wireless fidelity. Using the little Shanling as a dongle sounded even better IMO, and since the Ada does obviously scale with better gear I imagine those with better DAPs and Dongles on hand would get even better results.

Of course no headphone is perfect, but I really feel that in this case it's more a question of preferences than outright flaws. Although Ada does scale, it's not a detail monster. I never found anything to be lacking, but I don't think it's on Utopia/HD800 level (ofc I don't have them on hand to compare). I think it's safe to say that Ada is not a basshead headphone. Ada doesn't have the widest headstage, but it's definitely not 2D. Coherent with decent width depth and height, nothing calling attention to itself. A good thing IMO. Comfort can be an issue. If you're not an on-ear fan, these might not sway you, but they are among the most comfortable on ears I've tried.

If any of the above are not deal-breakers for you, at the current listing price of $349 (USD) the Ada is a steal. Pair it with the right gear, either modest or expensive, and if you enjoy a neutral sound I expect you'd be quite happy. I don't want to throw too much coal in the Hype Train's engine here, but I do believe Ada is something quite special.

 

@Jinxy245 great review! Are you able to comment a bit on how they compare soundwise to the Mini-O?