What are they ?
The ATH-DWL5000s are a Dolby-Headphone based wireless surround sound Headphone setup similar to the Pioneer SE-DIR800, SE-DIR1000, SE-DIR2000 and Philips SBC-HD1500U. They provide a simulated surround sound experience for the listener along with freedom from trailing wires. The package includes the 'phones themselves, a nice stand, a base unit with 9V DC adaptor, a remote control and batteries for the phones together with a battery charger. The 'phones run on standard AA batteries. The NiMH batteries supplied with the unit give around 8 Hrs listening time from a full charge which takes under 4Hrs with the supplied charger. Audiocubes also included a voltage converter to allow the DC adaptor to be used in a UK socket, albeit using a shaving adaptor as it's a european two plug.
Cost AFAIK the ATH-DWL5000s are only sold in Japan. I bought them from Audiocubes for $1,150 (£610). They ship directly from Japan and unfortunately I got stung for £140 of import duty and VAT when they arrived in the UK bringing the total cost to £750
Inputs & Outputs
Compared to similar products the AT's base unit offers a good range of inputs : 2 x Optical SPDIF, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF, 1 x Stereo Analogue and 1 x 5.1 analogue. This last feature is unique as far as I know for this type of product and allows access to Hi-def sound provided you have a player with in-built decoding.
The only outputs are an optical SPDIF pass-thru and an analogue stereo pre-out. There is no headphone jack for plugging in wired phones and, as far as I can work out there is no way of applying the Dolby Headphone processing to either of the other outputs.
Features
The unit offers Dolby Headphone processing on all inputs with the usual three modes; DH1, DH2 and DH3. It also includes Dolby Pro-Logic II processing to create 5 channel surround sound from a stereo source. The unit also allows Dolby VS virtual surround to be applied to the stereo pre-outs, the intention being that you'd connect your surround source to the base unit and connect the base unit to a stereo amp & speakers and hear the simulated surround through the speakers. I haven't tried this feature yet. The unit also has Bass and Treble controls.
A remote control is included which allows switching between the various inputs, control of the different modes for DH, DPL and VS and the tone controls (Volume control is by a wheel on the headset itself)
Wireless Transmission
The system uses digital RF transmissioon in the 2.4Ghz band. Two transmission modes are offered and without being able to translate the Japanese manual I can't say I fully understand the difference. From the diagrams it seems that Mode A allows only one headset to be used on a single base station with 24bit transmission. The pictures also seems to imply some form of two-way communication between the headset and the base. Mode B allows multiple headsets to be used on a single base station with 16bit transmission and apparently one-way communication.
In either mode you can use one of 3 different channels, slectable by a button on the base unit (not on the remote). They a labeled 1 - 3 but there's no indication anywhere how these relate to actual frequencies. There is also a button on the headset marked "Wireless Setup". Pressing this causes the sound to disappear for a few seconds while the light on the headset flashes before the sound comes back. I think this is probably breaking the connection and re-tuning it.
I'd say The wireless transmission is the Achilles heel of this system. As it is difital, there is no hiss or crackle but they do appear to be prone to interference. This manifests itself as either an occasinal click or more serious drop-outs lasting a second or more. I can elimintate the problems totally if I switch everything else in the house off and I'm now in the process of working out what does and doesn't cause problems. Siting the base unit away from my BD player & TV has helped and I've found Mode B to be more robust than mode A with any interference limited to the occasional click.
The 2.4Ghz band is used by several other devices including wireless networks, cordless phones, wireless computer peripherals and Bluetooth. Bluetooth is liikely to be particularly troublesome as it used a constantly shifting frequency so you probably can't avoid it by channel selection.
Comfort
The 'phones are a circum-aural design but still exert some pressure on the ears themselves. The ear pads are made of a soft "plush" fabric and feel soft against the skin. These are far from the lightest headphones in the world but I've worn them through 3hr+ movies and not found comfort a problem. They're not however in the "hardly notice you're wearing them" category.
Sound Quality
Before giving my opinions on this I should probably point out that my experience of high quality headphones is rather limited and my only real frame of reference is the Pioneer SE-DIR800c set which I had previously.
I've mainly bought these for movie watching so that will be my main focus here. I've not had chance yet to really try the 5.1 analogue inputs with High-def sound as I've only just got a BD player with analogue outs and am waiting for my 3m 5.1 cable to be delivered, so these views are based on "old-style" DD and DTS fed over optical SPDIF.
The first thing of note is that the Bass is incredible and goes really deep. These 'phones reveal LFE effects that the Pioneers were missing altogether. As an example the LFE test tone you can find on DVDs with the THX optimiser is reproduced as a satisfying deep rumble whereas my Pioneers barely reproduced this sound at all. I'd never thought of my Pioneers lacking in this department but these have really put them into context.
Placement of surround effects within the sound field is also very good. With the Pioneers I found the placement good with single, subtle effects but tended to break down a bit with louder, more complicated sections. That still applies with the ATs but they do seem to keep things under control better than the Pioneers with complicated sections. Dialogue is clear and well located in the center of the sound field.
Whether Dolby Headphone works for an individual is, I believe, quite subjective, as is the preferred DH mode. As with the Pioneers, my preference is for DH3 which seems to do the best job of placing the 3 front speakers in front of the listener, at the expense of a certain "boominess" at some mid-range frequencies.
For music I get best results with DPLII off and using DH1 or DH3. This creates a good virtual sound field in front of the listener. The overall sound is quite "forward" which can make rock music quite tiring, howver with more simple acoustic music the soundstaging and detail resolution are quite impressive.
Sum up
The ATH-DWL5000s are a great sounding wireless surround headphone system somewhat let down by a flakey wireless transmission section. The interference problems are manageable but may require sacrifices in terms of being prepared to switch other things off when using them. I'd also warn against trying to use them with a PS3 or a PC as a source as both of these appear to cause problems.
On the whole I'm happy with them. They're significantly better sounding than my Pioneer SE-DIR800Cs although I can't say how they compare to the newer Pioneer 2000s. They also offer the promise of being able to enjoy lossless audio from Blu-ray though dolby headphone which I could only have otherwise achieved by getting an AV amp with 5 channels of amplication which I wouldn't of used !
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