Measurements
The initial spike of the 300Hz square wave is not excessively high, which indicates the high treble is not excessive, and the fact that it's so clear in shape with very little subsequent noise means that the transient response and resolving power will be very good. Likewise, the impulse response is quite good, showing rapidly reducing noise after the initial spike.
Distortion is stunningly low! The 100dB curve is below the 90dB curve for the most part indicating the headphones should have good power handling. A very slight rise in the bass shows an inkling of misbehavior, but it's still much lower bass distortion than average for this type of headphone.
Impedance plot shows a nominally 37 Ohm headphone and while it wiggles around a bit in the treble, it's fairy clean indicating good acoustical treatment around the driver.
Isolation is -15dB broad band but in the isolation spectra you can see that it tends to be more high frequency isolations. Below 800Hz there's very little attenuation at all.
With 23mVrms needed to achieve 90dB in the headphone these will be driven to satisfying listening levels by portable devices.
It might be worth mentioning at this point that Audio Technica touts a "Dual-Layer Air-Control Technology" in these headphones. Basically, there are two metal chambers behind driver before venting to the outside which, they claim "reduce unwanted resonance and enhance the texture of the sound". I don't know what these chambers really do, but I can say that given the measurements here they have done something very good in this headphone and should keep after it.
Click on graphs image to download .pdf for closer inspection.
Looking at the raw frequency response plots we can see that the MSR7 is relatively insensitive to positional changes on the head. A fairly broad hump in the bass and mids does good job of approximating flat, but clearly has an overall tilt that diminishes the bass and cools the overall response in that area.
The rise to the treble peak starts at 500Hz, goes up 10dB by 2kHz then remains flat to 5kHz. The problem is it rises too fast relative to the target response and causes a rise in the upper-mids and low treble. The broad peak between 2kHz and 5kHz is actually about 2dB lower than the target response, and the subsequent dip between 6kHz and 8kHz has been used in other cans to reduce harshness. Energy at 10kHz may be a tad high, but about right thereafter.
The sway-back on the 30Hz square wave relates to the long hump mid-range and below, and the fact the it starts immediately with no "shoulder" at the beginning of the wave shape is a clear indicator these are treble tilted headphones.
