MDR-CD3000 vs ATH-W11jpn Impressions [ 56k = DiE :( ]

[wrecked_porsche]

Hello my fellow HCers, I had the MDR-CD3000 and ATH-W11JPN side by side for about 2 weeks so I thought I’d do a mini review/impressions thread for you guys. Its more towards a CD3000 though.

I have owned the W11jpn for a couple of months now and have purchased the CD3000 recently. Gears used with the headphones are my Creative MoVo2FM 5GB, early ‘90s vintage(?) Samsung Z98G CDP, MicroShar u107B amp and some silver and copper interconnects.

My iBasso D1 is out for repairs, so I had no chance to test with it. It will be back in a few days time though. The MuVo is quite neutral sounding player while the Samsung CDP has a slightly aggressive sound to it + quite detailed +some nice layered tight bass. I feel that the Samsung CDP is really good are much better than the D1, but I can’t be 100% sure until I get back my D1 in a few days time and do a direct A/B test. I have noticed stuff on some songs that I have not noticed with the D1 before, and I feel the bass of the Samsung is much cleaner and punchier.

I know my amp is kinda crap and all that, but I’m getting there one step at a time. At the very least, enjoy the headphone porn at the bottom of this post if you think the impressions are crap. Since this is my first impressions thread, pls feel free to point out ways that I can improve my future impression/review posts.

Here are my brief impressions:

Minus Points:

- Tonality is a little off to me, can't quite place my finger on it, but I think vocals are a little off

- Female voices are a little shouty/screechy

- Male voices are a little subdued

- Not much weight behind the music, especially the bass and lower treble, mids are ok

- Its definitely NOT and all rounder, they don't do pop music too well, jazz well it depends (see below), quite okay for metal though bad recordings can ssslice your ears somewhat

- The lower treble is where the problem lies, tends to get screechy, thin and sharp on certain kinda music

- While the w11jpn was never sibilant, CD3000 on the other hand, just manages to tip toe past that line and crosses over to sibilant land... It’s nowhere near as horrible as the ‘05 DT990 though... that can is pure crap, couldn’t tolerate more than 5 seconds with that one... if I'd have to give a number to give you a rough idea, the W11jpn would be 3, the cd3000 would be a 5.5 and the DT990 would be a 9. Of course, 1 being the least sibilant and 10 being the worst.

- Instruments in the lower treble region sounds thin and irritating at times

Plus Points:

+ Extreme high end treble sparkle is awesome

+ Listening to trance and house music via the CD3000 is freakin awesome

+ Bass is very clean and somewhat textured, nice and fast

+ Speed and details, the CD3000 does this well. Certainly more detailed than W11jpn, very noticeable

+ More detailed than iM716

+ The CD3000 makes guitars and pianos sound awesome. Dunno if its accurate, but its certainly fun.

+ I'm a trance/electronica/house music/dance music fan, and this by far the best can I've heard for this genre (other cans I’ve owned/tested can be found in my HF profile)

+ Soundstage is better than W11jpn, I even mistook a bell sound for sound that was coming from outside my window... the w11jpn had its moments too, but with lower mids instruments

+ The micro details are every good, listening to Hotel California Live, I can pick up many high pitched details when the guitar is being strummed, the W11jpn tends to apply a gloss over everything so its difficult to pick up these minor details, so the sharpness and crispness of the Cd3000 works in its favor in this case.

+ Instrumental music sounds very, very nice with these, you can pick out any instrument you want and just follow it as you like, I though that iM716 and w1jjpn did this quite well, but that was before I heard the CD3000, these are superb for this purpose, instrumental jazz is just soo damn fun, some people might scoff at the tonality which is slightly off (honky at times) but damn, its just soo fun.

Depends on Personal Preference:

- + When listening to jazz, the singer is no longer the center of attention, the CD3000 tends to make you pay attention to the band ( I personally like this)

- + VERY, VERY comfy

- + Very flexible and will adjust to a person's head shape very easily, however I get this feeling that is very delicate and will break if extreme care is not given to it during handling. W11jpn feels sturdier built than the CD3000

- + When listening to "Raising Sand" on my W11jpn, I felt Robert Plant's voice was more dominant than Allison Krauss, however the CD3000 balances it nicely, they both get equal attention now; i.e. Alison Krauss's voice now does not get lost in the background.

- + Sounds awesome with some Buddha bar songs, particularly those with minimal vocals and focuses on drums and many instruments, detail and speed is sooo much fun with these, however when vocals come into play, you notice the drawbacks again but just a little, its not horrible, but noticeable if you're paying attention

Conclusion? I kinda like them. I can see they have potential; if a good amp is selected to pair up with it, they can be very nice indeed. The current setup I used is really more suitable for the W11jpn. The almost forced details and aggressive nature of the Samsung CD player is a really good match with the W11jpn. It helped tremendously with the W11jpn’s treble roll off and almost too smoov presentation. Its like as if it took the W11jpn, slapped it a few times, shook it by the shoulders and told it to wake up.

The CD3000 works great for artificially generated electronic music while the w11jpn would work great for jazz, pop and vocals. The CD3000 is very genre specific, but what it does well, it really excels at it. The w11jpn is more of an all rounder when comparing these two; it can handle more genres compared to the CD3000. If I had to choose between the two, I’d take my ES7 any day. Yes, you read right, I’d take the ES7 over these two. It has a higher fun to price ratio. If I had to judge based on technical capability, I’d take the W11jpn. Those are really sweeeet! Soo smoov sounding! Comfort wise, CD3000 wins hands down, although they do seem a little fragile. The CD3000 cable is also very flexible and less prone to microphonics when compared to the W11jpn cable, so bonus points to the CD3000 for that.

I sold my W11jpn last week and will most probably be selling the CD3000 soon too. I want to try to stepping into the world of Stax. I had my heart set on selling both and getting an L3000 and living happily ever after but it alas, that’s not gonna happen due to a few reasons + long story, so Stax it is.

As promised, here are the porn pics, knock yourselves out. Sorry the pics are not that clear, I’m a voyeur at heart, so I had to use my mobile phone to secretly snap pics. Lighting was somewhat dim, hence the grainy pics. Enjoy.

Ok, so that’s that, hope you enjoyed it. Try not to bash me too badly; I tried my very best to put it all into words. Comments/Questions are welcome. I’m off to bed now, need beauty sleep.

Edited November 5, 2008 by n_maher
correction at OP's request

[penger]

Give me a second while I wipe the drool off my desk.

[Smeggy]

Very nice writeup and a good read. Pretty much coincides with a number of other reviews on these I've read. Thanks WP

[JBLoudG20]

I can't believe you sold the W11 and are going stax instead of the L3k

[Icarium]

I'm kind of confused. You compared two headphones? But there is just one positive blurb and one minus blurb? Are the positives and minuses from the perspective of only 1 headphone?

[wrecked_porsche]

@Icarium

Hmmmm, you have a point; probably not the best title choice... My bad, sorry.

Well, look at it this way, it was a comparison of the CD3000 against the W11jpn which is a headphone I was quite fond of. I hope that makes more sense?

I'll try to add a direct head to head comparison when I get the time later.

[wrecked_porsche]

@penger & Smeggy

Thanks, I just wanted to share the info since I don't recall having ever read any impressions where the CD3000 was compared against the W11jpn.

@Jay

Its a long story. Trust me, I'd much rather get myself an L3000 instead of Stax, but a string of unfortunate circumstances and a little daftness on my part has resulted in me missing out on the deal of a lifetime recently on a pair of L3000. I can't afford the $2.5k normal market price and I also think its absolutely ridiculous, so realistically I don't see myself owning a pair anytime soon.

There are only 3 headphones on my hit list.

1. L3000

2. O2mk1

3. K1000 (early production, black box version)

I missed out on the L3000, so the next best thing for me would be the O2. I have an L3000/bass fetish and I moonlight as a bass whore during my spare time, so missing out on the L3000 pains me deeply.

I'd kick myself if I could.

[GPH]

I missed out on the L3000, so the next best thing for me would be the O2. I have an L3000/bass fetish and I moonlight as a bass whore during my spare time, so missing out on the L3000 pains me deeply.

I haven't heard the L3000, but you should have more than enough bass for your tastes with the O2 Mk1.

[wrecked_porsche]

Well, I certainly hope so. I'm not worried about extension and layering, but I am rather worried about it not having enough bass impact.

[JBLoudG20]

Well, I certainly hope so. I'm not worried about extension and layering, but I am rather worried about it not having enough bass impact.

You should probably just get some Darth's

[Sherwood]

[wrecked_porsche]

You should probably just get some Darth's

Been there, done that. That has been my worst decision in this hobby to date. I was a nooB then and got sucked into the "Post a Pic of Your Darths" thread on HF. I'm lucky that I didn't take too much of a loss when I sold them.

Darths... Drats!

Its was shit, boom boom boom, where the details at?

Just because I'm a bass whore doesn't mean I like my bass dirty and all.

I'm a high class bass slut that wants only the best.

[riceboy]

Been there, done that. That has been my worst decision in this hobby to date. I was a nooB then and got sucked into the "Post a Pic of Your Darths" thread on HF. I'm lucky that I didn't take too much of a loss when I sold them.

Darths... Drats!

Its was shit, boom boom boom, where the details at?

Just because I'm a bass whore doesn't mean I like my bass dirty and all.

I'm a high class bass slut that wants only the best.

I understand about the Darths as I been there too

I like that line, "I'm a high class bass slut that wants only the best".

[n_maher]

You could always get The Most Advanced Headphones Ever Developed

[deepak]

deepak slowly puts away his Beets

[Blackmore]

Why didnt you tell me that you were selling ATH W11jpn...

Nice write up, thanks. I found that CD3000 have some pretty strange sound that coming from some kind of empty can. Like you wrote they arent that all-rounder, some music sounds great while other like crap.

[vvs_75]

I found that CD3000 have some pretty strange sound that coming from some kind of empty can. Like you wrote they arent that all-rounder, some music sounds great while other like crap.

The problem with MDR-CD3000 is that the HP needs to be recabled + little trick. I am not talking about $200 cable, my cable is .60c per feet Mogami.

Here is little story:

Recently I scored brand new CD3000 and had the same impression of the sound as above. I was thinking to sell them but before that I decided to try the Sony CD3000 balanced. When I cut the mini plug to reterminate it I realized that there just three wires in the cable. So I decided to recable the HP. The design, materials and quality good. The problem is that the three wire cable soldered to the left driver pads and then a tiny tinny a lot more thinner wire with two non isolated wires inside, cheap quality, like the one used in ipod bugs cable goes from the left driver inside the headband to the right driver. The easiest way was make a hole in the right ear cup and hardwired them with the Y split type termination. But after that the HP won't fit in the original box. So I went the hard original way with the cable through the left side inside the headband to the right driver. Since I disassembled them anyway I also placed a piece of Dynamat in each ear cup. Now I think that they sound really great with no plastic hollowness to the sound. In fact at recent mini meet one person, who heard the CD3000 many many times with different setups said, that he don't think that he ever heard the Sony

[deepak]

I'm seriously skeptical a recable could improve the CD3000. I think an amp that suitably EQ'ed them would make a much, much larger difference. Or just a software/hardware EQ.

Though I think I've seen the CD3000 measurements and they look pretty decent, but they are still the antithesis of music IMO.

[riceboy]

I can confirm that the CD3000s sound pretty darn good out of my GS-X. It really does have a good synergy with that amp and I have a 840C as my source for CDs and getting files on my computer. The CD3000s really do well in this setup and IMHO it sounds slightly better than both of my B22s.

[wrecked_porsche]

@riceboy, yeah I wish I knew the truth about darths when I was suckered into them.

I wnet into that thread again the other day just to see what's up... I cringed(and cried) when I read a newbie posting in there saying he spent more than $2k for a fully customized darth.... If I were him, I'd get the L3000.

@Nate, no way am I going anywhere near that thing. I would not touch that thing with a 12 foot pole... Yeech!

@Blackmore, you never told me you were looking for one?

You were looking for the W2002 right? I think they are quite different no? When I was looking for my W11jpn, I had a few chances to get the W2002, but I passed up the chances because AFAIK, they are different and was not what I was looking for.

@Deepak, I'm with you on this one, I seriously doubt that a recable will make that much a difference on the sound. I am using software EQ to tame the CD3000 just a little. Yesterday I reduced 10kHz by one notch and added 55Hz up one notch on foobar2k. Trying to keep EQ to a minimal.

@riceboy and vvs_75, so going balanced with the CD3000 makes a huge difference when compared to SE? How would you describe them now as compared to stock SE?

@riceboy, do you have any ATs that you use with the GS-X?

My biggest gripe with the CD3000 sound soo far is that the slight sibilance/sharpness that is possesses can hurt my ears on some songs. It also makes the overall presentation sound kinda thin/peaky sometimes....

If I can make that go away, I think I'd be quite happy with these...

I am enjoying these with my electronic music collection though.

Just that the sharpness/peakiness takes away a little of the enjoyment.

You guys are making me ponder if I should keep these to go balanced later on...

Anyone else with a balanced CD3000 care to chime in?

[Blackmore]

Thats no problem, was just teasing you, thats all...However I am open for any vintage ATH, curiosity, what can you do...

When I was writing about CD3k, some time back, almost every person were telling the same, re-cabling is MUST, so, can not say its not the true. Once I had re-cabled GS1k and the differences were very noticable, very...

@riceboy, yeah I wish I knew the truth about darths when I was suckered into them.

I wnet into that thread again the other day just to see what's up... I cringed(and cried) when I read a newbie posting in there saying he spent more than $2k for a fully customized darth.... If I were him, I'd get the L3000.

@Nate, no way am I going anywhere near that thing. I would not touch that thing with a 12 foot pole... Yeech!

@Blackmore, you never told me you were looking for one?

You were looking for the W2002 right? I think they are quite different no? When I was looking for my W11jpn, I had a few chances to get the W2002, but I passed up the chances because AFAIK, they are different and was not what I was looking for.

@Deepak, I'm with you on this one, I seriously doubt that a recable will make that much a difference on the sound. I am using software EQ to tame the CD3000 just a little. Yesterday I reduced 10kHz by one notch and added 55Hz up one notch on foobar2k. Trying to keep EQ to a minimal.

@riceboy and vvs_75, so going balanced with the CD3000 makes a huge difference when compared to SE? How would you describe them now as compared to stock SE?

@riceboy, do you have any ATs that you use with the GS-X?

My biggest gripe with the CD3000 sound soo far is that the slight sibilance/sharpness that is possesses can hurt my ears on some songs. It also makes the overall presentation sound kinda thin/peaky sometimes....

If I can make that go away, I think I'd be quite happy with these...

I am enjoying these with my electronic music collection though.

Just that the sharpness/peakiness takes away a little of the enjoyment.

You guys are making me ponder if I should keep these to go balanced later on...

Anyone else with a balanced CD3000 care to chime in?

[wrecked_porsche]

@Blackmore

How did the CD3000 sound out of your Yoshino EAR HP4? Was it a good match?

Did you recable your CD3000 to a different cable(still SE)?

[Blackmore]

At the time I owned Aspen 823 OTL amp, from Granite Audio, using 2X6BQ5 and 1x12au7 and the match was quite good, but not ideal, think that the source was the issue also, had my old Pioneer DVD player, which is crap basically. So, I think that as any other high end headphones CD3000 have their potentials, but than again, I have some issues with that closed back feeling. Have asked around and seems that W5000 are, or one of the, best comparing to W2002 as well. Not sure about re-cabled CD3k, cos my was stock one. If I can score W2002 for a nice price I can buy other models to compare with it, so the best can stay. On Audiogon have seen W5000 for USD 475 plus shipping only, damn, I just holding myself back, cos of the stupid fit issue they seem to have plus want to try W2002 first, so, have to stay:cool:...

If my wife didn't complain that much about sound leakage, well, forget all that shit...I better invest in my next dream, vinyl, than in some extra headphone I don't need, I am:confused:to tell you the true, but my first step, in any situation, would be my source upgrade and not another headphone...

@Blackmore

How did the CD3000 sound out of your Yoshino EAR HP4? Was it a good match?

Did you recable your CD3000 to a different cable(still SE)?

[wrecked_porsche]

Why don't you get the W5000 form Yahoo Japan? There are tons of it for sale there.

I've been told that the EAR HP4 is a good match for the CD3000. Only problem is that is soo damn expensive; well to me anyway. I'm gonna try electrostats first before I decide which direction I want to head for my final rig. If I like the Stax sound, then hopefully I can forget about dynamics.

As for source, my dad has a vintage Yamaha TT and amp, I think I'm gonna swipe it soon. He doesn't use it at all, its just sitting there. I'm a little hesitant about getting into vinyls though... I haven't even settled on a proper headphone and amp yet... Probably don't need to get tied up in that mess... yet.

BTW, when people were telling you to recable the CD3000, what kinda cable type did they suggest? Any brands? I'd much prefer to DIY it myself instead of spending a tiny fortune.

Oh, and I prefer closed back headphones, it a necessity for me since my surrounding is not dead silent. I have no issues with them sounding closed in.

[riceboy]

@riceboy, yeah I wish I knew the truth about darths when I was suckered into them.

I wnet into that thread again the other day just to see what's up... I cringed(and cried) when I read a newbie posting in there saying he spent more than $2k for a fully customized darth.... If I were him, I'd get the L3000.

@riceboy and vvs_75, so going balanced with the CD3000 makes a huge difference when compared to SE? How would you describe them now as compared to stock SE?

@riceboy, do you have any ATs that you use with the GS-X?

Hey Wrecked P . Sorry that I didn't state it earlier but the CD3000 isn't balanced with the GS-X. I never heard a balanced CD3000 in my system so I wouldn't be able to comment on how much it would improve the sound. Just guessing, but it will improve the sound I'm sure, but the sonic signature of the can would probably be the same but YMMV. I don't notice a treble spike with the GS-X but with the Headroom Ultra Desktop amp and upgraded power supply I did notice a treble spike. I do like the detail and punch the HR amp gives them, but I just like the GS-X a bit more with these cans for my ears. It all depends on you of course. My friend actually like the punch and dynamics more on the HR amp than the GS-X so everyone is different . But both amps are great IMHO and I enjoy each of them differently with this can. Best of luck on your headphone journey.