[johnnylexus]

I was perusing the threads and looked at M Rael's profile .... it says he's got ATH-W2002's on the way. Then I did a google search and saw a picture and brief description of these cans on the Head-wize website.

THat is ONE beautiful set of cans. I guess they should be for $825. (the matching amp ain't too shabby either).

Anyone heard these things?

MRael: where did you order them from? did you pay less than $825?

 

[allennokisi]

I listened to these on their own amp next to all of the stax including the 4070 the other day in Akihabara. They were really comfortable. They sound rather dark. But this was probably because I listened to them next to the stax. Tonally, they sound like they have a flatter, smoother response than cd3000's, but just as extended. I can't really make any conclusive comments about things like musicality, transparency, and all that other audiophile stuff other than tonal balance. Though they weren't as fast as the staxs of course. Considering only closed phones and if cost wasn't a big factor (they're almost 3 times as much as cd3000's) I wouldn't hesitate to get them because they are heaps more comfortable than cd3000's and are much better looking.

Commenting on the amp, the build quality is amazing. The front uses cherry wood from Hokkaido. And the volume control is the best I've ever touched. There's actually a rubber stopper that you can feel at the ends of the control's movement. The hardware, jacks, power switch, etc. is simply beautiful. I'm sure it's voiced for the W2002's but if I could afford it I would use for all my dynamic cans. I've seen a conceptual circuit diagram of it published in an audio mag and it's designed pretty much like a power amp. Matched jfet input, some gain stage and then a class A push pull mosfet output stage. It can put out 2.4 watts into 16 ohms!

 

[M Rael]

ALLENNOKISI ! I dont know how I missed this thread the first time around, but I did. And another thank you to Tomcat, who was very helpful in my hunt for the W2002's. And johnnylexus, thanks! I'll post a bunch of stuff about them soon.
Yes I am getting the W2002's, and in fact I got an email late last night (Singapore is 15 hours ahead of me) that they finally shipped! So I was going to post about how happy I was about that when I discovered this VERY helpful and informative post.

The story on my ATH-W2002's so far is:

Suggested retail is 100,000 yen -but- A/T lets distributers discount off that, so I payed much less. Trouble was, I only found ONE place that would ship them to me, and we had already agreed to the full price before I later discovered the discount available on another website. Lucky for me they agreed to match the lower price I found elsewhere. Whew! That saved me a bundle. I already have a girl here who speaks Japanese who will translate the manual for me (since I'm almost certain it is a Japanese language only manual) and I'll post the info here and on my website when I get it.
They already left Singapore! I'm really excited. UPS only offers one type of service from there, and it only takes 3 days to boot! So if everything goes well I should have my new cans on Wednesday.
I have the tracking number, so I'm planning on getting them from the UPS station as soon as they land in town.
Thanks again allennokisi, you're input was very appreciated.