[D-Boy]

This may be random but I'd just like to thank Tomcat and JML for their very revealing opinions.  I do not know if they are as active as they used to be.
 
At first glance comparing this ATH-W100 to a Markl modded Denon AH-D5000 the Audio Technica seems to be sub-par but when you spend a little more time with amplification and listening you really do realize the subtleties, it is a beauty of ATH rather than matching tube amps or all that technical stuff.
 
Denon headphones seem to carry their flagship sound, a full range enjoyable sound.
 
However the ATH-W series holds a clarity and smooth presentation that cannot be described by words.  Finding your review after buying these I have found someone else that made this discovery:
 
At first glance ATH-W100 seems like headphone, a little warm, a little bright and lacking impacting bass.  However, after listening to a variety of recordings you realize it really feels quite natural, it embraces the wood in the headphones.
 
They are not aggressive like Grado, or the Denons but has a special signature that is harder to describe than simply "Grado's rock" "Sennheiser sound" "Denon Bass".  It is the Audio-Technica wood signature sound.  Revealing but without being invasive.
 
With a metaphor, a multi-armature driver headphone (Shure SE530 maybe?) with a high clarity solid state amplifier generally has really good instrument separation and is revealing as in: any static, imperfections, creaking of chairs, can be distinguished from the "music".
 
With the ATH-W100 I can hear imperfections but it is similar to being in the concert hall, if a Violinist coughs or the conductor rearranges a stand it simply feels natural that it happened.  Revelations of imperfections feel more natural rather then "at 5:43 of Track 7 there is some harsh static".
 
I hope I have helped describe the rather controversial idea of "naturalness" of the ATH-W100 the previous reviewers tried to describe.  ATH is lesser known and lesser available to us in North America but I really think they are an interesting company.  Maybe I will modify these in the future as I learn more about acoustics.
 
Again, thank you for your review and everyone's opinions.

 

[Nakattack]

Holy thread necro Batman!
 
Seriously though, I've never heard the W100 but I would like to. The cynic in me is screaming silently at the hyperbole in the first post, but it would be truly wonderful it were all true. Any other W100 owners out there who would like to chime in?

 

[CFabian]

The W100 sounds very rich in the mids, very euphonic sounding and this is no doubt the reason people love the W100 so much. But the midrange is so upfront that a lot of music just doesn't sound natural with them to me. For mid-centric music they do sound very nice, but lacking a bit in clarity compared to the other woodies (the W1000 for example is noticeably more detailed). I prefer the W10VTG which has a similar presentation in the midrange but with more bass and smoother upper mids and treble.

 

[D-Boy]

Maybe after a few months I might try to disassemble the W100s and modify them.  I believe that Audio-Technica has been using the same 53mm driver for their wood series with minor tweeks going from:
 
W10VTG > W100 > W2002 (maybe) > W1000 > W1000x
 
Not sure about the W5000, anyone care to shed light this and more specifically the W11JPN, W11R, and L3000
 
The next blurb is a little insight on the heavy criticism on why ATH has something as "stupid" as limited editions and why they haven't expanded:
Audio-Technica hasn't really left the country of Japan, more specifically unlike Denon, Sony, and even JVC, Audio-Technica, especially the wood series are a Japan specific thing.  Japanese culture and people love limited edition items.  It gives them a sense of individuality in a culture that suppresses much expression of individualism.  They also often use limited supply of objects materials to give exclusiveness of an area or city of the country.  Remember they have always been a very resource limited island.  ATH is much more available and known in Taiwan.
 
I'm currently burning in an DAC/amp (I wish to do an A/B frequency response graph but I dunno how) and find I am enjoying the W100s with classical and female voices a lot.

Cheers

 

[CFabian]

To my knowledge only the W11JPN and W11R share the same drivers, the rest are supposedly unique (of course, whether or not said drivers were simply tweaked from one model to the next is harder to verify). Certainly, if I compare the sound of (for instance) the W10VTG and W1000 they do not sound even remotely similar, everything from resolution to soundstage to tonal balance sounds different between the two.
 
I also enjoyed the W100 a lot with vocals and chamber music when I owned them.