[Anders]

I have read some reviews on the AT headphones at Head-Fi, thank you for that. No one seems to have heard both the W100 and the W11R. Inspired by Tomcat, I made some babelfishing. I found a Japanese review of several AT models, but the quality of the machine translation was so bad that you had to guess most of it.
Now, I remembered a Japanese friend and asked for help. He is not an audiophile and I didn't want to stretch it fo far asking him to translate the full text. I made some questions and he has made a summary of the differences between W11R and W100 (according to the Japanese review). Here it comes:

1.The reviewer thinks that W11R is better than W100, although W11R is more expensive. When you will enjoy CD, W11R is much better, he said.
2.You can see the important difference. W11R has a better plug and cable. He thinks it made difference in sound. W100 is poor in treble, comparably.
3.But he insists that W100 is also a nice headphone. It is affordable, is good value for money. And about 'feeling of fit', W100 is one of the best!. It will fit your ears and you never get tired, when you enjoy it some hours.
4.So, for the audio-maniac, he will recommend W11. And he thinks, W100 is also a nice product, with an affordable price.

I have ordered the W11R today.

 

[Neruda]

cool, be sure to tell us what you think!

 

[The Quality Guru]

Thanks a lot Anders. Your friend probably hasn't any idea how much of a favor he did just be doing that for us wood headphone owners!

That's quite interesting what the reviewer had to say about the W11R versus the W100. I fear, however, that many of the other high-end AT wooden 'phones such as this one are more analytical than the W100, since this is many audiophiles' definition of good sound. The reviewer could have had this defiition of good sound, but perhaps he didn't. Then again the W11R may be just plain better than the W100, more musical and all, so I really haven't any idea! I would truly LOVE to see a W11R vs. W100 review by one of own Head-Fiers, though! The summary of that review was a big help, though, nevertheless! Thanks, Anders!

 

[Anders]

I will report back, but it may take some time. Delivery time is said to be about five days. After the order, I got a newsletter from Audiocubes stating that they presently have a slowdown in delivery, but it should go back to 24 - 48 hours within a week.
When I receive the headphone, it has a burn-in time of 100 hours. I will do a fast burn-in, but the whole process seems to take at least two weeks.

 

[Anders]

Hi Quality Guru! I have no idea if the W11R is more analytical or just better. If there is anyting about this in the review, I assume that my non-audiophile friend hardly would understand this subtle distinction. However, he is an intelligent man and I am convinced that he has summarised the essence of the reviews.

There are two differences in the design between W11R and W100 (at least). The W11R has a 6N pure copper cable while the W100 has PCOCC of unspecified purity (W2002 has a silver cable). This usually makes a difference and you probably don't need an uprade cable for $100 - 200.
The wooden cup of the W11R seems to be more elaboratated than the W100, the form is somewhere in between of the W100 and W2002. You can see that on product descriptions on the AT homepage. There are links to the W100 and W2002 but if you change the URL you can also find the W11R and the W11JPN (just change the model number).