Anders
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2002
- Posts
- 1,168
- Likes
- 13
I will here present some preliminary impressions and thoughts about the Audio Technica W-11R headphone and compare it to Sennheiser HD600 with a Clou Red upgrade cable.
The W-11R belongs to the W family of headphones with the somewhat cheaper W100 and the W2002 at the double cost (price for W11-R was $459 at Audiocubes, Japanese list price 56 thousand Yen). All models have the same 53 mm driver and 8N pure copper in the coils. They are closed designs with wooden cups of cherry tree. The form of the cups differs between models as well as the quality of the headphone cable (6N copper in W11R, PCOCC in W100 and silver in W2002). W2002 also has an additional damping system.
W11R is a limited edition headphone with only a few samples in stock presently.
I burnt-in the W11R about 70 hours before the turntable tests and 90 hours before the CD tests. The turntable test was made with a Systemdek IIXE/900, a heavily modified Rega RB250 arm, an Ortofon Kontrapunkt a cartridge and a Musical Fidelity X-LPS + X-PSU phono preamp.
The CD testing was more problematic because my ordinary player is out for service of tracking alignment. I took my old Linn Karik instead (made in 1994). This was interesting because I now tested it with improved cabling and it was not as far as dull as I remembered. Especially an expensive power cable seemed to give it new life, although there should be a clear difference to newer high quality players.
I used the Headroom MOH (old model) as headphone amplifier connected with a Discovery Plus 4 interconnect for the turntable and a Straightwire Serenade for the CD.
I compared three tracks on vinyl, Weather Report, John Lee Hooker and Ravel. I made notes during the audition but choose not to present these extensively because I later in the testing experienced that the differences between these phones are very system dependent. I experienced the W11R to be better than HD600 on all these tracks. The Audio Technica has often been reported as bright and harsh. It was not so on the vinyl. I found it to have tighter and better defined bass and more natural and extended treble. There was often something that lacked in the treble of the HD600, it sounded a little recessed and the high treble polished off.
With CD the situation was much more complex. The AT often seemed to have higher resolution and more soundstage but at a price of harshness. Bass-lines could also be better defined with the W11R, although the HD600 had a little higher bass output. Here, it was very difficult to make a choice. The HD600 could be a better overall choice, it was never disturbing but lacked a little of the articulation of the AT (not overtly disturbing but the treble could sometimes be too recessed making some instruments sound a little dull or distorted in tonality).
Exchanging the Straightwire cable with the Discovery resulted in improved detail and soundstage, but even more brightness. Now, I formulated a hypothesis that the W11R demands a very high quality source, it is nothing wrong with the W11R but it is so good that your hear more of the distortion earlier in the chain. It worked well with the analogue system. This is not top-notch high-end but quite good and without the digital distortion. I should here need a really good SACD player, or at least my usual CD. I didn’t have this supply but found another way to test it. I downgraded the CD interconnect. First I tried a Purist Audio Elementa. This is a rather good cable but subtracts some treble. The harshness now decreased significantly. I also tried a Van den Hul Thunderline, with even more decrease of harshness. I would say that brightness and harshness fundamentally disappeared, but at the expense of detail and soundstage.
My present conclusions. The HD600/Clou combo is a very good headphone in most aspects, but a little laid-back and recessed in the treble, sometimes so much that the character of instruments becomes distorted. The HD600 seems to work well with most systems and is not demanding on the source and other components.
The W11R is a more direct and open headphone with more detail and better soundstage. It seems to be more system dependant and demands a very high quality source. It may work better with other amplifiers but I got no indication that this is the main problem. It seem to be possible to “tweak” it with reducing / filtering / overly warm components, but this has a price in reduced overall performance. My preliminary impression is that it should be connected to very high quality, neutral components.
Of course, it also possible that further burn-in reduces the brightness but I think partially rather than substantially.
The W-11R belongs to the W family of headphones with the somewhat cheaper W100 and the W2002 at the double cost (price for W11-R was $459 at Audiocubes, Japanese list price 56 thousand Yen). All models have the same 53 mm driver and 8N pure copper in the coils. They are closed designs with wooden cups of cherry tree. The form of the cups differs between models as well as the quality of the headphone cable (6N copper in W11R, PCOCC in W100 and silver in W2002). W2002 also has an additional damping system.
W11R is a limited edition headphone with only a few samples in stock presently.
I burnt-in the W11R about 70 hours before the turntable tests and 90 hours before the CD tests. The turntable test was made with a Systemdek IIXE/900, a heavily modified Rega RB250 arm, an Ortofon Kontrapunkt a cartridge and a Musical Fidelity X-LPS + X-PSU phono preamp.
The CD testing was more problematic because my ordinary player is out for service of tracking alignment. I took my old Linn Karik instead (made in 1994). This was interesting because I now tested it with improved cabling and it was not as far as dull as I remembered. Especially an expensive power cable seemed to give it new life, although there should be a clear difference to newer high quality players.
I used the Headroom MOH (old model) as headphone amplifier connected with a Discovery Plus 4 interconnect for the turntable and a Straightwire Serenade for the CD.
I compared three tracks on vinyl, Weather Report, John Lee Hooker and Ravel. I made notes during the audition but choose not to present these extensively because I later in the testing experienced that the differences between these phones are very system dependent. I experienced the W11R to be better than HD600 on all these tracks. The Audio Technica has often been reported as bright and harsh. It was not so on the vinyl. I found it to have tighter and better defined bass and more natural and extended treble. There was often something that lacked in the treble of the HD600, it sounded a little recessed and the high treble polished off.
With CD the situation was much more complex. The AT often seemed to have higher resolution and more soundstage but at a price of harshness. Bass-lines could also be better defined with the W11R, although the HD600 had a little higher bass output. Here, it was very difficult to make a choice. The HD600 could be a better overall choice, it was never disturbing but lacked a little of the articulation of the AT (not overtly disturbing but the treble could sometimes be too recessed making some instruments sound a little dull or distorted in tonality).
Exchanging the Straightwire cable with the Discovery resulted in improved detail and soundstage, but even more brightness. Now, I formulated a hypothesis that the W11R demands a very high quality source, it is nothing wrong with the W11R but it is so good that your hear more of the distortion earlier in the chain. It worked well with the analogue system. This is not top-notch high-end but quite good and without the digital distortion. I should here need a really good SACD player, or at least my usual CD. I didn’t have this supply but found another way to test it. I downgraded the CD interconnect. First I tried a Purist Audio Elementa. This is a rather good cable but subtracts some treble. The harshness now decreased significantly. I also tried a Van den Hul Thunderline, with even more decrease of harshness. I would say that brightness and harshness fundamentally disappeared, but at the expense of detail and soundstage.
My present conclusions. The HD600/Clou combo is a very good headphone in most aspects, but a little laid-back and recessed in the treble, sometimes so much that the character of instruments becomes distorted. The HD600 seems to work well with most systems and is not demanding on the source and other components.
The W11R is a more direct and open headphone with more detail and better soundstage. It seems to be more system dependant and demands a very high quality source. It may work better with other amplifiers but I got no indication that this is the main problem. It seem to be possible to “tweak” it with reducing / filtering / overly warm components, but this has a price in reduced overall performance. My preliminary impression is that it should be connected to very high quality, neutral components.
Of course, it also possible that further burn-in reduces the brightness but I think partially rather than substantially.
