[size=small]Lesson #1: "Ears First"[/size]
I admittedly have trouble hearing harmony and/or harmonics, so any "woodyness" that the CD3000 signature gains would conceivably be more extreme (ergo more enjoyable) to someone else's ears. (for example, whilst Larry reacted instantly to the Woody vs. Stock sound, it took a while to "Set In" for me.) FWIW, YMMV.
I hypothesize that those who feel the mids are somehow "lacking" on the CD3000 (as i've read a few times) will benefit from Larry's woody (heh heh), as through my experience i've come to accept that the stock CD3K is lacking, not in detail or anything like that, but that there's just a sort of richness that the stock cups/foam are devoid of.
[size=small]Lesson #2: "Garbage In, Garbage Out"[/size]
I didn't want to write this sooner (sorry for the wait) because I hadn't yet heard it on a good amp, so I was pretty excited when my V2-SE arrived. Not only because i've been awaiting the amp for multiple months, but since I could now be positive that my signal path was up to the tasks set before me. Also, the extra time allowed Larry to do different/better/newer designs on the cups as well as figure out how to put the cord into both cups instead of stringing it through the headband, which I felt made the Woody vs. Stock comparison easier, at least to my ears. Hope the wait wasn't too long, and if anybody needs extra help or elaborations, just let me know.
[size=small]Lesson #3: "Stock = Bad; Modding = Good"[/size]
To prove that the plastic cups and foam damping on the stock CD3000 is sucking something out of the sound, we need only to remove them. After watching Larry go through the tedious effort of removing the pads so that the cups could be removed, I listened to my phones without any cups at all. I actually liked what I heard, such that I questioned him if it would be possible to create an "open-aire CD3000" (
). Since then I've realized that I wouldn't be fully satisfied with the Open CD3000 sound, but overall I prefer it over the Stock. To my ears the soundstage is actually better when open, there's less of the "blip" effect, and the curvature of the soundstage sounds less fake, more "wide and straight" like i've heard people say about the R10. (sadly, I don't have enough experience to say with certainty whether this change in soundstage is subject to closed vs. open, the damping, or the plastic cup. Although i'm willing to bet it's the plastic and foam, since the Woody soundstage is just fine, even though it's closed.)
[size=small]Lesson #4: "Coloration Can Be Good"[/size]
Before you begin to hate my use of the word coloration, please read the entire paragraph below. If you still dislike my use of said word, feel free to let me know in explicit language. That way you'll get banned from HeadFi and I won't have to listen to you anymore. Just kidding.
The first time I tried out the Woody sound, they were about 1/2" - 3/4" thick, IIRC. They were also not fully smoothed out on the inside (i.e. products not meant to be sold just yet), and to be honest some of them I liked equal to or less than Stock. But today I compared a few of the Thick Woodies (heh heh) on my V2-SE, and these woodies were nice and smooth on the inside. I heard Zebra, Purple Heart, Paduak, and... can't remember the other ones. Blast. In any case, the differences were interesting. I only sometimes liked the soundstage of the original Woodies compared to Stock, but the soundstage is even bigger (but by no means faker or less hifi) on these new Woodies, and makes the older woodies seem kind of like a Grado in comparison. Besides the signature sound of each wood which may "remove" frequencies, these new Thick Woodies only "add" to and increase the HiFi-ness of the CD3000.
I think it's cool for people to go after transparency, but if you think about it, all devices technically have some sort of signature. I don't believe wood is any different. Of course these Woodies change the sound of the CD3000 slightly, they add their own, "woody-ness" to the sound. I would call this Coloration. But in this case (as with, say, tubes), it sounds very nice. If we wanted totally clean sound, we've have just a driver hanging there like the K1000s. Well, I want closed headphones, and the Open-Aire CD3000 didn't cut it for me in the Sound Quality department. So if in this case we need Coloration, why not use the best coloration available? Wood! Little side-track there, sorry.
[size=small]Conclusion: (also known as Lesson #5: Read The Whole Post
)[/size]
I already knew how big a difference a re-cabling could make (from my HD590 days), so it's been pretty fun getting to mess around with Larry's Woody (heh heh). I'm currently awaiting a Purple Heart (no, not because of how it looks; the sound is what matters.) and that will be the last upgrade to my system for a long, long time. The Purple Heart seemed to "clean up" the sound across the spectrum, without emphasizing or sucking out any frequency too much, and I really liked what it did for the bass. Things like timpanis sounded very natural, and the vibration of the drum's skin after being striken was audible, whereas it defnitely was not on other Woodies. The Purple Heart literally had information in the low end that the other Woodies did not have. Pretty interesting. Obviously each person has their own tastes though, so I implore you to ask myself and Larry, and whoever else you can, to figure out which Woody's sound is right for you. In any case, everything I threw at my Purple Heart Recabled CD3000s sounded fantastic to my ears, and that's all that matters.
[size=small]Addendum:[/size]
I'd be interested to see what some of the CD3000 nay-sayers have to say if they ever lay their hands on a Woody.
Hope you had fun reading my Woody Review. I definetely had fun taking part in this whole thing. Thanks, Larry! Thanks, HeadFi!
References to "Larry" are talking about the owner of www.headphile.com, in case anybody was unclear
I admittedly have trouble hearing harmony and/or harmonics, so any "woodyness" that the CD3000 signature gains would conceivably be more extreme (ergo more enjoyable) to someone else's ears. (for example, whilst Larry reacted instantly to the Woody vs. Stock sound, it took a while to "Set In" for me.) FWIW, YMMV.
I hypothesize that those who feel the mids are somehow "lacking" on the CD3000 (as i've read a few times) will benefit from Larry's woody (heh heh), as through my experience i've come to accept that the stock CD3K is lacking, not in detail or anything like that, but that there's just a sort of richness that the stock cups/foam are devoid of.
[size=small]Lesson #2: "Garbage In, Garbage Out"[/size]
I didn't want to write this sooner (sorry for the wait) because I hadn't yet heard it on a good amp, so I was pretty excited when my V2-SE arrived. Not only because i've been awaiting the amp for multiple months, but since I could now be positive that my signal path was up to the tasks set before me. Also, the extra time allowed Larry to do different/better/newer designs on the cups as well as figure out how to put the cord into both cups instead of stringing it through the headband, which I felt made the Woody vs. Stock comparison easier, at least to my ears. Hope the wait wasn't too long, and if anybody needs extra help or elaborations, just let me know.
[size=small]Lesson #3: "Stock = Bad; Modding = Good"[/size]
To prove that the plastic cups and foam damping on the stock CD3000 is sucking something out of the sound, we need only to remove them. After watching Larry go through the tedious effort of removing the pads so that the cups could be removed, I listened to my phones without any cups at all. I actually liked what I heard, such that I questioned him if it would be possible to create an "open-aire CD3000" (
[size=small]Lesson #4: "Coloration Can Be Good"[/size]
Before you begin to hate my use of the word coloration, please read the entire paragraph below. If you still dislike my use of said word, feel free to let me know in explicit language. That way you'll get banned from HeadFi and I won't have to listen to you anymore. Just kidding.
The first time I tried out the Woody sound, they were about 1/2" - 3/4" thick, IIRC. They were also not fully smoothed out on the inside (i.e. products not meant to be sold just yet), and to be honest some of them I liked equal to or less than Stock. But today I compared a few of the Thick Woodies (heh heh) on my V2-SE, and these woodies were nice and smooth on the inside. I heard Zebra, Purple Heart, Paduak, and... can't remember the other ones. Blast. In any case, the differences were interesting. I only sometimes liked the soundstage of the original Woodies compared to Stock, but the soundstage is even bigger (but by no means faker or less hifi) on these new Woodies, and makes the older woodies seem kind of like a Grado in comparison. Besides the signature sound of each wood which may "remove" frequencies, these new Thick Woodies only "add" to and increase the HiFi-ness of the CD3000.
I think it's cool for people to go after transparency, but if you think about it, all devices technically have some sort of signature. I don't believe wood is any different. Of course these Woodies change the sound of the CD3000 slightly, they add their own, "woody-ness" to the sound. I would call this Coloration. But in this case (as with, say, tubes), it sounds very nice. If we wanted totally clean sound, we've have just a driver hanging there like the K1000s. Well, I want closed headphones, and the Open-Aire CD3000 didn't cut it for me in the Sound Quality department. So if in this case we need Coloration, why not use the best coloration available? Wood! Little side-track there, sorry.
[size=small]Conclusion: (also known as Lesson #5: Read The Whole Post
I already knew how big a difference a re-cabling could make (from my HD590 days), so it's been pretty fun getting to mess around with Larry's Woody (heh heh). I'm currently awaiting a Purple Heart (no, not because of how it looks; the sound is what matters.) and that will be the last upgrade to my system for a long, long time. The Purple Heart seemed to "clean up" the sound across the spectrum, without emphasizing or sucking out any frequency too much, and I really liked what it did for the bass. Things like timpanis sounded very natural, and the vibration of the drum's skin after being striken was audible, whereas it defnitely was not on other Woodies. The Purple Heart literally had information in the low end that the other Woodies did not have. Pretty interesting. Obviously each person has their own tastes though, so I implore you to ask myself and Larry, and whoever else you can, to figure out which Woody's sound is right for you. In any case, everything I threw at my Purple Heart Recabled CD3000s sounded fantastic to my ears, and that's all that matters.
[size=small]Addendum:[/size]
I'd be interested to see what some of the CD3000 nay-sayers have to say if they ever lay their hands on a Woody.
Hope you had fun reading my Woody Review. I definetely had fun taking part in this whole thing. Thanks, Larry! Thanks, HeadFi!
References to "Larry" are talking about the owner of www.headphile.com, in case anybody was unclear
