jimbobuk
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2002
- Posts
- 381
- Likes
- 10
Well I tried buying these nearly a year ago
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=102932
Dammit, I thought it was maybe 2 years ago.. it really puts into perspective that i've had a crazy headfi year since then with far too many purchases!!!
Anyways in the end i was just too late and got some SA5000s when they finally came out.. i was happy with them at the time, but have since really stopped listening to them... most recently i've neglected a pair of K1000s whilst chasing the electrostatic dream, most most recently my poor HE60s are in for a hopefully successful repair, and my Omega IIs haven't been charged for a week or more (they're pining for their lost HE60s brothers to be next to them in the stax energisers perhaps!?).
Anyways the opportunity arose and following the failure of securing an earlier one I jumped on it, the chance to finally own my own pair of CD3000s..
http://jimtreats.com/cd3000/all_pics.htm
They arrived, excellently packed by the seller and i had chance to listen to them at work.. my original idea was perhaps they would be an ok 2nd work pair of headphones.. this still may be the case but i don't have THAT good a source at work, pc speakers output no less, since my new D211 or whatever sony discman decided to stop playing cds even tho it looked immaculate and was supposedly NOS
As a work can they worked quite nice the isolation was just about right, not bad at all, but i had to bring them home, so i've had chance to use them on my home rig for the last few days.
The fit of these cans (as i'm sure 90% of you all realise haven't experienced all this a few years ago!!!) is truly excellent.. i had no idea what a downstep Sony had taken with the SA line in terms of comfort, but the CD3000 are much more comfortable phones for me.. and its not even that the SA series are uncomfortable, they're just not the luxurious fit of the CD3000s!!!!
As for the sound.. well as ever i've been reluctant to really do any comparisons with my existing phones as i generally don't enjoy it that much, plus i'm lazy.. but going by my fuzzy placebo ridden memory these CD3000s sound very very nice, and they're in pretty decent company with my current collection being relatively wide, even for a typical headfi-er.
In a work use, being driven badly they still sounded pretty decent.. excellent even, all the traits i now associate with them were coming across fine.. i did notice however that in that form they may not be ideal work cans as after a few hours of listening i was starting to get a bit fatigued by their brightness. Not that they're THAT bright to me but over that time it just started to get too much.. i was perhaps listening too loudly as well.. anyways with a work can for me i need it to be able to be listenable all day long, and all night.. my Beyer DT250-80s fit that bill perfectly.
Coming home to my normal amp, tho not my WNA one yet (my DAC's twin outputs going to my main amp (with its remote control and 8 inputs selectable from the remote) and the Stax energiser at the moment, leaving no room for the WNA
) and the usual power and tightness to the bass, along with other refinements, including being driven from a nice source and they blossom even further.. i have to say i rarely notice the brightness as being a problem at home.. i've never listened for as long at home yet though, so it could just be a function of time.
On the whole tho i really do dig what these cans do with music.. they play electronica greatly, which is what got me interested in the first place, they've also blossomed in other genres too for me though.. the one thing that has really surprised me is their great soundstage.. it really is special.. i've not listened to others as i said earlier but i'm sure the SA5000s are no where near this kind of soundstaging.. i never quite fully understand the difference of headstage and soundstage, but my experience with my Omega IIs shows that i know what hearing a small but lovely spatial detailed soundstage is like.. something that i remember being described for the SA5000, but something that for me at least is not close to my Omega IIs.. anyways the CD3000 is definitely keen to throw that soundstage nice and wide... in some respects it reminds me of my K1000s though still not having the rest of its unique soundstaging qualities of course. I'd read about the soundstage tho, and as i said its that which attracted me to them.. what i was taken aback with the other night though was a Max Richter track with a distant piano, and it was just rendered beautifully by the CD3000s.. even coming from the great space of the K1000s i was really taken in by the Omega IIs abillity to convincingly throw some instruments far ahead of my head, where my other cans didn't even hint at such a thing, and yet hear was the CD3000s doing a really remarkable job of that sort of thing.
I'm currently listening to a binaural recording, and my early impressions of this has been confirmed, the CD3000s make very very nice binaural headphones.. I'm sure i read an old site somewhere where they got recommended as such and i can back up that observation.. the K1000s are obviously hampered in this regard but i've always been slightly dissapointed by how the HE60s and Omega II presented binaural recordings.. more the latter to be honest.. its unique staging of instruments seems to confuse the binuaral effect and remove a lot of the pleasure of those recordings for me.. I have some Etys and know they do good binaural, but i just listen with them so rarely now (probably not had them in my ears for at least a year now) .. i also know they do a binaural version which i've never had chance to hear.. it has no roll off in the upper trebble, the supposed diffuse field equalisation or similar.. now the CD3000s presenting such a lovely soundstage seem to scream of being equalised in this manner, but i don't know.. their brightness and details perhaps hold it together, whilst their natural soundstaging doesn't get in the way of the binuaral effect in the way that the omega's one does to me.
Anyways enough... i just thought i'd rant a bit.. the circle as it were is now complete, and i just wanted to add that to the history of my journey of headfi posts
I'm sure many have heard and dismissed these cans, but if there is anyone else left who hasn't, i really encourage you to give them a try if the opportunity arises.. they're not perfect, but they do a lot of things very well to me, i've spent a lot more money since, and i'm still happy with those purchases, but i'd just like to say that even having spent that money these relatively cheap cans are really still impressing me in a lot of ways. To those SA owners who've never heard them, if you ever wish for a bit more space in everything then please do check them out also.. perhaps the details aren't quite as much, but they're still detailed cans, but they're soundstaging to me at least is far superior, and a very pleasing thing to sink into.
As for the R-10s.. dammit, i'd convinced myself i could live without them.. i certainly can't afford them at the moment.. but if its just more of the same CD3000 sound then i think that could be a really nice thing to hear.. that they're amp fussy always put me off as i can only afford to win the headphone battle at this time, not the amps as well, let alone have the space for all of them, or the sources to provide the input to so many different amps.
At the moment though, i do wish that Sony would go a bit more back to this kind of design, to me i prefer the sound of it, along with the fit, and even the looks (yes you do look incredibly silly wearing them, but what the hell.. i've never felt ashamed listening with my K1000s, in my own home mind !!
) I know Sony have really tightened their belts recently so perhaps we'll never see something at the price level of the CD3000s coming in such a mighty box as they did.. such a shame, it's probably my best headphone box i own, putting even the superficially superior Omega's box to shame (get close to that box and you feel the dissapointment at all its plastic against the metal you thought it was made of at first glance)
Spread the word though.. i can understand why Sovkiller has stayed so happy with them, all this time
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=102932
Dammit, I thought it was maybe 2 years ago.. it really puts into perspective that i've had a crazy headfi year since then with far too many purchases!!!
Anyways in the end i was just too late and got some SA5000s when they finally came out.. i was happy with them at the time, but have since really stopped listening to them... most recently i've neglected a pair of K1000s whilst chasing the electrostatic dream, most most recently my poor HE60s are in for a hopefully successful repair, and my Omega IIs haven't been charged for a week or more (they're pining for their lost HE60s brothers to be next to them in the stax energisers perhaps!?).
Anyways the opportunity arose and following the failure of securing an earlier one I jumped on it, the chance to finally own my own pair of CD3000s..
http://jimtreats.com/cd3000/all_pics.htm
They arrived, excellently packed by the seller and i had chance to listen to them at work.. my original idea was perhaps they would be an ok 2nd work pair of headphones.. this still may be the case but i don't have THAT good a source at work, pc speakers output no less, since my new D211 or whatever sony discman decided to stop playing cds even tho it looked immaculate and was supposedly NOS
As a work can they worked quite nice the isolation was just about right, not bad at all, but i had to bring them home, so i've had chance to use them on my home rig for the last few days.
The fit of these cans (as i'm sure 90% of you all realise haven't experienced all this a few years ago!!!) is truly excellent.. i had no idea what a downstep Sony had taken with the SA line in terms of comfort, but the CD3000 are much more comfortable phones for me.. and its not even that the SA series are uncomfortable, they're just not the luxurious fit of the CD3000s!!!!
As for the sound.. well as ever i've been reluctant to really do any comparisons with my existing phones as i generally don't enjoy it that much, plus i'm lazy.. but going by my fuzzy placebo ridden memory these CD3000s sound very very nice, and they're in pretty decent company with my current collection being relatively wide, even for a typical headfi-er.
In a work use, being driven badly they still sounded pretty decent.. excellent even, all the traits i now associate with them were coming across fine.. i did notice however that in that form they may not be ideal work cans as after a few hours of listening i was starting to get a bit fatigued by their brightness. Not that they're THAT bright to me but over that time it just started to get too much.. i was perhaps listening too loudly as well.. anyways with a work can for me i need it to be able to be listenable all day long, and all night.. my Beyer DT250-80s fit that bill perfectly.
Coming home to my normal amp, tho not my WNA one yet (my DAC's twin outputs going to my main amp (with its remote control and 8 inputs selectable from the remote) and the Stax energiser at the moment, leaving no room for the WNA
On the whole tho i really do dig what these cans do with music.. they play electronica greatly, which is what got me interested in the first place, they've also blossomed in other genres too for me though.. the one thing that has really surprised me is their great soundstage.. it really is special.. i've not listened to others as i said earlier but i'm sure the SA5000s are no where near this kind of soundstaging.. i never quite fully understand the difference of headstage and soundstage, but my experience with my Omega IIs shows that i know what hearing a small but lovely spatial detailed soundstage is like.. something that i remember being described for the SA5000, but something that for me at least is not close to my Omega IIs.. anyways the CD3000 is definitely keen to throw that soundstage nice and wide... in some respects it reminds me of my K1000s though still not having the rest of its unique soundstaging qualities of course. I'd read about the soundstage tho, and as i said its that which attracted me to them.. what i was taken aback with the other night though was a Max Richter track with a distant piano, and it was just rendered beautifully by the CD3000s.. even coming from the great space of the K1000s i was really taken in by the Omega IIs abillity to convincingly throw some instruments far ahead of my head, where my other cans didn't even hint at such a thing, and yet hear was the CD3000s doing a really remarkable job of that sort of thing.
I'm currently listening to a binaural recording, and my early impressions of this has been confirmed, the CD3000s make very very nice binaural headphones.. I'm sure i read an old site somewhere where they got recommended as such and i can back up that observation.. the K1000s are obviously hampered in this regard but i've always been slightly dissapointed by how the HE60s and Omega II presented binaural recordings.. more the latter to be honest.. its unique staging of instruments seems to confuse the binuaral effect and remove a lot of the pleasure of those recordings for me.. I have some Etys and know they do good binaural, but i just listen with them so rarely now (probably not had them in my ears for at least a year now) .. i also know they do a binaural version which i've never had chance to hear.. it has no roll off in the upper trebble, the supposed diffuse field equalisation or similar.. now the CD3000s presenting such a lovely soundstage seem to scream of being equalised in this manner, but i don't know.. their brightness and details perhaps hold it together, whilst their natural soundstaging doesn't get in the way of the binuaral effect in the way that the omega's one does to me.
Anyways enough... i just thought i'd rant a bit.. the circle as it were is now complete, and i just wanted to add that to the history of my journey of headfi posts
I'm sure many have heard and dismissed these cans, but if there is anyone else left who hasn't, i really encourage you to give them a try if the opportunity arises.. they're not perfect, but they do a lot of things very well to me, i've spent a lot more money since, and i'm still happy with those purchases, but i'd just like to say that even having spent that money these relatively cheap cans are really still impressing me in a lot of ways. To those SA owners who've never heard them, if you ever wish for a bit more space in everything then please do check them out also.. perhaps the details aren't quite as much, but they're still detailed cans, but they're soundstaging to me at least is far superior, and a very pleasing thing to sink into.
As for the R-10s.. dammit, i'd convinced myself i could live without them.. i certainly can't afford them at the moment.. but if its just more of the same CD3000 sound then i think that could be a really nice thing to hear.. that they're amp fussy always put me off as i can only afford to win the headphone battle at this time, not the amps as well, let alone have the space for all of them, or the sources to provide the input to so many different amps.
At the moment though, i do wish that Sony would go a bit more back to this kind of design, to me i prefer the sound of it, along with the fit, and even the looks (yes you do look incredibly silly wearing them, but what the hell.. i've never felt ashamed listening with my K1000s, in my own home mind !!
Spread the word though.. i can understand why Sovkiller has stayed so happy with them, all this time
