[Fortune]

Thadda Boy Hirsch! You can't get enough of the tubes; it's a disease.

 

[markl]

Hirsh,
Let us know how they turn out in the Melos tube-rolling thread. I sure like 'em.

markl

 

[Tomcat]

Just a little clarification: the W2002's impedance is 40 ohms, the W100's is 48 Ohms.

And judging from my experiences with the W100, the W2002 might need a lot more burn-in than what kelly gave his pair. My W100 must have 400 hours on it by now, and it still mellows, gets tonally richer and gains bass extension and slam.

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by Tomcat Just a little clarification: the W2002's impedance is 40 ohms, the W100's is 48 Ohms. And judging from my experiences with the W100, the W2002 might need a lot more burn-in than what kelly gave his pair. My W100 must have 400 hours on it by now, and it still mellows, gets tonally richer and gains bass extension and slam.

Tomcat, I love you man but this is dumb. I didn't find the W2002 harsh in the least. My review (and the update to my review) referred repeatedly to how smooth they were. Are you suggesting that the issues I had with its frequency response and coloration disappear with burn in? That's slightly on the ridiculous side.

 

[Tomcat]

Quote:

Are you suggesting that the issues I had with its frequency response and coloration disappear with burn in?

kelly,
Is that so inconceivable? Do you remember what KurtW said about his "cupped voice" problem with the W2002 about a month ago: Quote:

Yesterday a listened again to the same CD where I heard the cupped voice, and it didn't show up hardly at all. In fact I listened to the entire CD because I was enjoying the music so much, hearing little details for the first time. Previous to this I had put another 15 hours or so on burn-in time on the phones, in case that would help. It might have been the burn-in, or the fact that I hadn't compared it with anything else, or the different CDP/amp/cables (Rega Jupiter/IO and Sudgen HeadMaster), or my mood, I'm not sure. The fact that eariler when it did hear it on the W2002, I didn't hear it at all when I quickly switched to the W100 made me think it didn't have anything to do with the equipment.

And Spad claims not to hear any unwanted treble emphasis or midrange and voice problems at all after 400 hours of breaking-in his W2002.

kelly, do you really know what could have happened if you had kept your pair?

Well, I have a pretty clear idea what would have happened if you had bought a W100. Ah, you knew I had to rub that in, didn't you?

 

[MirandaX]

This burn in thing is getting tedious and somewhat dumb. Tomcat's wonderful, virtually no faults review was written long before 400 hours of burn in. If Kelly and Flumpus noticed something different, it's fair for them to post it. It's clear Kelly and Flumpus heard things with the W2002s that Tomcat didn't, with an equivalent amount of burn in. It doesn't make sense to follow-up every darn post criticizing the W2002/W100 with "it'll go away with burn in".

Quote:

Originally posted by Tomcat And Spad claims not to hear any unwanted treble emphasis or midrange and voice problems at all after 400 hours of breaking-in his W2002.

Spad has never noticed the "cupped voices" problem with his W2002. It has nothing to do with burn-in. He's said a couple of times that voices are more realistic with the W2002s than any other cans he's heard.

 

[kelly]

I never had complaints of "cupped voices." What I heard was a colored timbre that mostly effected the lower octaves and thus, was more prominent in male vocalists. This did not change at all over the time that I owned the headphone and it seems unreasonable and illogical to think that it evaporate with additional burnin. I don't imagine the coloration bothers everyone. In fact, I find it hardly noticable at all with some vocalists.

As I've said, I've never heard the W100 yet. You're welcome to send me yours to sample and if I'll report back with my thoughts on them.

I try not to assume that W100 and W2002 have similar qualities and/or problem areas. The only thing I have seen is that Kurt liked the W2002 better than the W100 and his views on them specifically. Without a compelling reason to try the W100 now and no other headphone readily available (read: Grado HP-1), my energy will be devoted to making my HD600/RKV system sound its best, enjoying my Etymotic at work and looking toward Stax in the future.

 

[Tomcat]

Quote:

I try not to assume that W100 and W2002 have similar qualities and/or problem areas. The only thing I have seen is that Kurt liked the W2002 better than the W100 and his views on them specifically.

kelly,
You are right. Kurt is the only one who has compared both at this point and probably is the only authority on this subject of comparison. It would be interesting to learn whether he perceives any further changes, now that he has used both of them for some more time.

MirandaX,
kelly and I, we are aware that we are talking about different headphones. Reading your posts, I am not so sure that you are.