Old school shootout: CD3000 vs HD580 vs W100
Oct 28, 2008 at 2:50 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 1

Habib

500+ Head-Fier
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This is really a trip down memory lane. I haven't been using much of my gears for a while. Except for HD580, which I use on and off. I found a good deal for W100 and I jumped on it. So I dusted off my MPX3 to test the vintage woody.

As expected, I still prefer the sound of CD3000. The unique sense of space put you immediately in another place. The bass gives presence to the music. And the MPX3 just voices the CD3000 so well. They are really meant for each other. CD3000 is still one of most versatile headphone that handles all genre well.

HD580 is what got me to head-fi waaaaay back in the days. I am most impressed with it's depth and how it grows endlessly with better source/amp. It's always a good gauge to check the fidelity of rest of the system. But it's good for classical and not so for pop/rock/hip hop. All in all, HD580 is one of the best value when you can occasionally pick up new ones at ~$150. (don't know if you can still do that these days) If I am never to find a replacement CD3000, I always got new HD580 to fall back on. And that's not bad.

Now W100. Sound stage is really not there compare to both CD3000 and HD580. So it doesn't handle big orchestra that well. Extension is what you expect out of headphone at this range but HD580 clearly wins. Dynamics is reasonable, definitely not comparable to CD3000. And it's not flat at all. I would say it's just as colored as CD3000 but biased in different areas. So I find that it's adequate for classical. And sometimes the tube amp puts it over the top robbing the resolution and adding the colored-ness. One thing it excels at is female vocal especially with a tube amp.

I am not contributing much new as far as these 3 headphones are concerned. Hitting the search button will find you everything you want to know. I am just glad W100 gives me enough motivation to visit head-fi. In the end, I think I will keep the W100 since it's very well made and pleasant to look at. And it's a very good conversation piece.
 

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