M Rael
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2001
- Posts
- 675
- Likes
- 10
It may be water under the bridge since the W2002 is sold out, but I've been getting lots of feedback from another american who also bought the ATH-W2002 headphone.
It turns out my new friend works for a symphony hall and hears soo much live classical its not even funny. He also mentioned that during rehersals, or whathaveyou, he is free to move around and take in as many listening perspectives as he wants. This was an eye opener for me, since I basically never listen to classical. And if his expertise in comparing the W2002 to live music werent enough, it also turns out my friend owns the Grado HP-1000 and an old Stax electrostatic to compare things with! My, my, my. Well we'll see what I can get him to do in the way of a comparision on his own, but alas he doesnt seem to be interested at all in throwing a bunch of words around (unlike yours truly.) But I did get a few impressions from him and I'm going to post them here myself. Later on I hope to have more to post, and I may even get a chance to compare these 3 headphones myself. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one.
Ok, well our friend is quite happy with his new purchase (W2002's) and though he offered a few criticisms of their sound he was unexpectedly blunt about how they compared to both his HP-1000's and his older Stax units. He said the W2002's 'blew the HP-1000's away' ..hows that for blunt. Compared to the electrostatics he offered that the Stax's were more neutral, though softer on the bass end. The W2002's seemed positively bass heavy in comparison to the Stax, with a certain hump in the lower midrange. He was amazed that though he felt the W2002 was bass heavy, that it still resolved better than the Stax (!)
He mentioned a classical recording where a nondistinct noise he heard using the Grado HP-1000's and Stax was clearly heard through the W2002's as the sound of the conductor at the podium. He found this quite amusing.. as in, 'so thats what that noise was!' On the other hand, he felt the sound of the percussion drum they use in classical (timpani? kettle drum?) was far better portrayed by the Stax. Its not the best idea to compare different driver types (dynamic/electrostat) but he didnt care much for the HP-1000 compared to the W2002 so it just didnt get mentioned- beyond the HP's sound getting described as being very dry, and less revealing.
After hearing all his listening impressions I was struck by how different our listening habits are: his are informed by the live music he hears all the time at work, while mine are based entirely off studio fabrications: rock music. You cant use live rock music as any kind of reference point! And even if you try, it a universe apart from what classical is.. and so it was great to get some feedback from this person who listens to live classical day in and day out compare headphones.
He did say he thought the W2002 was great on the one rock CD he mentioned (Pink Floyd / The Wall.) For classical though, he finds the W2002 a bit more colored than his Stax- but more revealing of details and hall ambience.
Well thats all I have for now but soon, who knows.. I might have a W2002-HP1000-Stax shootout of my own to post. The only other W2002 owner I know of is member uvak, from Sweden. But he seems to be another one who doesnt like to throw words around. No review uvak?
It turns out my new friend works for a symphony hall and hears soo much live classical its not even funny. He also mentioned that during rehersals, or whathaveyou, he is free to move around and take in as many listening perspectives as he wants. This was an eye opener for me, since I basically never listen to classical. And if his expertise in comparing the W2002 to live music werent enough, it also turns out my friend owns the Grado HP-1000 and an old Stax electrostatic to compare things with! My, my, my. Well we'll see what I can get him to do in the way of a comparision on his own, but alas he doesnt seem to be interested at all in throwing a bunch of words around (unlike yours truly.) But I did get a few impressions from him and I'm going to post them here myself. Later on I hope to have more to post, and I may even get a chance to compare these 3 headphones myself. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one.
Ok, well our friend is quite happy with his new purchase (W2002's) and though he offered a few criticisms of their sound he was unexpectedly blunt about how they compared to both his HP-1000's and his older Stax units. He said the W2002's 'blew the HP-1000's away' ..hows that for blunt. Compared to the electrostatics he offered that the Stax's were more neutral, though softer on the bass end. The W2002's seemed positively bass heavy in comparison to the Stax, with a certain hump in the lower midrange. He was amazed that though he felt the W2002 was bass heavy, that it still resolved better than the Stax (!)
He mentioned a classical recording where a nondistinct noise he heard using the Grado HP-1000's and Stax was clearly heard through the W2002's as the sound of the conductor at the podium. He found this quite amusing.. as in, 'so thats what that noise was!' On the other hand, he felt the sound of the percussion drum they use in classical (timpani? kettle drum?) was far better portrayed by the Stax. Its not the best idea to compare different driver types (dynamic/electrostat) but he didnt care much for the HP-1000 compared to the W2002 so it just didnt get mentioned- beyond the HP's sound getting described as being very dry, and less revealing.
After hearing all his listening impressions I was struck by how different our listening habits are: his are informed by the live music he hears all the time at work, while mine are based entirely off studio fabrications: rock music. You cant use live rock music as any kind of reference point! And even if you try, it a universe apart from what classical is.. and so it was great to get some feedback from this person who listens to live classical day in and day out compare headphones.
He did say he thought the W2002 was great on the one rock CD he mentioned (Pink Floyd / The Wall.) For classical though, he finds the W2002 a bit more colored than his Stax- but more revealing of details and hall ambience.
Well thats all I have for now but soon, who knows.. I might have a W2002-HP1000-Stax shootout of my own to post. The only other W2002 owner I know of is member uvak, from Sweden. But he seems to be another one who doesnt like to throw words around. No review uvak?
