[MacedonianHero]

i normally enjoy listening to the w3000anv but found it "meh" last night. even the mids were sounding too forward to me this time around. guess i've become too accustomed to the th900's more v-shaped fr, clarity and visceral presentation.

 
Funny, I kinda regret selling my W3000ANVs, but haven't missed my TH-900s since they left. Nostalgia? 

 

[wrecked_porsche]

Well, listening to the W3000 yesterday, some songs were stunning, yet some were meh. On some songs, it was perfection, yet on others, the treble was distracting me from enjoying. Somehow felt detached from the rest of the spectrum and the overall tendency of the w3000 not to have any weight ot heft to its overall sound signature only made it worse. The w3000 is a weird headphone to me..... when it works well with that particular song, boy of boy does it work its magic, but then for every 3 to 4 songs, suddenly you'll be like meh... I have a love vs meh relationship with it. 
 
For example, it was stunning when I was listening to Dire Straits, but when my Romanian dance music came on, I was like meh.... The W3000 is not an all rounder...
 
That's the reason why the W11jpn is my go to headphones. It's not as stunningas the w3000 can be with the right songs, but it works with everything I throw at it. I just enjoy track after track with the w11jpn. The w11jpn is also not fussy if I just plug it directly into my phone. No need for any amps etc, whereas the w3000 needs a proper setup.

 

[up late]

Funny, I kinda regret selling my W3000ANVs, but haven't missed my TH-900s since they left. Nostalgia? 

could be. honestly, there are times when i listen to the w3000anv and i'm beguiled by it. last night just wasn't one of those times.

 

[AppleheadMay]

i normally enjoy listening to the w3000anv but found it "meh" last night. even the mids were sounding too forward to me this time around. guess i've become too accustomed to the th900's more v-shaped fr, clarity and visceral presentation.

 
From memory I can relate to that. The W3000 is missing some of the spectrum.
 

   
Funny, I kinda regret selling my W3000ANVs, but haven't missed my TH-900s since they left. Nostalgia? 

 
Can relate to that as well. It does have lovely mids. I enjoyed it most with vocal music.
 
 
I wouldn't call it a love/hate relationship but there are times where you enjoy it more or less. Depends on the mood I guess as I find it rather genre specific.

 

[wrecked_porsche]

Yeah, not a love hate relationship but rather a love meh relationship.....

 

[rumina]

That exactly what happen to me when i grab the ATH-W3000anv. On some days i'm excited with the lovley mids and the great presentation of voices, i have then even the impression of feeling the vibration of the vocal chords. Then the next time it's meh, medicore resolution and lacking parts over the music spectrum. But i don't let them go, when the day is right they are great for intimate vocal jazz like betty carter or nina simone. I have other earphones that are alike, either top or flop one some occasion, it shows me that music is created in your mind and the ear only delivers the information, someday it works different then the next day.
 
For myself i take the picture that every headphone creates his own listening room, some more neutral, some more colored. Now the brain needs to adapt this room to get the right "decoding" and accept it as 3d object (ea natural impression of sound), i think for myself that on some days my brain simply says " no no no thats not a room, thats not right" and don't remembers the room for the ATH-W3000anv that my brain had created. My experience is that with some headphone it takes quite a time (some minutes) to get into them even if you own/know them.

 

[BlakeT]

I also think that "meh" days can be the result of ear fatigue, mood, time of day (night is almost always better than the day for me), rather than the headphone itself.  There are just some days that my aural abilities are simply not up to snuff and on those days, I turn the music off and do something else.
 
On a separate topic, I know I am in the small minority on this view, but I don't really think of any of the headphones I have owned as being limited to certain genres of music.  All of them have been "all rounders" for me.  They simply present music in a different way and some are more revealing or bass heavy, etc. but I can still listen to and enjoy all music genres on all of my headphones.  I can listen to and enjoy bass heavy electronic music on my W3000's for example. I don't have to put on my TH900's to enjoy bass heavy music. But I understand those that have a different view.

 

[musicman59]

  Well, listening to the W3000 yesterday, some songs were stunning, yet some were meh. On some songs, it was perfection, yet on others, the treble was distracting me from enjoying. Somehow felt detached from the rest of the spectrum and the overall tendency of the w3000 not to have any weight ot heft to its overall sound signature only made it worse. The w3000 is a weird headphone to me..... when it works well with that particular song, boy of boy does it work its magic, but then for every 3 to 4 songs, suddenly you'll be like meh... I have a love vs meh relationship with it. 
 
For example, it was stunning when I was listening to Dire Straits, but when my Romanian dance music came on, I was like meh.... The W3000 is not an all rounder...
 
That's the reason why the W11jpn is my go to headphones. It's not as stunningas the w3000 can be with the right songs, but it works with everything I throw at it. I just enjoy track after track with the w11jpn. The w11jpn is also not fussy if I just plug it directly into my phone. No need for any amps etc, whereas the w3000 needs a proper setup.

I used to own the W11JPN. it is a beautiful headphone but I personally found it on the bright side. I own the W300ANV and to me is the best sounding Audio Technica I have heard or own. They are not getting much headtime lately but still love them.

 

[AppleheadMay]

  I used to own the W11JPN. it is a beautiful headphone but I personally found it on the bright side. I own the W300ANV and to me is the best sounding Audio Technica I have heard or own. They are not getting much headtime lately but still love them.

 
 
W3000 was the second best for me. L3000 tops them all. But like most AT's I heard I find it genre specific.
I don't have that with the other brands I know, most headphones I find to be allrounders.

 

[wrecked_porsche]

  I used to own the W11JPN. it is a beautiful headphone but I personally found it on the bright side. I own the W300ANV and to me is the best sounding Audio Technica I have heard or own. They are not getting much headtime lately but still love them.

 
 
Hmmm... interesting. To me, the W3000 are brighter than the W11jpn. Sometimes I feel that the treble on the W3000 just doesn't mesh well with the mids and bass as compared to the W11jpn. OR, maybe the mids on the w3000 are not prominent enough for me. Sometimes I feel like the w3000 is tip toeing through the music in a hurry, whereas the w11jpn consistently takes its time to let the music melt into your soul.
 
Having said that, in the grand scheme of things and comparing with all the other stuff that I currently own and have owned in the past, I wouldn't call either of these two "bright". Also, when the W3000 hits the right songs, omg its marvelous, its on a whole other level. On the flipside, with the W11jpn, I just enjoy almost all my music without any fuss. Everything is consistent and enjoyable all the time. I don't even bother to amp my w11jpn. Direct out of my Tab S and it's already damn enjoyable. Mozart, Lana Del Rey, Romanian Dance Music, Guns N Roses, NWA.... doesn't matter, the W11jpn takes it all in its stride.
 
With the W3000, its a hit or miss depending on song. When its a hit tho.... simply sublime.
 
 
 
 
@AppleheadMay, the L3000 is my dream headphone. It's the one headphone that always slips away from my grasp somehow. Everytime I get a chance to buy, I'm not prepared financially one way or the other; **** always pops up to foil my plans. Its always bad timing. Very very frustrating as I've always wanted to hear one. I've kinda made up my mind that I'll buy one before the year ends. If it builds on everything that I like about the W11jpn, then I'd have died and gone to heaven.... Then I'll face another huge problem.... I tend to buy backups of the stuff that I like. Dammit...
 
The W11jpn to me sounds like TAD speakers running on TAD equipment. Everytime I go to the annual International audio show in my country, the TAD stuff always ends up being my favourite...

 

[AppleheadMay]

  @AppleheadMay, the L3000 is my dream headphone. It's the one headphone that always slips away from my grasp somehow. Everytime I get a chance to buy, I'm not prepared financially one way or the other; **** always pops up to foil my plans. Its always bad timing. Very very frustrating as I've always wanted to hear one. I've kinda made up my mind that I'll buy one before the year ends. If it builds on everything that I like about the W11jpn, then I'd have died and gone to heaven.... Then I'll face another huge problem.... I tend to buy backups of the stuff that I like. Dammit...
 
The W11jpn to me sounds like TAD speakers running on TAD equipment. Everytime I go to the annual International audio show in my country, the TAD stuff always ends up being my favourite...

 
I had one and it's indeed fantastic. But it's become pretty price and those drivers are getting old. Now why don't you go ahead and buy an L3000G? I know there's still one BNIB you might get for roughly 25-30k.
 
Same feeling about TAD, the best there is IMO but I'm not a fan of the price. Still, there's more expensive stuff that doesn't sound even close.
Reference One ... my dream.
But take a look at Marantz as well. Their premium series is really nice stuff and quality scales well with the price you pay.

 

[wrecked_porsche]

   
I had one and it's indeed fantastic. But it's become pretty price and those drivers are getting old. Now why don't you go ahead and buy an L3000G? I know there's still one BNIB you might get for roughly 25-30k.
 
Same feeling about TAD, the best there is IMO but I'm not a fan of the price. Still, there's more expensive stuff that doesn't sound even close.
Reference One ... my dream.
But take a look at Marantz as well. Their premium series is really nice stuff and quality scales well with the price you pay.

 
Had? You sold it? Okay, when I win the lottery, I'll give you a buzz, that green L3000 will be mine... need to make up for all the bad luck.
Yes, it worries me that the drivers are becoming quite old... why do you think I have backups of my W11jpn? My only two regrets in this hobby over the 10 years that I've been here is selling my ESW10jpn and not buying a mint L3000 that was offered to me. I really really regret this...
 
Wow, you like the TAD stuff too? Its actually the first time I've encountered someone who thinks that TAD are spot on too! We have the exact same taste in sound. Yeah, expensive, but stuff that costs 2 or 3 times more did not even impress me at the audio show. Every year, every damn year, the TAD setup is the one that always gets to me. Its perfect, I don'twant anything else.
 
Assuming that you sold your L3000, what headphones did u upgrade to and find to be in the same vein as the L3000? Also, what speaker setup do you have? PM me if you don't want to derail this thread.

 

[AppleheadMay]

   
Had? You sold it? Okay, when I win the lottery, I'll give you a buzz, that green L3000 will be mine... need to make up for all the bad luck.
Yes, it worries me that the drivers are becoming quite old... why do you think I have backups of my W11jpn? My only two regrets in this hobby over the 10 years that I've been here is selling my ESW10jpn and not buying a mint L3000 that was offered to me. I really really regret this...
 
Wow, you like the TAD stuff too? Its actually the first time I've encountered someone who thinks that TAD are spot on too! We have the exact same taste in sound. Yeah, expensive, but stuff that costs 2 or 3 times more did not even impress me at the audio show. Every year, every damn year, the TAD setup is the one that always gets to me. Its perfect, I don'twant anything else.
 
Assuming that you sold your L3000, what headphones did u upgrade to and find to be in the same vein as the L3000? Also, what speaker setup do you have? PM me if you don't want to derail this thread.

 
 
Yep, sold it because I wanted a pristine one. Haven't found it yet and prices keep going up while the drivers keep getting older. Probably will never get one again, especially as I will cut my collection down to three phones since I'm getting more and more into vintage and speakers.
Upgrade from the L3000? Well, for the music it sounds best with, Rock (of the harder variety) ... nothing. Nothing beats it.
But for allrounders I absolutely love my LA-900s, Pioneer M1s and Sennheiser HD650s. Those are the ones I'm going to keep.
 
Speakers?
Marantz PM-11S3 with B&W PM1 and PV1D but the goal is to replace those with 804 D3.
Sansui 9090 with Pioneer A4SPT-VP. Won't keep those in the long run though and probably use the Sansui for phones only.
Pioneer SX-1250 with Infinity Kappa 7A. The goal here is to replace the Kappas with Yamaha NS-2000.

 

[daigo]

Anyone have some tips for cleaning the fabric covered cables of these headphones?  I had a little bit of a stain from a beverage spill on it and I'm not sure what is a safe way to clean it off without ruining the color beyond what it is like now.  

 

[up late]

I also think that "meh" days can be the result of ear fatigue, mood, time of day (night is almost always better than the day for me), rather than the headphone itself.  There are just some days that my aural abilities are simply not up to snuff and on those days, I turn the music off and do something else.

On a separate topic, I know I am in the small minority on this view, but I don't really think of any of the headphones I have owned as being limited to certain genres of music.  All of them have been "all rounders" for me.  They simply present music in a different way and some are more revealing or bass heavy, etc. but I can still listen to and enjoy all music genres on all of my headphones.  I can listen to and enjoy bass heavy electronic music on my W3000's for example. I don't have to put on my TH900's to enjoy bass heavy music. But I understand those that have a different view.

those factors can affect our listening experience but in this instance i think it was more a matter of coming back to the w3000anv after a stint with the th900 and finding its presentation unsatisfying.

i also regard all headphones (and earphones) as "all rounders" fwiw.