[SP Wild]

Upper midrange centric, just imagine:     K701 + (K701upper midrange Squared) = W5000 female vocal emphasis + 10

 

[MrSpenkelink]

 
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^ I'm afraid that I haven't heard the K701 so that comparison doesn't mean much to me. 
 
In his post, MacedonianHero refers to what the frequency graphs don't represent i.e., micro details, sound stage, tonal accuracy and timbre. I'd also throw imaging and instrument placement into the mix as qualities in a headphone that are important to me. From what I've read (and there aren't many reviews of this phone to be found here and around the web), the W5000 appears to excel in these areas and is favourably reviewed. It seems to be a headphone that is well suited to classical orchestral and acoustic jazz music.
 
My main concern about the W5000 is that it may be "bass lite". I'm not a basshead but I don't want the bass presence overpowered by the other frequencies. Again from what I've read, the W5000 renders bass with texture and detail, but it is not as prominent and lacks the weight of the D7000.
 
I'm also attracted to both of these phones because they appear easy to drive without dedicated headphone amplification. Although I suspect that the W5000 might be the easier to drive of the two. I've found that Audio Technica phones are efficient and perform very well without dedicated amplification; just as well as Grado's. 
 
I appreciate that these are very different sounding phones and I do wish that I was in a position to audition them but unfortunately I'm not. I'm under the impression that the D7000 might have a big sound. Some here liken it to listening to loud speakers. Apparently its robust bass makes it ideally suited to video watching and it handles pop/rock music with ease. But that's not what I'd be using these phones for as I predominantly listen to jazz. So I'm trying to decide, which of these two phones would be better suited to small group acoustic jazz.   
 
 
 
   
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[Aethelred]

I've never found W5000 lacking bass - some people report "fit issue" which means it's hard for them to obtain proper fit and isolation hence the bass not having enough impact. I would not call W5000 ground shaking bass but and is lighter than D7000 but once again it never lacked weight and texture for me and was definitely on pair with any cans I've tried.
 
Quote:

 

^My main concern about the W5000 is that it may be "bass lite". I'm not a basshead but I don't want the bass presence overpowered by the other frequencies. Again from what I've read, the W5000 renders bass with texture and detail, but it is not as prominent and lacks the weight of the D7000.
   
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[darkswordsman17]

Quote:

I've never found W5000 lacking bass - some people report "fit issue" which means it's hard for them to obtain proper fit and isolation hence the bass not having enough impact. I would not call W5000 ground shaking bass but and is lighter than D7000 but once again it never lacked weight and texture for me and was definitely on pair with any cans I've tried.
 

 

I'm a W5000 fanboy and I would say stock, especially if you don't get a good fit, the bass quantity can leave you wanting. If you can get a better fit (which most people don't even bother to do), it does get to a more adequate level, but you might still be wanting more. The bass quality though, is every bit as good as any other headphone I've heard. In fact, the quality (texture is definitely a word that comes to mind) is good enough that even stock I didn't miss the bass that much. The thing is, the drivers are capable of a lot of bass, but its been tuned to not do that.
 
The nice thing is, if you like the W5000 but just want more bass, then you can achieve this. Some do this by equipment pairing (amp specifically), some do it with EQ, and others do it by modding them. I am big on blu-tak and cotton modding as its very easy, very cheap, completely reversible, and, most of all, effective. You might have to tinker some to get it just how you want it, but you'd have to do the same with equipment matching (unless you've got the money to get an HA-5000) or EQ'ing.
 
A simple mod for the W5000s for bass. Open them up (just requires removing the pads and removing 4 screws, although be careful because there's two sets of 4 screws, one set being small and the other being wood screws, so you want to limit how often you do this; either way, put the pads back on but don't put the screws back until you're done tinkering to get the sound you want, this way accessing the cups is much easier/faster and you're not stressing the screws). Remove the cotton ring, and then check the sound. If its what you want, cool. If not (the reverb for instance goes up a lot), try plugging one of the "ports" on the side of the housing (there's two on each cup). Use some cotton or tak (you can even adjust how dense you make the cotton or how much of the port you block with tak to really fine tune the sound). Check the sound again. Then if necessary try plugging the other port. If you want the quantity of both ports unblocked but want to lessen the reverb, put a layer of tak on the inside of the wood cup or pull apart some cotton balls and lay them over the mesh material between the earpad and the cups.
 
I know it can be difficult to make a decision, and really, I think you'll be happy with either one. I will say you probably will prefer the D7000 if you don't do any tweaking, but you will miss out on the speed and imaging that the W5000 offers (few headphones are comparable, and even fewer best it in these regards). Likewise, I feel the W5000 has better bass texture than the Denons, but not as much weight and impact. I actually listen to things (music, movies, etc) that play more to the strengths of the Denon, and while I find them to be great as well, I prefer the modded W5000s myself. The speed, imaging, and detail really are exceptional. At times, the midrange can be downright intoxicating as well. I never felt that way about the Denon's. So, if you're willing to do a bit to get them there, I think you'll love the W5000s, but if you don't want the hassle, I think you will prefer the D7000.
 
Oh, and I don't want to be misleading, the Denon's are tweakable as well, so either way, whichever choice, you should be able to do a bit to improve them if you feel the desire to do so.

 

[MrSpenkelink]

Quote:

I've never found W5000 lacking bass - some people report "fit issue" which means it's hard for them to obtain proper fit and isolation hence the bass not having enough impact. I would not call W5000 ground shaking bass but and is lighter than D7000 but once again it never lacked weight and texture for me and was definitely on pair with any cans I've tried.
 

 

That's reassuring, thanks.
 
And thank you darkswordsman17 for your detailed response. I'm not a tweaker but I do appreciate midrange. 
 

 

[Aethelred]

I would say try W5000 if you can and see if they saty firm on your head and you feel like good isolation around your ears was achieved - you will not miss any bass. I've done another simple and reversable mod on my W5000 - I've inserted round  shape tubing beneath leather pads - between fine mesh and leather pads - it provides some extra distance between your ear and driver unit and creates kind of chamber inside. This mod will work only if you have a small ears as your ear will go inside the pad. I found that this setting is providing more liquid like sound and more timbre in the sound also a bit more "matter' between the beginning and end of the note. I like it most. Cannot insert photos as I'm moving in a week time so we already have most of my stuff packed.

 

[MrSpenkelink]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm mod-averse and my ears are generous in nature. However, I'm not philosophically opposed to employing equalisation if need be.

 

[Drosera]

I can understand the aversion to modding. Keep in mind though that plenty of people (can't give you a precise percentage 

) will simply not get a good seal from the pads with these headphones in stock form. The most commonly used strategy is to apply some creative bending of the headband to get a better fit. My recently acquired pair came pre-bent by a previous owner. Thankfully he/she did a great job, because they fit me perfectly (even while wearing glasses). However, I've also tried a differrent pair in the past which was completely stock and that one didn't really fit well at all (with detrimental results for bass response as a consequence). Equalization will probably not by enough here, because both bass quantity and quality suffer.
 
On their sound it's certainly true that they have a very particular (even peculiar) character and in this regard I can certainly understand what detractors like MacedonianHero don't like about these phones. Yet, despite this heavy colouration I would certainly not call them unrealistic in how they reproduce acoustic timbres (I listen almost exclusively to classical music with these). They just have that hard to describe smoothing and lack of emphasis on the leading edge that's actual typical of any Audio-technica phone I've heard. They have a particular sound world all of their own, which makes sense listened to in isolation (and after a little mental adjustment), but I can well imagine that, when you would be alternately listening to the W5000 and more regularly neutral cans like the HD800, it will be hard to adjust to the sound of the W5000.
 
On bass reponse I would say that most of the time it's more than sufficient for my tastes (I'm certainly not a bass-head though). It's only when listening to, for example, solo piano recordings that I sometimes miss a little extra bass heft to get a properly balanced spectrum.

 

[korzena]

Quote:

Upper midrange centric, just imagine:     K701 + (K701upper midrange Squared) = W5000 female vocal emphasis + 10

What exactly is upper midrange, I mean what the exact frequency range of it (in Herz) is?

 

[Aethelred]

You realized this is 2 years dead topic? But anyways I think they referring to this as example:
http://www.geocities.jp/mister_terch/audiotechnicaATHW5000.html
check also this topic:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/425140/accurate-frequency-response-graph-for-w5000
 
But in reality it is certain change in voice intonation and I could identify this especially on female vocals but only very few. Basically all AT cans I've heard are not for the people that are looking for neutrality. I'm enjoying this coloration some people cannot stand it. To give you example on some records it's almost like the female lost couple of kilos and years. It does not change the music as such but it's definitely not 100% accurate.
Another aspect is certain nasality reported and personally I can hear it only maybe on 3-5 records.
Hope this helps.
With all audio it is best to listen in your own room and system otherwise impressions can be very misleading.

 

[korzena]

Hi Aethelred,
I knew this was an old thread, however I haven't been aware it was dead for so long!
Thank you for your reply. It answers my question very precisely.
Regards,
Andrew
 
Quote:

You realized this is 2 years dead topic? But anyways I think they referring to this as example:
http://www.geocities.jp/mister_terch/audiotechnicaATHW5000.html
check also this topic:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/425140/accurate-frequency-response-graph-for-w5000
 
But in reality it is certain change in voice intonation and I could identify this especially on female vocals but only very few. Basically all AT cans I've heard are not for the people that are looking for neutrality. I'm enjoying this coloration some people cannot stand it. To give you example on some records it's almost like the female lost couple of kilos and years. It does not change the music as such but it's definitely not 100% accurate.
Another aspect is certain nasality reported and personally I can hear it only maybe on 3-5 records.
Hope this helps.
With all audio it is best to listen in your own room and system otherwise impressions can be very misleading.

 

[citadel]

I find that these headphones actually sound very good out of ipod/iphone.
 
The soundstage and clarity is absolutely amazing, considering what DAC used.
 
I find the cable is a bit tedious though. I also find the woodcup to be quite fragile.
It chips very easily..

 

[mikroski]

Just want to know is it ok, if I purchase ATH-W5000 and use it with FiiO X3 player (no additional amp). Does W5000 require a lot of power to drive?
 
I listen to 70% vocal, 30% jazz.
 
Thanks for any input

 

[Headphony]

The W5000 really need a high quality source and well matched set-up to sound enjoyable. I can't imagine that any portable source can bring out the best in this headphone.

 

[Tgtr0660]

Thought they definitely sound better with an amp, they perform pretty decently straight out of an iPhone/pod. Unlike my HD650 which sound kind of miserable without an amp, the W5000 do a good job. Now, whether you like their sound or not and whether you like their fit or not is another matter. Their bass is very controlled and quite recessed, their mids are in-your-face. Good soundstage, helped by the actual distance between your ears and the driver, helped by the design of the headphone. The auto-adjusting head pieces can become a nuisance and I would have preferred either a single-side cable or one that you can separate more. In general, depending of your music choice, they are good headphones. Your vocal/jazz choice is the perfect one for them.