[kwkarth]

I must confess that I've had a love-hate relationship with my K-s1000. Firstly, I'm a weird guy and I love weird things. The K-1000s appealed to me on that basis alone even before I ever saw or heard them in person.

I bought a pair from HeadRoom and drove them with my Kenwood RD-VH7 which puts out about 10 watts per channel. They were OK, but didn't send me.

I shortly thereafter bought the SAC/AKG K-1000 amp which was designed specifically to power the K-1000 headphones. It sounded really cruddy when I first hooked it up and I thought maybe I had wasted my money. To make a long story short, I discovered the amp was wired incorrectly such that one channel was out of phase with the other. I fixed the problem and man did it sound great!

As good as it sounded though, the bottom octave was missing and I particularly missed that when listening to Organ music. I devised a way to couple a sub woofer into the system and phase it properly with the K-1000s. I was a happy camper for a while....

Then came the unhappy realization that as much as I didn't want it to be so, the cans had a decidedly metallic coloration to them. Bummer... When I listened to the K-1000s on a V20 during the headroom tour, they sounded beautiful with no or very little trace of metallic coloration. Funny... The K-1000 amp had no trace of coloration with any other headphone I plugged into it, so it couldn't be the amp. I thought maybe my pair was defective.

Just tonight after a long hiatus of not listening to them, I took them out of their box and plugged them in...

Guess what? I have come to the conclusion that if I have the earpieces turned in too close to my ears, standing waves set up and there's the metallic coloration! If I open them up, the metallic coloration goes away! Cool! Glorious sound!! How could I be so dense and not notice this before?

Anyone else notice this about the K1k's

 

[wallijonn]

I adjust mine to the same angle as the back of my ears. So, no, I didn't notice it.

you have to think about that, don't you?

 

[HappymaN]

Good to see you on the boards kwkarth!

I've found that my K1000's sound best when they are angled at about 30 degrees.

I remember looking at a picture of you and your K1000's in your avatar, and wondering, "Why doesn't he angle out the drivers some more?"

 

[kwkarth]

Well originally I had them closed in to the point where I felt that the bass was adequate. This was a habit developed while driving them from the Kenwood. When driven by the SAC amp, the bass is fine even when they're opened up all the way which is where I have them set now. Even when I have them parallel to my ears which is where I used to have them, I get the standing wave/comb filter coloration. BTW, I'm running them without the subwoofer now because I put it to work in another room of the house.

 

[Number9]

I think there is more to it than just the angling.

I've now had my K1000s to compare to my K340s for about 4 months now.

While I love the the K1000s and too listen to them at about 30^ angle, I too notice a slight metallic coloration as well.

My K340s, which obviously do not replicate the "out-of-the-head" experience of the K1000s (but very good soundstaging in their own right), sound warmer, fuller and have a more solid bottom end. Voice seems to be more natural, while with the K1000s, more distant. Its like going from a solid-state to a tube amp. When I put on my K340s ... its just oh so smooth ... ah... I can listen for much, much longer.

I wish there was some better explanation for the coloration.

BTW... my K340s are heavily modified.

 

[kwkarth]

I think also some of the coloration is amplifier dependant because it was more pronounced on my Kenwood than it is with the SAC and even better still on the V-20 at the HeadRoom road show. ( I wish I could afford the V-20)

 

[kwkarth]

BTW, how have you modified your 340s #9?
Thanks!

 

[gerG]

kwkarth, great to hear from you again!

I have been blaming the metallic character on an odd 2000hz peak that shows up when the cans are on my head (and no, it isn't there when the volume is down, so it isn't the wind whistling through my skull

). Since my crossover is also an equalizer, I just tweaked the offending peak and forgot about it. I still wear them parallel to my outer ears. In fact, I bent my so that they match the inward tilt of my ears. I don't like the difuse sound that I get when I angle them outward.

I do still use them with a sub, but the problem is that by the time I power everything up to listen, I usually transition to my nearfield speakers. Poor K1000 get neglected.

#9, ditto on the K340 question. Mine sound pretty lame. I measured the response last weekend, and it is not a pretty sight. I haven't tried them equalized yet. They need help.

gerG

 

[kwkarth]

Gerg,
Thanks for the greeting. I enjoyed reading about your new 2496. Gottagitmeoneo'them!

 

[Jon L]

that we you own a K1000. It's an honor and previledge to witness something so uniquely musical. These little cans have impressed me more than any regular speakers I've ever heard, period. That includes things like Wilson grand slams, Maggies, Martin Logans, big B&W's, etc.

The single-driver "earspeaker" concept is a singularly amazing tour-de-force, but just like any bleeding-edge effort, one must get everything just right.

The long extension cable must go, of course, but even if you plug the K1000 directly to the amp, you may still need an "adjustment" from an additional length of compensatory wire, such as Stefan audio arts or a good DIY cable, to bring the sound of attached wire into balance. The attached wire, just like the extension wire, has a metallic, vague quality in treble with weak bass.

I also find that placing a ferrite clamp on the K1000 wire just before it splits in two helps smooth things out a bit. Since K1000 is so revealing, the RFI/EMI riding on the cable can make a big difference.

Ditto for amps (I love my VAC with my K1000), interconnects, power cords, which all have to be just right.

K1000 IS definitely worth working on IMO...

 

[kwkarth]

Our collective legs have just been pulled...

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jon L I also find that placing a ferrite clamp on the K1000 wire just before it splits in two helps smooth things out a bit. Since K1000 is so revealing, the RFI/EMI riding on the cable can make a big difference.

That's interesting, I'm going to try this then.

 

[Jan Meier]

Dear Headfellows,

Last year I had a long conversation with the chief designer of Sennheiser. He explained me the metallic coloration of the K1000.

At the space in between driver and head the soundwaves tend to develop a specific resonance at a specific frequency. With normal headphones that resonance is very adequatly dampened by the paddings, but these are missing with the K1000.

In anticipation of this resonance AKG added a notch filter to the K1000 the decreases the output at the resonance frequency.

However, the resonance frequency depends on the distance between drivers and head. Therefore, depending on the position of the drivers, there might be a slight mismatch between notch filter and resonance which results in a sharp anomaly in the frequency response. This causes the metallic "edge" on the K1000.

Cheers,

Jan

 

[elrod-tom]

Interesting...

If what Jan says is correct, could not the shape of someone's head also have some impact. Imagine...some people might just have the wrong head shape for the K1000.

Hmmmm......

 

[kwkarth]

Thanks Jan, that's exactly what I suspected was happening.
I think I am going to experiment with some selective damping placed strategically on inside face of the K-1000s to see if I can improve upon them further without destroying the imaging characteristics.