So, I think it's time for my k1000 review. I noticed, when looking around about these, that there were only a few reviews of them in any detail. I guess this is because once you're looking in the k1000 range, you probably know what you're after. Never the less, I was inspired by Duggeh's epic AMT review, and decided to turn my literary "talents" to the common good. But first, I'll give you a bit of background.
For a while I considered myself a bit of an oddity in the headphone world, having only an impression of the extremes of the spectrum. I bought some SR60's, then some e2cs, then an RS-1. Yup, it was a rather steep upgrade curve. What I didn't know then, and have realised now, was that was the wrong way to do it. Doing it that way, I had no idea how good or otherwise the RS-1s were, as I had no basis for comparison. Since then I have sold the RS-1, and gone through numerous other headphones, cheap and otherwise, in order to find what I was looking for. I have been to a few meets, and heard a lot of gear. However, nothing gave me any particular "wow-factor". That is, until I met the k1000s at a meet.
Darth Beyers- $550us or better quality cans for same price?
It's clear from my ever-so-slightly-manic excitement about them that I was smitten, but was in no financial position to really seriously think about a pair. It should also be fairly clear that the listening conditions were not ideal, and some of my observations would be corrected with the benefit of hindsight and a level head.
Anyway, this year I won a music scholarship at university, and the prize was co-incidentally almost exactly the cost of some k1k's. Hooray! A few PM's later, and after a hassle with a less-than-efficient French postal service, and the object of my desire was with me.
Visuals, and practical matters:
I have always had a soft spot for headphones with a... special... look about them. I am a proud member of Team-Jecklin, and can now take that madness to even greater heights. But, where the Jecklins look like the bumbling uncle of the audio world, the k1k's have this ruthless efficiency look about them. They are perched on your head with a thick leather band resting on the top, and some leather-covered foam pads that rest on your temples, clamping force is provided by two menacing red metal bars that run over the top of the strap. The drivers themselves sit inside what look like microphone cases (hardly surprising, given that AKG also make a fine range of microphones), with fine wire mesh as a protection for the drivers. The driver units pivot about their top front point in order to widen or narrow the gap between them and your ear, which can tweak the sound to your liking.
Although I believe it was the Stax headphone company that first coined the term 'Earspeakers' it couldn't be more perfect to describe these. They have no enclosure around the ears, so they're not quite headphones, but by hanging so close, they aren't really speakers either. Anyway, more on that later.
Everything about these feels quality. Whilst not being particularly heavy, they feel solid and sturdy in every way. This extends to the cable and extension cable, which feel of very high quality. The attention to detail of these 'phones is continued in their presentation case, which is a luxurious wooden affair as befits a quality headphone.
As you may expect, these are comfortable. The pads are well balanced, and while these are not the lightest headphones in the world, they seem to disappear on your head after a while. As the driver is not enclosed over the ears, your ears don't get hot either, and as such these can be worn for hours at a stretch effortlessly. My comparisons here are the HD580 and the Jecklins. Neither of these are a slouch in the comfort department, but both are easily outclassed here.
Here follows a brief selection of pictures. They show the box and a couple of glamour shots. I have declined to do more, due to my atrociously poor level of photographic skill. If, however, anybody would like any more pictures, or any of these at higher resolution, don't hesitate to PM.
To amp, or not to amp.
The k1000's are a strange beast, headphone-wise. They are a dynamic headphone, but they are designed to be driven from a speaker amplifier not a headphone amplifier, as they require more power than many headphone amps can provide. I am not an electronics whiz, and can't give any detailed explanation of the ohms/amps of it all, but they certainly are hungry beasts. I made up a lead with a mind to testing these out of standard headphone amplifiers, and none could cope. My millet gave enough volume, but with horrific distortion, and the least said about my Cmoy and PA2V2's attempts the better. Perhaps for a joke, at a meet, they would fit into a portable rig, but for actually listening to music, better stick to the more capable amplification.
The amplifiers I have used are both solid state vintage integrated amplifiers. Firstly, my trusty Technics SA-5350, which has served me well, but has been traded up for it's newer and equally fearsome-looking rival, the NAD 3240PE. The NAD was bought as an attempt to cut down on the weight and redundancy of my system (given that the Technics weighs about as much as a small car) as I have to carry it about from residence to residence. However, the NAD has ended up nearly as bulky as the Technics. Maybe I just wanted another amplifier to play with. There's not much to choose between the two sound-wise, if anything the NAD takes it slightly in bass response, but as ABing is extremely hard with a massive amplifier, it's very tricky to tell.
The listen
From the very first note I heard from my new cans, I was in raptures. This despite my heavy cold leaving me almost deaf in my left ear. Somebody on the forums here once wrote that their first listen with a new headphone was like a first date. Everything has to be right, you have to pick a worthy album. My first with the k1000s was Scott Matthews' Passing Stranger; An album that couldn't be more perfect as a test recording for these beasts. Not only is the recording wonderful, and of fantastic music, but it is full of things that sound magnificent with them. Shimmering high percussion, soundstage effects as the musicians move around. Even with my dodgy ear, I was in raptures from the first drum beat to the last wavering accordion solo.
For the remainder of my review, (which was conducted when my ears were at their fully-functioning best) I shall be considering these headphones with a wide variety of music. Including, but not limited to, the following albums.
Scott Matthews: Passing Stranger
Ebjörn Svensson Trio: Viaticum, Seven Days of Falling, E.S.T. Plays Monk
Pat Metheney: One Quiet Night
Sufjan Stevens: Come on Feel the Illinoise, the Avalanche
Soweto Kinch: A Life in the Day of B19: Tales of the Tower Block
Sibelius: Symphony No.5. Slovak Phil. Adrian Leaper
Jose Gonzalez: Veneer
Belle & Sebastian: The Boy with the Arab Strap
Dirty Pretty Things: Waterloo to Anywhere
Joni Mitchell: Blue
The Bad Plus: These are the Vistas
Britten: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Czech Radio Symph. Ondrej Lenard
Beth Orton: Trailer Park
The Square Pegs: Cream of the Crop
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Professor Longhair: Crawfish Fiesta
Various: The London Horn Sound
Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert, La Scala, Up For It
The Notwist: Neon Golden
Soil & "PIMP" Sessions: Pimpin', Pimp Master
Radiohead: The Bends.
Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
Damien Rice: O
Sigur Rós: Takk
Thom Yorke: The Eraser
These give an idea of the cross section of genres that I frequent regularly, and also those that get much more head-time than others. It's worth noting that after my initial listening sessions, those albums I reached for became slightly different to my usual selection. From my initial experiences with the flabbergasting high percussion in the Scott Matthews record, I tended to grab more acoustic music and records with good percussion. I was also leaning to more 'open' recordings, with a lot more fresh air between the notes. Solo piano and solo acoustic guitar featured more heavily than normal. Although this wasn't really a conscious decision to pick a different selection to my usual, I did end up thinking, "ooh yes, that'd be nice with them" quite a lot, when browsing.
The other headphones I will take as my points of reference are largely the HD580s, the Jecklin floats, and my e5c's. These have been my primary headphones for some while, and were both available for direct comparison to the K1000s. The other headphones mentioned were not available for direct comparison, but were owned and used extensively in the past.
It's also worth noting that I am assuming, given their age, that the k1000s are fully burnt in. I certainly haven't noticed any change in their sound when listening to them.
Soundstage:
Perhaps an odd place to start in a sonic review, but the soundstage of these cans is one of the things that makes them so special. As mentioned earlier, they fill a peculiar niche between headphones and speakers. As such, they are famed for their very special soundstage. Until these headphones, (binaural recordings aside) I never managed to find a headphone that could genuinely throw a soundstage forward. Even my Grados could throw a little bit left-right, but the best my HD580s could ever do was throw the sounds in an arc behind me. The k1000s throw sounds properly. As a Caveat, I have only limited experience with high-end speakers. My speaker rig is not magnificent, and others I have heard were only for brief periods. Therefore I have no comparison as to what a truly audiophile speaker rig can achieve. BUT, these are certainly the equal, soundstage-wise, to my speakers. The size of the image may be slightly smaller, but the accuracy, and ability to pinpoint instruments is much better. Although the soundstage is wide, it still retains the intimacy of headphone listening. A quote from a family member was "nice, but still a bit 'headphoney'". I do enjoy an intimacy with the music, so this is pretty good for me.
One nice track I used extensively in comparison for soundstage was the fugue from the Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra. This is especially useful, as the fugue begins with instruments entering one at a time, so it is much easier to separate an instrument out of the texture and locate it. Due to their wider soundstage, the k1000s excel at this more than other headphones, and as such it's remarkably easy to locate instruments. Again, using my family and friends as guinea pigs, it was fun to watch them jabbing the air with a finger, locating the instruments.
The wings:
One of the features that the k1000 is famed for is the 'wings'. The speakers themselves hang in cages hinged such that they can hang slightly away from the ears and can pivot to be closer or further away from the ears. As far as I can tell, the main effects of this are twofold. Pushing the wings in gains you some bass response, which could be important to you (see below), however bringing the drivers closer to the ear makes the soundstage considerably smaller and more congested. Aside from the obvious downside to this, I also experienced annoyance when the wings were tight close, as the incredible detail of these 'phones seemed to be too condensed towards my ears. This made the detail too much, and it became annoying.
My personal preference is to keep the wings splayed out as far as they will go. This gives the widest soundstage and lightest sound.
I think this feature is a bit of a double-edged sword. It gives a degree of 'tweakability' that is very handy, allowing the individual listener to tailor the sound to their own needs, but it also gives a temptation to do this too much, to fiddle with the wings endlessly to find the ideal and perfect spot. Thankfully, mine sits exactly at the end of the travel, so when I pack them away, I can always find it, but others may have hours of fun/frustration endlessly tweaking. It's also fairly difficult to AB this effect, because moving the drivers nudges the volume slightly as well, which is perceived by the ear as a change in quality, so you have to re-adjust your volume control when you want to make the switch.
The lows:
I have never been, nor am I likely to be, a bass-head. My musical appreciation started with the folk music my parents listen to, and gradually had some classical music and jazz added to it, largely through what I was playing on my instruments. I managed successfully to avoid becoming too enamoured with popular music of any kind for some while. (I still abhor 90% of anything classed as 'pop', a term I loathe) As such, my preferences for bass are that it be present and accurate. Too much bass always feels cheap to my ears, and distracts me from listening.
To discuss low end, it's fairly sensible to separate two distinct forms: the 'real' and the 'imaginary'. By real, I mean that which has been created by a 'real' instrument. I am not making this as a moral judgement, simply a practical. The 'imaginary' is that which has been created using technological wizardry. The 'real' bass, and the 'imaginary' bass have to be treated differently, in my eyes, because they aspire to different things. 'Imaginary' bass aspires to sound good, whilst 'real' bass (unsurprisingly) aims to sound "real".
With the k1000s, the 'real' bass is very easy to review. It sounds 'real'. 'Cellos sound like 'cellos. Double basses sound like double basses. Low organ notes rumble around like low organ notes. The bass is not emphasised in any way, and just sits there naturally buoying up the rest of the mixture. Instruments such as the baritone guitar have what feels like accurate resonance, because the bass is enough to pick up the lower resonance of the instrument.
'Imaginary' bass is a slightly different proposition. With electronica, particularly, much of the drive of the piece comes from the bottom end. As such, the bass response needs to be solid and visceral in order to sound good. In this respect, the AKGs don't quite measure up. The bass is there, and it is clean and neat and tidy, but it isn't in quite big enough quantities to really pack a punch. It's not bad, per-say, but I have heard better bass. In contrast, my HD580s fall slightly further short, but in a different way. Their bass is more plentiful, almost to a fault, but lacks the definition of the K1000s. As such, the k1000's make a better prospect, whilst still being slightly lacking.
If all you ever listen to needs whopping bass, these probably aren't going to be the cans you end up with.
The middle way:
Although they have since been consigned to the annals of history, and turned into my portable rig, the RS-1 were my first pair of top end headphones. What sold them (apart from a childish desire to have the most expensive things I could find) was their rich midrange. Listening to a lot of jazz and folk acoustic music, as well as classical, the midrange is probably the most important part of the frequency spectrum. As when looking at the bass, it's very hard to describe the sound, because it just feels... right.
Vocals especially are extremely beautiful from these things. Sufjan Stevens' voice through large segments of the 'Illinoise' album is conveying sentiments of sublime sorrow. By writing about real events, the resonance in his words carries weight all of its own, and even when he drops down into sotto voce passages, the k1000s hold the resonance from the throat and it doesn't degenerate into sibilance.
Guitars, again, are another instrument which come over so beautifully on these headphones. The resonance of the instrument stays warm, without sounding muddy or unclear at all.
The glorious highs:
I mentioned at the beginning of this sonic review, that the first album to put through a set of headphones is like a first date. Well, that first date is blossoming into a rather healthy relationship. If it weren't remarkably impractical and probably illegal, I'd marry these things.
What I think is giving such a natural vocal tone, such a resonance to the guitar, and such a presence to solo piano is the absolutely fantastic top end. As they say, the devil is in the detail, and these have detail in spades. The brief susurrus as air rushes past the lips, the brief squeal of fingers sliding down guitar strings, all are brought right to the forefront of the recording, and the result is that recordings sound so precise and yet so alive. It's not just the overall impression of the music you get, it's every component part, and it's absolutely magnificent.
I can see how these are often portrayed as analytical, that by providing all of this incredible detail, somehow the soul is sucked out of the music, that it becomes more an exercise in spotting flaws, rather than getting a good impression of the music on offer. However, I can also see (and have done first hand) how having all of that detail can add massively to the strength of a good recording.
To sum up:
I think I have found "it", THE sound, the one that is right for me. As funds permit, I might try a new amplifier or two, and might play around with my portable rig, but given my current (massively reduced) usage of it, I may not bother. But, as far as a headphone for home listening goes, I'm done.
The sad thing to note at the tail end of this review is that there may never be another headphone like the k1000. It is a true one of a kind; a relic of a bygone era, an era that we can only hope returns one day.
Well, at a whopping 3 thousand-odd words, that is my review of the k1000. I hope it has been at least slightly enjoyable and a little bit informative too. I also am not sure whether it counts as a full-featured headphone review, but I'd hope so. I feel I should say something profound here, to end the review, but.
Review: AKG K1000.
