Suggestions for correcting a slight K-1000 'rattle' - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

Jussei · #1 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 04:37 AM

Hey everyone,

I got a K-1000 earlier this year and it's got a very slight rattle at certain frequencies, but it's not consistent. I have done plenty of reading on Head-Fi and other locations and have some great information, but would like a bit more.

Here's possibly helpful info in correcting the situation:

1. The foam in the original box was deteriorating. When they were shipped to me some small flecks of the foam made their way through the grilles. Upon lightly blowing out the cans with compressed air, it made a substantial improvement and almost completely eliminated the problem.

2. A couple of months ago I figured I'd check to ensure that it wasn't a diaphragm issue. I opened up one side and everything looked just fine. I was leery about doing any sort of 'cleaning' while open since, again, the issue I was having is slight and infrequent and I didn't want to do any serious damage to nearly perfect K1000's

3. After a long headphone journey I think the K1000 is the headphone I'll be keeping for years to come. The pair I have are pretty much mint in every way and I, therefore, don't want to spend time tracking down another pair.

4. To describe the rattle... as I'd mentioned it's not a consistent issue, which leads me to believe nothing is wrong with either driver, etc. When it does arise, it's generally only with the songs with extremely low frequencies, but will sometimes show up on higher notes (say 1000Hz) that last a few seconds. It comes and goes. I can sometimes go days without hearing it, but other days I may notice it with most songs and then the next day, perfect again.

5. Finally, amplification DOES seem to make a difference. Better amplification does seem to yield far less 'rattle.' Is this 'rattle' perhaps just a low level distortion that the K1000's naturally have and I'm interpreting it as an issue? I can still pick up an extremely small amount when running off the speaker taps of a decent/good amp.

Anyway, I'm guessing others have experienced this and have found possible solutions... any suggestions?

I've got plenty of compressed air and would be willing to invest in other tools that would yield results. Also, I'm completely comfortable with taking the grilles off if need be as I didn't find it to be an extremely daunting task.

I'd just like to have these at 100%, right now I'd say they are 97%. The issue is negligible and I'm more than happy with them as-is, but if it's a relatively easy issue to correct, I'm willing to give it a shot. Also, being a typical Head-Fier my over analytical nature will cause me to evaluate every sound that leaves them.

Thanks,
Jussei

Blackmore · #2 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 06:44 AM

Check the tubes and if they are fine, must be the driver, but once again, bad tubes produce such thing as well.

Duggeh · #3 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 12:42 PM

Dear lord I hope that you were hugely careful with that cleaning. Compressed air could have done far more and irrepairable damage than any dust. I wouldn't put compressed air near any of my headphones, not even at a distance.

Piotr Ryka · #4 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 01:10 PM

Cleaning is noting wrong. I have cleaned my (with glasses cleaning lotion) and nothing wrong was happened. (But I don’t recommend that to anybody.)
I suggest to try hearing without grills and check if this rattles appears in that situation too, because maybe there is some interaction between diaphragm and mesh. Try also another interconnects (IC is very important for K1000 sound) and more transparent tubes, like Brimar or Telefunken.

Jussei · #5 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackmore

Check the tubes and if they are fine, must be the driver, but once again, bad tubes produce such thing as well.

Tubes are good...
But wouldn't a problematic driver produce a consistent issue?

Jussei · #6 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh

Dear lord I hope that you were hugely careful with that cleaning. Compressed air could have done far more and irrepairable damage than any dust. I wouldn't put compressed air near any of my headphones, not even at a distance.

I understand your concern and this is always done from afar, carefully and with almost no pressure. It equates with a very light 'breeze' to remove any particles that may be present, although with your caution, I may forgo doing it in the future just to prevent any possible issues.

robm321 · #7 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 04:59 PM

I would go with piotr's suggestion to listen without the cages. Because it is intermittent, I'd assume and hope it's not the driver.

derekbmn · #8 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 05:25 PM

I had a small case of rattle in my right driver when I received mine and as desribed below it was some very tiny hairs stuck in the "blue goop". I would check for that under stong light and a magnifying glass.

Here is a great post from Fitz taken from a different K1000 thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fitz

Well now you have. I've seen it happen both by hairs getting on the face of the driver which buzzes grattle style, or fuzz sticking to the "blue goop" strain relief used where the voice coil is soldered and rubbing against the diaphragm on strong bass notes, making a faint rustling noise. However, having fully disassembled and examined a few different K1000s, I have not found any evidence that there is a risk factor to the headphones besides some temporary noise caused by hairs/dust. I'd be willing to say that the majority of failures are probably due to improper recabling/modding attempts, or simply mistreating the headphones. The changes made to the way the voice coil attaches to the PCB between early and late models seems more likely to do with making it easier to assemble the grilles without damaging the driver (and irrelevant to normal usage), and is unrelated to the sonic differences which I suspect from visual observation are due to minor differences in diaphragm material or doping.

progo · #9 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 06:02 PM

Very interesting. I did notice some rattling with my K1000s myself too. The funny thing is, when I got used to the sound (coming from extensive staxstatic sound scene) much of the rattle seemed disappearing. Maybe it just was the dynamic harshness to me. Anyway, there still can be an occasional harsh note in the upper mids and especially if I play something quiet, the sibilant esses will exaggerate themselves in a way that could be thought 'harsh'. I believe the amp is not perfectly healthy yet the same songs don't always produce the same harsh notes, which indicates a hair problem.

Piotr Ryka · #10 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 06:22 PM

That is not hair problem. Hairs on diaphragm causes quiet bangs. Probably that is some kind of surface distortions. Wrong work due to wrong signal.

derekbmn · #11 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by progo

Very interesting. I did notice some rattling with my K1000s myself too. The funny thing is, when I got used to the sound (coming from extensive staxstatic sound scene) much of the rattle seemed disappearing. Maybe it just was the dynamic harshness to me. Anyway, there still can be an occasional harsh note in the upper mids and especially if I play something quiet, the sibilant esses will exaggerate themselves in a way that could be thought 'harsh'. I believe the amp is not perfectly healthy yet the same songs don't always produce the same harsh notes, which indicates a hair problem.

Another thing for people to check for, is to make sure that the screws that hold the cage assembly together are tight. It is very important to eliminate any cage resonances from happening.

Progo... I think in your case this may be what is happening. It wouldn't hurt to check.

progo · #12 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derekbmn

Another thing for people to check for, is to make sure that the srews that hold the cage assembly together are tight. It is very important to eliminate any cage resonances from happening.

Progo... I think in your case this may be what is happening. It wouldn't hurt to check.

Do you mean the screws pointed to in picture #2 in Fitz' guide? I might just check that later this night. Thanks for advice

derekbmn · #13 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by progo

Do you mean the screws pointed to in picture #2 in Fitz' guide? I might just check that later this night. Thanks for advice

Yes and your welcome. Hope it helps.

Jussei · #14 (**permalink**) 07-04-2009, 08:23 PM

Awesome advice from everyone, thanks.
I just got back home from some 4th festivities and sat down to try a few things. Per some of the excellent suggestions here, I tested to see if cage resonance was the problem. As I squeezed a few places on the cages I had no more rattle!
Now that I've found the culprit, how have those eliminated the resonance? I've got to push with a decent amount of pressure to eliminate it all together. I guess I could go 'cageless,' but I'd rather have it on if I can.