AKG K501 love... - Page 48

wow really? yea I mean I love them but by god all the fun of rock flies out the window, the creamy yet forward mid range and agile highs more than make up for the absolute chasm where the bass should be. Although Even Deeper by Nine Inch Nails has bass on even these, that song gives any headphone bass....it's kind of crazy.

 

I just received my pair of K501 today in the morning. bought them on ebay for 85 euros and not only was the buyer very nice they are also in a mint condition. i personally think they are not even burned-in since they sound so fresh.
but so far i love em. clear and clean and everything, i'm satisfied with the bass since my Akg K240DF before had even less bass.
so yeah, i have some big love for these babies.

okay, after about 115 hours of burn in all i can say is: Wow!!

it's like i'm in liquid heaven because of these liquid mids lol, and bass is also a tad better defined.

jazz sounds so unbelievable out of these babies.

they may not be the best headphones for Rock, but i don't care.

Edited by amigastar - 6/28/11 at 6:06pm

They might not be the cans for metal or so-called 'hard' rock, but they are fantastic with stuff like Bob Seger and early Springsteen. The two cans I miss most are the DT440 and the 501s.

gotta agree

Just got my pair. I'm currently running some tests with classical music: so far I prefer the k601 pads obviously for the comfort, and I feel like they add some weight to the sound that I felt was missing with the stock pads.

However, for me the k601 foam donut tend to make the sound a bit bloated, I'm not really convinced.

 

(on a side note, k601 with k501 pads may not sound so good, but they look great)

 

edit: tried with the stock pads again, I'm not so sure now...

Edited by zomg - 6/29/11 at 2:03pm

Got back with the stock pads finally, something is'nt right with the k601s ones.

Tried some rock/metal. Is the "lack" of bass the only reason why people say they're not made for these genres? Because so far I don't think they're bad, like not bad at all (I'm no bass head, quite the opposite).

Thoughts?

I like the 601 pads better comfort wise, I don't hear much difference though..the bass is never bloated on my 501

 

I almost sold my AKG's today but I couldn't..Bill Evans will never forgive me.

 

 

 

When you read this, good luck with your 501 hunt Manuel!

 

Edited by Quinto - 6/30/11 at 4:31pm

edit...

Edited by amigastar - 6/30/11 at 7:29pm

I got my K501 in today at noon and have been listening to them all day. It's been kind of addicting. I had this idea in my mind beforehand what they'd sound like, but I have to say I like them so far much much more than I expected. I kind of expected them to sound similar to the K601, but IMO they don't sound anything like my K601. OK, maybe they do have some similarities. And to think music on the K601 was engaging...it is, but not like this.

 

I expected very light bass, but I have zero problems with the bass on these. Feels as if they have more bass impact than my K601?! What the heck? I'm driving them from a Headroom Micro Amp (not a portable amp) and it sounds about perfect on them. That amp also drove my K601 and K702 quite well and this is no different. On High Gain I only put the volume at 40%..I know this doesn't mean much.

 

Why do I hate the soundstage of the K702 and I love the super huge soundstage of the K501? The soundstage feels so huge that it feels like there is stuff happening outside my head. I was playing this game where I was in a hotel lobby with annoying elevator music playing and I felt like I was right there. Probably one of the best soundstages I've heard in a headphone. Often it's like when you have a huge soundstage, some details get lost in it, but not here so far.

 

Right now it feels like these have more treble than the K601, but not 100% sure on this. Definitely much less than the K702 which annoyed me. Certainly these are no detail monsters and maybe don't have the clarity of the K702, but I could care less.

 

For my music they're a good match. It'll be nice to compare them to my HD-598. Such a shame that AKG discontinued one of their best sounding headphones. Wonder why.

 

BTW I've listening to these about 4-5 hours today and so far I can't think of much about them I dislike. They're a bit less comfortable than the K601, but this is due to the size. Still very comfortable.

 

No music sounds bad on them that I have yet. Strangely Radiohead sounds very very good on these somehow. Guess I'll need to go buy some new CDs tomorrow.

 

Man if I only had bought these as my first headphone purchase, I could have saved a ton of money.

@tdockweiler

 

You've attained the AKG triforce - K501, K601 and K702. Very nice indeed. Wonder if you'll keep them all now.

always nice to read some impression of fellow K501 owners. My father listenend to them and said it's like your in the same room as the musicians.

thats what i was hearing too, but i called it "real" or "natural" sounding. now you can say thats the effort of my audinst and matrix m-stage but the K142 HD has not this kind of sound and they cost me 120 euros, while the 501's i got for 89 euros. oh and one thing, the matrix m-stage distorts at very high levels of listening with the K501. sure the soundstage is bigger than with the audinst but the audinst distorts at about the same level. thats a little bit disappointing i have to say, i thought the matrix m-stage, considering the size, will drive these headphones better. but to be fair i have to add that it happens at pretty much eardamaging levels of loudness.

Edited by amigastar - 8/12/11 at 7:11am

Sold the K702 a few months ago but I've owned that thing more times than I want to remember. It seems like I had less complaints about my K701 when I had it. I have a love/hate thing for the K702. Overall the K501 and K601 is a better match for my music. There's something strange about the K702's soundstage that often makes me dislike it. Too bad I didn't listen to more classical or else I would have kept it. I loved it for gaming and ambient music, but not enough to keep it. The treble was a bit bothersome for me too even after 200 hours of burn-in.

 

Right now the K601 feels a bit more neutral than the K501 and since I got the K601 for such a good deal, it's not going anywhere. I think I paid around $188 for it on some Amazon deal and now the price seems much higher. AKG pricing in the USA is always a bit strange. I had a really early pair of K601's and they sounded much different than my latest pair. My first pair had this really annoying lower treble peak. Could have been the amp I was using at the time, but who knows.

 

Can't say I've really heard anything like the K501. Closest match is the HD-598 and they're very different. There seems to be a huge difference in the soundstages of the K601 and K501 and not just size. I definitely prefer the K501.

 

 

 

That's exactly how I felt about the K701 when I had it, and why I sold it after I got my K501 - the soundstage was kind of wonky, very resonant and kind of "donut" shaped.

 

My K501 was more neutral than the K601 or the K701 (the 601 sounding closer to the 701 IMO). It had just the right amount of bass (bassier than both K601 and K701, but not really very "punchy") and treble wasn't piercing (like it was on the 601/701) but is missing a small amount of detail (like how the RE-0 transmits detail compared to a higher-end BA IEM, like the CK10 or ER4P). The soundstage is very good, not amazing, but overall the K501 does everything just right. The only other headphone that I've owned that I would compare to the K501's "overall goodness" is the DT880/600, which has some treble stridency problems but is otherwise a better headphone. Have you tried a DT880?

Hmmm, I suspect AKG fiddled with the K601 at some stage. My serial # is 20585 and I'm pretty sure they must be in the last few 1000's for the 'Made in Austria' models.

 

Mentioned this in another thread with a guy who has the 'Made in China' recent model, but again it looks like no one has an *old* and *new* K601 on hand to actively benchmark them at the same time.

 

Congratulations with the K501, I'm on the lookout for a pair myself. They are very rare indeed in Australia.