Has anyone tried the Trends TA-10 Class-T amp with K1000? Or it's just a Sonic Impact super t-amp clone? Just curious...

no mention of the bass roll-off.

that's the deciding factor for me btwn k701 vs k1000. You don't feel as intimate with your music as you do with the k701

IMO the AKG K-1000 is the only heapdhone that I would considier buying ever from AKG till now, the rest I ahve tried are just a joke in comparison, to the point that I don't even bother to get into details with them. Also IMO and IMHE the K701 have been extremelly overrated here in headfi, and it is not in the league people used to place it, IMO it is maybe a good average overall headphone, but nothing else...just me two cent and listen for yourself and preferences and personal opinions vary from one listener to another depending on many subjective factors...

Well, thanx for the two cent humor; Did you buy then sell the Greatest headphone of them all as stated by some here, or just listen to it in a synergistic rig for an audition of short durration?

Funny how there are so many factors which are easily overlooked such as being practical in terms of comfort and potential sonic fatigue when long term listening sessions are practiced; And the select musical material suited for the fussy rig., costs beyond the dollar amount which I'm also disuaded to make. I'd much rather embark upon different presentations with several amps and perhaps an RS-2 in the house aside the 701s neutral presentation; And actually have a back up, rather than a one phone solution such as the OP is choosing to do with the K-1000, a superior phone at an inflated used price~

But hey, what would one expect owners of one or the other to have concluded and endorse...

Very useful discourse all~

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but everything is subjective... like me saying that every sony headphone i have heard minus the R-10 has not impressed me a little... and even the R-10 isnt that great in my opinion...

but thats just it, its an opinion

For many listeners one heapdhone is not enough, for me if one headphone is good, it has to be good at everything I listen to, I have found a couple of them till now, that I can afford, those are good with everything...

IMO there should not be such a thing of being good with this and not suited for that, or good while I'm happy, and bad while I'm depressed, as then, what they are not suited at, in the moment they are not, they are distorting that particular sound in some way or another, and one thing that distorts a particular genre or recording in a non pleasant way to my ears, I do not want it around me....Same as if you look to speakers, there is no such a thing like a good speaker for classical, and good speakers for rock, an speaker is good or bad and period...in headphones IMO the same applies....at least for me...

Of course all are opinions, he asked for those and he got those...period, also i consider that there is no opinion that is wrong or right, just an opinion based in previous experience, brief, extensive, good or bad....so please take any opinion as a grain of salt, including mine...

I usually do not base my opinions on whole line of products and brands, as they tend to differ from one model to another, but in the case of AKG, all what I have tried sounded alike to me, soft sounding, with al ot of leakage, and not dynamic at all, resuming not my cup of tea...till I heard the K-1000 (which IMO has some serious problems in the bass region as well, but a lot better overall heapdhone than the rest)....

Again just an opinion...take it as a grain of salt....

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I too... I'll keep both the amps: Air Tight and Cary. Yesterday I have listened a K1000 of my friend, that is 6 years old and the cans was VERY different in sound respect to my new cans... his K1000 was more relaxed and perfect with the Air Tight... may be I'd need to wait some years and then I can sell my Cary...

besides amplification anyone who uses the k1000 should feed it with a quality frontend.

Listening to the k1000's with my cary 306 sacd player is wonderful....listening to them with my analog frontend is even better.

Thats the beauty of the k1000's.They are so transparent that you are hearing EXACTLY what the frontend is giving it.

I've owned a pair of K1000s for about 8 months now and over that time have gained a very healthy respect for them. For ultra intimate headphone listening I still prefer my Stax Lambda/SRM1 combo. But I've come to realize that the K1000 is more like listening to speakers than listening to headphones and listen to them much more often then I do my stax. They are truly unlike any other headphone out there. I am now convinced that I can sell my ultra amazing, love of my life, 8' tall Acoustat 1+1 electrostatic loudspeakers if I move to Japan this year because of the K1000s. If you are in a similar situation (no loud speakers) then I'd say go directly for the K1000. You won't regret it. A decent 7watt amplifier should drive these fine. Just keep the volume down (lower watts). The K1000 does odd things when driven hard (an anti-loudness effect). They sound great with low power single ended amplifiers like the FirstWatt, Pass Aleph, Golden Tube SE40, or any of the ultra exotic single-ended triode stuff out there. I suspect an old Pass Aleph3 would sound great with the K1000s.

Jessica

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Oh... you are so right !!!

Low power SET and if 300B even better, and if WE better, and if the best SET 300B amp, the Air Tight ATM-300: the best of the best ...

I have a really, really stupid question. I have seen a lot of referances to "300B", Air Tight, and Cary. I take it 300B is some kind of tube, and Cary and Air Tight are amp manufactures. Is this true? I see it mentiond a lot and I feel left out not knowing any background or details. Can somebody please enlighten me? Again, please don't point and laugh, I am aware it is an idiotic question.

I know K1k users are among the most "vocal" headphone users, and usually something like this is for a pretty good reason. A reason that owners probably don't have to reminded of.

But here's my admittedly selfish issue: I listen to music almost exclusively through my recent vintage iMac, which produces very pleasing sound with the K701. But when I read remarks about the K1000, I'm tossed into a "what if" scenario. Under what conditions could a K1000 be usable for me? Thanks to the helpful info of many Head-Fi-ers (some of whom were good enough to PM their impressions to me), I realized that really getting the most from this headspeaker means getting a whole new setup, and a certain amount of trial and error until the sound is right for me. Is it really worth it?

Well, I'm hoping that a K1000 or two will show up at the San Jose meet to clear up some persistent questions. If I could use one right now, with the system I have, I'd buy one on a snap.

300B is one of the very popular amp tubes.

Cary Audio and Air Tight both make audiophile equipment. Air Tight doesn't have a website but Cary Audio does:
http://www.caryaudio.com/

The Cary CAD-300SEI integrated amp (using 300b, and 6SN7 tubes) is reported to have very good synergy with the K1000. Do a search in the amp forum, and you'll find people recommending it from when Headfi opened to current day.

A K1000 straight out of the headphone jack on the iMac is not a very good idea. If that's all you are going to use it with, you are better off with the K701s. Even out of a dedicated headphone amp, the K1000 still won't sound their best, and I imagine the headphone out on the iMac will be of an even worse quality.

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Please excuse this ultra geek side of me. I'm a big fan of Single-Ended tube amps. Yeah 300B is a tube type and Cary and Air Tight are amp manufacturers who use 300B tubes in their designs.

The 300B is an old 1938 tube design in a 'triode' configuration. This is the simplest possible configuration: imagine an incandescent light bulb with a mesh grid wrapped around the filament and then a metal plate wrapped around that mesh. The filament emits electrons, the grid controls the flow of electrons and the plate receives the electrons closing the circuit and amplifying the signal. It is because of the simplicity that gives it great sound, but low power handling (about 15watts max). The 300B has taken on ultra highend status with single replacement 300B tubes selling for $200-$900 depending on the manufacturer. If you want stereo you need two . The most common amplifier circuit being the Single-Ended Triode (SET) configuration. Basically the circuit is wiring up a buffered line-in voltage to the grid and a transformer to the plate output.

But because of the ultra-exotic nature of SET amps, there are manufacturers out there making amps like this. I forget the name of this one, but it is rather pretty


I use a humble $450 used ($1000 when new) GoldenTube SE40 which sounds great. It uses 6 parallel 6L6 tubes wired as single-ended-triodes. Not a 'true' SET, but I know owners of this amp who 'graduated' to expensive SET amps and then sold them and returned to the SE40.


Jessica