AKG K601 Owners... UNITE!! - Page 42

Integrated amps and and receivers are fine.  Many of them have great headphone outs.  The only negatives, assuming a good headphone out, are the foot print and that they use more electricity than most headphone amps.  There's been many threads on this.  Here's the one that's currently active  http://www.head-fi.org/t/537704/calling-all-vintage-integrated-receiver-owners

Well the integrated amp is my "budget solution" since I already have a spare NAD amp lying around ( don't ask but it's a nice place to be). 

 

Side note though according to Zombie_X his communication with a dealer rep says these aren't going anywhere. That's a good thing IMO. So no not discontinued. Curious why they're not on the site though.

 

 

Oh and thanks for the link ! I should spend more time researching than randomly experimenting...

How do you guys clean the pads?

mines got a bit darker since the old days, I guess my hair and the dust is to be blame.

Washed mine - just the once - lots of soap and a bit of laundry detergent, warm water, hand wash, rinse twice,

air dry.

 

Sounds dangerous man, I was thinking more of some dry cleaning, but will leave this as an option for a full clean later.
 

 

Did worry about shrinkage as you would but it did not happen for me, I washed them like they were crown jewels 

these are nice sounding headphones. i was able to tell though right away there is a dip somewhere around the top frequencies(10khz i'm roughly guessing around since that's where top frequencies start) since i'm use to hearing flat treble,top and air frequencies from my 240DF and modded Fostex. the imaging is defiantly my favorite and their strong point. very accurate and not exaggerated. despite the lack of top and air frequencies i say from the lower treble to the sub-bass these are pretty dead flat almost. these have a wonderful clean midrange as well. these are defiantly good pair of AKG models.

if anyone don't know and wonder what i'm using. i always drive headphones from speaker outputs.i have a DIY box i made for testing headphones without the need of rewiring them.
Edited by RexAeterna - 12/3/11 at 10:30pm

James, the pads are fairly easy to clean. A large bowl of lukewarm water with some mild detergent, like the one used on wool, or your favourite shampoo will do the trick. Just be careful not to bend and twist the plastic bits on the rear too much, or they might crack. Soak the pads for a bit and then Squeeze out all the soapy water, by pressing the pads gently, and rinse in cold water at least thrice. Then finally sqeeze, pat down with a clean towel or kitchen paper towel, and air dry for a day.

Never, ever attempt to have any earpads dry-cleaned. That involves petroleum based solvents that can potentially dissolve the foam, the plastics or the glue holding the pads together. Also, a dryer is also a bad idea, as it can warp the plastic with high heat.

oh well, you guys convince me. will attempt to wash mines tomorrow. and good idea about the shampoo. also will post before and after picts, would be fun.

Hi, sounds interesting, do you have any pics of the box. (inside & out)

Edited by lasttodie - 12/4/11 at 4:14am

 

 

 You've got the right idea RexAeterna, here are the rest of us doodling with headphone amps and you are making your own step-down box

 to use with speaker outs ~ certain headphones I imagine really must sound their best that way.

 

 Make me another who'd like to see a pic or two 

it's just a plain box. no resistors or nothing added. you only need resistors for tube amps cause tube have a strict output impedance so matching is essential due to the tubes rely on their output transformers for it's given output impedance. solid-state it's opposite. they don't rely on their output transformers for their given output impedances. output impedance on solid state is always around 0.5 to 1ohm on the outputs is another advantage of using speaker outputs. resistors can be used to match your headphone if you want but really not needed since the power transformer in solid state matches the impedance for you for whatever speaker or headphone you plug into.

heres a quick diagram i made in paint of the little box i did. you can make fun of it if you want cause this is my first time actually attempting to draw a diagram lol. well here you go. prepare for most ghetto drawn diagram in the world lol.



it's just straight wire cause i like to use the full force of the power section. all my amps already have resistors in place on the headphone out section of them so really no point. i bypass those resistors with this box since it's just straight wire hooked back of the speaker outputs.

My pads are outside drying out, meanwhile...

 

 

XB700 pads? I think those pads would kill almost any headphones sound quality by adding too much bass. Maybe not on the K601 if they compress a lot.

I actually tried using the XB500 pads with an SR-225 and put the DJ100 driver in an XB500. makes them both too bass heavy.

 

I think the main reason the XB500 has so much bass is because of the pads.