Official AKG K501 Version Count - Page 5

What about cymbal precision - does it distinguish A from K Zildjian?

Holy crap. I don't know if it's due to the recable (maybe the recabler flipped the driver phase or something) but this V3 K501 I'm listening to right now sounds downright AWFUL compared to the V1 I had previously. Funky soundstage, weird peaks and recessions all over the place... I definitely do not like it. The V1 K501 was almost perfect and this one is quite a step backwards. I'll have to spend some time figuring out what's wrong.

Well, almost three months later I've been able to obtain both a V1 and a V3 (MP and LP) K501 and was able to compare both of them. For the record, the "problem" with the V1 K501 I have was that the recabler did indeed flip a phase on a channel, which is what caused it sound so funky. The two versions are very similar in terms of tone and quality. The main discernable difference is in the midbass - the V1 is lean and tight throughout its entire range, whereas the V3 has a slight midbass hump, which can get just a teensy-eensie bit sloppy on fast, bass-heavy songs. Besides that I don't have the time (or the ears, or the propensity) to discern more differences between the two. I'd be quite happy with either if I had to pick one over the other, but I don't know which one I prefer. Oh well.