K1000 Room Impression Thread - Page 5

Joe there was not, I have compared the extreme to the F1, Sig 30 and Cary in my home and thought it was bettered by these. Where the extreme shines imho is it's ability to be a very good amp with a wide variety of headphones. It may not be the best with any one but it perfoms well with all.

i personally liked the F1 out of the three, although the Moth wasn't too shabby. the aleph suffered by having source problems and for some reason it wasn't able to go very loud while i was there. i'm sure it was not at its best while i was testing it...

the extreme was not in the k1000 room, but there was a setup in the singlepower room - a k1000 fed by a meridian 508 (?). it was a single-ended k1000, i believe. it was the first k1000 i heard that day and while pretty good, it wasn't as "blow me away" as the F1 or voltron's moth. i'm sorry i did not get a chance to hear the zanden

my longest lisening

Thank you again Al for organizing this extremely fun and successful event and set up the K1000 room.

I spend lots of time in this room listening to different set ups. I have never really listened seriously to K1000 before. K1000 is really fun to listen. It has the spacing none of the other cans have. Some argues that the spacing defeats the purpose of listening to headphones: total isolation, but other argument is that, after you come back from a concert hall, only K1000 makes sense. I buy into both. We have choices.

I spend very long time listening to the set up of foo_me’s Zenden and AudioAero Capitale, and Voltron’s Equinox hardwired K1000. The longest I spend listening to one set up during this meet.

On Saturday before the panel discussion, foo_me brought his Zenden into the room. He told me that he just got it yesterday. I came back to the room after the panel discussion. The system was connected. I tried it, but I was very disappointed. None of the elements of the music worked. I knew that the system needs some time to warm up and settle. Without saying any thing, I left the room. Few hours later, I went back to the room. I picked a CD of solo piano from foo_me’s CD case.

Wow, it was amazing. I heard a real piano playing in front of me: tonality, spacing and rhythm - a real modern performance Steinway.

On Sunday, I brought my own CD: Liszt for Lovers – Piano Dreams of Love and Passion. It is a music not audiophile CD. I forwarded to track 6: The Maiden’s Wish played by Claudio Arrau. I have listened to this CD many times on headphones and speakers. I also have heard my daughter playing this piece many many times on our Boston baby grand (Boston is designed by Steinway, a Toyota of Steinway) and few times on her teacher’s grand Yamaha. She played it once on a Bosendorfer and few other times on some nice performance Steinways in some nice places. She is luck to play music on some of the best pianos, I am luck to have the chance hearing these pianos.

With the Zenden and K1000, I was back in the concert hall, seating in the middle of the hall, more spacing in the front than in the back. I could image vividly some human being performing. It was amazing.

Warm is the word used many many times by many people to describe tube. Zenden is not warm. It is right. Zebden did not turn modern performance Steinway into vintage Steinway. Old Steinways are nice too, but most piano recordings do use modern performance Steinway.

I felt if the system could have a better CD player, like a EMMlabs, it would have more body and impact, which most head-fier would appreciate.

I also listened to Voltron’s Moth with the same set up for some time. It was excellent, especially for the money. The money difference comparing to Zenden is about 10 times, but the performance difference is only about 25%, less resolution and spacing.

Other set ups in the room were very impressed too, with Slim Devices and Headroom DAC feeds and half factory and half Moon Audio cables. The small Headroom DAC is excellent. Moon Audio cables made K1000 sound more detailed and open.

Woah nice impressions Ping, very well thought out.

It was a pleasure to meet you ping and hear your passion for music...

While I have this setup, you have the actual experience of hearing the kennedy center to hear your daughter play...I think you have the richer experience!

Hope to see you again perhaps in chicago...but can't promise I'll bring the zanden (it's 70 pounds!)

The K1000 room was my first go with the AKG's. To tell you the truth, I didn't want to like them. Kind of hard to find, kind of hard to amp, kind of not so girlfriend frendly, kind of too open to other sounds, kind of got too much equipment now.

Wow I liked them way too much!!!!

Those would be the only mini speakers that I would hang on my head right in front of my ears....... They really sound like I want music to sound. I was really surprised how something so open could provide a good level of isolation as well.

Cheers,

I had wanted to bring my β22 amp in the K1000 room for a shakeout, but it spent its busy time in the main room and never made it there. The meet was too short!


Fortunately, there was a K1000 at my table (with much thanks to utep10), so I (and others) did get a chance to try the β22 with K1000. I won't comment on it but defer to this post by coolshot:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showpo...&postcount=317

I would of gave it a listen but the red manikin head was

I really enjoyed your amps as you probably already know as I was over there pretty often.

RasmusseN rules, by the way. I was pretty independent in high school and traveled some with friends, etc., but he came out for the weekend on his own, never asked for a favor or a ride or how to figure out what to do at a hotel and really impressed the crap out of me.

End OT.

The tail comparisons were few and far between in the reality of a big and busy meet--even in this dedicated setup, which was by far the most ideal within that context that has happened so far. All of the cables got a workout and all of the people who spent time in the room agreed that Moon and Stefan AudioArt cables make a HUGE improvement. I know that at least 2 people in the room were hoping to get to take home Drew's pure silver signature cable after slapping it on their cans. I need to remember to check with Drew about that. I also know that several other people said they really wanted to get Equinox cable and get it hardwired, to boot.

I may be biased, but the I think Min, Ping, Mike, John, Dan and others all agreed that the hard-wired cable made the biggest difference. I never saw the person who I thought was going to bring a hard-wired Silver Dragon, but that would have been nice to hear too. It only makes sense that a tail's effect is going to be limited when the last 3 feet of cable are that stock crap cable. More people willing to hardwire quality cable are needed STAT!

Maybe I should get Drew to let me keep the tails a bit longer to do some more comparos on the Moth and the Woo5 and maybe the Zanden if Min and I can work something out. Because mine are hard-wored, I would need another pair of K1000s with the 4-pin connector for these comparisons, so if anyone with a K1000 having a stock cable wants to join in, then let me know.

One more thing to think about: James Serdechny of SAA said that the new version of the Equinox cable--can't recall the name of it--is going to be available for K1000 too! I thought he was only focused on HD6XX for that new cable, but he is so high on it he says it will be at least as great for the K1000.

Did anybody listen to the SAA recables of Grado RS-1s and K701s in Todd's room? There was so much going on there it might have been glossed over. First and last thoughts in this post are OT, better go to bed...

Thanks for these cable impressions, Al! I was afraid that the Zanden would steal all of the thunder in this thread. It seems like an amazing amp, but at its price it seems to be for only the most hard-core K1K users.

Would you say that the hardwired cables on the K1K make a bigger difference than the replacement cables for Senns?

I am almost certainly going to do a hardwire mod on my K1K. But after several weeks with it, I am finding it rather uncomfortable to wear. It seems to hit just the right spot to cut off blood flow to my brain!

We'll see. Maybe the blood vessels in my brain can be re-wired to accommodate the K1K.

J.

while the Zanden was amazing a really good 300b should get you close. If I'm not mistaken you have an amazing 300B .
THe hardwire is the way to go I would say that any hardwire is better than none. Mine were done with cheap mogami and I love them althought I think I have a SAA hardwire in my future.
This is a kinda dumb question but on the comfort comment are you adjusting the rear part of the pads our it makes a big difference with comfort?

This makes a lot of sense. Do you think the K1K re-wire makes more noticeable improvements than an HD-600 re-wire? Either way it seems like the results were definitive.

The K1K were hooked up to my amp at the first National Meet. There was something off with the sound. It could be the way the amp is designed. Perhaps it does not agree with the K1K. Steve Berger is modifying the amp right now. I will ask him about how it will handle the load.

I've got a 50W Chip Amp that I am using with the K1K right now. It sounds very, very good. The amp is still burning in and I expect it to improve, but with the DCC2 as a pre-amp the resolution is incredible.

I've tried a variety of positions for the headpads, but there is a good bit of discomfort. I am curious whether or not they will feel better. In the beginning I was getting a headache from the amp because it was very harsh. But the amp has smoothed out significantly. I don't really get a headache from the sound, but the head-pressure is a little strong. One symptom that I can point to is that after I am finished listening to them for about 1/2 hour, I can feel the "ghost pressure" on my head for a little while after. This tells me that there is a little bit too much pressure.

In any case, I'd be interested in hearing more about the Equinox vs. Black Dragon hardwires. Personally I am leaning toward the Black Dragon for $ savings. But if anyone can quantify the differences I'd be very appreciative.

Yes, I totally agree. Hardwired is definitely the way to go with K1000. You got to change to hardwired. Me and some other people did the comparisons. I wish we had Moon Audio hardwired in the room. I was not a K1000 fan, till I heard foo_me and Voltron set up in this meet. Ping