AKG K1000 - Possible return to production - Page 10

 

 At what price point.

The demand for new K1000s may not be as high as for the HD800 though...  

It really would have some things to overcome. When the 800 was introduced there were significantly less ultra high end options (and it's timing was quire peculiar in the middle of a recession), since their launch we've seen the landscape expand a lot (T1, LCD-2, HE6, Ed10, even the new Stax). Also reducing the amp requirement would help it a lot, similar of what seems to have happened between HE6 prototype and production model, because having such high amp requirements limits its already small potential market more.

 

You may indeed be right. Cause:
* Sennheisers previous statement headphone, the HE90, were only made in about 400 units. While AKG made 10-11.000 units of the K1000. A lot less rare.

* The HE90 production ended in the mid 1990`s, while the K1000 were in production until 2005. A lot shorter time since discontinuation.

* When the HD800 were released there were few statement headphones in production, while now there are several strong competitors. A lot less competition.

 

All these points, and I am sure more, affect the demand for a new statement headphone from the said vendors.

I agree to a certain extent - the K1000 cannot be released as it was discontinued, unchanged.  The new flagships leave the K1000 drivers clearly in the previous generation - the HD800 does an amazing job in soundstaging for a conventional can, with far superior drivers to match.

 

But I think it would be unwise to rule out an new generation of "earspeaker" design by AKG - because not even the HD800 comes close in staging and imaging.  The "earspeaker" concept is the perfect means to differentiate from the plethora of new hi-end cans, and they have started to fill every tonal preference one could want from a hi-end can.  Therefore the only avenue left is the K1000 concept.  If AKG wishes to attain the goodwill associated by existing with Senheisser and others in the hi-end.  This really is a no-brainer to me.

Edited by SP Wild - 10/6/10 at 7:20am

Technology has moved on and you'd think it would be possible these days to make a re-envisioned K1000 which could be driven by a standard desktop hp amp.

 

The other option would be to keep it as power hungry but just make it more accessable - such as having it wired with four speaker wires stock.

 

More people out there have integrated/pre+power amps for speakers than have dedicated headphone amps anyway, it would make it more accessable.

 

I agree with all you say, but that is thinking from AKG's perspective without taking into consideration what may be Harman's perspective. I mean, Harman is a 3 billion dollar revenue company, so quite a bit bigger than Senn/Beyer or the old AKG, so from their perspective they might be more worried about return over investment, a parameter by which the 701 has been most likely significantly more successful than the K1K, than their hi-tech audiophile image.

 

And I say hi-tech audiophile, since you can position yourself as hi-tech and fashionable for the mainstream consumer by going the beats/skullcandy/bose route of a lot of marketing (at the sacrifice of the product), which unfortunately seems to be the route that AKG is taking (not to that degree yet). Hopefully I'm wrong, heck I'm hoping that AKG proves me wrong, but I have very little hope of some tech innovation a la K340/K1K and others.

The K-1000 came with a pigtail which has wires for connecting them to a speaker amp.

I'm not sure if a more efficient driver could be used. Most headphones get some efficiency from being coupled to the ear. The K-1000 wings out in the open, so it needs much more power than something 1 cm off your ear with a pad directing the sound into your ear.

The K1000 ear speakers are used at the various rides in the Disney theme parks and it should help in keeping the price down if the same continue to be used in the re-released K1000. 

Are they still being used in these same rides?  Time to devise a new evil scheme and its about time I revisited the merry go round.

 

They must employ someone full time just to glue the pads back in.

Thanks Eric,

I'd heard of the "pigtail" in passing mention but hadn't realised that was what it was.

Ah I could see the new K1001. Desing paradigm untouched (seriously, the competition in conventional HP market is huge), but the drivers enhanced and softer temple pads with a bit more robust chassis. And detachable cords go without saying

Hopefully Lets keep our fingers crossed.

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