To me the HD800 and K1000 are sonically apples & oranges. The two are very different sounding with different styles of presenting the music.

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Yes...and because you have an unlimited number of speaker amps to chose from .You'll never have to compromise their sound with a headphone amp.

Anybody with a highend system setup for speakers should try the k1000's.

Bumping this thread because I am also veryinterested in this. The k1000 is one of the headphone sI still want to listen to. I already listened to the hd800 and was blown away. I think iw ould really like the k1000 but would probbably have to get a different amp for it.
I hope the minimeet will be fun!
Greetings, Anouk,

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Quick someone send him a pair of HD800! The suspense is killing me...

You and me both buddy.

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Ha ha... Head fi deserves to know.... and you have the juice to do the comparison justice...

Any updates?

I have both. Maybe soon I write something. (I hate writing in English.)

It's hard comparing apple to orange as is but any review will highly depend on how much the reviewer angle out the K1000.

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If I ever get some free time I'll write something. The office has kept me buried since the HD-800 showed up - I get maybe 15-20 minutes to listen before crashing. And the K-1000 hasn't seen the light of day since CanJam. But it won't always be like this.

Thansk Piotr Ryka and Uncle Erik,can't wait to read your comparisons.
it's just hard to know where i'm standing,because i didn't get a clear picture on how they are alike and or different, sound wize.

some people said they are alike beacause they are both detailed and Transparent and have great tone.
and these are the most improtant things to me when it comes to sound,for the first time,with the K1000 musical instruments sounded real,and that never happned to me before.

and others have said it's like comapring appels to oranges,which is confusing for me.

i loved the K1000's sound more than anything that i ever tried,but they have one major disadvantage,that they are only available used,and they could stop working one and i'll be screwed and i won't be able to afford another headphones for years,so that's a major risk for me.
so i was thinking that if the HD800's sound is not a major downgrade from the K1000's so i just may get them instead.

life is hard

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AKG isn't going anywhere and they will always service the K1000, so I wouldn't fret about buying used. Plus, despite its openness, it's a pretty hardy headphone and they rarely just stop working, especially if you take decent care of them.

As for comparison with the HD800, you are going to get so many different views. The K1000 is the most realistic sounding headphone I've ever heard. The timbre is very accurate, the tone is right on, it's detailed, but not artificially so (see, e.g., Sony SA5000). Yet I find the HD800 a little more engaging and more fun and if somebody told me that I could keep only one headphone today, it would be the HD800 over the K1000.

I listened to a number of these at the recent LA Canjam. Neither was particularly impressive without a balanced amp. However, the balanced HD 800 set up by Headroom was the best dynamic system I have ever heard and nudging the best electrostatic. The K1000 seemed to lack ambience when the drivers were set at right angles to the ears. Ambience came back when the drivers were in the more conventional (over the ear position).

The attraction of the K1000 is the forward projection of created by the forward position of the drivers when set at right angles. In this respect these phones give somewhat the same effect as the Stax Sigma which has a similar configuration. However the Sigma has an enclosure which extends over the ear and manages to keep its ambience.

In some ways you are comparing apples and oranges when you compare a phone like the K1000 or Sigma with a conventional phone. The K1000/and Sigma have a particular strength in projecting sound out-of the head which can not be matched by a conventional phone. However there are conventional phones which exceed these in detail and frequency response.

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Thanks edstrelow,very interesting insights...