Quote:

Originally Posted by ford2 

 

 

 

To compare the sound signature of two K1000's that are close in serial you would have to know that the original drivers were still fitted.

 

I would imagine that some low numbered units have been fitted with new drivers,so buying on serial number's alone would involve an element of risk.

 

As the years continue it becomes harder to sort the facts from the myths.

If you are referring about my post I can say that both have the original drivers and boards as demonstrated by the pictures taken by Fitz when he worked on both of them since both had problem with the right driver.

Hi Guys

Just thought id add my experiences.

I have a mid 4000 serial pair (I considered to be Bass Heavy). I started hearing distortion in the right channel so sent them to RWSoundSystems in Germany to have 2 brand new drivers added (They arrived a few weeks ago) . I was initially worried about the light bass and purchased a sub woofer to improve this area. This helped me see exactly what i was missing, the new drivers arnt as "warm sounding" as the old ones. They sound more precise and realistic to me. The only downside I'm experiencing so far is is a lack of impact on the bass. I think this will get better as the headphones burn in. In the end i realised i wasn't missing as much as i thought i was and took the sub woofer back. I used to have a very warm system of a Melos Amp, Copper Cables and Grado PS-1s. Initially i loved it and i really enjoyed listening but i decided the bass just didnt sound realistic and was colouring the music too much.

So i switched to a more neutral K1000 rig and it was exactly what i wanted. The newer drivers have taken a little more warmth out of my system and to me, its another improvement.  

I'm happy with what I've got now. For the price i paid for the new drivers i could have almost bought another pair of Bass Heavy K1000s but providing i get a little more impact in the future, I'm happy i went for the newer model.

There are my opinions and my SAA cable and Amp might be complimentary to these new drivers which could be responsible for the good results. They really do sound great. I'll try and post pictures soon because they look slightly different to my older drivers. ie there are usually little wires on the inside and the outside of the drivers (visible after you've removed the grills). On my new pair there are only wires on the inside?

Pete

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo 

If you are referring about my post I can say that both have the original drivers and boards as demonstrated by the pictures taken by Fitz when he worked on both of them since both had problem with the right driver.

No I was not referring to your post,it was just to highlight the fact that by buying on serial numbers alone involves an element of risk.

Not everyone is open and forthright about the history of what they are selling,being that low serials fetch a premium price/faster sale etc there is a risk that a driver change would not be mentioned.

Fritz is well known for his knowledge of K1000's but others,me included would not know how to recognize different drivers etc.

Considering the popularity of the K1000 and the price of drivers maybe we can look forward to some Chinese bass heavy drivers in the future,such a shame to see such a phone slowly fade into oblivion because of a lack of parts.

Distortion could anything from dirt/gunk in the voice coil to the voice coil being damaged and needing a wire to be re-soldered.

03029174, did you get your old drivers back? If so you could sell it here to someone needing it specially if you got your old boards back.

Hey Miguel

I didn't get my old drivers back, i expected the working one to be sent back but it didn't happen.  I contacted the company and was told both were binned. The one had a problem but i was also informed the left wasnt 100% so the technician binned both of them.

Pete

Thanks for the update Pete.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AppleheadMay 

At 80 W class A I bet it's that hot. My Marantz SS class AB integrated which can be switched to class A (up to 30W I think) is cooking after an hour of use.

Too bet it's a DIY amp and not commercially available. I would have been interested for sure!

My Technics SU-V5 NewClass 'A' amp registers 50 w RMS per side with peak 100w per side.  I usually use it in winter up here in Canada to reduce my heating bills.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AppleheadMay 

So distortion in the drivers seems to be a common problem with the older, bass heavy drivers?

If that is the case I think I'll stick to my bass light one then. 

If there is one thing that drives me crazy it's distortion.

How can you justify that with but one report out of over 10 000 K1K's sold?

Distortion can happen in 'bass light' versions as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by edstrelow 

As a person who does not have  a dog in this fight,  I was curious about the measurements here.  Frankly I don't see this any difference between the 2 plots.  They are basically the same with some possible variation dues to what appears to be an imprecise system for placing the microphone in front of the driver 

 

"microphone was placed very close to the driver (easier to consistently line it up that way)"

 

Old thread, but I have been away and found the thread while searching on the K1000 PCBs, and this post amuses me.

The variations between measurements due to microphone placement are nearly insignificant for my purposes here, due to the consistency of positioning it (generally no more than 1-2mm off from any other time) and . It would take fairly big changes in microphone placement for that to account for the difference, nevermind the fact that the curves were consistent across several measurements (I always take measurements again at least once after finishing, to make sure they agree with the original ones). While I no longer have a bass light K1000 to do measurements on, tonight I did do measurements on the filter PCB for a bass heavy pair so I can simulate it on the computer. I also happened to have a couple frequency response measurements I took with and without the PCB installed. When I took the no-PCB measurement and added the results of a simulation of the PCB to it, it almost perfectly matched the measurement with the PCB. It wouldn't match up like that if there was several dB variations between measurements.

Short version: I only want to present this forum with the most accurate information I can, and more care goes into the measurements than you might have assumed.

Fitz, if it helps I would gladly send you my 6,xxx K1000 for you to measure. Good luck.

Thanks Miguel, but I don't think that's necessary. I compared my (acoustic) measurements for a very late production pair to the simulated filter, and while that didn't match exactly at first, if I tweaked the values within normal component tolerances, I was able to get it to match up. It's always possible they made some very minor changes to the values, but if they did is it isn't big enough to warrant dismantling another pair.

Ok, if things change let me know. Cheers.

This reminds me of a movie I just saw recently- 'The Prestige'.