I don't have a Stax bias...you can say I have an electrostat bias though.  My favorite headphone ever is a Sennheiser electrostat (HE90).  I also like the HE60 and ESP950 and think they're great for the money.  If I had something against KS I wouldn't have given them a chance or bought them.  If I thought these were great I'd say so.  The problems spritzer has noted with the design are very real.  Instead of sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming 'bias' you could read up on some acoustics physics and perhaps come back with some kind of contribution.
 
You're making a lazy argument. 

No, I'm just more interested in other impressions except the recent wave of completely negative impressions, which are the opposite of the positive impressions given earlier by the non-Stax brigade.

I'll hold out for people of lesser known camps to chime in and give a different perspective.

We get it, you all love Stax. Now let's see some people who haven't experienced your joy look into this without any bias whatsoever.

I don't see any problems with the dissection of the new kid in town. Some of the initial impressions do match some of the design problems that have been found. It's up to the reader to take both sides with a grain of salt.

Not to mention the early impressions posted here were meet/demo impressions from a few "not so experienced" posters. Meet impressions don't give schiit contribution here because that wow affect wears off once you hear and play with the setup properly and personal. There are just too many variables to count.
 
I kind of saw it coming that these weren't going to be impressive for the money, looks like KS just made some cheap transducer's and shoved into a Koss UR40 like housing.

So I give examples of why you should consider me an electrostat fanboy over a Stax fanboy and your retort is "We get it, you all love Stax."?  If you're still holding onto that idea it seems you could be more biased than anybody you're accusing, since in your mind unsubstantiated, preconceived notions hold more weight than evidence.
 
Regarding impressions, I'd expect somebody who's been here as long as you to have developed a filter by now.  You should have learned early on that not all impressions are equal, and what kind of things contribute to an impression.  Those early glowing impressions you are referring to were under meet conditions and posted largely by users with little to no experience with electrostats.  I've taken over a dozen different electrostats to meets over the years, and can tell you that people that have never heard an electrostat are generally amazed by what they hear the first time they experience one.  It doesn't matter what model...HE90, 009, Lambda, SR-5, etc.  You seemed pretty impressed yourself in your review of some Stax model some months back.  Does that mean that you guys are wrong and these headphones aren't even good?  Of course not.  I would say the KingSounds are easily better than most $500 headphones...but that's including dynamics and orthos (my electrostat bias).  If you pay attention closely, you'll notice we're not comparing these to crummy dynamic headphones in the same price range though...we're comparing them to other electrostats in general.  Other electrostats that we've owned for lengthy periods of time.  Not headphones we've heard for a song or two in a noisy room.
 
Throughout this thread it seems you've bizarrely taken on the role of some kind of "little guy martyr against the Stax dudes" without really paying close attention to what specifically any of us has said and the context/experience behind what we've said.

Milos, this guy loves to engage in this kind of confrontations. 
I would not expect that to change.

Absolutely. I love to see something other than the completely meaningless posting basically saying "OMG, these are crap". That just comes off as pure, unadulterated hyperbole if I've ever heard any on Head-fi.

I'd think people would be smart enough to actually give some objective reasonings as to why they think it sounds bad, and how people could go from initially positive reactions, to completely negative.

Something does NOT add up.

Hence, why I'd rather wait for others who aren't tied to that electrostatic elitist group to post some opinions

You guys can say all you want. I'll just wait until some other not so highly invested buyers chime in.

BTW, I loved the ESP-950 and SR407. Two different sounding and great stats. So I'm open minded to a different sound signature, whether it's bright, warm, bassy, or whatnot. So while some might be biased to a specific tonal balance, I look at each headphone as it's own thing. If I had the money, I'd do the same with the KS-H1.

I haven't heard any headphone that I found to be complete crap in a long time. There are always strengths and weaknesses. So I just don't buy that the KS-H1 is a complete flop.

gilency said:

  Milos, this guy loves to engage in this kind of confrontations. 
I would not expect that to change.

Click to expand...

 
I don't know much about him, but I don't mind teaching

mad lust envy said:

Absolutely. I love to see something other than the completely meaningless posting basically saying "OMG, these are crap". That just comes off as pure, unadulterated hyperbole if I've ever heard any on Head-fi.

I'd think people would be smart enough to actually give some objective reasonings as to why they think it sounds bad, and how people could go from initially positive reactions, to completely negative.

Something does NOT add up.

Hence, why I'd rather wait for others who aren't tied to that electrostatic elitist group to post some opinions

You guys can say all you want. I'll just wait until some other not so highly invested buyers chime in.

Click to expand...

Off the top of my head (I could be combining threads) myself, spritzer, MuppetFace, and shipsupt have provided what could be perceived as 'negative' impressions.  Each of us own the headphones.  Each of us have pretty extensive experience with mid level and high end headphones.  Not a single one of us to my knowledge has given empty impressions, despite what you're hoping to convince others of.  We've all written several paragraphs in our impressions and gone over multiple aspects of the sound signature.  We've also posted about the design, ergonomics, amp circuit, etc.  What more could you want?  If needed I will gladly quote all 4 of our impressions to refresh your memory as it seems you are either genuinely delusional or grasping at straws to blindly and stubbornly continue your argument. 
 
How you could possibly say we should "be smart enough to actually give some objective reasonings as to why they think it sounds bad" is honestly baffling (either that or you're a hell of a troll) as this is one of the VERY few threads that actually has objective reasoning to back up subjective impressions.  Here's a refresher:
 
- a number of us have complained of a sort of echo'ey sound.  spritzer opened them up and saw that the baffle wasn't completely sealed which helps explain this phenomenon. 
- an unsealed baffle in an electrostatic headphone is plain shoddy.  This isn't my opinion; there's no positive tradeoff in doing so.  Not sealing the baffle means you get backwave reflections.  An abundance of backwave reflections results in the aforementioned point and a roll off of the bass due to wave cancellations. 
- the housings are made of a pretty cheap plastic.  You want to have a more rigid enclosure for the drivers to improve imaging precision.
 
At this point I sincerely hope you've realized that perhaps you jumped the gun on your apparent crusade.  I've now offered evidence of objective points we've brought up, as well as reasons labeling me as a 'Stax fanboy' (I've even given you a free alternative label!) is unfair.  You can grow up and appreciate the facts, or you can be a kid about it.  In any case, I would highly suggest rereading our posts as it seems you've painted your own completely delusional picture of what you hoped we posted rather than what we actually posted.

On a positive note, I think Kevin Gilmore is the only one that has posted some positive notes about the KS headphone only, but the amp being horrible. but KG has the T2 and BHSE and god knows what other high end diy e-stat amp's, so that probably has affected his impressions as well.

I think birgir is on the right track with the modifications, and some sound absorbing material to suck up
some of the back wave will make the headphones much better. Not unlike some of the other work done
on other headphones here. Not a bad effort for a first try, next version should be better. The amps
are a disaster.

I was going to reply to the false accusations, stereotyping, and general misrepresentations offered  by Mr. Envy, but I think n3rdling has done a fine job summarizing things.  Thanks for your thoughtful post. 
 
I have to admit I am curious as to what "investment" I have that makes my impressions invalid!
 
 
 
Back to the King Sounds - 
 
Not much has changed since I last wrote, although I have listened to the King Sounds a lot more since then.  I eventually starting using a STAX 717 amp instead of the King Sound amp.  There is a good improvement, but some of the things that let the Kings Sounds down are still apparent.  Most significantly the odd ringing that I reported in my early impressions is still there and can become quite bothersome and even disorientating with certain recordings.  The bass is still lacks control and the sound is still feels generally lazy.  
 
I had some decent listens with these headphones, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I found myself wanting to grab another headphone pretty soon after putting them on.
 
The amp is off for a little more attention in the USA, and the headphones will make their way to one of our resident mad scientist to see what can be done with some modifications!  We might try to sneak some measurements in if I can get them to swing past someone with the right gear.
 
For me the King Sounds just missed the mark of being a new entry level electrostat to consider, but that doesn't mean we can't still have some fun with them!  

mad lust envy said:

Absolutely. I love to see something other than the completely meaningless posting basically saying "OMG, these are crap". That just comes off as pure, unadulterated hyperbole if I've ever heard any on Head-fi.

I'd think people would be smart enough to actually give some objective reasonings as to why they think it sounds bad, and how people could go from initially positive reactions, to completely negative.

Click to expand...

 
As negative as Spritzer can be, he did post very detailed "objective reasonings as to why [he] think[s they] sounds bad". I've listened to quite a few pairs of headphones and other equipment that sounded great at first, but it wasn't until I could get them back home and listen for a while that the faults started to become apparent. 

My problem here is that prior to some of these people hearing the headphones, there was already a very negative vibe towards these stats by some of these same individuals. Not even trying to hide the bias against them before having heard of them. So I question their impressions. That's all.

Like I said, I'm just waiting for other impressions to come in, from other people who didn't start off on this thread with a pretty negative view from the get go. Reminds me of the Beats/Skullcandy bias on Head-fi.

They're completely free to blast the headphone all they want. I'm just waiting.

I'm still looking for the negative impressions that MuppetFace and I posted before we got the headphones...

Didn't say all of you, did I? I'm referring to the negative air prior to your impressions. Relax, guy.