[VR6ofpain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lini /img/forum/go_quote.gif Your K400 has a rubber headband? Strange... Mine has a black leather strip, which one can also see depicted on my box. Greetings from Munich! Manfred / lini

Depicted on the box huh? My K400 box has transparent plastic, so you can see the actual headphones. There are no photos anywhere on the box. Maybe there were different generations of this model? I think fitz mentioned that.

Is your leather headband like the one on the K501? From the photos I have seen of the K401, it seems my K400 has the same rubber headband, except it is black and not the dark grey of the one on the K401.

I absolutely love how these K400's sound. This is like the most underrated headphone I have heard. There is virturally nothing about them on this forum, yet they sound fabulous. These are definite competition for my K601. On some music they are obviously superior to the K601...but I am still trying to figure out if they are equal to the K601 on the music the K601's do particularly well (most jazz for instance, along with some types of more ambient rock).

 

[VR6ofpain]

The box:

 

[Zaiks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VR6ofpain /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well I got them. The box was beaten up as they had said, but the headphones looked perfect and even smelled new (like plastic and chemicals, not someone else). They sound very nice. Definitely what I wanted out of the K501, but non of its weaknesses. These things straight out of the box have more bass than the K501, but it is still very tight and punchy. They also aren't quite as peaky. The build quality on these is a slight step down in some ways (rubber headband), but superior in other ways (the wire and plug).

Interesting headphones especially for the money. Since K501 are in my possession and I know that you owned K501, what would you name as the biggest advantage that K-400 has over K 501 Is bass so much prominent? How about the sound stage? It is hard to beat what K501 has to offer in that area

 

[VR6ofpain]

I was doing some A/B'ing with the K400 and K601 earlier. I have to be honest the K601 definitely does rock with more impact and presence. I guess that is what AKG was going for with the design. You can hear the obviously lower frequency extention on various rock artists along with some bassier hip hop tracks. Still the K400 offers a nice presentation. A little more mellow than the K601, but without a loss in high frequency clarity.
Would I give up my K601 for the K400? Definitely not (then again I have only had them a few days with at most 10 hours listening time on them). Still I don't plan to sell the K400. Unlike the K501, it doesn't seem to really have any faults. I just does what it is suppose to do. It may not be the best at doing this, but it certainly is very good at it.

Obviously I cannot directly compare the K400 to the K501 since I sold the K501, but from memory I think the K501 may have had slighly more top end aire to it. Still the K400 is an AKG K### serious headphone, so it has huge soundstage like its siblings. The bass maybe a little stronger than the K501 or it may be that the highs are not quite as forward as the K501, giving the impression of stronger bass.

I have to say this, the K400 sounds like it has equal if not more bass than the K501 I had, with the foam pad modification (took the cloth/foam inserts from the K81DJ, cut nickel sized holes out of them and installed them in front of the drivers similar to the K601/K701). Without that mod to the K501, the K400 definitely seems to have more bass. What I like is they also seem to have similar detail and soundstage. So they don't suffer the K501's slight bass weakness (though I think my K501 was bassier than others), but still have the pluses of the K501.

A note about pads and headbands. It seems the non-reflective (matte) cloth pads on the K400 are much softer and more comfortable than the shiny black pads of the K501. The foam inside them also seems softer. Also the cheesy rubber/vinyl headband is also much more comfy than the nicer leather headband on the K501. This is purely from the fact that the rubber is very plyable, whereas the leather of the K501 headband was super stiff (I heard earlier versions had softer leather). So in essence the K400 is almost as comfty as the K601. Throw in the superior headphone plug and what looks to be meater cable wire and I find the K400 to be a superior headphone to the K501. Hell even the ring on the cups is a thicker dark grey paint that seems durable. The K501 had some gold paint that flaked off very easily. Also the K501 stickers on each earcup seemed to always be peeling up. The K400 I have does not suffer that problem.

I think the K400 for $105 ($95+$10 shipping) is a better deal than the K501 for $99.95 shipped (zzounds a while back). Still both headphones are incredible bangs for the buck. The only thing that would be a better deal would be a brand new K601 for ~$150 shipped. Also the K400 and K501 are discontinued so they are fun!

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VR6ofpain /img/forum/go_quote.gif The box:

Mine is different - full cardboard with dark reddish background and a full pic of the K400 on the front (plus a yellow sticker with review results of various German hifi magazines), some detail pics on the sides (earpads, automatic headband mechanism & the leather headband on the left; combo plug, 99.99 % ofc cable and "ASDF" frequency response comparision graph on the right), tech specs and some logos on the back.

The leather headband on mine is about as wide as on my K501, but it's only a comparatively simple, ~ 2 mm thick black leather strip like a simple leather belt - smooth and glossy on the outside, a little roughed up (similar to verlours leather) on the inside.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[VR6ofpain]

I find that these are great cans for just general relaxed listening. They work very well with less than perfect recordings, and brighter recordings, because they have a laid back top end. They offer a nice soft, 'older sound', that works particularly well with blues. I was listening to Albert King's Born Under a Bad Sign record with them and was quite floored by how well it conveyed this 40 year old blues recording. Very nice. They do the same with even older records by the likes of Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson. Very nice indeed.

 

[adanac061]

Cool..this is the kind of thing like to see,
updates on threads about forgotten headphones , and with pics too.
This is the only k400 thread.. now i can acually have a k400 section on the akg central thread.

Thanks.

 

[VR6ofpain]

More pics of the K400:

 

[Tiemen]

Bump this old thread for being so nice for my much beloved K400.
All you need to know about them, is here.

 

[Fitz]

Haha wow, 2nd time this one's been dug from the grave. The K400 is a wonderful pair of headphones though, one of the ones that ended up in my "final three" when I sold most of my headphones.

 

[donunus]

the k400 looks are awesome too. really matches well with that cd player. Is that a rega by the way?

 

[Tiemen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif the k400 looks are awesome too. really matches well with that cd player. Is that a rega by the way?

They not only look awesome, they also sound awesome.
Don't know about the cd player.

 

[fhuang]

it sure sound special and good

 

[REB]

Mine is on the way!

 

[donunus]

Tiemen,
can you write a quick comparison of the sonic signature of the k601 vs the k400? It would probably be a good thing to compare with a current production can.

Fitz,
Do you have any popular current production cans to compare with these? Just want to get a better idea on its sound signature.