An encapsulated review:

This is placed here so you don't have to read the whole thing, and can move on to other pages. The AKG k512 MK 2 is an entry level headphone that has been missed here in popularity. I found it by accident, worked with it to find it's true character and sound quality potential. Still not free of audio qwerkyness and faults, the device exudes a sound signature much like an electrostatic speaker with low distortion, a one of a kind treble detail due to shelved treble EQ, and a soundstage on a world class level. The mids and treble are smooth and resolving of source and pace. The units are some of the most low weight and easy to wear of any headphones known. The unknown qualities occur with burn-in including a a nice front end. This headphone actually has some character improvements and overcomes many of the k701s pitfalls.




AKG k512 MK 2

Basic Specifications Described By AKG
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System:
Dynamic
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Design:
Closed-back
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Color:
Black with silver elements
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Frequency range:
16Hz – 20kHz
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Sensitivity:
109dB SPL/V
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Input impedance:
32 ohms
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Maximum input power:
200mW
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Net weight (without cable):
200g (7.0 oz)
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Cable:
99.99% oxygen-free cable, 2.5m (8' 3")
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Main connection:
3.5mm (1/8") stereo mini-jack plug

If you have started to hang out with Head-Fi members for a while you know that they have certain personality traits. Hand them a pair of cheap looking $33 headphones out of the blue and watch the facial expressions. This is a 100% of the time, group reaction where their lower mouth will actually start to droop and frown.

Yep, there can be a very pronounced pre-judgment around here. Still that's an expected thing, right? We are spending money to try and achieve an improvement in personal sound quality. Members spend hours in research and testing, looking for this audio nirvana. So when a fellow member hands them a pair of headphones like these your going to witness a judgment. Before the very first listen, ideas have been made and decisions have occurred on a couple levels.

It is like they came over for a nice dinner and found out you newly ran out of wine. You go to the kitchen and come back with your cooking wine. There is a laugh and a sigh, well we already know what this is from experience. They are a far more worldly and sophisticated gent, yet because of their politeness and form they give it a short try. Even during the try-out the expectations and judgment form a smeared opinion. This is truly the Head-Fi world we swim in. Stuff is based on price. Even once in a while a product comes along like the Piston 3 IEMs which sound ten times better than they cost. Still such queerness is not the norm and is about as rare as our guest falling in love with the cooking wine.

So let's try and review the AKG 512 MK2s. Even with my best effort I'm sorry to say I will not be able to describe the sound to you. My 4928 X 3264 pixel photographs here are going to be a much clearer idea of what these headphones are and what they are not.

Perception is a funny thing, so much so that the first 30 minutes alone with these entry level AKGs will not allow you to audibly get a grip on what they are. Go to the mall and play them on a mystery system where the cable runs into below to a little hole in the table and plays a never ending run of song loops. You will walk on by, as expected.

These are looked over. They are never talked about or purchased. Even Amazon.com goes on to call them multi-purpose headphones. The generic antithesis of an audiophile term here. So what happened to me? Why did I even buy them and what has my experience been? I will say this, if I tried them somewhere, my first instinct would be to leave them alone. These first reactions are just due to the look and first perceptions of sound quality. They sound thin with no bass and have that same mid-treble spike that the k701s are notorious for. They can sound a little plasticity and fake too, just like their older brother the k701s.

Ok, so why did I write a review with such high marks? Let us start with burn-in. Even if you don't believe in it, humor me, OK. They need 700 hours of burn in. Don't laugh, they do. Even with a pair of $33 headphones we are looking for audio subtleties which take place in small microscopic levels of audio perception. They also require power in the amp department. So already we are way behind the eight-ball. No one with an interest in $33 headphones is going to burn them in for 700 hours or get an audiophile headphone amp for them. The final deadly blow is they also respond to a better quality source.

Oh, gosh! I can't begin to go through with this. A cheap headphone, a $300 amp, expensive cables and a $500 DAC all to make these AKG k512 MK2s sound good? And I will not even begin to notice the correct sound quality till after a 1/2 hour of concentrated listening alone in a special environment?

You may have already begun to realize that we are all crazy here. You can join the club or move along, your choice.



Hardware Used For Review:

Schiit Asgard One Solid State Amplifier
Cambridge Audio DAC Magic Plus In Optical 48kHz incoming sample rate mode. Minimum filter mode. Operating In Line Out Mode.
Pioneer DVD Player DV-220KV with original printed 44.1 kHz and 16 bit source CDs. HDMI converted to optical to DAC.





Software Used For Review-CDs:

Debussy-Snowflakes Are Dancing:
BMG Music High Performance 1999
Performed by Isao Tomita

Suites For Orchestra:
BMG High Performance 1999
Bartok
Hindesmith
Varese
Performed by Chicago Symphony

Korn:
See You On The Other Side
Virgin Records

Duran Duran:
Greatest Hits
Capitol Records










So let's talk about build and comfort, then we will move onto the final writings on sound quality. These headphones are really made well. They are what they are as far as looks go. I wear them out of the house but really they are used in my home system most of the time. The first thing that will give you trouble is the headband. They have an elastic tape which allows them to be spring loaded-lowered onto your head. The thin paper like head pad will most likely come off and you will be left with the thin cloth tape only being the headband. After one year I forgot they even had their original headband as the remaining system works perfect for me. These headphones don't scratch or scuff as the cups and wire supports are covered with bulletproof plastic. They clean-up with soap and water and except for the missing head-band piece look like the day they were taken out of their box. The cable end where they go into the left ear-cup is joined with super thick rubber as a stress relief and the opposite end with the mini-Jack is rock solid. The build Is 9.9 on a 1 to 10 scale in my book. Just like the sound these build qualities maybe are not going to be noticed upon first meeting, the moment you take them out of the box and begin use?

The cloth ear-cup pad covers are cleanable and strong. The cloth covers are made from a very breathable nylon bean-bag style material which is toned light gray and will discolor slightly with repeated and heavy use. There are no materials to fray or start falling apart. The headphones can be mistreated and they don't bend or break apart. There is no movement or folding going on here. StIl I would trust them to be placed in the bottom of a backpack fully open and carry them somewhere with no headphone case in use. They are just that tough. The cable does not change it's plastic rubber feel over time and become hard or brittle. The straight cable is a dream in use. The cable is not too thick or thin, not too heavy or low weight and seems a perfect length for my uses.

The feel. Well I have ears on the smaller side of normal and a mid-size head shape. The redeeming factor here is these headphone feel like air on your head. None of that weight or heat like a pair of ATH M-50s. No clamping force or ear pressure at all. The comfort is supreme so much so it's that relaxing pair of headphones you go to even with less than perfect sound quality. If comfort and ease of use are your number one consideration, your home free. The strange thing is they actually cause you to reexamine all other headphone designs. How could such a simple and stationary design allow such comfort and ease of movement? Key word here DESIGN. There is a slight forward and back movement in where the outer-hoop-rings enter the ear cups which can be viewed very clear in the pictures here. Combine that specific movement with the slight parallel movement of the outer wire hoops and we are there in flying colors. The headphones feel like air. For the first 30 minutes you can feel the cup pressure as they get an ear placement, but after they disappear into the air around you. You can fall asleep with these and not worry about future consequences. You can use them in place of more expensive headphones and not take an unenjoyable loss in SQ. My most comfortable headphones.

Oh? Yes? Sound Quality. Let's not forget about that!
They are thin sounding. There I said it. This is not one of those delusional reviews where the reviewer is going to somehow talk you and himself into a farce either for free headphones, writing stature or money. The headphones take a while to get used to. These are the baby k701s so they have a learning curve where you need to mentally get used to the sound. The sound is not for everybody or every genre of music. That's not to say you can't enjoy a rock album. One of my review albums listed here is "See You On The Other Side" 2005 by the Nu-metal band Korn. The AKGs are not going to overwhelm you with clunky bass. What they do, do is offer you an amazing spacial bass placement where the bass can be heard and noted in a 3D space. Many reviews of the k701s say the bass is just barely there but there. This works for this description also. Perception is a funny thing. Don't eat salt for a week, then put a bunch on your food. Sound perception can be like taste perception. We seem to get used to stuff when the environment is right. We can adapt to our audio situation but the mind takes it's time on it's own schedule and terms which we have no control of.

The mids.
Well I would not even be writing this review unless there was a sonic redeeming factor in conjunction with the wearability, right? The detail in the mid-range far surpasses the asking price. Still again it's not going to show until you feed it with a quality upstream signal with better gear than most interested in a $33 headphone. Hence the riddle solved on why you will not see a thread here or anywhere on these lovely entry intros to the audiophile land of happiness. There is an open airy placement of details. The mids are fast and in placement, no color or confusion as the response is ruler flat except for that one curve spike. It's the airy spacial placement of cymbals and effects that becomes endearment here.

The treble.
We all know that when you go out slumming and go crazy on a cheapo pair of cans your asking for grating sibilance and butt hurt. We have all done it. You know, rebellion against all good advice you have been told by friends and family. You tell yourself that you will get used to it that it will somehow disappear with time and mental burn-in. Maybe I can EQ my way to a daily livability in the future? Well let me enlighten you. My reference system borders on treble-hot. Not strident or even close to sibilance. New listeners would call my system lean and thin. When in reality it is just super clear and ruler flat. No color, no euphonies or warmth but reality. Hard reality. I can say in textbook writing that adding a mid-treble-centric set of cans like the AKG k512s could be asking for trouble. That would be true with many headphones out there. I'm not listing the models or brands because you most likely know what they are if your even reading this far. No treble ear fatigue even with slightly bright systems at normal listening volume levels.
I like this treble better than the $170 ATH M-50s being it's more open, is in a better soundstage and is much more detailed. The M-50s are always going to have much more dramatic bass. So we tend to question if we are hearing such detail in the highs and mids due to the missing lower mids and bass? Good question.

The headphones simply respond with what they are given upstream. Hence my wording of scaleability. Some headphones are musical, some don't like volume because the musicality and distortions walk through the park hand and hand. Not here. You can power these up into an ear breaking volume level and some slight distortions can be noted but nothing to ruin a daily listening practice. They are not vocal centric, and I'm not saying they don't do enjoyable vocals. What I'm saying is the vocals are where they originally are in the mix. It's not a pair of headphones that rely on cheap sonic tricks to get your love, only to express how they are not true down the line and really just cheap audio sluts.

The mids.
Did I already talk about the mids? Well let's just say that is what these are about. Still I'm not saying the love cherub of audio will strike you at that special aha moment?



You may like them, or you may not? Audio is very personal and these headphones are strange.



They excel in the mids with detail, complexity and form way, way above their price bracket. Still a word of warning. If you think your going to get into this sonic club plugging into an iPod or something like that, think again. This headphone is a little snobby and does not get along with it's other entry level siblings. It yearns for quality and pampering in signal but will reveal to you a world unknown for it's price and join the more expensive headphones in your stable much like a sleeping beauty.


A rugged well made low-cost headphone for music and movies.
Has extra use on the go, but fussy about source equipment.
Needs an insanely long burn-in before revealing it's true nature.
Maybe one of the most comfortable headphones ever made by man?
Has special sonic characteristics though natural, take long listening time to understand well.
Has a silly thin paper like headband part which will remove itself in a weeks time.
Strangely generic design and construction elements.
Leaks sound out like openback headphones do.
Comes with 2 Year AKG warranty care.

Final notes
We live in a world where cool audio bargain headphones are nice to get ahold of. These purchases can be important if we are lacking good quality sound equipment or just an added gift to help us experience our music and our upstream gear in a new and entertaining way. As I use these I still wonder where they fit into the headphone architecture here? How great of a value are they? Math is at times a good way to express value ideas and help us quantify realities here. For $20 USD folks could say that the Piston 3 IEMs are equal to IEMs costing upwards of $150 USD. That is only if you gel with the sound signature?

If I was to use the Piston 3s as a sonic baseline for quantification of sound quality value, I would determine the AKG k512 MK 2s to be 10 times better in over all sound quality. The reality is they only cost $13 more. Are we looking at $500.00 headphones here? Amazingly, I feel we are.

Product
Standard Build Woo Audio 5 LE Headphone Amplifier
 
In this day of mass produced equipment it is nice to find a small boutique headphone and headphone amplifier company who are sincerely into it. So how does the selection process work? The big question is which amplifier to have these guys make for you, and why?
 
 I have had tube equipment forever. My first mono amplifier was a gift from my Grandmother, something pulled out of an old early 1960s console unit. In the early 1970s solid state equipment was just starting to be put into use and almost everything had tubes. Everyone wanted the solid state equipment and no one wanted tubes. As children we would collect huge grocery bags of tubes and throw them into the street for the popping sound they made. For the last twenty years there has been a small but ever growing resurgence of interest in tubes because of the warm buttery sound they affect on music.
 
 The romance of tubes is just that, a simple romance. In the early days you had to turn them on and wait for a while until you heard this faint hum, a turn on the volume knob gave you some little crackles then the music started to flow. To some the view of tubes glowing at night is mesmerizing and adds to the experience of enjoying music. Woo Audio has taken the tube technology into the 21 century and made it reliable, high quality and beautiful. The hum and crackles are gone, what we get is just pure romance, and a signature sound which is the essence of pure music. For some Woo Audio equipment may seem unpolished from a design aspect, for others that clean industrial look minus the gold knobs and chrome is right where they want to be. To me the equipment feels really well made and the simple look fits my style.
 
 If you do a little research you may find Woo Audio has a nice customer base here at Head-Fi. How did that happen? It occurred the old fashioned way. A small company is careful and builds a hand full of products, offers great customer support and builds a reputation. This may sound cliche but I figure they really did it with one handmade amplifier at a time. This kind of stuff makes you feel right about making an investment in audio equipment. How many companies do you know of offhand where you get a return phone call or e-mail by the next day at the latest, from the owner? I am no expert in this world of headphones but I have an average amount of common sense. Buying one of these amps is a little like buying a car, you have to look at the wiring. Flip a Woo Audio over and remove the bottom plate cover and take a look. Some amps look like they were made by 5 year olds in finger painting class. A Woo Audio amp looks like a piece of hand crafted art. The design is orderly and all the workmanship is first rate. None of this would matter if the design didn’t come from a master too.
 
So let us guess at why anyone would even want a Woo 5LE in the first place. What does this thing do? What does this thing not do? First off if you have any dream of moving into full range Fostex single driver full size stereo speakers you will want the Woo Audio 5. The LE model does not have speaker binding posts and will not let you plug in electrostatic headphones. If you want to use electrostatic headphones you will want the Woo Audio 5. Single driver full range speakers allow the use of up to 10 watts of power output to drive a highly efficient single driver full range speaker. These have no crossovers and will sometimes use a horn type of enclosure to amplify the bass frequencies. I am into rock and closed back headphones so the LE was the model I chose. I did give Jack at Woo Audio a call and had them custom build a preamp output in case I wanted to use the headphone amplifier as a preamp.
 
So why would someone get the Woo Audio 5LE and not another companies headphone amplifier? What are the benefits of Woo Audios’ other amps? I had always dreamed of a 300b amp. The 300b tube was in use in one of the first amplifiers ever built. The Western Electric 300b tube is so reliable that they were placed under the Atlantic in the first intercontinental transatlantic telephone system. I had read for years about this magic mid range. Every article kept reiterating about this indefinable 300b X-factor! I had never even heard a 300b amplifier before but these audio reviewers were almost in tears. I had to get a taste of the action. Pure music they said.
 
My first amplifier built by Woo Audio was a Woo 3. You PayPal them the money, they e-mail you the confirmation and you wait until you get a Fed-X tracking number. The build time is different for each amplifier and they have been exact on the build time twice so far with me. I loved my Woo Audio 3 but wanted more. So what did I get?
 
A month went by and I read an e-mail that Fed-X had my amplifier at the Fed-X hub. I was able to arrive at work late that morning and showed up to retrieve my two amplifier cases. Woo Audio has now modified their shipping system around special molded foam inserts and uses cardboard boxes. My order was placed at the end of 2008 and they still used wooden crates. Both systems work great. The wood weights more though. Each crate weighed about 40 pounds and had big handles attached to the sides. I threw them in the trunk and off to work I went. On lunch I went home and tried everything out. Upon opening the cases you find all your tubes, one power supply unit, one amplifier unit.
 
* Two 300B power tubes
* Two 6SN7 driver tubes
* Two 5U4G rectifier tubes
 
Also a power supply connection cable, and a set of instructions. You will need to supply your own power cord. I ended up using my computer cord for a long time then made some changes. The amp needs time to burn in about 300 hours before sounding the best. Many here are in disbelief of this phenomenon at Head-Fi. The company who builds the product states it as a reality and I feel I could hear a difference. You can only run the amplifier for 8 hour stretches and the amp should not be left alone. My suggestion is just turn it on and enjoy the ride of your life! I have recently re tube the amplifier and feel stuff should just be left to break-in naturally.
 
Upon my first listening experiences I found the Woo Audio 5 LE to have all the power I could ever use. My reference set of headphones are the 11 year old Sony MDR-CD-870 closed back headphones. I also rotated in my other favorite headphones the AKG-k701 open back headphones. My personal favorite headphones in use with the amplifier are the Flagship Denon AH-D 7000 closed back headphones. A great synergy with the AH-D 7000s seemed to allow me to reach an apex in sound never before obtainable with the Woo Audio 5 LE.
 
So you are reading this entire page and your question is………..How Does It Sound?
 
 It generates an alternate place. A place with grand authority. A place you can visit and stay if you want. There is no ear fatigue even after long 4-5 hour listening runs. Just a big place where the sound stage goes off into infinity. A place where all your old CDs and records become something new. Take something as simple as a bell sound. We hear bell sounds all the time. Now the bells have a shape and a size, a texture along with an inner and outer texture and a decay reverberation quality. Sometimes the sounds seem to actually contain a color and contrast. How could that be? Things sound real when they are recorded real sounds. When they are processed sounds that is when stuff gets crazy. Big warm sublime worlds of perfect tone. A place where drums sound like wood and you can almost touch the snare surface. Another sound cliche here, this thing is causing chills down my spine? A source as simple as a woman singing with a guitar sounds natural as you would think it would sound in real life, nothing more nothing less. It is the simple uncolored tone that we need sometimes in music reproduction. How close do things sound? An easy way for me to put it is that the Woo Audio 5 LE makes things sound very close. Got it? Did I use the audiophile word sound stage yet? No? It is beyond that descriptor.
 
I have no answers for you, I am just this guy with headphones on. I will have to conclude that I really know very little on the subject of headphones. But I do know what sound I like.
 
 The great thing was the immersion factor. That is the only dam thing we are looking for here. All this talk of musical honesty, of truth. It really does not matter at the end of the day if you were swept away in the tide of somebody’s musical recording. There was some trouble in paradise; I now heard my recordings for what they were and what they were not. Some stuff was thin and some stuff was thick as a mountain. After all these years I never thought one piece of machinery could whittle my record and CD collection down to a small pile. Yes, be careful what you wish for as reality is a double edged sword. The rose colored glasses of audio color are ripped, actually slapped off your head and you hear your collection for what it is, beauty marks and warts in all.
 
I have always accepted that no matter what we do a set of little headphone speakers cannot match the visceral gut massage of a great set of audio speakers. I still feel that way but there is again the X-factor, the funny little illusion that is created just next to our reality, that place along with the sense of wonderment that keeps me coming back for more.
 
What do you do to set this thing up? For some it must look like a Dr. Frankenstein tool used for evil. Well, you take it out of the box. The tube sockets are marked on the amp where the tubes go. There are six tubes. I would use a white sport sock around your hands so as to not get oil on the tubes. Variations of glass tube wall temperature due to hand oil pollution diminish tube life. You hook up your turntable RIAA preamp or CD player to the gold platted RCA inputs on the back. The build quality feels equal to the front bumper of a 57 Chevy. Make sure that your headphones are plugged in and the volume knob is all the way left. Make sure the on/off knob is to the left too. Plug it in and you’re off. At night with the lights off there is really something of a show. We are not at the level of the Alaska Aurora Borealis here but considering it is something you are turning on in your living room or bedroom, it’s a show. The 300b tubes {there are two} light up and emit a bright blue glow for ¼ second as everything powers up. There are other types of tube glowing too with the support tubes. The main 300b glow is orange with a faint blue glow going on constantly. There is a slight mechanical feel and sound when the on switch goes on with the power supply unit. Latterly the on and off knob actually has a slight mechanical shake when you turn on the amp! That is just juice flowing though this sucker. It is kind of cool because it reminds you that you are dealing with electrical power here. Electric power has a strange mechanical aspect to it at times.
 
I had read that the Woo Audio 5LE was primarily excelling in reproduction of the middle range of the audio spectrum. It was unarguably a magic middle range enticing me back every night for a personal meet up. I was very happy with what I had. I could have even lived the remainder of my days just the way things were. But……………………………………But there was more. Somehow the Gods Of Head-Fi had more on their agenda for me. More was to be revealed at a time when I least expected it. In come improvements. The second phase in my learning curve was the use of cables. A huge matter of controversy and rightly so as some times results are noted and sometimes it is a wash. In the business of HI/FI you have two groups. The first group are the down to earthies who just will not believe something that cannot be tested and proved in numbers. The second, lighter group are looking between the numbers to a place in the hinterlands where numbers don’t exist. This group gets high on placebo and would soak their amps in water if they thought it would improve the sound. I found myself in the middle of sorts. I tried some pure silver cables my first day with the Woo and found the sound too treble. I had always looked forward to testing power cords, racks, vibrating and counter vibrating rocks and the other grocery bag of fuzzy logic. Really? How could any of the other “little” stuff make a huge difference in my system? All I can say was I was wrong! I was wrong about the Woo 5LE being middle range in reproduction. With the addition of cords and cables the Woo became a bass monster. Not any average monster, but Frankenstein’s bass monster. Skyscrapers of bass. Not everywhere but a blend into the sound stage right where it was to be in nature. I felt bad for what I had previously thought, I did not know truth!
 
So what else do you want? Huh? Well, Woo could get creative and put some new finagled USB in the rear end of the thing. They could start to convolute things and make it one of those 24/96 mono/hybrid desk top coffee makers with a milk foamer for the in crowd. They could make it have more than three knobs. Why? It is what it is. Simple. Powerful. Sleek. Sexy. May I remind you this thing has only three knobs.
 
1} Volume.
2} On/Off.
3} Source.
 
It performs with anything you throw at it. It will show you if your phonostage is thin. It will show you if the grid going to your house is dirty. At the same time it will allow you to live a musical life. What emotion there is in the experience of the human hearing music. Is there any better headphone amp out there? From what I have heard there seems to be small differences. This is really how I feel. Other amplifiers out there are going to have small differences. In this price range somehow stuff starts to get closer together and not farther apart as you may first think. The difference is like the subtle space between notes or the space and decay between the rhythm, but there is something else that is there, maybe it’s the 300bs, a smoothness, a velvety feeling like touching cloth, a softness that I have come to like and be addicted to. Yes, If I had a chance to do it over again I would.  
 
[size=11.0pt]So if you get a chance try one out at the next Head-Fi meet near you. Or if you have a gut instinct just place your order like I did.
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[size=11pt]Equipment Used In This Review[/size]
 

Review Denon AH-D 7000 Headphones
My first set of headphones were purchased in 1974. I’m excited to write that over the years my favorite headphone has improved every so often. I am not a complete obsessive type who compulsively is upgrading my system. I have a relaxed process where if something works then it stays in use for awhile.  As we build our headphone systems each piece of equipment is interdependent on each other for the overall sound.  That old saying that your system is only as strong as the weakest link stands true as ever. It is actually really hard at times to get all your components to complement each other. When you have system synergy going strong, I have felt it is just better to leave it alone and enjoy the music.
 
For a ten year period the Sony MDR-CD-870 closed back headphones were my reference set. Sure there were lots more out there. At the time I was using 1960s Scott Amplifiers and the Sonys were a good match. My goal was a fun, comfortable and rocking set of headphones. If you have a system which works enjoy it and leave stuff alone. We all know of the crazy upgrade condition. The upgrades are a great way to spend time with this hobby. Basically every purchase is a learning experience. I’m a little conservative so having a purchase be a financial learning experience is not my idea of fun.
 
At a Head-fi show I tried as many headphones in my system as I could. I already had a wonderful pair of AKG k701s which were great and all but are not the best for rock. Even for dance music the AKGs leave something missing. Put on some well recorded vocals and guitar and then the AKGs show their true potential. So to shorten this story the Head-fi member next to me had a pair of AH-D7000s to sell. The price was right in my ballpark at $450.00 usd. I had spent the whole morning with modified Sennheiser HD 800s. Heck I had seen the HD800s with the t-shirt modification where you take and pack a cotton t-shirt inside them. I had used a stock set of HD800s with a super expensive after market cord which was $500.00 usd itself. I played the HD800s with a limited edition remaster of Dark Side Of The Moon on an $80,000 usd vinyl rig. I came to try the Sennheisers but somehow maybe I’m not a Sennheiser guy! Don’t get me wrong as the HDs sound very, very clear. Each part of the recording is rendered in the right sound field place. I just didn’t feel it in my heart.
 
So he hands me the Denons from next door and I put them into the high impedance output of my Woo Audio 5 LE. I could tell right away that I was there. In three minutes I was done, all done. But some say that if you have this instant satisfaction that maybe you will not like the equipment over time. There is this theory that some manufactures put this color in their products so everybody is floored on first listen and open their pocketbooks, only to go home and find the color is somehow keeping them from audiophile truth. I really don’t know. There is a woody feel to the sound of the AH-D 7000s. You could call it color. The sound of great and controlled bass going as low as you need it to go. The overall experience is just in one word, fun. Can you have too much fun? It’s been about 13 months and the honeymoon is not over.
 
When you wear the Denons for weeks on end then swich to somthing like the AKGs then you realize how light and perfect the AH- D 7000s fit your head and ears. I had always thought the AKGs were nice to wear but again the AH-Ds rule. The HD-800s felt just like they look, big heavy cages on your head! The HD-800s are as enjoyable as a hospital and the AH-Ds are as enjoyable as a redneck keg party in the woods!
 
The build quality is great. When you first study them they look a little fragile in the armatures. The piano lacquered cups seem like they could even dent if you get a little loose with them. Knock on wood, it has been 13 months and they are holding up perfect. So they are made in China and not the brisk mountains of Italy. They are made really, really well. The cord is a Y configuration which carries no micro phonic properties at all. At times there is a small adjustment phase just before all the equipment gets on. This adjustment gets to be an easy thing to get used to with time. The cord does need to be sorted out straight at times. The plug is really well made and feels like it will last for years. The plug has a heavy quality which just feels right when adding it to amps. A short right at the plug is an issue with many headphones used a long time. This plug seems truly first rate. I also use the AKG mini plug adaptor to plug the AH-Ds into the mini plug of my Nuforce Icon USB Desktop Amplifier And Headphone Amplifier. A great combo for the Nuforce using it as a USB digital output for a laptop playing Foobar2000 or Macintosh playing aiff lossless files in I-tunes. The high impedance of the AH-D 7000s results in truly great authority just going directly out of an I-pod Touch playing lossless aiff files.
 
So later that day we found a couple more tube amps to fit into our test system. The AH-D 7000s were always polite and never became harsh in the high end. Everyone said the system was simply divine with the AH-Ds in place. What they did say was that the system was perfect for jazz and classical. We still had some issues. Everything was buttery smooth; there was warmth and detail in a very sublime way. The problem was what they call speed. I was using cheap Monster RCAs and my old computer cord for power. Could the Denons improve? The question was how much did they have in them to improve. What the Denons lack in midrange reproduction is overcome by the lush silky midrange reproduced by 300b tubes. The fact is that the midrange is one of the finer points of the Woo 5LE. What could be done to improve was cords. What I thought was a little too much bass response was all just problems in my system due to the cords I was using. After changing cords the bass became focused, tight and better placed into the sound stage.
 
The Electra Glide Audio Reference Glide-Reference Standard "Fatboy" Power Cord enters the power feed to the amps. The addition of speed takes place. What I thought was a deficit in the speed of the Denons was a flaw in what was brought to them in the system. It was like finding out they were a new set of headphones. Drums would attack and decay with harmonics, tone shifts would take you almost out of your seat with surprisement.  Could these things really be world class headphones? What else could be done for them and how would they react?  A set of Virtual Dynamics Master Series RCA interconnects are then put in between a Rega Planet Compact Disk Player and the Woo 5 LE RCA inputs. Now the Denons responded with speed and detail. OK, I said I’m not into the upgrade cycle! I’m not, I’m not. I do need a new CD player though.
 
 
 
 
Equipment Used For Denon AH-D 7000 Headphone Review

Sony MDR-CD-870 Headphones
AKG k701 Headphones
Denon AH-D 7000 Headphones

Headphone Amplifier Inventory
Woo Audio 5 LE Headphone Amplifier And Custom Modified Preamplifier
Nuforce Icon USB Desktop Amplifier And Headphone Amplifier

Source Inventory

VPI Scout Turntable
Clearaudio Aurum Classic Phonograph Cartridge
PS•1 Phono Preamplifier and HC•1b Dual Mono Power Supply by Monolithic
Rega Planet Compact Disk Player

Cable Inventory

Virtual Dynamics Master Series RCA interconnects
Electra Glide Audio Reference Glide-Reference Standard "Fatboy" Power Cord
Electra Glide Audio Epiphany X2 Power Cord