[drewski]

I'm close to pulling the trigger on buying a RKV, but just had a few questions that I'm hoping that someone can answer.

I have a pair of AKG K-1000's that I'm hoping to drive with this amp. My question is how do you connect the K-1000's to the the RKV 1/4" plugs, or are there speaker terminals on this amp as well? Also, if someone has this configuration, I'm interested to know what your opinions are regarding this setup. I'm currently switching between a Norh SE9 and a N.E.W. a-20. Both sound great, but I'm looking for an amp that's nice and compact, and that can drive my other cans as well.

Also, in regards to the Impedancer, since the RKV has two sets of 1/4" plugs, if I just plug a high impendance set of cans into one jack when using low impedance cans, won't this change the load that the amp sees? Do I still need to buy and Impedancer if I'm willing to do this?

Thanks!

 

[Hirsch]

I made a short XLR to phone cable, so that the K-1000 can plug into a headphone jack. The grounds are connected at the phone plug.

The RKV can drive low impedance cans without the Impedancer, but it tends to be noisy.

A high impedance can in the other jack would be in parallel, rather than in series with a low impedance can, and would be unlikely to help (I can try this later and report back).

 

[Old Pa]

Quote:

Originally posted by drewski I have a pair of AKG K-1000's that I'm hoping to drive with this amp. I'm interested to know what your opinions are regarding this setup.

Hirsch answered most of your other questions as I would have. I have been using the K1000 wired through a Neutrik plug for front panel connection and have been extremely happy with the setup. My experience with low impedance cans is that with them the RKV is unacceptably noisy.

 

[drewski]

Hirsh, Old Pa,

Thanks for the valuable information. Looks like I'll most likely have to get the Impedancer if I'm going to use my Grados or Ety's. Just trying to save a little bit of money because I can almost get another pair of cans for the price of the Impedancer!

Old Pa- does Neutrik make a XLR to phone adapter or did you make your own similar to Hirsh?

Thanks again for the information!

 

[Old Pa]

Quote:

Originally posted by drewski Old Pa- does Neutrik make a XLR to phone adapter or did you make your own similar to Hirsh?

My K1000 came from Jan Meier last Fall and he installed the phono plug for me for $5.00 extra.

 

[Hirsch]

Confirmed that a high impedance can in the other jack does no good whatsoever.

A temporary patch might be something like a 100 ohm resistor in series with the headphone, which would certainly increase the impedance seen by the amp.

 

[drewski]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch Confirmed that a high impedance can in the other jack does no good whatsoever. A temporary patch might be something like a 100 ohm resistor in series with the headphone, which would certainly increase the impedance seen by the amp.

Hirsh,

Thanks for the information and for taking the time to test this out. I guess running a Y phone adapter would probably do the trick! But I guess that's just getting down-right tacky! I'm not sure why this bothers me so much, but I guess with the Stefan 1/4 phone cable for the K-1000's, then the Impendancer, that's almost $400 in accessories!

Thanks again,

Drew

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by drewski I guess running a Y phone adapter would probably do the trick! But I guess that's just getting down-right tacky!

Actually, a Y adapter wouldn't do it. You'd need to insert the resistor directly into the signal path, if it was going to work at all.

 

[grinch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch A temporary patch might be something like a 100 ohm resistor in series with the headphone, which would certainly increase the impedance seen by the amp.

i've plugged my meier 120ohm adapter (from the porta corda) into the rkv with low-impedance cans and it does not improve anything. this is basically what you suggested. i don't know why, but it sure didn't work for me.

in my opinion, the impedancer is worth it. hp-1 sings with it, and it even worked with my mg head while i had it.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by grinch i've plugged my meier 120ohm adapter (from the porta corda) into the rkv with low-impedance cans and it does not improve anything. this is basically what you suggested. i don't know why, but it sure didn't work for me. in my opinion, the impedancer is worth it. hp-1 sings with it, and it even worked with my mg head while i had it.

The series idea was the only thing I could think of short of the Impedancer. I've got the Radii Audio HAP-04, which is a cheap impedancer, but it colors the sound too much to be useful with RKV. Does reduce noise, though.

 

[bearwise]

OK ...I'm gonna parade my ignorance all over the place, but I'm used to that....
I just got a pair of the K1000's and will use an RKV to drive them. Now of the ignorance part....I have the Imedancer which has the only speaker binding posts in the setup. I've tried attaching the 4-pin connector there but the sound levels are low, and I'm assuming that's because the imedances are not matched (the cans are 120 ohms, the highest setting on on the Imedancer is 64 ohms). Am I right about this???? and is the best solution either a home built 4-pin XLR-1/4" phone cable as Hirsch has done, or a commercial one like Stefan Art makes?

And BTW , I totally agree with Grinch, the Impedancer is a must have for folks driving low impedance phones with the RKV. The K1000's are gonna have to be pretty darn good to compete with my Grado RS-2's and this amp with the Impedancer.