[mysticaldodo]

At this point, its been burned in for 101.5 hours and sounds harsher then before....bass is still good. How long did yours take to break in fully? (no harsh sound).

 

[Julz]

I'm listening to my K501's right now (Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack...) after only 30 - 40 hours use, I only got them last tuesday, and they're not harsh at all. A little excitable in the upper registers, yes, but not harsh....

 

[boodi]

mmm "harsh" and "k501" don't really match ..
what source are you pairing them whit ?
what do you preceive and intend saying they're "harsh" ?

anyhow...
k501 needs some special buning in to do it fast and to reach nice results ( I'm mainly speaking about bass )
-
if you can crack up a bit the volume on a very low bass track and let them run some days . no , they shouldn't ba able to brake ,as my exp has been drivers clipping when the max bass supported was in ( I used 20/30/40/50hz low tune repetitions )

 

[jp11801]

the 501s that I have were never harsh although they opened up and the bass got better defined after pretty much a week of 24/7 play. These have a rep of needing alot of burn.

 

[mysticaldodo]

I'm listening to:

Cocteau Twins - Milk and Kisses
Il Divo something....

They did not sound harsh from my EMU 1212M using a cheap headphone (sounds smooth) or my HD 595 using the XCan (sounds just nice). Admittedly, the material is not the best but the AKG 501 sounds really harsh. I'll have to burn in some more. Orchrestral music sounds good actually tested with King Arthur and Anna and The King (the soundtracks).

 

[jp11801]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mysticaldodo I'm listening to: Cocteau Twins - Milk and Kisses Il Divo something.... They did not sound harsh from my EMU 1212M using a cheap headphone (sounds smooth) or my HD 595 using the XCan (sounds just nice). Admittedly, the material is not the best but the AKG 501 sounds really harsh. I'll have to burn in some more. Orchrestral music sounds good actually tested with King Arthur and Anna and The King (the soundtracks).

are these compressed files? If these are mp3s it could be digital artifacts creating that harsh sound the 501s are pretty revealing the good the bad and the ugly

 

[mysticaldodo]

Nope, their cds. Yeah...I'm starting to get the idea on how forgiving the AK 501 is

I'll burn in some more.

 

[Melchior]

IIRC, mine took about 2 weeks of 24/7 before they settled in.

 

[mysticaldodo]

Thats conforting.

I tested futher with Everything But the Girl: Adapt or Die. Very harsh.

I tried Miles Davis collection (some bootleg) and Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea Live in Concert. It actually sounds nice without any sign of harshness but totally revealing in how dirty the record sounds. The person who is coughing in the audience can be heard very audibly.

 

[wakked1]

Can depend on your DAC. Try them with a few different sources. I tried a total bithead and it was rather painful with my Grado's, Utrasones.. well... pretty much every can I own. But, I don't own any laidback cans. Tried the same phones with my Denon, or even straight out of my laptop, and they sounded very different. Don't underestimate the impact the source can make.

 

[mysticaldodo]

I don't think my source is at fault as my other HD 595 sounds just nice. And I believe HD 595 is suppose to be slightly brighter then AKG 501 but I could be wrong

The HD 595 took a long time to burn in (few months time...lost count) so I hope the case is the same for AKG 501.