[Orpheus]

hi. i just finished this cable last week for my AKG K1000. it is terminated with a 1/4" plug to allow use with normal headphone jacks. unfortunately, my mg head did not have enough juice as it turns out. i turned it all the way up, until it sounded like a distortion guitar amp!... oh well. so, if anyone wants to try this cable out, i'll ship it to you, if you promise to post a review and mail it back to me.

as for this cable itself, i believe it to be superior to the Equinox equivalent. it is fully shielded, and the total gauge of the connductors is much thicker than the Equinox, taking full advantage of the star-quad cable used. also, as a bonus, though it is a little heavy, it is very flexible.

let me know. here's a picture:

 

[Orpheus]

let's try that picture again:

 

[jim]

Wow Orpheus! That's a great looking cable! You do good work. Too bad I don't have a powerful amp either, otherwise I'd love to give it a try. Who makes that cable?

 

[Orpheus]

thanks man.

...the cables are made by Canare. it's the L-4E6S. they're star quad cables (4 conductors) with a braided shield. very flexible. i used two of them, one for each channel... the red colored one for Right, and the blue colored one for Left. it looks really trick when you twist them together. both the XLR and 1/4" plugs were from Neutrik, and are supposedly silver plated (i know the XLR is... but the 1/4" plug might be Nickel even though Neutrik claims it's silver)... anyway... i still use the "silver" 1/4" plug cause the conductive plating of the plug's handle? makes the entire plug shielded, like the Switchcraft plugs. it's what i use for my entire studio. i like the look of metal anyway.

...anyway... any takers out there? free demo!... (except for shipping)

i should say though... through my CD player's headphone jack (which strangely puts out more juice than the MG Head!), the AKG K1000's sounded really nice at lower volumes thorugh this cable. just couldn't drive them at my normal levels.

dean

 

[mlchang]

What type of heatshrink tubing are you using, PVC? or something else. Thanks in advance.

So after we talked a little while back by PM, I decided to not go the double star-quad route for my first cable. I will probably try it sometime soon though.

 

[Orpheus]

it's the normal polyolefin...

 

[Orpheus]

no takers? free trial!--just for fun!

it's a really nice cable. better than Equinox. i promise. took 3 hours of precision Dean workmanship to make it... heh he.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus no takers? free trial!--just for fun! it's a really nice cable. better than Equinox. i promise. took 3 hours of precision Dean workmanship to make it... heh he.

I don't have a pair (yet), but when I do, I wouldn't mind my own (cable like this, that is).

 

[Gariver]

Hi Dean:

Peter Millett, the designer of the Wheatfield headphone amps, says that the AKG K-1000 headphoes must be driven with a low output impedance amp. So he designed an amp for the K1000s with a 7 Ohm output impedance.

Here is what he says....
"This little guy is a headphone amplifier that I designed mainly to drive the fine AKG K1000 headphones. K1000's are hard to drive, as headphones go. Their impedance is pretty typical of headphones, at 120 ohms... but they require a lot of voltage (power) to get to a good listening level. They're rated at 1 watt maximum, which corresponds to 11V RMS, and at their stated efficiency of 74dB/mW, you need 400mW of drive to get to 100dB, which is a good target for a maximum listening level. This amp will drive 325mW, which gives about 99dB... plenty loud for me."

"My OTL tube amps can get close to this power level, but the problem is that the K1000's don't sound very good unless they're driven with a really low output impedance. They were designed to be driven by a "normal" power amplifier, with a Zo of only a few ohms. When you drive them with an amp that has, say, 30-50 ohms Zo, they sound very thin (especially in the bass)."

That says it all! I took that quote from the following page. This page has photographs and a schematic of the K-1000 amp...

http://www.pmillett.addr.com/ecc99_s...dphone_amp.htm

My questions...
I wonder how your K1000s sounded with your new Canare headphone cable. Did it sound full with plenty of bass? Or did it sound thin due to excessive output impedance?

Tube amps versus solid-state amps...
Usually, solid state amps have a very low output impedance. Meaning? You can get full bass with the K1000s and a solid state amp. I believe Nick Dangerous of Dallas has this combination. However, the K-1000s have a slightly metallic tone to them. That's why the best solotion is to mate a tube amp with the AKG K-1000s! Of course, the tube amp's output impedance should be on the low side (7 Ohms in Millett's K1000 amp).

OK! I hope you make some comments on this post!

I am thinking of trying your cable. However, I am in Puerto Rico, which is 1000 miles east of Miami, FL. I would use USPS Priority Mail to ship the cable. That takes 3 to 5 days. Where are you, Dean? Anyway here's my email: gariver911@yahoo.com

I have the following combination...
--Audio Valve RKV amp with NOS PCL805 tubes.
--AKG K-1000s with the AKG Extension cord.

BTW, I bought my RKV amp from Meier-Audio.com during the August sale for $750. It is now selling for $850 (my AKG K-1000s are from Jan also). Yes, it is still a bargain!

http://www.audiovalve.de

http://www.meier-audio.com

According to Jan Meier, the RKV's output impedance is under one Ohm (0.06 Ohm)! Amazing! With this ultra low output impedance, the RKV avoids the problems Pete Millett mentions above. Ha! Pete recommends 7 Ohms, and the RKV has O.06 Ohms of output impedance! Overkill!

Results? Full Bass! Yes, this is a marriage made in Heaven! This Germanic couple sure swings with everything you throw at it: Beethoven Sonatas, Mozart Quartets, Tito Puente's Latin Jazz and my former neighbor Ricky Martin singing La Vida Loca! Wunderbar! Muchas Gracias to Audio Valve and AKG Acoustics for allowing me to reach Sonic Nirvana!

Gariver
San Juan, Puerto Rico....The Enchanted Island!

 

[Orpheus]

to be honest, i wasn't able to really "listen" to this cable. like i said, my mg head was turned up all the way, to the point where it sounded like a distortion guitar amp, ...no kidding. and the headphones still didn't get loud enough to listen to.

so, anyway... that's why i wanted someone else to test these things out. i did however give them a little listening with the headphone out of my Tascam CD player, which strangely actually puts out much more juice than the MG Head!.... and the cable works fine.

k..... so, Puerto Rico? cool... email me your address:

orpheus@fallingtodreams.com

and remember, you need to promise me you will mail the cable back to me after you're done with it, k? and also post a review here. (unless if you really like them and want to keep them... then we can work something out.)

cool?

oh, and thanks for the k1000 custom amp page.... it's very interesting. ...but i think i might end up buying a tube power amp to try out eventually.

thanks,
dean

 

[antness]

I'd love to try the cable and AKG 1000s out with my Gilmore amp. Any chance I could get a loaner on both?

-antness

 

[Orpheus]

heh he... sorry man. the k1000 cables were just for fun. but i don't let anyone touch my k1000's without my direct supervision. yup.

...but i will tell you this: if you're serious about headphones, you owe it to yourself to at least try these things. ...i had them hooked up to a mismatched amp that barely drove them despite being a 100wpc @ 4 ohm amp!.... but anyway.... even with that amp, these headphones sound so delicious... i would say kinda like how a $10,000 pair of speakers should sound, but at 1/10th the price. it's not the same as my senn hd600's though... i mean, both are good... but the hd600's sound like headphones, and these k1000's sound like speakers.

demo it somewhere. you won't regret it. and after you do, talk to me to audition my cables for your new headphones!

dean

 

[antness]

I'll look into it. I'm considering dropping 2k to get a bunch of different headphones and a new source/DAC. Since the AKG 1000s are so unique, I'd have to consider them! I've used my Gilmore amp to power good multimedia speakers that are typically powered by a 25W per channel amplifier. The Gilmore powered them to pretty decent volume, sounded like maybe 10W. So maybe the AKG will work..

 

[Orpheus]

well, by my calculations, you only need about 10wpc @ 8 ohms to deliver about 1/2watt @ 120ohms which should be good, with a little power left for spare (it's better to be overpowered than underpowered.)

but i talked to AKG at the AES convention (they actually had 3 pairs to demo there)... and they said they only recommend using Class A amps with this headphone. and the smallest Class A solid state amp I could find was 25wpc @ 8 ohms... so, that's what i just bought today--the Monarchy SM-70. i'll let you know if it's too much power when it arrives.

but anyway... this is a little off topic.

.......back to the cables. if anyone else wants to demo one of my AKG K1000 cables (or any other type--i can custom make them for you) let me know... i might be inclined to make more, for the same conditions: you promise to return it, and you promise to post a review.

thanks,
dean

 

[PC Corp]

Geez, I think I'm one of the few people who qualifies to test this cable.

Orpheus, I offically request to test the cable.

I have the AKG 1000 and the AKG SAC K1000 amp, the CD player is a lowly AMC 8C.

Jan made me a special cable adapter so I can also plug my HD580 with the SAC amp. So I think the SAC headphone jack should have enough power to see how good your cable is.

But I live in Vancouver, Canada.

Of course, I promise to return the cable with my own costs after finishing the review.

But my English isn't very good and my music/equipment knowledge is very poor, so please don't expect a great review.

One more thing, how do you remove the cable from the K1000 headphones, just unplug it??