AKG K3003 High End 3 Way System Headphone

[up late]

when I see thousands of posts next to an id I just shake my head in disbelief. no offence meant guys.

 

[Aero Dynamik]

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Well, and to be honest, I pretty much thought so, especially as it was the words of a "Headphoneus Supremus".

 
"Headphoneus Supremus" simply means you've reached 1,500 posts, that's all, and is often a very misleading moniker. Some people post a hell of a lot and reach 1,500 posts within the space of a few weeks — many of these posters simply like to post a lot and quite often are not very experienced or have little clue about audio. Unfortunately, many new members (and lurkers) tend to pay more attention to many of these so-called "Headphoneus Supremus", all the more when they have very high post-counts.

By contrast, there are quite a few people out there with fewer than 500 posts, don't post very often, but are quite knowledgeable.

cooperpwc is an experienced and fairly credible HF'er.

Well said, and really can't be repeated too often!
 
Yes, that was my impression as well, and really what I meant, i.e.: "the words of an experienced and fairly credible HF'er"

 

[Mimouille]

I am supremus and know little about audio. I love music, have ears and am overly talkative and meddlesome. Perfect ingredients to become supremus

 

[Audiowood]

I am not even close to supremus title after 4 years.. Base on current trend, I should be a supremus in another 8 years time, hopefully by 2021, not sure if this thread can survive so long or perhaps in another thread discussing AKG8008XXL (which is not an IEM but an organic silicon chip implant into the ear drum). HA!

 

[dleblanc343]

It's funny because I started here with no knowledge and would ask so many questions and thought Supremus' necessarily had to have experience.
 
I eventually realized I knew more than quite a bit of them 

 
On topic, I should be getting my own pair of IE800's soon; will compare them with the AKG k3003i.

 

[DMinor]

Respect the supremus and that doesn't mean you have to listen to/agree with them. Get it?

 

[Sweden]

The K3003 was a bit of a disappointment when auditioning them for an hour, especially for the outrageous price.
They lacked coherency and the mids and highs felt distant and lacked realism and naturalness. The timbre felt off like some TWFK in-ears I owned.
In comparison the IE800 had fantastic realistic and clean mids with good natural timbre and well behaved highs. The transient just felt so clean. It sounded slightly more detailed and had better soundstage but the audition was a bit too short to really evaluate all aspects fully. The IE800s problem is too much bass but a simple EQ can fix this in 2 seconds. The problems of the K3003 would be harder correcting.
In a direct comparison I actually preferred the JVC FXD70 over the K3003. This is an in-ear you can get for 50 USD from Japan. The cable on the FXD70 felt better and the build quality about the same.

 

[Turrican2]

The K3003 was a bit of a disappointment when auditioning them for an hour, especially for the outrageous price.
They lacked coherency and the mids and highs felt distant and lacked realism and naturalness. The timbre felt off like some TWFK in-ears I owned.
In comparison the IE800 had fantastic realistic and clean mids with good natural timbre and well behaved highs. The transient just felt so clean. It sounded slightly more detailed and had better soundstage but the audition was a bit too short to really evaluate all aspects fully. The IE800s problem is too much bass but a simple EQ can fix this in 2 seconds. The problems of the K3003 would be harder correcting.
In a direct comparison I actually preferred the JVC FXD70 over the K3003. This is an in-ear you can get for 50 USD from Japan. The cable on the FXD70 felt better and the build quality about the same.

Can I ask what your source was with the k3003? I've listened to the fxd70 and IMO they are nowhere near the k3003 in any aspect of their sound quality.

 

[Sweden]

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Can I ask what your source was with the k3003? I've listened to the fxd70 and IMO they are nowhere near the k3003 in any aspect of their sound quality.

 
I believe it was Marantz SA-KI Pearl Lite into a Musical Fidelity V-CAN II as well as directly out of a Clip. Of course big jump in sound when switching to the CD player amp combo. Not sure what filter was being used, but probably stock.
 
Not saying I think the FXD70 is a better performer technically, even though IMO the distance isn't that great, it just had rather poor timbre like I felt about the mids and highs of the Rocket R-50. Clean but no real ability to convey emotions through a realistic tonality. Listening to Beethoven it felt like being on a date with a really beautiful woman but her personality is dead and she feel standoffish. The IE800 in comparison felt like a very flirtatious model with a bit too much rear end...

Again, I need more time than an hour to really evaluate the sound. That was my one hour impressions compared to an IE800 and FXD70.

 

[up late]

no better than $50 earphones? you better put on your flame suit dude. what are those wicked looking cans btw?

 

[Turrican2]

Listening to Beethoven it felt like being on a date with a really beautiful woman but her personality is dead and she feel standoffish. The IE800 in comparison felt like a very flirtatious model with a bit too much rear end...

Lol, nice description. I would argue that once you get to know that beautiful woman, her personality will open up, you might even get lucky

 

[cravenz]

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The K3003 was a bit of a disappointment when auditioning them for an hour, especially for the outrageous price.
They lacked coherency and the mids and highs felt distant and lacked realism and naturalness. The timbre felt off like some TWFK in-ears I owned.
In comparison the IE800 had fantastic realistic and clean mids with good natural timbre and well behaved highs. The transient just felt so clean. It sounded slightly more detailed and had better soundstage but the audition was a bit too short to really evaluate all aspects fully. The IE800s problem is too much bass but a simple EQ can fix this in 2 seconds. The problems of the K3003 would be harder correcting.
In a direct comparison I actually preferred the JVC FXD70 over the K3003. This is an in-ear you can get for 50 USD from Japan. The cable on the FXD70 felt better and the build quality about the same.

 
I'm not biggest fan of the k3003 but mainly because it doesn't suit my tastes and mainly because of its "distant" and "reference" type sound. It basically lacks any form of energy for me. I say "reference" type because that is what I call signatures that tend to potray music in a somewhat more "lifeless" fashion than other earphones that I'm used to, or that I prefer i.e. suit my music tastes better. 
 
This however, doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the k3003 for what it is. 
 
I think it is fair to say that in your opinion, the JVC is a better product for what you want, but there are always caveats to this. For example, it just doesn't suit your tastes/preferences. Secondly, as someone pointed out, your source. The source is important because typically, with more "bass" heavy earphones, they tend to mask the deficiencies in music, especially when the bass bleeds over and masks the sound. With the k3003 which isn't bass heavy, the flaws in music tend to come out more and sound harsher to the ears. 
 
What you've highlighted though is that we can be happy with a cheaper set of earphones than a more expensive one. The issue just boils down to our preferences. 

 

[Sweden]

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I'm not biggest fan of the k3003 but mainly because it doesn't suit my tastes and mainly because of its "distant" and "reference" type sound. It basically lacks any form of energy for me. I say "reference" type because that is what I call signatures that tend to potray music in a somewhat more "lifeless" fashion than other earphones that I'm used to, or that I prefer i.e. suit my music tastes better. 
 
This however, doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the k3003 for what it is. 
 
I think it is fair to say that in your opinion, the JVC is a better product for what you want, but there are always caveats to this. For example, it just doesn't suit your tastes/preferences. Secondly, as someone pointed out, your source. The source is important because typically, with more "bass" heavy earphones, they tend to mask the deficiencies in music, especially when the bass bleeds over and masks the sound. With the k3003 which isn't bass heavy, the flaws in music tend to come out more and sound harsher to the ears. 
 
What you've highlighted though is that we can be happy with a cheaper set of earphones than a more expensive one. The issue just boils down to our preferences. 

 
 
Going simply from memory the K3003 didn't strike me as that much better than the R-50 when we are talking mids and highs.
I'm not a fan of the TWFK type sound honestly and both these share the same driver for mids and highs.
 
Doesn't matter how flat an headphone is or if it's have good detail if you mess up the tonality, dynamics and coherency.
That sense of nothing but the music you get with transparency will never settle in unless you have good timbre and a directness to the sound. The distant sounding mids and highs felt almost like some sort of veil in comparison to the directness of the IE800. Almost like driving the HD800 from a sub par solid state amp with a digital sounding DAC but not really.

 

[Sweden]

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Lol, nice description. I would argue that once you get to know that beautiful woman, her personality will open up, you might even get lucky

 
I wanted to really get into it but I had an inkling she would be like a dead fish in bed

 

[Sweden]

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no better than $50 earphones? you better put on your flame suit dude.

what are those wicked looking cans btw?

 
Those are no ordinary $50 in-ears.
With some DSP software like EQ, crossfeed and soundstage enhancers you get a fantastic out of head and juicy presentation that I could live with for the rest of my life.
Not many headphones can move me to tears while listening to music. This cheap bugger does. It's not a sonic quality I can put words to but something about the directness.
 
The LCD-3 obviously have higher fidelity but the weight of that thing makes me sometimes not even bother.
IE800 felt like a FXD70 with better mids on steroids.
 
Those huge chrome cans are Sound Dynamic MD-2STV.