BWV988
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2010
- Posts
- 22
- Likes
- 10
I have read through many, if not most, of the meatiest AKG 40x through 70x threads here, and am leaning towards the 501s (or possibly the 601s) as the phones which strike the best balance between affordability and suitability for the purpose for which I intend to acquire them (if only availability factored so nicely into that equation as well...).
For home listening with most contemporary music (which accounts for rather little of my home headphone listening)--be it chamber jazz, avant-garde, minimalist, or related--I am not unhappy with my old Beyers. But most of the music I listen to at home on phones is either ancient music or music of ethnomusicological interest (much of it from Central Asia or the subcontinent). In both cases, many recordings are made more or less live with only a couple of microphones. There is often little to no bass to be discerned, and usually quite a bit going on in the midrange to muddy things up (which can become atrocious-sounding if multiple voices and unforgiving room acoustics are involved!).
Many H-Fiers have commented on the sweet mids of the 501s, and since that is the part of the sonic spectrum with which my present phones leave the most to be desired, not to mention the area most densely populated in the recordings I listen to, the 501s seem like a natural choice. Some dissenters from what I reckon is the majority opinion, however, claim to prefer later or earlier AKGs, though their musical preferences seem more oriented towards rock and related styles where the sonic spectrum is much more broadly or fully occupied, and where issues of annoying room acoustics are altogether absent, or much less to the fore.
If anyone here knows what I am talking about when I refer to ancient or ethnic music recordings combining high musicianship and often less than stellar fidelity, and has experience with these on AKG 4-5-6-70x phones, please provide some feeback to help me make my choice, since I do not have access to the older models locally. Since the 501s are presently somewhat hard to come by, I am considering acquiring a pair of 601s via the internet. Would the difference between the two be very dramatic for the music I will be listening to on them? Would a 40x series pair be preferable? What about the 500? Kindly advise.
TIA!
For home listening with most contemporary music (which accounts for rather little of my home headphone listening)--be it chamber jazz, avant-garde, minimalist, or related--I am not unhappy with my old Beyers. But most of the music I listen to at home on phones is either ancient music or music of ethnomusicological interest (much of it from Central Asia or the subcontinent). In both cases, many recordings are made more or less live with only a couple of microphones. There is often little to no bass to be discerned, and usually quite a bit going on in the midrange to muddy things up (which can become atrocious-sounding if multiple voices and unforgiving room acoustics are involved!).
Many H-Fiers have commented on the sweet mids of the 501s, and since that is the part of the sonic spectrum with which my present phones leave the most to be desired, not to mention the area most densely populated in the recordings I listen to, the 501s seem like a natural choice. Some dissenters from what I reckon is the majority opinion, however, claim to prefer later or earlier AKGs, though their musical preferences seem more oriented towards rock and related styles where the sonic spectrum is much more broadly or fully occupied, and where issues of annoying room acoustics are altogether absent, or much less to the fore.
If anyone here knows what I am talking about when I refer to ancient or ethnic music recordings combining high musicianship and often less than stellar fidelity, and has experience with these on AKG 4-5-6-70x phones, please provide some feeback to help me make my choice, since I do not have access to the older models locally. Since the 501s are presently somewhat hard to come by, I am considering acquiring a pair of 601s via the internet. Would the difference between the two be very dramatic for the music I will be listening to on them? Would a 40x series pair be preferable? What about the 500? Kindly advise.
TIA!
