Ugly Tuco
New Head-Fier
To my opininon it should be sound almost similar, but maybe somebody can clarify it.
Thanks for this it was a great help, aside from the headband issue they are in great condition and sound fantastic.I think these were in production in early 90s. I fixed mine re-using the stock elastic bands (just cut them shorter if you don't have any replacement around but those should be easy to find new too). To adjust or remove the elastic bands you'll need to open the earcups (relatively easy), by first removing the K400 badge on the cup (easy to re-glue later) and unscrew the little screw under it, at least that's what I can recall. This manual may come in handy: http://cloud.akg.com/9723/k501_k500_k401_k400_service.pdf
Good luck and enjoy. These are really underappreciated around here
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I gotta say, in comparison to newer headphones I tried (K701, DT990, DT880), these have a much more engaging though still natural sound.
In a few weeks my bottlehead crack with speedball will hopefully be done, maybe that will even enhance these cans. On the Fiio E17 especially the K400 is rather lowpowered. Its still loud enough, but it seems to be harder to drive than other headphones I have.
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Pretty good deal! Unfortunately I don't have a Paypal account so my options are very limited. No Ebay for me unless they stopped forcing Paypal on you.
Who knows..maybe this pair will sound better than the one I already have.
I still miss the old K601..
Have to say that I prefer the K400 to the K501. If I had to choose between the K601 and K400 I probably couldn't do it. K601 seems like it's a slightly better "all rounder". K400 is more fun to listen to though.
K400 has the edge for female vocals and I think that's a big reason I love the K400. My K400 also doesn't seem to add extra warmth to recordings. Only if it's supposed to be in there. This is with stock pads though.
I rarely hear this in headphones and even my Q701 and HD-598 add a little warmth to every recording, but barely noticeable. I've noticed with the K400 there's much more variation in recordings compared to the Q701. Not sure why.
I haven't heard such major variations in recording quality since I had my first DT-880. Not even sure I know what I'm talking about.
Also..the K400 can sound really shouty with the wrong amp/dac. I don't mean due to lack of power. It was pretty awful with the HRT MSII. Very ear piercing in some range. Probably upper mids. Perfect with the ODAC and Modi and now it's very smooth most of the time. Not really laid back, but really fun to listen to. Sort of how I remember the SR-225i. K400 doesn't have that kind of treble though. I think mine might have a little more treble than some of the other versions, but not sure. I think I read that about the plastic headband version.
The K400 seems to have a much more airyness to the sound and a bigger soundstage than the Q701. Based on memory the K501 had a bigger soundstage but I don't think I ever did an A/B comparison.Luckily with that huge soundstage nothing ever sounds distant if it's not supposed to be that way. Vocals never feel distant and can sound upfront if they're supposed to sound that way.
BTW it'd be interesting to compare the Audio Technica ATH-AD2000 to the K400. I'd love to find a clone of the AD2000 that didn't have terrible pads. There's something special about that headphone and I doubt the AD900 is very close in sound.
Still need to try the K340 and K240 DF sometime. I HATED the Sextett LP I had. Something must have been wrong with mine. Had a real lack of treble and always sounded muffled.