[RnB180]

how do the pads come off?

wow a lot of interest.

 

[Rob80b]

Hold the pad and twist to the left.

 

[Rob80b]

or is it to the right?

 

[spike33]

twist counter clockwise to take them off

 

[fewtch]

On mine, the pads twist in opposite directions depending on the earcup. I believe it's clockwise on the left cup, counterclockwise on the right.

EDIT: I was wrong... it's counterclockwise to remove with both earcups, if you're looking directly at the cup with the pad facing you.

 

[RnB180]

hah good thing I ask first, I was inspecting them and I was going to pull them off thinking they were like senns.

anyhow, I got em from headroom,
plus 10% discount and free shipping = $cheap 501's

supar cheap supar affordable

 

[VR6ofpain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 both cans exhibit a lovely sound, 501s have a front row in your face sound stage that is wide but flat, 601s have distant sound stage, a treble more recessed then the 501's and larger bass presence.

If you had to choose one, which would it be right now (early in burn in)?

Could you briefly compare the K601 to the K501 in terms of the bottom end? I like the graph on headroom's site for the K501 (rolls of a lot at the top), making think they would be smoother/mellow at the top, but the same graph shows quite a drop in reponse below 30hz, it is more then -10 dB at 20hz. That I am not so sure I would like.

My concern is whether I would be disappointed returning the K601 and buying the K501 instead (still within the 30 day money back guarantee)...and I could buy (almost) 2 pairs of K501's for the price I paid for the K601.

You are the ONLY person right now that owns both the K501 and K601...or at least the only one who responds to posts. So you will be able to give the most accurate comparison between the old AKG K#01 sound and the new K#01 sound.

 

[spike33]

lol, I can't imagine the pain you've been going thru the last few days

 

[VR6ofpain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spike33 lol, I can't imagine the pain you've been going thru the last few days

Well only during the evenings. When I am at work I don't think about it. Though when get home and put on my K601's, their is a voice at the back of my head saying...
Quote:

Originally Posted by littlevoice I wonder if the K501's sound better? They cost only 62% as much too...maybe you should get them

This damn graph is killing me:

I guarantee I would prefer the top end of those K501's.
Except RnB said the K501's have more treble...and confirmed their lack of bass compared to the K601. So I think I'll just stick with the K601. They do sound good...and I seem to be getting accustomed to them...though I broke out the HF-1's the other night, and going back to the K601 again was strange.

 

[spike33]

Only one course of action you can take...

K701s

 

[monkuboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spike33 Only one course of action you can take... K701s

I agree.. sooner or later you're gonna get curious! I asked Todd what he thought and he said the 701 is a big improvement over the 501 - better low and high end and retains the midrange. I don't think it's sales hype. So we're expecting a new thread any moment now, adding the 701 to the mix!

 

[RnB180]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VR6ofpain If you had to choose one, which would it be right now (early in burn in)? Could you briefly compare the K601 to the K501 in terms of the bottom end? I like the graph on headroom's site for the K501 (rolls of a lot at the top), making think they would be smoother/mellow at the top, but the same graph shows quite a drop in reponse below 30hz, it is more then -10 dB at 20hz. That I am not so sure I would like. My concern is whether I would be disappointed returning the K601 and buying the K501 instead (still within the 30 day money back guarantee)...and I could buy (almost) 2 pairs of K501's for the price I paid for the K601. You are the ONLY person right now that owns both the K501 and K601...or at least the only one who responds to posts. So you will be able to give the most accurate comparison between the old AKG K#01 sound and the new K#01 sound.

I havent listened to them yet, I am away from them at the moment working via wifi elsewhere. the 601s are closer to the sennheiser sound then the 501s. The 501s are a bit on the flat dimensional side of the sound stage. However the top end and mid range seemed more pleasant then the 601s. the 601s sound as if there was a gap in the frequency range, has a distant bit harsh top end, drop in mid range and nice bass presence, which the 501s seems to have a smoother balance across the transition.

too early to tell, I only put these on for a few seconds if a minute, both are burning at the moment, comparing the two this early is not afair for either cans. When I listened to them they had zero burn in.

 

[wualta]

More and more I'm approaching the conviction that any dynamic headphone is a desperate balancing act between bass extension, overall smoothness, especially through the midrange, and treble extension and smoothness, and that if you favor one end of the spectrum, the other end will suffer and the designer must resort to flourishes of engineering gymnastics (not to say tricks) to compensate. There's no free lunch, and certainly not a cheap one, except for the KSC-35.

If you use acoustic resistance to damp the motion of a diaphragm that's too heavy, you get a smooth overall response, but you reduce headstage (eg, Grados). If you make the diaphragm so light that its F-sub-o, its resonant frequency (especially when worn) is too high, the suspension has to be so floppy to get system bass resonance Fc down far enough to get some bass that you run the risk of making a headphone that's too fragile for the real world, so you back off on bass extension but your mids and trebles are to die for (eg, K501). If you make the diaphragm heavy enough to get decent bass easily (you can also underdamp the system to get even more, but bass quality suffers), everything's peachy until you hit the upper mids and diaphragm breakup turns the response graph into a seismic event. You can fudge it here and there but the treble, though pleasant, will not be smooth (eg, HD 600).

I do think AKG has a fundamentally powerful idea going for them in their variable mass/stiffness diaphragm design. That's a potential way out of the juggling madness that is headphone design.

The only permanent way out of the madness is, of course, to buy them all. This is the solution I've come to, and I only hope to live long enough to impoverish my children and make myself a laughingstock accomplishing this noble goal. Amplifiers are standing by.

 

[RnB180]

Thats probably the reason why many headfiers have several headphones.
However that is not a choice for many others. As these are fairly expensive. and to own more then 2 would be out of hte question for most people. Let alone finding a reason for spending $200 on one headphone.

When I first started the hobby, I was just flabberghasted and never thought Id ever be able to own 650s and an amp, so I picked up the sr-80s. Which I already thought were damn expensive for headphones.

 

[Rob80b]

and at some point.. they all..... sort of sound the same...