[PacificRim]

Just received a used pair of AKG K501s yesterday and liking them so far 

 

 

[jdpark]

Great cans, that need some good clean power, and a descent source, but otherwise great for classical and acoustic jazz, as well as any other genre that doesn't require a ton of sub-bass. That's the main area they lack, but their sheer musicality makes you forget this fact unless you concentrate on it, or have other cans to compare with back-to-back. I find them a great compliment to the HD650, when you want something a bit faster and wider. 

 

[jdpark]

Listening to "Thick as a Brick" remastered 96/24 from HDTracks through my vintage amp and it sounds amazing. I keep forgetting I'm listening to headphones. The soundstage is completely outside my head. Also, the imaging on Ian Anderson's voice is really sharp. In my closed cans, there are parts where I can hear the voice coming distinctly from left and right channels in a slightly weird way, but with these the left-right voicing merges together much better, giving a kind of auto-duet feel. The drums don't hit quite as hard as my HD650s, and the bass isn't quite as heavy, but the overall musicality and spacing is just amazing... These are really fast, and do great with complex progressive rock... make's it hard to keep my head still enough to type.

 

[ginetto61]

  Listening to "Thick as a Brick" remastered 96/24 from HDTracks through my vintage amp and it sounds amazing. I keep forgetting I'm listening to headphones. The soundstage is completely outside my head. Also, the imaging on Ian Anderson's voice is really sharp. In my closed cans, there are parts where I can hear the voice coming distinctly from left and right channels in a slightly weird way, but with these the left-right voicing merges together much better, giving a kind of auto-duet feel. The drums don't hit quite as hard as my HD650s, and the bass isn't quite as heavy, but the overall musicality and spacing is just amazing... These are really fast, and do great with complex progressive rock... make's it hard to keep my head still enough to type.

 
Hi ! may I ask which vintage amp and source are you using ? 
Thanks, gino

 

[jdpark]

I'm using an Onkyo tx-330, which seems very high gain and it's not a zero-distortion amp, like my Lehmann Linear. The soundstage is very big, even relative to the usually big soundstage these cans have, and the mids have a lot of meat, which makes it better for rock and vocal music. 
 
The source is a audio-gd R2R dac, Dac-19 10th anniversary, which is coming from my computer using Jplay in hibernate mode. I find it to sound completely un-digital and smooth, with good tonal balance. 
 
Still, I think depending on whether you can find a good match for these cans, you could end up spending very little and getting a lot. Especially if you have vinyl and can find a half-decent record player... 

 

[ginetto61]

  I'm using an Onkyo tx-330, which seems very high gain and it's not a zero-distortion amp, like my Lehmann Linear. The soundstage is very big, even relative to the usually big soundstage these cans have, and the mids have a lot of meat, which makes it better for rock and vocal music. 
The source is a audio-gd R2R dac, Dac-19 10th anniversary, which is coming from my computer using Jplay in hibernate mode. I find it to sound completely un-digital and smooth, with good tonal balance. 
Still, I think depending on whether you can find a good match for these cans, you could end up spending very little and getting a lot. Especially if you have vinyl and can find a half-decent record player... 

 
Hi thanks a lot for the very helpful reply
I am using my k501 mostly with a Schiit Magni 2 (not Uber) and I like the sound quite a lot.
I find the sound from the k501 quite natural.  No deep bass at all anyway and this gives a lack of body to the music.
But a very nice HPs indeed.
Thanks a lot again,  gino  

 

[Roderick]

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[Quinto]

The K501 sounded magical again last night..

 

[amigastar]

I bought my AKG K501 several years ago for 100 euros and i can fully say that it was well spent money.
Even while my Hifiman HE-500 are not functioning at the moment I'm listening to the K501 and they sound beautiful, the soundstage fills out the whole Headphones and every part of sound is in it's place (don't know how to describe it properly).
 
OK the Hifiman sound smoother i give that to them but the K501 have a coherency from left to right and back and front that makes listening so involving and complete.
 
What I'm wondering myself is that the AKG K812 Pro get so little attention. Would love to try them out someday.

 

[jdpark]

Yeah, I'm interested as well. Seems like they get very mixed reviews due to uneven treble response. The K501 does have a bit of upper treble roll off that can make some genres seem off. It also has a roll off in the sub-bass category, so in all it would be perfect if it was just a bit more extended on top and bottom, with a slightly sharper picture coming through. Compared to my Beyer DT150s the K501 is not as clear, but it is more musical in the mids and upper mids, with the soundstage making it better for some genres of classical. I find the K501 to be better than the HD650 when amped properly. 

 

[goober-george]

I find the K501 to be better than the HD650 when amped properly. 

What amps do you recommend for the akg k501s?

 

[jdpark]

There are too many to choose from, but mainly you need one with the ability to feed at least 400mW into 120 Ohms. So a very powerful one. I find the Schiit Magni to be fine as a basic amp that does the job. Then you can go up from there, the C2 by Audio gd is supposed to be good, as are the Vioelectric and Lake People amps. Because they are not very sensitive to Ohm output, you can also use vintage equipment that doesn't work very well for more sensitive cans, like Sennheisers or newer AKGs. I don't have experience with Tube amps, but I'm sure some of the higher powered hybrid tube amps like the Schiit Lyr or other high-end brands are fine.
 
I would actually love to hear if anyone here has tried these successfully with tube amps. I imagine quite a joy, if you get enough power.

 

[Quinto]

I used a hybrid MF V8 amp with upgraded PSU and tubes years ago, worked great with the K501. Now I use V200 which is perfect IMO.

 

[amigastar]

I'm using a Project Ember 2.0 with my K501 and i like it a lot.

 

[jdpark]

 
That's exactly what I would suspect, since the Ember II is a very powerful tube amp. Many tube amps wont be powerful enough to get the bass going with any kind of authority (even relative to these cans).