[JamesMcProgger]

Quote:

XB700 pads? I think those pads would kill almost any headphones sound quality by adding too much bass. Maybe not on the K601 if they compress a lot.
I actually tried using the XB500 pads with an SR-225 and put the DJ100 driver in an XB500. makes them both too bass heavy.
 
I think the main reason the XB500 has so much bass is because of the pads.
 

yes to all. they kill the soundstage, the mids and to my surprise made them brighter. bass was still non prominent. in other words they ruin the headphones.
 
the back of the cup in the XB series is flat, and besides the big driver, the secret of the bass must be in the pads indeed.

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

yes to all. they kill the soundstage, the mids and to my surprise made them brighter. bass was still non prominent. in other words they ruin the headphones.
 
the back of the cup in the XB series is flat, and besides the big driver, the secret of the bass must be in the pads indeed.

What are you doin'?!?

 

 

[JamesMcProgger]

waiting for my K601 pads to dry out 

 

[roBernd]

the pic combined with your Avatar made me laugh quite ferociously.
Quite a nice idea though. Good stuff.

 

[RexAeterna]

i got quick question. is the 601's balanced? it mentions bi-wiring on the box. i'm guessing 4-core cabling correct? that can be the reason behind it's strong imaging it has. my sextetts lp as well has killer soundstage and binaural like imaging but defiantly has much stronger bass impact and extension in comprehensions. also much brighter sounding due to it's wonderful treble extension while the k601's clearly has a dip up top and you can hear it. my sextetts were originally 4-core cabling cause that how AKG designed the sextetts so i re-terminated to 4-pin XLR with them. wonder if same wiring scheme is with the k601's?

 

[JamesMcProgger]

Followed the advice in this thread and washed my pads.
 
I kinda miss the veige color on my pads, but they smell much better now. laundry softener..
 

 

 

[RexAeterna]

never mind. i found out is indeed 4-core wiring. i downloaded the PDF file of k601's but it doesn't exactly explain it's polarity.

from looking at it i'm guessing it's:

Left channel:

Yellow- Positive

White- Negative


Right Channel:

Red- Positive

White- Negative

correct me if i'm wrong. i made the assumption the white wires were negative polarity due to negatives act as a ground as well cause when wiring a balanced cable you combine the negatives to act like a shared ground. it help kill cross-talk. no wonder the 601's has some very nice imaging. also i apologize if it was mention before in this thread but to be honest i'm too lazy to look through all the pages to find out, but no worry since now i have my answer.

EDIT: never mind. i forgot about the battery trick. can't believe i forgot. guess cause i haven't had the need to work on speakers in the longest time. i can figure out the polarities simply by using a 1.5v AA or AAA battery.

 

[RexAeterna]

sorry to bump this, but has anyone ever bothered with the type of donut foam disc around the driver? seems removing the foam disc inside seem to give it bit more noticeable clarity but tamed the bass down a bit. has anyone noticed this or tried it with other type of foam discs? i don't know if it's just a placebo effect or what. i looked at them and they're pretty dense,but only block other part of driver.

 

[roBernd]

Quote:

sorry to bump this, but has anyone ever bothered with the type of donut foam disc around the driver? seems removing the foam disc inside seem to give it bit more noticeable clarity but tamed the bass down a bit. has anyone noticed this or tried it with other type of foam discs? i don't know if it's just a placebo effect or what. i looked at them and they're pretty dense,but only block other part of driver.

getting completely rid of it is SQ-wise a bad idea. However, we (previous) K701 owners used to insert several additional or replacement foams, often several layer or taped some part of it.
 
check this thread, everything should work quite fine with the K601
http://www.head-fi.org/t/411268/the-akg-k701-friend-or-foe-mods-that-may-help-others
 
(or just switch to the HD600 )

 

[RexAeterna]

getting completely rid of it is SQ-wise a bad idea. However, we (previous) K701 owners used to insert several additional or replacement foams, often several layer or taped some part of it.

check this thread, everything should work quite fine with the K601
http://www.head-fi.org/t/411268/the-akg-k701-friend-or-foe-mods-that-may-help-others

(or just switch to the HD600 )

thanks for the link. thing though from my understanding the foam disc on the k701 is much less dense compared to the k601 and cause the k701 uses velour pads and not velvet like the k601 is another difference.

 

[dxps26]

Quote:

thanks for the link. thing though from my understanding the foam disc on the k701 is much less dense compared to the k601 and cause the k701 uses velour pads and not velvet like the k601 is another difference.

The foam discs on the K601/701/702 are acoustic diffusers of sorts. try it out. the soundstage will become 'tighter' (not collapsed) and the highs are going to be a lot peakier. soundstaging in headphones is a product of the treble performance, and its relation to how the highly directional treble waves are angled to your ear. the K701 Friend-or-foe mod demonstrates this effect, by taming the treble and directing the bass energy out and in front using the 3/4 foam ring section. The foam discs on the HD600 are even more important. remove the foam, and the soundstage goes into the classic sennheiser '3-blob' mode.

 

[maverickronin]

I just got a pair of K601s recently and I have to say I'm enjoying them quite a lot.  A lot more than I expected actually.
 
It may seem a little odd buying something you didn't expect to enjoy too much but I bought them for an unusual reason.  I ended up without any quality full size 'phones except for my modded T50RPs and I found myself needing something to use as a reference for tuning them.  I decided to go with the K601s because they are pretty close to an ideal diffuse field FR and aren't too expensive either.  I was pretty sure I wouldn't want to listen to a grainy dynamic when I had my modded planars at hand but I do find myself listening to the K601s quite often.  They aren't as quick or grainless as my T50RPs but they're so much better than I was expecting.  The 601s are behind in those departments but not to they point where I'm annoyed by it when listening to them.
 
At the moment the K601's biggest advantage is that it doesn't need nearly as much EQ as my T50RPs currently do.  I bought them to tweak the T50RP's FR after all.  Right now my T50RPs are pretty dark and I need to mess with the damping to bring up the upper mids and lower treble by a rather large amount, plus a small boost to the top and bottom octaves that probably can't be solved my damping and will always need EQ.  For me, the K601 just need a few minor adjustments to the top and bottom ends and a small peak in the mids that needs to evened out but those are small enough I don't get bothered much when denied access to a high quality EQ.
 
Overall the T50RP has a smoother, faster sound, with less grain, and a slightly wider and much deeper soundstage with better imaging.  The T50RP also has plenty of forward projection to the soundstage's depth even before adding crossfeed or a DSP like TB Isone while the K601 doesn't.  After adding Isone the K601s do get fairly close.  The T50RP's biggest advantage is isolation.  I usually have to put up with a fair amount of background noise and the fact that the T50RP can sound as good as it does while providing isolation skyrockets it to the top of my preferences.  Even if all these SQ assessments were reversed and I liked the K601s sound better I'd still mostly listen to the T50RPs because of their isolation.
 
It may kind of sound like I trashing the K601s but comparing them to the T50RPs is actually a huge compliment from my perspective because I love them so much.  Before I found the T50RPs I had a pair of HD650s and loved them to death for nearly a year but after I got a few mods dialed in on the T50RPs they pretty much got kicked to curb like a cheap whore.  The only time I listened to them after that was to confirm that I was in fact not crazy and did actually prefer the T50RPs.  The HD650s were sold shortly thereafter.  While I intended to keep the K601s as reference FR regardless of how I felt about the rest of the package I'm actually listening to them quite a bit when my T50RPs are also available.  After a while I do need to switch to the T50RP's so I can have their isolation and turn down the volume a bit.
 
I haven't head everything out there but I think this is my favorite dynamic out of what I have heard including flagships like the T1 and HD800.  Those may be much better in certain areas but I think they fail in others and are prevented from being a complete package.  I think an Anax modded HD800 or a variation on the idea could easily pull ahead because the HD800's only glaring weakness is its oddly placed treble peak and its much superior to the K601 just about everywhere else but I haven't actually heard a modded pair.
 
My future plan for a high end open 'phone when my environment was quieter used to be the LCD-2 but after seeing purrin's measurements of his Anax modded pair the promise of more soundstage lured me towards the HD800s which I had previously shunned for their excessive brightness.  I think its by far the most advanced dynamic driver on the market and though its been a while since I heard it I don't remember it lacking speed or exhibiting grain.

 

[Mystere]

I am only getting sound out of one side on my 601's now.  I started getting drop outs for a day or two when the cable moved and then finally it went out completely.  Anyone know if there is a market for selling them this way?  I saw a thread that showed a possible fix but it seems pretty complex and involves soddering etc.

 

[maverickronin]

You shouldn't have a problem finding a buyer on here but you might not like the price you'd get.
 
There's not really any simpler soldering job than splicing wires so it might be a good time to learn.  Even if you don't have any of the tools and can't borrow them it would probably be cheaper to buy them and fix it yourself than to sell them at a significant loss and buy a new pair.

 

[Mystere]

Yeah, I hear you but was probably going to invest in a different pair so would just put whatever I get towards that.  I mean are we talking like $60?  Less?  More?