[tdockweiler]

Been listening to my K601 all night. They've been in storage for the last few months and rarely used. Still sound as good as I remember.
They do seem a LOT warmer than my Q701 and when I use the Crossfeed, it's even "Worse". Not sure why, but crossfeed seems to make these sound really good. It does make them slightly less clear though.
 
Not quite as crystal clear as the Q701, but still very good. There seems to be some weird peak that's even more present than on the Q701. Mostly during some Chinese pop music. Probably just in the recording or could be caused by my DAC. Lower treble I guess.
 
I think the low bass is definitely more present than compared to the Q701. Not by much though and I should compare them some more.
 
BTW my pair is made in Austria. Serial 19714. I previously had a very early pair and it had this very very annoying lower treble peak and it was made even worse with the Asgard. Never went away on any amp, but on this pair it's not too bad.
 
Wonder what the K601 would sound like with K500 pads? I should go try this. Probably just more forward mids and less bass. I don't really want that. K601 pads are more comfortable anyway.
 
Seems these also need the volume cranked about 5% higher than the Q701. No surprise there.

 

[FireFenix]

O man... Now I have one idea... When phones comes to me, they have very strange smell - chemical. Later I understood that this can be smell of washing powder. May be seller washed pads to make them cleaner? And after that sound changed this way? Your posts pushed me to this idea! Can be this story in such way?

 

[maverickronin]

I double checked. mine.  It has a "Mad in China" sticker on it.
 
I don't have any issues with the bass.  I think its quite good.  It goes very deep for an open dynamic which is what I care most about.  It doesn't have any emphasis so it sound best at louder volumes without EQ.  If I'm going to be listening to them for a while and thus need to use a lower volume I like to gently EQ the bass up to compensate for the equal loudness contours but that's about it.

 

[roBernd]

Thank you for the feedback... I guess my pair was just a bad apple. I wish I could listen to one which sounds "right"

 

[paulb09]

Quote:

O man... Now I have one idea... When phones comes to me, they have very strange smell - chemical. Later I understood that this can be smell of washing powder. May be seller washed pads to make them cleaner? And after that sound changed this way? Your posts pushed me to this idea! Can be this story in such way?

 
I guess it's possible that the washing powder could soften them, and perhaps affect the quality of the material too. I've not tried it so I can't say for sure, but I might give it a go as my pads aren't in the best condition.
 
 
Quote:

Wonder what the K601 would sound like with K500 pads? I should go try this. Probably just more forward mids and less bass. I don't really want that. K601 pads are more comfortable anyway.

From what I remember people saying about swapping K601 pads onto the K501, you could well reduce the bass by putting their pads on the K601 (assuming the K500 and K501 share the same pads). If you have them to hand you may as well try though, just to see.

 

[tdockweiler]

This has to be the ultimate placebo effect. I was listening to some songs and this one kept making my ears throw a fit. It was really harsh and annoying. Some weird peak in the upper mids/treble. I know it's not the K601, because I had this same experience on my K400. Not the cable or amp.
 
Out of the blue I updated my HRT Music Streamer II's firmware and it's gone. This would be virtually impossible right?! Gotta be my imagination.
 
Been addicted to listening to my K601 lately. Sooo much warmer than my Q701 and it takes awhile to appreciate this. Just the right amount and not like the HD-600. I especially like Crossfeed with these. I know I said that earlier.
 
After owning the K501 and K400, I think I prefer the K601. Both the others are extremely good, but I guess it all comes down to preferences. K400 is a little more engaging and fun to listen to than the K501, but K501 is much smoother sounding and seems to have less treble than the K400.
 
The K601 can sound REALLY REALLY bad on bad recordings (with any amp). Even more so than my Q701 I think. I can see how some wouldn't like the K601.
 
 
BTW I think these have the best imaging out of any headphone I've heard. Probably even better than the Q701. I don't know why, but right now the K601's soundstage with some songs is really quite large. I'll have to compare it to my Q701. My Q701 never had a massive soundstage like my old K702 did. Yes, that's a plus!
 
I can't believe I went a whole 2 months without listening to my K601 with the HRT Music Streamer II. Seems to be a good match now.
 

 

[rictee]

Serial #4534 here!! (made in China)  Just got mine yesterday after auditioning other mid-range cans - DT770/880/990, Q701, HD600/650, PRO900/2900 - and I liked the K601 immediately once I heard it.  There was something about its sound that captured me...
 
It didn't have that 'special' sound when I got home and listened though.. felt dull and muddy bass.  I suspect it will improve after a reasonable amount of burn-in?

 

[dxps26]

Quote:

Serial #4534 here!! (made in China)  Just got mine yesterday after auditioning other mid-range cans - DT770/880/990, Q701, HD600/650, PRO900/2900 - and I liked the K601 immediately once I heard it.  There was something about its sound that captured me...
 
It didn't have that 'special' sound when I got home and listened though.. felt dull and muddy bass.  I suspect it will improve after a reasonable amount of burn-in?

burn-in will offer only mild improvement. what these cans need is MOAR POWER (I cannot stress this point enough) to sound good. i'm talking solid-state Class-A biased hefty power supply desktop amps, none of the puny Fiio amps.

source and amp please?
 

 

[rictee]

Quote:

burn-in will offer only mild improvement. what these cans need is MOAR POWER (I cannot stress this point enough) to sound good. i'm talking solid-state Class-A biased hefty power supply desktop amps, none of the puny Fiio amps.

source and amp please?
 

Using Matrix Cube (OPA627/LM4562) - seems to be able to drive easily, I needn't go over a quarter of the gain knob.  Thinking of getting a Audio-gd NFB-12 sometime in the future but not sure how much of an upgrade it would be.  Any other suggestion?
 
 

 

[roBernd]

AKG is somewhat prone for SQ variation in headphone series production

 

[tdockweiler]

Kinda of rediscovered these things lately. I don't know how or why, but I had my HRT MSII for maybe 6-7 months now and never tried my K601 with them!
It seems like this is exactly what my K601 needed. The MSII is a perfect match for the K601.
 
For ME, the K601 is often a little warmer and more musical than the Q701. Treble is a bit more natural and easier on the ears at times.
K601 doesn't feel as detailed or as revealing as the Q701, but pretty close.
 
Seems like the K601 has much more bass. I think it's just mid-bass, so I'll have to compare the sub-bass between the K601 and Q701 soon.
I noticed that if I crank up the bass in an EQ, the K601 gets really muddy sounding. Definitely doesn't need an EQ at all!!
 
I've been listening to these for the last 4 hours without any complaints. Some of the music that would underwhelm me on the Q701 sounds pretty good on the K601.
Primus, Pearl Jam, The Black Keys and even Radiohead sounds quite good on the K601. Yes..Primus!
 
I'm one who usually hates a very warm headphone. These seem to be a nice balance between a K702 and a slightly warmer headphone.
They're quite warm and full sounding, but not as warm as the HD-600. Just perfect for me.
 
These definitely don't seem to have any weird abnormal peaks in their signature from what I can tell yet. Nothing jumping out at me.
Bad music still sounds bad though, but a little easier on the ears compared to the Q701.
 
BTW I have #19714 Made in Austria

 

[Papander]

Hi,​

 ​

I have the AKG K601, #009839 Made in China. I purchased them new few weeks ago and according to foobar I have 100+ hours of burn-in on them. I'd like to state that these are my first higher end headphones. My previous headphones have been Sennheiser PC-151 and HD-205. So these impressions are from a 24 years old commoners perspective.​

 ​

What I was looking for in headphones when I was searching for new ones was comfort that would allow me to use them for 6+ hours a day. Long age, I wanted them to last at least 5+ years. Lastly I wanted good soundstage. I live in Europe so the prices here are little bit wonky when compared to US. For example the AKG Q701, which I was initially interested in costs here 450 dollars whereas in US you can get the same headphone around 290 dollars. The K601 was in my price range, it had big comfy velvet ear cups that you could replace and people had reported them having a good soundstage. So I decided to give them ago.​

 ​

The K601 arrived and initially I was slightly disappointed, though that might not be the correct word for it. I think I was more of a surprised by the fact that everything sounded so clear, detailed and open. Which was something that I wasn't used to. But it didn't take me long before I fell in love with the new sound. My classical tracks sounded absolutely amazing with these headphones! During the first day or two I was compelled to listen all my classical songs from my hard drive. They sounded that good. The next thing I noticed was that bad quality recordings sounded really bad. A thing that I had not noticed before with my old headphones. They sounded absolutely fine with my HD205s, but with the detail/clarity of K601, it was revealing all the flaws in the tracks. This made me delete considerable amount of songs from my hard drive. Another thing to note is Youtube videos, there are lots of videos there that will sound so bad. You can still find music videos in youtube that sound good, but it takes little bit more time to search them now. Before it didn't matter what I picked, because no matter what I had selected from youtube it sounded ok.​

 ​

Ear cups in the K601 are big and spacious with lots of room for my ears and they are made of velvet which makes the K601 really comfortable to use. The headband is made of leather and isn't padded, but I haven't had any problems with it after long listening sessions. Also I really like the self adjusting headband. Overall the comfort is excellent and build quality is really good too.​

 ​

I try to describe the sound characteristics with few words, but keep in mind I don't have experience from other high end headphones.​

 ​

Bass:​

It's adequate. It goes low and is pretty tight. Having more of it would make some songs sound bad for my taste. This being said it's definitely not enough for those bass heads who enjoy listening to techo, dubstep etc.​

 ​

Mids:​

Vocals and piano sound amazing. I think it helps that the bass isn't booming and trying to overshadow these strong mids.​

 ​

Highs:​

These are clear and detailed. Maybe little bit too bright/clear on some songs for me.​

 ​

Soundstage:​

This is one of the biggest changes I noticed right away. The soundstage is so big, a massive upgrade from my old headphones.​

 ​

Overall I'm really enjoying these headphones and I will probably use them till they break. They are super comfortable, you can replace the ear cups and they sound amazing on most types of music, with the exception being bass heavy genres like techno and dubstep.​

 ​

Somewhat relevant strory: My mother was visiting me and I told her to test my new headphones. I put Antonio Vivaldi's Summer Presto playing and went to go to toilet myself. When I came back she was all teary eyed, maybe it brought her some memories from the past, I don't know but she was clearly moved. I then told her to listen to the same track with my old headphones and she was in awe. She said and I quote 'I can't believe the difference! the new ones sound so much better. I was under the impression that headphones are just headphones and you are mostly paying for the design and brand.'  She then listened at least an hour different classical tracks with a big smile on her face.​

 

[roBernd]

Quote:

Somewhat relevant strory: My mother was visiting me and I told her to test my new headphones. I put Antonio Vivaldi's Summer Presto playing and went to go to toilet myself. When I came back she was all teary eyed, maybe it brought her some memories from the past, I don't know but she was clearly moved. I then told her to listen to the same track with my old headphones and she was in awe. She said and I quote 'I can't believe the difference! the new ones sound so much better. I was under the impression that headphones are just headphones and you are mostly paying for the design and brand.'  She then listened at least an hour different classical tracks with a big smile on her face.​

Heart warming story there bro, and I'm glad you like them.
I had one of the common love/hate relationships with the K701 and switched to the K601... which I dumped after refurbishing a pair of K240 Sextetts and an HD600. All in all I'm not a big fan of the bigger AKGs.
 
Your description of your chinese model resembles mine, but my pair, to my ears, had less then neutral bass, which is a bummer because they were quite comfortable.
They were ~okay~ for classic, but I like to hear a bit more contrabass (doublebass?)
I was wondering, what amp do you use to power your AKG K601 and do you use a bass boost or equalizer? (might want to give a different K601 model a try... maybe an Austrian build)

 

[Papander]

I mostly listen to classical music or rock. So I don't really need strong bass, nor have I ever had the pleasure to listen good headphones that emphasize the bass. I did however listen to few bass tracks like 'Dubba Jonny - Home' and the bass with these headphones sounded compact/tight, when I think it should have been wobbly and boomy?
 
I used these with E9 (loaned) and E10 (own), I didn't notice huge difference between the two. With E9 the overall sound was slightly brighter and more open. E10 was little bit warmer sounding. I do not have any of those high end amps to test these with.
 
E10 has bass boost switch, but I think I prefer the clarity when it's in off position.

 

[maverickronin]

I was listening to my pair of K601s again today.
 
I really wish they didn't have that annoying ringing in the treble.  They would be absolutely amazing with out that extra artifact.