Quote:
Originally Posted by tmarshl
Outstanding! Congratulations!
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Well my K1000 are finally in the house. I've only been listening to them for 3 days so these are very early impressions, but I thought I'd comment while these impressions are fresh. This pair of K1000 was bought new only about a month ago and the first owner only listened to them for 2 weeks before reselling them. I suspect they still need some burn in. Can anyone comment on the burnin time/process for K1000s?
Well my initial impression is really quite good, but they didn't 'blow me away'. There is no doubt that these are world class headphones and deserving of their reputation. And they seem to be getting better each time I tweak them. These are definitely a 'tweakers' headphone. Toe-in angle and volume level dramatically effect the character of these phones. Right now they strike me as improving on the HD580/Gilmore characters in almost every regards, but seem to be a bit of give and take with regards to the Stax.
With only a small stack of CDs listened to for comparison here is my initial impression. The K1000 has amazing tonal balance. Instruments and voices sound very right. The K1000 also seem to take this tonal balance a bit lower than the Stax. The Stax also excell in tonal balance, but there are a few instruments of the viola character that on the Stax would be quieter and a bit more recessed, where the K1000 will bring them a bit more prominant. The Stax is also more expressive of 'air' around instruments and decay of notes. Overall the Stax Lamdba and K1000 are very comparable in terms of tonal balance and both definitely sound 'right' to my ears.
But there was something that has been off about the K1000s that I've been trying to put my finger on. They have detail, they have excellent instrumental separation, they have great tone quality, they have amazing left-right soundstaging, but they have been striking me as having very little soundstage depth and lacking in subtle expression compared to the Stax. I initially had the K1000s really quite flared open, and I've been slowly moving the driver angles more and more in. With the speakers flared out (almost pointing straight back) they give an amazing open and wide experience, but completely sacrifice soundstage depth and seems to spread performers out a bit (less pin-point). I think I've found a good angle now which seems to give me a really good compromise between soundstage width and depth and pin-point accuracy. They still strike me as having a rather 'flat' soundstage compared to my Stax and my floorstanding electrostatics though.
On Loreena McKennitt's "Full Circle" from the CD "the mask and the mirror", the song starts off with a esraj (a sitar-like intrument that is played with a bow like the viola) that is performed in a large room (probably a cathedral) and placed rather far from the microphone. On the Stax and my floorstanding Acoustats, this instrument hangs in space that feels like 10 feet back with a sense of the room as the instrument fills the space. It has this magical quality that always makes me catch my breath. On the K1000s this essence is lost. On the K1000 the instrument is absolutely beautiful and the song is still breath taking, but it doesn't quite transport me to that recording place like the Stax can. On the Stax the passion of the performer also seems to come through better than the K1000 - microdynamics. On the K1000, the performance dynamics feel a bit flatter and not quite as emotional. I've found the same pattern on choral and chamber CDs and on several other world music CDs. Compared to the HD580s and all my other headphones, I'd call the K1000 soundstage deep and performers expressive, so realize that my comments are relative to my experience with the Stax Lamdba and not meant to be taken as any absolutes. The K1000 have amazing soundstaging, but it seems to sacrifice depth cues to give that amazingly wide stage with pin point performers placed in it. I thought the Stax had a wide soundstage for a headphone, but the K1000 is ultra-wide. The Stax are just as pin-point precise, but the soundstage is a different shape. I miss the 3D quality that the Stax can capture though.
I am definitely finding that the K1000s sound better if I turn down the volume and let my ears approach them, just like I've found with the Stax. Right now I have my preamp turned down to -26db. My floorstanders need the preamp at -18db. As I've been turning down the amplification, the K1000s seem to be getting much better at expressing the subtle dynamics of performances, but they still don't quite approach what the Stax can do. This really seems to go against a lot of the impressions I've read here which say that the K1000 needs to 'be turned up to wake up'. I suspect that with a headphone amplifier (<1watt) that might be the case, but with a speaker amplfier (40watts) it really needs to be turned down. I suspect that the K1000 driver will compress dynamics when it starts to reach it limits rather than distorting. This could be really deceptive since so much 'rock' and 'radio' music is run through 'compressors' to simulate what happens when we listen to loud music. For small ensembl music and soloists playing acoustic instruments where one wants to feel the microdynamic emotional expressions that a musician can express, the K1000 really needs to be turned down and one's ears need to approach the slightly softer peformance.
I have to admit, now that I've turned down the volume and angled the K1000s in a bit more to move the performance a bit more into my head, they are starting to grow on me. Even with the moderate toe-in angle, they are still more 'out of head' than the Stax. The Stax still has the edge on transporting me to another place and making reality disolve, but the K1000 is close. I do like the feeling of having the speakers hanging in space rather than the feeling of earpads surrounding my ears. The K1000s are beautiful sounding and there is no doubt in my mind that these phones are definitely worth their hype. I'm hoping with a bit more break-in and a little more tweaking that the K1000 will shine through with some unique qualities of their own. But right now they strike me as very similar in character to my Stax, with a bit more bottom end, a wider soundstage, but not quite the magical 3D transporters that the Stax are.
I definitely like the K1000 and I'm really enjoying listening to music on them. They produce absolutely beautiful music with amazing detail, excellent left-right soundstaging, and every now and then surprise me with something. I'm not sure if my HD580/Gilmore will get used much from this point forward. But if I was forced to choose one headphone to live with today, I'd still pick my Stax Lamdba. But since I don't have to choose, I'm very happy that I've got both. Let's see what happens after a couple months with the K1000s
Jessica