[bismack]

I just bought a brand new AKG K501. With over 10 hours burn in, I still can't feel so called wide soundstage of K501. My system is G&W T2.6f amp and NAD 5000 CD player. Could anyone please tell me what is wrong?
Thanks!

 

[nothing101]

What music do you listen to and what headphones did you last use? If you listen to rock music or sumthin you will get virtually 0 soundstage nomatter what headphone you use.

 

[bismack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nothing101 What music do you listen to and what headphones did you last use? If you listen to rock music or sumthin you will get virtually 0 soundstage nomatter what headphone you use.

I almost ony listen to classical music, such as Mozart's symphonies and violin sonatas. The last phone I used was senn HD497. Right now, I feel there's no difference between K501 and HD497 regarding on the soundstage.

 

[Romanee]

I'm not familiar with your amp and CD player, so I don't know how they're affecting the signal.

One very important and generally well-known issue with the K501s is that they start out with very stiff drivers and need a lot of burn in. I've had a pair for a couple of years and it's my second pair. I bought the first pair before I knew much about better quality headphones. After listening for a few days I felt the 501s sounded congested, noisy, and generally unpleasant and I returned them. I then proceeded to audition about a dozen and a half other phones, learning along the way that I needed to burn them in significantly before judging them. After hearing all the phones within my budget range I bought the 2nd pair of 501s. They just started to open up around 100 hours, and continued to improved for several weeks of steady play after that. In fact, after a few months their sound seemed to become a bit constricted and less extended again, so I subjected them to several 24/7 days of bass test files, 20Hz-20kHz sweeps and a wide range of music, which seemed to help.

 

[bismack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romanee I'm not familiar with your amp and CD player, so I don't know how they're affecting the signal. One very important and generally well-known issue with the K501s is that they start out with very stiff drivers and need a lot of burn in. I've had a pair for a couple of years and it's my second pair. I bought the first pair before I knew much about better quality headphones. After listening for a few days I felt the 501s sounded congested, noisy, and generally unpleasant and I returned them. I then proceeded to audition about a dozen and a half other phones, learning along the way that I needed to burn them in significantly before judging them. After hearing all the phones within my budget range I bought the 2nd pair of 501s. They just started to open up around 100 hours, and continued to improved for several weeks of steady play after that. In fact, after a few months their sound seemed to become a bit constricted and less extended again, so I subjected them to several 24/7 days of bass test files, 20Hz-20kHz sweeps and a wide range of music, which seemed to help.

Thanks! I think I need to burn it longer than when I expected to be. Maybe my expectation is too high as I heard some guys said the soundstage of K501 is like a playground. However, I think the sound of a new k501 is better than a fully burnt hd497.

 

[gates_2]

I'll 2nd the need for tons of burn in. My first impressions of the 501's were that they sounded very similar to the shure e4c. Give it a week... then let us know what you think.

 

[digitalcat]

Interesting. To me K501 sounds nothing like E4c, at least not in the bass department. They do both have killer midrange though.
Quote:

Originally Posted by gates_2 I'll 2nd the need for tons of burn in. My first impressions of the 501's were that they sounded very similar to the shure e4c. Give it a week... then let us know what you think.

 

[bismack]

Sure I will. The problem is I never listened to E4c.

 

[kiwirugby]

Suggest 300+ hours of burn in.

 

[bismack]

Thanks, that means I have to burn it for at least 25 days. Hopefully I will enjoy the wide soundstage of k501 later. Right now, I am pretty satisfied with its clear and pure sound, especially for Mozart's symphony works.