GuyDebord
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I ask because I met this guy from poland that has one, an Im thinking on making him an offer, but how to get an estimate???
k1000 owners club
mopps
100+ Head-Fier
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Quote:
As a hint: BAP1000's are offered on eBay Germany from time to time with highest bids around 500 euros, rarely up to 700 euros.
But you do need a good and capable amp for the K 1000 fed by the BAP1000, the integrated amp is only a compromise. That is reported by nearly all BAP1000 owners who listened to the K1000/BAP1000 with a real amp.
| Originally Posted by GuyDebord /img/forum/go_quote.gif I ask because I met this guy from poland that has one, an Im thinking on making him an offer, but how to get an estimate??? |
As a hint: BAP1000's are offered on eBay Germany from time to time with highest bids around 500 euros, rarely up to 700 euros.
But you do need a good and capable amp for the K 1000 fed by the BAP1000, the integrated amp is only a compromise. That is reported by nearly all BAP1000 owners who listened to the K1000/BAP1000 with a real amp.
AcousticMatter
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Hi there,
I have been looking for a proper amp for a while now to drive my K1000's. As I am both on a budget and would like to get into tubes, I have been considering the Little Dot Mk VI+. There seems to be no reports about the MK VI and K1000's on the head-fi site. Does anyone have experience with the two? I am worried that the Little Dot amp doesn't have enough power to drive the K1000's, especially with regard to the bass. So far I have experience with the AKG K1000 amp, which I don't enjoy very much, and my Lyngdorf SDAI 2175, which is notably better, but may be a little too bright and analytical with the K1000's.
I have been looking for a proper amp for a while now to drive my K1000's. As I am both on a budget and would like to get into tubes, I have been considering the Little Dot Mk VI+. There seems to be no reports about the MK VI and K1000's on the head-fi site. Does anyone have experience with the two? I am worried that the Little Dot amp doesn't have enough power to drive the K1000's, especially with regard to the bass. So far I have experience with the AKG K1000 amp, which I don't enjoy very much, and my Lyngdorf SDAI 2175, which is notably better, but may be a little too bright and analytical with the K1000's.
Sherwood
Headphoneus Supremus
Well I recently got my Firstwatt F1 clone in, and I've been burning it in steadily for the last few days.
My listening hasn't been quite as "reference" as I would prefer, as the amp has a mild grounding issue whereby I can pick up noticeable 60hz hum. It's annoying between tracks, but it's low enough that I can't detect it during music. Being pure class A and 10 watts per channel, the F1 also gets HOT. Class A dissipates 90% of the power it takes in as heat to run as linearly as possible, but that means that it's dissipating 180 watts all the time. The longer you leave it on, the hotter it gets. Its run for three straight days, and while it is essentially a small sun by this point everything inside has coped just fine. It's well-vented and well sinked, so I'm not worried.
Right off the bat, the thing that grabs me is BASS. Phenomenal tight, deep bass. It sounds like a kick drum, fo realz. A small kick drum, far away maybe, but that same visceral impact an actual drum has, just scaled down. I wasn't expecting that, but it's a nice bonus. Apparently this comes from the very high output impedance -- 80 ohms. Lower output impedance damps drivers better, but single driver loudspeakers (and earspeakers) are already very well damped. High output impedance avoids overdamping, which allows a little longer decay down low. Not enough to be smeared or muddy, mind, but enough to really sound full. I like.
What I bought the amp for was not bass, however, but transparency, and it has it in spades. It's "tell the difference between resistors" kind of transparency. I've become something of a transparency junkie as of late, so this was good news. I went through all the cliches -- "hearing things you've never heard before", "listening to music early into the morning", etc. etc. Suffice it to say, this amp is not audibly limiting the resolution of the signal in any way. It is clear as a bell, and once I sort out the grounding issue, it's supposed to be the quietest amp ever made.
Out of my Peachtree Nova's integrated amp section, the K1000s tended to have a very prominent upper midrange. It seemed overly forward and overly airy in comparison to the rest of the spectrum. That made every female vocal a little unnatural, and it's why I didn't care for the combo. The F1 has none of that imbalance, and combined with the prominent bass it has a kind of "downward tilting" character. That combined with the detailed treble really makes for an enjoyable presentation.
I still intend to pursue some SE tube amps for comparison, but in my experience the F1 is the top of the heap for SS.
FWIW, my pair is a low serial numbered set in the black box, and it's been recabled by Enigma Audio. I used the Peachtree Nova as both DAC and Preamp for my impressions, and it is phenomenal. I'm more impressed with it all the time. All components were wired up with Nordost interconnects and signalcable magicpower or digital reference power cords through a PS audio P300 power regenerator. Source was USB/optical from my iMac, or Coax from my NAD cd player.
My listening hasn't been quite as "reference" as I would prefer, as the amp has a mild grounding issue whereby I can pick up noticeable 60hz hum. It's annoying between tracks, but it's low enough that I can't detect it during music. Being pure class A and 10 watts per channel, the F1 also gets HOT. Class A dissipates 90% of the power it takes in as heat to run as linearly as possible, but that means that it's dissipating 180 watts all the time. The longer you leave it on, the hotter it gets. Its run for three straight days, and while it is essentially a small sun by this point everything inside has coped just fine. It's well-vented and well sinked, so I'm not worried.
Right off the bat, the thing that grabs me is BASS. Phenomenal tight, deep bass. It sounds like a kick drum, fo realz. A small kick drum, far away maybe, but that same visceral impact an actual drum has, just scaled down. I wasn't expecting that, but it's a nice bonus. Apparently this comes from the very high output impedance -- 80 ohms. Lower output impedance damps drivers better, but single driver loudspeakers (and earspeakers) are already very well damped. High output impedance avoids overdamping, which allows a little longer decay down low. Not enough to be smeared or muddy, mind, but enough to really sound full. I like.
What I bought the amp for was not bass, however, but transparency, and it has it in spades. It's "tell the difference between resistors" kind of transparency. I've become something of a transparency junkie as of late, so this was good news. I went through all the cliches -- "hearing things you've never heard before", "listening to music early into the morning", etc. etc. Suffice it to say, this amp is not audibly limiting the resolution of the signal in any way. It is clear as a bell, and once I sort out the grounding issue, it's supposed to be the quietest amp ever made.
Out of my Peachtree Nova's integrated amp section, the K1000s tended to have a very prominent upper midrange. It seemed overly forward and overly airy in comparison to the rest of the spectrum. That made every female vocal a little unnatural, and it's why I didn't care for the combo. The F1 has none of that imbalance, and combined with the prominent bass it has a kind of "downward tilting" character. That combined with the detailed treble really makes for an enjoyable presentation.
I still intend to pursue some SE tube amps for comparison, but in my experience the F1 is the top of the heap for SS.
FWIW, my pair is a low serial numbered set in the black box, and it's been recabled by Enigma Audio. I used the Peachtree Nova as both DAC and Preamp for my impressions, and it is phenomenal. I'm more impressed with it all the time. All components were wired up with Nordost interconnects and signalcable magicpower or digital reference power cords through a PS audio P300 power regenerator. Source was USB/optical from my iMac, or Coax from my NAD cd player.
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Quote:
Any chance we'll get to listen to it at RMAF?
| Originally Posted by Sherwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well I recently got my Firstwatt F1 clone in, and I've been burning it in steadily for the last few days. |
Any chance we'll get to listen to it at RMAF?
moonboy403
Headphoneus Supremus
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Gosh, I'll probably have to wait till the next Canjam in order to hear a Firstwatt.
Sherwood
Headphoneus Supremus
Quote:
Most definitely, Sir. I'm going to see if Bill has any wisdom on the hum issue. I fixed it about 80% by rotating the trafo, but 80% is nowhere near good enough for this sort of thing.
| Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif Any chance we'll get to listen to it at RMAF? |
Most definitely, Sir. I'm going to see if Bill has any wisdom on the hum issue. I fixed it about 80% by rotating the trafo, but 80% is nowhere near good enough for this sort of thing.
gsawdy
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Sherwood,
Your hum problem is very interesting--for lack of a better word, I'm sure you've got a few choice words for it!
I'm using a Spectral DMA-50 with my K1K's and like it a lot but I've always wanted to hear the Pass amps and read everything I can find on them. I don't recall hum as ever being mentioned anywhere as an issue. Did you buy the F1 from Reno HiFi? I would definitely call them, even if you got it elsewhere. They will be glad to suggest what you can do on your own and they offer an authorized repair service. Perhaps you could get them to lend you a F3 while yours is being fixed. The F3 is the other alternative I would like to hear with the K1K.
The presence of 60hz hum really flies in the face of the cancept behind the "First Watt" name--somethings wrong, I believe. Nelson takes great pride in the durability of his designs and construction--probably just a bad cap in the power supply.......
Good Luck with tracking it down, let us know what you findout. George
in edit: SORRY, I didn't consider you have a DIY F1 missed the word clone. There is a forum where you can post questions. It is monitored by Nelson himself and full of very knowledgible folk:
Pass Labs - diyAudio
HTH g
Your hum problem is very interesting--for lack of a better word, I'm sure you've got a few choice words for it!
I'm using a Spectral DMA-50 with my K1K's and like it a lot but I've always wanted to hear the Pass amps and read everything I can find on them. I don't recall hum as ever being mentioned anywhere as an issue. Did you buy the F1 from Reno HiFi? I would definitely call them, even if you got it elsewhere. They will be glad to suggest what you can do on your own and they offer an authorized repair service. Perhaps you could get them to lend you a F3 while yours is being fixed. The F3 is the other alternative I would like to hear with the K1K.
The presence of 60hz hum really flies in the face of the cancept behind the "First Watt" name--somethings wrong, I believe. Nelson takes great pride in the durability of his designs and construction--probably just a bad cap in the power supply.......
Good Luck with tracking it down, let us know what you findout. George
in edit: SORRY, I didn't consider you have a DIY F1 missed the word clone. There is a forum where you can post questions. It is monitored by Nelson himself and full of very knowledgible folk:
Pass Labs - diyAudio
HTH g
tmarshl
500+ Head-Fier
I have the K1000s with a First Watt F1 (from Reno HiFi) and have absolutely no hum at all.
After years of experimenting with headphones, amplifiers, ICs and cabling - I am done. The combination of K1000s, First Watt F1, Stephan Audio Arts Equinox cabling is ideal. It doesn't get any better than this!
After years of experimenting with headphones, amplifiers, ICs and cabling - I am done. The combination of K1000s, First Watt F1, Stephan Audio Arts Equinox cabling is ideal. It doesn't get any better than this!
tmarshl
500+ Head-Fier
Quote:
I have had both the HD800 and the K1000.
| Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Those of you w/ a K1000 and an HD800 please advise which one you prefer. I would be helpful to find out what amp you use with each of the two cans. Thanks. |
I have had both the HD800 and the K1000.
The K1000s [with the F1 and Stephan Audio Arts Equinox cabling] was by far the winner.
aeonsys
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My pair is # 11573 via sweetwater.com
progo
Headphoneus Supremus
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Quote:
Wow, you've waited a good time before starting the posting!
When have you bought your pair?
| Originally Posted by aeonsys /img/forum/go_quote.gif My pair is # 11573 via sweetwater.com |
Wow, you've waited a good time before starting the posting!
Sherwood
Headphoneus Supremus
I've put one of my pairs, #03024, up for sale. One of you gents might be interested.
krmathis
Head-Fi's Most Prolific Poster
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Quote:
Welcome to the club!
Took you a while from registration until first post (almost 4 years), but better late than never.
| Originally Posted by aeonsys /img/forum/go_quote.gif My pair is # 11573 via sweetwater.com |
Welcome to the club!
Took you a while from registration until first post (almost 4 years), but better late than never.
Don Quichotte
500+ Head-Fier
Quote:
I remember reading about this issue in another clone Firstwatt F1 or F2, not sure. The power supply section is the same, anyway, if I'm not mistaken. The guy who built the amp got some hum from the transformer too and, apart from rotating the trafo, he also mounted some metal plates around it to ensure some screening. Problem solved (in his case).
| Originally Posted by Sherwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif Most definitely, Sir. I'm going to see if Bill has any wisdom on the hum issue. I fixed it about 80% by rotating the trafo, but 80% is nowhere near good enough for this sort of thing. |
I remember reading about this issue in another clone Firstwatt F1 or F2, not sure. The power supply section is the same, anyway, if I'm not mistaken. The guy who built the amp got some hum from the transformer too and, apart from rotating the trafo, he also mounted some metal plates around it to ensure some screening. Problem solved (in his case).
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