[hekeli]

Good stuff above, I was going to write something myself, but it's a pretty good summary.
 
eBay probably has lots of "Japan proxies". Currently I see one KH-K1000 around ($409 with shipping) and he mentions "If you can't find item you're looking for, please feel free to contact me. I will find any item for you.". I didn't buy my phones from him but someone else that also was very friendly and willing to ship anything (PM me and I can provide contact). Probably you can't go wrong with anyone having good feedback. The advantage over Audiocubes or so is that you can just directly ask for stuff and probably haggle with the price (also they are more than happy to write low customs values). My EMS package came to Europe in less than 2 days (but hanged in customs for 1.5 weeks, aargh).
 
edit: remove some old pointless stuff

 

[hekeli]

edit: remove pointless information
 

 

[miow]

Any chance of the Beyer DT990 PRO's being as good as these or close?

 

[Kees]

Quote:

Any chance of the Beyer DT990 PRO's being as good as these or close?

I personally rate the Kenwood much higher than the DT990 I owned.

 

[miow]

Can you please elaborate? : )
 

 

[Kees]

Quote:

Can you please elaborate? : )
 

The DT990 have a distictly U-shaped frequecy response, with somewhat piercing highs. The KH-K1000 are much more balanced with a more polite high end. I have called them in the past a closed version of the HD650. 

 

[miow]

Thanks Kees, that tells all I needed to know ; )
 

 

[miow]

How about the HD598's? Have any of you listen to these? I know these are open, but wouldn't they come close to the Kenwoods in terms of detail, clarity, separation, etc?
 

 

[obobskivich]

I've tried the HD 595s, and in a quick response: not even close.

The K1000s are easily on the level of the K701 and other top-tier dynamics in terms of detail and speed. They're something special.

 

[Mad Dude]

Time to revive this thread. I've just aquired a KH-K1000 today - I quite like them. More "fun" sounding than I usually like, but less v-shaped than I feared. They seem to have a quite good resolution - though I have not yet figured out if it's actual resolution or just boosted treble in a certain area (treble is very smooth overall, no signs of sibilance or harshness).
Still... These large earcups made me fear for the worst when I first saw them, and initial listening confirmed my suspicions - nasty resonances. So the headphones didn't survive long in stock condition, and I've done some basic dampening... There is a foam disk in the cups, but it has a hole in the middle and underneath there's only the bare earcup. There's also a sort of plastic/hard rubber part that's glued into the cup - I can't quite figure out what that is supposed to be. Anyway, I added some Dynamat and covered the center part (which is left out by the foam disk) with some generic foam.
Now listening to the result - I had hoped that I could reduce the bass a little, which didn't happen unfortnately. Otherwise, the main goal was achieved - no more nasty resonances. Sounds more behaved now. I think these have great potential - and could possibly be great for low-volume listening (which is usually not very satisfying with a "neutral" headphone).
 
Does anybody else still have these? If yes, have you tried modding on them?
 
 
Here's some pictures...
 

Earcup with Dynamat.
 

The stock foam disk (notice the hole in the middle, just behind the driver)
 

I wonder what can be achieved by playing around with the foam rings on the front of the driver...

 

[Kees]

I actually modded them quite a bit. I removed the cups completely and made a new semi open open construction. And I balanced them.
No time for pictures now.

 

[Mad Dude]

Quote:

I removed the cups completely and made a new semi open open construction.

 
Now that sure sounds interesting.
I actually thought about removing the cups completely when I opened them - it's not like they provide much isolation to begin with. But I'll leave them for now.
 
Anyway, these do have potential for being a great secondary, do-it-all headphone - which includes, for me anyway, casual listening and watching movies late at night. Currently my T50RP fills this task (and excels in it), but the Kenwoods are a serious contender. Neither is really comfortable though (the T50RP due to the weight, the KHK1000 due to its earpads, which get hot quickly).
For active listening, they do have too much bass for my taste and it's not well controlled enough. Also, the midrange sounds a bit uneven (but not bad). But overall their presentation is enjoyable. Somehow, strangely, they sound both engaging and relaxing at the same time to me.

 

[obobskivich]

The black paper on the drivers is some sort of bass lens or treble damper - like the disc on K701; imho the cans sound nasty with them out. As far as resonance, ryumatsuba's CSD measurements are available (but I don't have a link now) - iirc they're great by closed standards but not overall - you could probably clean them up at least a bit.

Alright, back home, here you go:
http://www.geocities.jp/ryumatsuba/kh-k1000.html

 

[doco]

would any of you know if i would notice any dramatic difference coming from the hd650 and ath-a900? been looking for another closed headphone better than the a900 below $400.

 

[obobskivich]

I don't know the A900, but against the Sennheisers I would not call the difference extreme or dramatic. They will not stand out; they will be different somewhat, but they will not be "oh my god" better or worse. I think they're a good candidate for what you're describing, but again, I don't know the A900.