[Frank I]

I eard the first one thta Drew at Moon had at the NY met last year and hope he bring one to he DC Capitol Audiofest so i can get  glimpse of whatit sound like

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The new one looks nice. Hopefully it doesn't flop like the first. All the negative impressions made me cancel my order the first time.

 

[buson160man]

  I just ordered a pair of the kingsound headphones and solid state amplifier from drew, so when they show up
I think that I will be able to give them a fairly extensive listening experience with a number of amplifiers including
my T2. Should be easy to determine if they are ready for prime time or not.

 I was at the axpona show in Chicago this weekend and heard the king sound electrostatic phones with both the tube and solid state amps. I felt the solid state combo sounded more promising.
Funny with my old stax lambda pro I felt the opposite buying them with the tube amp. I no longer own the stax but I am considering the king sound solid state combo. They are offering a special deal at the axpona show. Today being sunday this is the last day of the show. I was wondering what you think about the solid state phone combo? Please give me your thoughts this morning before I go to the show at 10 am. I am thinking about getting this combo today at the show. Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

[fzman]

So, did you buy them?  I checked out both the tube and solid state amp versions, and thought they were both good.  They were in 2 completely different systems, and with gear and music not all that familiar to me, but certainly for the price, they are worth a look/listen.  

 

[chinsettawong]

IMO, the phones sound pretty good, but the SS amp isn't sounding that great.  If I were to buy, I would only buy the headphones, and find a good used Stax amp to pair them with.

 

[anetode]

The pair at the Bay Area meet sounded like a darker lambda with maybe a smidge less resolution.

 

[shipsupt]

Tode, were those the modified pair I sent over? If so, I think they are sounding a little better than what you'd get stock... IMHO.

 

[fzman]

  Tode, were those the modified pair I sent over? If so, I think they are sounding a little better than what you'd get stock... IMHO.

mods?   what mods?   hmmmm....  do tell

 

[shipsupt]

Spritzer did a little modding on his first with promising results, which inspired us to try a few things.  These just had a little work done on damping, mostly stuff learned from the Ortho tuners.  What set them free was getting rid of the dust covers... which of course opens a can of worms, but we've got some ideas on how to improve this as well.  They sound pretty good, which gives us hope for this cheap little driver.
 
But, this was stage one... they are heading for stage 2 which is liberating the drivers and transplanting them into some custom cups.  They'll need to be tuned again after this is done, so they're not quite ready for prime time yet.  Watch this space...

 

[chinsettawong]

Looking forward to seeing the mod on custom cups. 

 

[anetode]

  Tode, were those the modified pair I sent over? If so, I think they are sounding a little better than what you'd get stock... IMHO.

Yup. Thanks for sharing them, they were quite enjoyable. The mods explain the very "open" sound they had.

 

[spritzer]

  Spritzer did a little modding on his first with promising results, which inspired us to try a few things.  These just had a little work done on damping, mostly stuff learned from the Ortho tuners.  What set them free was getting rid of the dust covers... which of course opens a can of worms, but we've got some ideas on how to improve this as well.  They sound pretty good, which gives us hope for this cheap little driver.
 
But, this was stage one... they are heading for stage 2 which is liberating the drivers and transplanting them into some custom cups.  They'll need to be tuned again after this is done, so they're not quite ready for prime time yet.  Watch this space...

 
The driver has promise but one of mine rattled which was rather alarming.  First thing to change about these are the earpads though, they are way too big and the biggest "bad" factor to the sound. 
 
Also all H1 owners should know about this:
 
http://kingsaudio.com.hk/press/?post=free-upgrade-from-ks-h1-to-ks-h

 

[Audiolic]

the driver on the emperor look small for an electrostats.. wonder about the subbass dynamics ..
 
How the bass of the Float or ergo amt compare to taket...
 
and do you think you can fix that fussy and|or diffuse imaging in any way with eq or balance or ..
 
how about the float versus ergo amt
 
 

 

[buson160man]

 No after blogging kevin gilmor he did not recommend getting the amplifiers . He cited long term reliability as somewhat suspect based on the amps construction . So I decided not to go there.

 

[fzman]

I took the plunge and got the H3 headphones and both the solid state M10 and the tubed M20 amps.  I am listening to them now (the M20 combo).  I have not opened up the amps to look inside, and I am not an EE, so I cannot speak to any design criteria, but they are sounding pretty good so far.  I have primarily been a sealed dynamic guy (JVX DX1000 and Denon 7000s), but i am enjoying these so far.  I have not heard any Stax for quite some time (I do own a vintage pair of their entry level round cans SR34? w/ speaker adaptor/energizer that I received as a gift about 15 years ago from a friend who has since passed away).  I haven't hooked them up in a very long time, but the Kingsounds and my recently acquired Koss 950s definitely outpeform them.
 
007 and 009 are of interest to me, with appropriate amp-age, but a lot of people comment that they are bright or aggressive or clinical or edgy, or treble-happy or any of a number of things I do not care for.  (I am not saying they are, just picking up on a vibe I get from listener comments).  The Kingsounds may be a bit forgiving, but they have good bottom in my rig, and are pretty dynamic, and easy to listen to.