Lack of bass in AKG's

[kwkarth]

I'm honestly suspicious that I have a deviant 501! This thing would sound bad if it had more bass. It is perfect! I want to talk a lot about the Max, but I will try to refrain until I can post a review.
Happy Listening!

 

[Possum]

kwkarth,

What was your burn in process for the K501?

 

[kwkarth]

I basically plugged it in, put a CD on repeat at fairly low volume and left it be for a few days, turning it up a notch each day. The headphones really seemed to improve in stages over the course of a few weeks.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I wonder... would you say the amp you use during burn-in is important at all? When my HD580s arrive I plan to just plug them into my HiFi headphone out for break in to save having to use batteries on the Porta Corda

 

[KR...]

Quote:

The 501's sound as solid as a rock! Totally full and complete. All the bass you could ever want! This is uncanny! Perhaps my 501's are deviants!

Ahh, so NOW you might be hearing what I heard with my amp

I think you will agree that, finally they can match up well with any kind of music. They sure as hell are not boring anymore!

Damn, those current hungry AKG's!

 

[kwkarth]

Joe,
I doubt the amp you use for break in is important other than it will obviously have to be powerful enough to make the diaphragms wiggle real well. I really suspect there's a mechanical aspect of break-in that's a function of flexing the diapgragms enough to "limber" them up adequately. Actually they seemed to improve the most after I had played the 20Hz tone through them which obvoiusly flexed them real well. I only did that for maybe a minute though and they were on my head as I was listening at the time. Maybe everybody who has thin sounding 501's really has eustacianitis and their ears are plugged up!

I don't know what to say. If my 501's had any more bass they would have too much, and the really deep bass has actually improved with the Max amp.

 

[Neruda]

KR, I'm so happy that even if you don't like the K501's nearly as much as your other headphones, you understand what kevin and I have been saying for the past month or so. with the right power, they're a different animal altogether. Whether or not people prefer their sound to other headphones isn't as important as knowing that...

 

[danieln]

kwkarth,


quote:

___________________________________________

All that will potentially do is degrade your sound.
____________________________________________

Why is that? Could you elaborate a bit?

I keep the volume low enough so that I don't get any trace of distortion. My receiver has plenty of power to drive the 501s.
I can definitely hear an improvement in the bass response, with no secondary effects. It's close to the 7506.

Happy listening to your 501s, I like mine a lot

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally posted by danieln My recipe for squeezing more bass from AKG 501 is: 1) Put an in-line volume control between headphone and amplifier, set it close to minimum. 2) Turn the amplifier volume up, close to the point where it's starting to clip. This will produce a higher current (I believe). 3) Adjust the in-line volume to a comfortable level. Works for me.

Danieln,
I went back and re-read your post to make sure I wasn't missing something. Normally, what one would expect when you do this is for there to be a general degradation on the sound. Most, in fact all in-line vol controls that I have seen of late create a variable voltage divider across a 1k audio taper pot.

What you can expect to hear is typically, a slight loss in high frequencies, depending, and not much else.

If you simply insert series resistance in line with your headphone drivers, then you might very well expect a sonic improvement. I wonder if your volume control is constructed in this manner?

I'm curious, let me know!

 

[danieln]

Kevin,

I don't have the slightest idea what's inside my inline volume control... I have it from a cheap panasonic walkman, so it's probably the "bad" kind you describe

I don't hear any loss in high frequency, and i can easily hear 22khz or so (paranthesis - many complain abot rolloffs at 16khz, but to me it sounds like most music doesn't have anythingabove 13khz so what's the big deal).

What I do hear though is a clear increase in bass and dynamics, the so called "punch" that many claim the 501s don't have.

Daniel

 

[KR...]

Quote:

KR, I'm so happy that even if you don't like the K501's nearly as much as your other headphones, you understand what kevin and I have been saying for the past month or so. with the right power, they're a different animal altogether. Whether or not people prefer their sound to other headphones isn't as important as knowing that...

I like them now, but boy are they ever power hungry! You really need something as powerful as a Max to really make them sing.

 

[Possum]

But Jude found them to be light in bass with a Max and several other high quality amps. Perhaps it is ONLY a matter of taste more than telling everyone you need the best amp you can get.

 

[bootman]

Quote:

But Jude found them to be light in bass with a Max and several other high quality amps. Perhaps it is ONLY a matter of taste more than telling everyone you need the best amp you can get.

My new amp did serve to open the 501's up and it did improve things like soundstage and imaging but it really didn't make them go down lower in bass. The bass just did not sound as flabby and loose as before.

Funny thing is that when you go up in quality with amplification this will be true for all headphones, not just the 501s!

 

[Beagle]

This is a very odd thread. Why do people want more bass in a perfectly balanced phone? If you desire more bass, plug in a Grado, or something specializing in more bass. Simple as that. Don't buy natural salt-free potato chips when you want Ruffles.

I cannot figure out why people want to change the sound of a phone to match the sound of another brand. I am already stuck in the trap of owning too many headphones. If I start owning too many amps, I'll go completely off the deep end. Thank God I cannot afford to do this. 10 different pairs of phones, 10 different amps, after all the experimenting how do you know anymore what music is supposed to sound like? After a while we just disappear up our own ass.

Headphones should be like loudspeakers, no? You don't buy a pair of loudspeakers then go running around buying different amps to get more bass out of them? Maybe "tune" them with cables or wire but let them keep their natural character. That's why they're built that way. Imagine owning 10 pair of loudspeakers and amps and spending your time hauling them in and out of your listening room in the quest for musical Nirvana? They'd have sent me off to the laughing academy decades ago.

Of course, if all this is fun, then go right ahead, better than giving the money to the gov't to waste.

 

[pigmode]

Quote:

Originally posted by Possum But Jude found them to be light in bass with a Max and several other high quality amps. Perhaps it is ONLY a matter of taste more than telling everyone you need the best amp you can get.

Agreed. This is very interesting as we now have a benchmark of sorts with the Max. I notice Jude and KurtW have not reported any revelations as far as the Max and the 501s are concerned. It looks like the bass issue is a matter of musical preference as, not coincidentally, both KurtW and Jude think highly of the HD 600. My guess is Senn users looking for impact won't find it with AKGs no matter which amp is used.