[richard51]

Yes these Sansui are not the best of the line.... The AU series and especially the alpha series are the best..... I read a lot about Sansui before buying my 2 amplifiers from them , i never regret....

 

[xeizo]

Yes these Sansui are not the best of the line.... The AU series and especially the alpha series are the best..... I read a lot about Sansui before buying my 2 amplifiers from them , i never regret....

Well, I not only read about them I had them all, not the Alpha though

What I crave for is the B-2301 power amp, it's a work of art, would need very expensive recapping today if one could be found

 

[richard51]

The power amp B -2301 is rare.... I dreamed to buy one also when i listened to speakers ..... But the price was much higher than my alpha ....

 

[xeizo]

In few words :

The good news: i dont regret buying them... They are good headphone.... The sound quality is similar completely to the K340....But .....

The bad news: I was suspecting that because after all the two drivers of the K340 CANNOT be replaced by a single driver without consequence and acoustic repercussion on the general S.Q. scale ...

The instrument timbre resemble the K340.... But one that is said.... All the rest is inferior.... Dynamic, transients, bass and highs... The highs are not so refined.... The bass is in the upper part ( a litle boomy if not the right pads) present and it is a good thing, they dont lack bass, but no comparison with the deep bass and bass extension of the K340 which i could fell with my body bones sometimes , neither with his refined highs, but the highs and bass of the sextett MP are there with enough presence to be enjoyed, especially the highs ) ....

Some have said the mids of the K340 are, if not better, on par with the K340.... Sorry, they are not, but so good they are,if we listen in comparison, the K340 being more transparent , his mids are more luminous.... The K340 is more neutral and not mid centric this is the reason why his mids frequencies are better for me .... The sextett are relatively neutral perhaps compared to other headphones but they are not neutral compared to the K340 double drivers ....

I am pleased to have bought them , they are the MP version with cream color and orange border.... They were sold with the original box and for me seems pretty pristine and not used much at all....The sextett is to my taste so good , compared to other headphones , i am happy to own them.... But owning the K340 , i think i will keep the sextett as a spare in case if i loose the K340 and BEFORE buying another K340 pair for sure...Thats all.... I cannot imagine listening the K340 and giving time to the sextett, why doing that ?

Now i think that all those who compared the sextett and the K340 WITHOUT perceiving the differences, own a K340 which had not been optimized in a rightful way or their K340 is fatigued, i dont know....... Because so similar are the imaging, timbre and soundstage and they are, the holography is there too but less clear and transparent, the mids so natural they are on the sextett dont rival the transparent more neutral and more natural mids of the K340.... The K340 is superior on all counts.... The sextett is the K340 for the poor...

I like the sextett, which is a feat in itself, because i dislike most headphones, but it is not surprizing, because these shells resemble one another and the resonators are the same as in the K340....But i would have been more enthusiast for the sextett if i did not own an optimized K340 to begin with .... I am not sure if i will live with the sextett for a long time if my K340 break if it occur one day.... But it is better the sextett than my other left choices, for example compared to the K701, they are more neutral and more natural and way more relaxing to listen.....

The K340 rival probably higher TOTL, the sextett are good but could not rival TOTL headphone.... Lack of deep bass, lack of refined highs even if they are good for sure ...Lack of neutrality, lack of dynamic.....Read me right, the sextett are very good, in a way flawless, but compared to the K340 they are no more flawless....

The two headphones are like two twins, same faces, but one is normal, the other athletic, higher, and better on all physical counts....Same mother, two different fathers....

I was lucky my sextett are like new....No signs of use really....Nothing to replace, even the pads are like new but i prefer my leather one.... By the way differences of S.Q. with pads are not small differences... I did not use equalization really with the sextett, and i dont feel the need to as with the K340 sensitive reaction ....I only add a bit of bass under 100 hertz and a bit of highs ....

Thanks! Sounds as the most likely impressions, it's a simpler construction.

I mostly wants mine for nostalgic reasons as I started out with Sextetts, I do not expect giant killers

 

[richard51]

The sextett are very good.... I am glad to have bought them.... They kill the K701 for me.... But i must compare the sextett to the K340.... The K340 is very, very difficult to optimize and getting it right .... It was hard for me at least... But once this is done, i cannot see how the sextett can be on par with the K340....

These two headphones for me are not perfect, no headphone is, but they are relatively flawless, but the K340 is a TOTL headphone, the sextett is not.....But i will chose a sextett over a K701 immediately and over my broken hifiman He 400 too and over all my other headphones save the K340 .... I prefer naturalness to artificial sound timbre....The sextett has a natural sound timbre to my ears relatively near the K340....

 

[xeizo]

The sextett are very good.... I am glad to have bought them.... They kill the K701 for me.... But i must compare the sextett to the K340.... The K340 is very, very difficult to optimize and getting it right .... It was hard for me at least... But once this is done, i cannot see how the sextett can be on par with the K340....

These two headphones for me are not perfect, no headphone is, but they are relatively flawless, but the K340 is a TOTL headphone, the sextett is not.....But i will chose a sextett over a K701 immediately.... I prefer naturalness to artificial sound timbre....The sextett has a natural sound timbre to my ears relatively near the K340....

Yes, Timbre, I have always and will always come back to the HD600. The HD600 does a lot of things right and scales with gear.

 

[richard51]

Ok i will correct something i said here and be more precise....

I said the highs of the sextett are less refined than the K340.... It is not so simple....

The highs of the sextett are very good and cannot be described as less good than those of the K340...

The highs of the upper register of the K340 are more refined, but the sextett is flawless to my ears in the high register...

The difficulty to describe the sextett and the K340 come from the fact that the electret driver of the K340 is NOT A TWEETER only as some has said.... The electret goes down under 4000 hertz this fact changes completely the mids frequencies perception, and the upper non boomy bass of the K340 changes also the mids perception, because the dynamic driver also goes over 4000 hertz... I am not an engineer, but there is no crossover inside the K340, it seems to me that this smooth hybridation liberate the bass and the highs from mids contamination and illuminate the mids...

Then for me the sextett gives very non fatiguing beautiful highs, the bass of the sextett is captive in the upper bass though and lack extension and impact under 100 hertz ....The hybrid drivers are clearly superior on all counts for sure....This does not means that the highs of the sextett are lacking nor means that they dont have bass... Less refined on all counts dont means they had flaws.... For me they are very good.... But it is like comparing some less costly Stax models to the Omega.... So good some Stax models are, they are not the Omega....


The fact that some people prefer the sextett to the K340 means only one thing: no it is not a taste question at all, because they are near one another in many ways, But similar dont means equal, it is because their K340 is defectuous or not rightfully optimized if they prefer the sextett to the K340 ....It is normal, the K340 was the best headphone ever designed by AKG probably, I dont know the DF nor the K1000 though, but they are probably too different from one another to be compared as i just did with the sextett and the k340 , the little and the great brother ....I will buy a DF for sure to see...

 

[Davidzak64]

Ok i will correct something i said here and be more precise....

I said the highs of the sextett are less refined than the K340.... It is not so simple....

The highs of the sextett are very good and cannot be described as less good than those of the K340...

The highs of the upper register of the K340 are more refined, but the sextett is flawless to my ears in the high register...

The difficulty to describe the sextett and the K340 come from the fact that the electret driver of the K340 is NOT A TWEETER only as some has said.... The electret goes down under 4000 hertz this fact changes completely the mids frequencies perception, and the deepest bass of the K340 changes also the mids perception, because the dynamic driver also goes over 4000 hertz... I am not an engineer, but there is no crossover inside the K340, it seems to me that this smooth hybridation liberate the bass and the highs from contamination and illuminate the mids...

Then for me the sextett gives very non fatiguing beautiful highs, the bass of the sextett is captive in the upper bass though and lack extension and impact under 100 hertz ....The hybrid drivers are clearly superior on all counts for sure....This does not means that the highs of the sextett are lacking nor means that they dont have bass... Less refined on all counts dont means they had flaws.... For me they are very good.... But it is like comparing some Stax models to the Omega.... So good the Stax models are, they are not the Omega....

If you listen to the Sextett for several days and then put the K340 on, you will find that the K340 will be a bit fatiguing in the upper mids 2.5 Khz. This can make vocals sound a bit nasally. IMO eq is necessary in order to tame it. The Sextett does not need EQ'd and do sound better on lesser quality recordings. I am glad to own both of these vintage beasts.

 

[richard51]

I am glad too to own the two.... i say it clearly.... But the mids on my K340 does not sound "nasally" at all.... Measured specs dont say it all either.... We must optimize the hybrid because it is a VERY SENSITIVE headphone to anything around it....The sextett dont need all these works....But when it is done i dont see how someone can put the K340 beside the sextett....One so good it is, is less refined on all counts for me .... Sorry....

And yes the upper mids of the K340 "could" be more fatiguing than those of the sextett for sure, because the two drivers meet one another there....But mine are under controls by what the work i did around it, and i dont fell fatigue at all now....

The only big evident defect of the K340, is that the S.Q. is so good, it is very dangerous to listen at high volume, and it is damaging for the hearing... The problem is they sound at their best with a slightly higher volume because their dynamic is so fun, the bass intoxicating and the voice, male or female, intoxicating and transparent for me without flaws...... We are lucky to own the two headphones....But this does not means that they are on par with one another for me even if they resemble one another on many counts.... I prefer the sextett to all headphones i ever listen to for the same reason i prefer the K340 too, natural mids, holography... But the sextett does not rival the K340 on any counts....

I have begun to understand why the K340 is so hard to set it right.... It is because his electret is not just a tweeter...It goes on inside the dynamic range and the dynamic driver goes some way in the upper mids too and in the high range, then the design is such, that they react to ANY variation around them to a large extent....They are the only headphone which ask not only for the right pads, the right source, the right -powerful and clean amplification, right cables, equalization, and even other tweaks but once this is done they are the best i know by a great margin...



I forgot to say that the K340 is richer in details and not only had a better 3-d holography than the sextett....It is not that the sextett lack details or holography, it is not an headphone in the same league, thats all.... The sextett is the K340 for the poor man.... That say it all....But i will repeat it, the sextett is for me better than my other headphone, because of the naturalness of his mids and his holography, these are the same reasons why i am a fan of the K340, but the sextett is simply a lesser version of the K340...

 

[xeizo]

Kind of like planars, distorsion is so low you keep turning up the volume to get any sense of loudness/impact

 

[richard51]

Exactly....But the sound of the K 340 is more natural timbre than the planar i know....And the holographic soundfield is so much better there is no comparison at least with the Hifiman He 400 i owned or the Fostex T10...


Important remark :

i will recommend without hesitation the sextett to everyone who look for a low cost headphone, better than most....

I will hesitate to recommend the K340 to everyone, because it is too hard to optimize them rightfully, so it seems if i read the reviews , and deception and frustration is possible with the K340 because of that , not with the sextett.... The sextett are good right out of the box, it was not the case for me with the K340..... So good them sextett are, to beat them will be costly, if someone dont try the low cost K340 at his own risks and peril for sure.... After all the electret has a limited life span...

AKG created the sextett which retain the naturalness of the K340 without his picky and capricious nature... Simple....And it cost less to make them....But as i said, in spite of the resemblance in sound, they are not in the same league....No more than the basic Stax lambda i own compare to the Stax Omega.... By the way i prefer the sextett to the basic Stax nova, because of his 3-d holography and his more natural timbre as his big brother ....

 

[richard51]

I want to rectify my first impression about the sextett...

The high is not less refined than the K340 at all...

My first impression was premature.... The electret give to all the middle part of the high register and to the upper mids more meat and density than the sextett can claim... But the upper register of the high frequencies of the sextett are not inferior by any means.... This suprize me ....

I would had think that the electret will beat the dynamic driver of the sextett in the uppermost highs...But no....The electret give more meat to the first and to the middle part of the highs....It did not beat the dynamic driver in the upper most highs.... I am curious to know if some other owners of the two perceive the same ?

The mids of the sextett so good they are and so near they are to the K340 lack the body impact though because of the electret workings in the upper mids.... The bass register of the K340 exceed in quantity and quality the sextett especially the deep bass and extension and the dynamic driver of the K340 work with the electret in the first register of the high frequencies ...

The more i listen to the sextett the more i can appreciate it....

They are really better than all my other headphones.... Only the K340 is more vivid and impactful in the mids and bass and surprizingly for me not in the very high register.... I am not so sure now that the holography of the sextett are less articulate than the K340....This impression comes from a bit less of body impact of the mids compared to the K340...

This impression i felt that the sextett holography was less accentuated at first listening came from this lack of body in the mids compared to the K340....Really those who claim that the electret work as a tweeter are completely wrong....The electret work even in the upper mids of the K340...

The electret work even in the upper mids, but give also to the middle part of the high register more body to the highs.... But the upper high register of the sextett is astonishingly good for me compared to the K340 and rival it ...

I like my sextett very much even if they are surpassed by the K340 especially in bass and in the body of bass, and with the mids body and in the middle part of the highs...The refinement of the sextett upper higher frequency is astonishing, then i correct my first description here and i make it more precise....The K340 is better on many counts yes, but not in the uppermost highs... This surprize me greatly... As i said at first listening, the middle part of the highs of the K340 has more body then seems better to me but it is not better, it is different.... The sextett own a high frequency register very refine also to my ears...

They really are brothers....I am pretty sure that as it was the case with the K340 i will prefer the sextett too to most headphones under 1000 bucks.,.. No doubts...

By the way the confort of the sextett is better....

I hope to buy a DF one day.... It seems the AKG headphones are kings....

 

[richard51]

I just reconnected the K340.....

All i wrote seems correct....

The King is the K340....There is not even the shadow of a doubt.....The K340 sound as speakers well embedded in a room... The sextett sound as the best headphone possible but they sound as headphones not speakers, so near they are in timbre quality from the mighty K340 because of their mids, and their very beautiful upper highs....

The sextett is a prince indeed....I never listen a better headphone.....If i did not had the K340, they will be the king....

Now i dream about a princess, a bride for my prince .... The K240 DF ?

I had great hope for it, because it will not ressemble to the K340 at all as the sextett little brother....My only fears are that the DF dont have the passive resonators.... I hope i will not be disappointed though....

These 3 headphones might kill any upgraditis... Anyway they cost peanuts.....And i dream about an headphone which would be more than only good but completely different from the K340 and from the sextett... the DF seems the only candidate in the AKG kingdom.... The K1000 is too costly and his design did not appeal to me...And after feeling the bass notes in my feet bones why a K1000 ? The K340 work with an astounding 3-d holography, i dont need to pay 1000 bucks for an headphone mimicking speakers only because of a bigger soundstage ....

Oups! i realize i speak out loud.... I am old retired fool... Then i apologize....

 

[Davidzak64]

I want to rectify my first impression about the sextett...

The high is not less refined than the K340 at all...

My first impression was premature.... The electret give to all the middle part of the high register and to the upper mids more meat and density than the sextett can claim... But the upper register of the high frequencies of the sextett are not inferior by any means.... This suprize me ....

I would had think that the electret will beat the dynamic driver of the sextett in the uppermost highs...But no....The electret give more meat to the first and to the middle part of the highs....It did not beat the dynamic driver in the upper most highs.... I am curious to know if some other owners of the two perceive the same ?

The mids of the sextett so good they are and so near they are to the K340 lack the body impact though because of the electret workings in the upper mids.... The bass register of the K340 exceed in quantity and quality the sextett especially the deep bass and extension and the dynamic driver of the K340 work with the electret in the first register of the high frequencies ...

The more i listen to the sextett the more i can appreciate it....

They are really better than all my other headphones.... Only the K340 is more vivid and impactful in the mids and bass and surprizingly for me not in the very high register.... I am not so sure now that the holography of the sextett are less articulate than the K340....This impression comes from a bit less of body impact of the mids compared to the K340...

This impression i felt that the sextett holography was less accentuated at first listening came from this lack of body in the mids compared to the K340....Really those who claim that the electret work as a tweeter are completely wrong....The electret work even in the upper mids of the K340...

The electret work even in the upper mids, but give also to the middle part of the high register more body to the highs.... But the upper high register of the sextett is astonishingly good for me compared to the K340 and rival it ...

I like my sextett very much even if they are surpassed by the K340 especially in bass and in the body of bass, and with the mids body and in the middle part of the highs...The refinement of the sextett upper higher frequency is astonishing, then i correct my first description here and i make it more precise....The K340 is better on many counts yes, but not in the uppermost highs... This surprize me greatly... As i said at first listening, the middle part of the highs of the K340 has more body then seems better to me but it is not better, it is different.... The sextett own a high frequency register very refine also to my ears...

They really are brothers....I am pretty sure that as it was the case with the K340 i will prefer the sextett too to most headphones under 1000 bucks.,.. No doubts...

By the way the confort of the sextett is better....

I hope to buy a DF one day.... It seems the AKG headphones are kings....

The K340 were made for this song.

 

[Davidzak64]

I have a pair of vintage Grado RS1 (buttons) that are being repaired at the factory. They should be back next week. I'm curious if the guitar timbre can match the 340 or Sextett. TBD.